Semester Overall Self Evaluation

Professor Rice-Evans,

I hope this final portfolio helps to make clear the level of effort I attempted to put into this whole class. This is my first hybrid class so it was sometimes hard to keep on track with all the assignments while not being physically in class 2-3 times a week. I think all of my projects came out great, I followed the instructions and got to add some of my own sense of humor and writing style. Below I have a more in depth breakdown of what I thought of each project. I would grade myself highly in the class overall, I think everything was fairly well done and I had a unusually fun time with the assignments for an english class. Whatever happens it was a nice semester.

Thanks,

Thomas McWilliams

 

 

 

Project #1

The rhetorical artifact project was a difficult one more me. In the beginning I didn’t know what a rhetorical artifact was at all, which created a lot of anxiety and stress. Coming in for the class where it was explained helped but i still didn’t exactly know what was a good rhetorical artifact. I chose something that I have talked about in previous classes and it helped me create a decent project/essay out of it. Writing is fairly difficult for me because i’m told that i don’t mend my thoughts together to make it a nice flowing paper. Because of this i tried a little harder this time to make it sound good on paper like it did in my head. Choosing something i have already talked about in my life also made me sound like i knew what i was talking about because of how strong of a message the picture gives to people. Even Though i eventually found an artifact that had to be the most difficult part about the project. I chose a couple different ones before i landed on one specific artifact. I was choosing around mostly because i still did not get what we were exactly supposed to be looking for in an artifact. I read the questions for the outline and thought of, if I could write about this artifact. That is what eventually helped me pick one artifact. If i had to do the project over again it probably would have been take a little more time off work so that I could focus more on the project and other work I had in general. Another thing i would have done differently is, start writing towards the beginning of the day and not at the end of the night. Starting that late kind of made my brain a little foggy at certain points. When I chose my artifact I had a couple questions that were answered by classmates. I did not know if it had to be a current rhetorical artifact or if it didn’t matter what time period it came from. Overall I am happy with the way it came out and think it is a very fitting tribute to one of my favorite shows.

 

Project #2

Overall I think I did an excellent job on project #2. I made good use of the library data bases in order to find articles that were not only on topic but I took extra time to read more to find the best articles to support my point, not just the first ones I found. As far as the essay it self goes I think it is functional in being a great argument for video games not causing violence in the people who play them while acknowledging the other side and debunking it at times. The citations and their annotations came out just how I wanted them too. So overall I think I did everything the project had asked for. You can refer to my week #9 labor log to see when I was working on it I was putting in a good amount of time and effort.

 

Project #3

Project #3 was a really fun one for me. It let me combine the research and misconceptions I had learned from project #2 and mash them together with comedy while still trying to stay true to the medium I was attempting to mimic. I watched serval compilation videos of some of the worst smear commercials from around the country and I think that really let me make something that is near the mark. I had a lot of setbacks when it came to the video-editing side of the project but I am still pleased with how it came out. I considered making it longer but in the versions I had like that I felt the joke became very played out and the whole video was suffering for it. Overall Project #3 was a fitting way to finish the main projects and get my creativity rev’d up for project #4!

 

Project #4

This was by far my favorite out of all the work we did this semester. I really appreciated the free reign making our own website gave me. I got to add pictures and music to all the former projects and frame them in a way that I believe enhanced them from their original form. I wish more classes gave us the chance to do something like this and hope you also enjoy the final product!

 

 

There’s only one question left and its not for me to decide.