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Xiao Jing Zhang

Dear Portfolio Readers,

 

It has been a pleasure taking the WRT 102 course. I came into this class confident that I can handle the work easily, but I was proven wrong. It has been quite a challenging course.

 

The first I have included is “The Reality through Artificial Lens.” It is a comparative analytical essay, in which I compared and contrasted two essays written by two different authors. I had disliked comparing and contrasting essay ever since I first entered into high school. However, through this paper, I have come to like this type of essay writing. It is very fun to play the ideas from different authors and to use those ideas to construct a single analytical piece that is in support of the ideas of the authors but still shows its own features.

 

The second paper I have included is “The Escape from Conformity,” another analytical essay that I completed for the WRT 102 course. This one is quite different from the first paper, because it is a rhetorical analysis not a compare and contrast analysis. Before I actually sat down and started writing this piece, I had only a little idea to write it. I had little experience in writing this type of essay. However, as I sat down and started writing it, I felt the flow of information that was going on in my head: the instruction for the paper, the grading rubric, and the essay itself. I was able to grab at everything and started to write it.

 

The last paper is the argumentative paper, "Pharmakos", my topic is media violence. Initially, I was on the sides that says “no” to media violence, and accuses media violence for people’s bad behavior. However, as I encountered another side which says “yes” to media violence, I was convinced. My position on the paper immediately changed from against media violence to for media violence. I chose the title to be "pharmakos" because I believe that media violence is used as a scapegoat who gets all the blames, but in reality who has not contributed to the harm in any way. I also learned how to conduct a reliable and useful research for my paper through this assignment. I had not done a real research paper until this one, and I am very thankful that I have the chance to learn how to conduct a real research and to write and argue for my position based on my research.

 

Thank you for your time. Look forward to your feedback.

 

Regards,

Xiao Jing Zhang

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.