ParkerRoe-portfolio intro draft

Looking back on the past nine months, beginning in September of 2010, I realize that I have come a long way, and have learned a great deal about myself and my strengths and weaknesses as a writer. Over the course of my entire life I have attended private schools with accelerated programs in just about every department—writing has been no exception. I first realized my strengths as a writer when I was in the eighth grade after I won an award for a reflection I wrote about a camping trip in Yosemite National Park. Ever since then I have taken pride in my work, especially that of which has lied on the more creative spectrum. Narrative writing has always come naturally to me and I have the most fun developing my prose within a story-telling environment. Analytical writing took a bit longer for me to grasp a firm hold of; however, by the time I was a junior in high school it had found a secure home in my neighborhood of academic talents. Now, the final, missing part of the equation… research writing—a discipline in which I have had some very successful conquests, but never fully mastered or fell in love with. Unlike my experience with narrative and analytical styles of writing, personally, within research writing, although it does provide an outlet for investigation and new experiences, I have never achieved a full, one hundred percent comfort level—some pieces are tremendous, and I am very proud of them, but having said that, there is an equal amount of research work that I have completed and turned in that I simply don’t maintain the same level of enthusiasm for. I believe eventually this will change, and like everything else, it’s just a matter of time before it clicks. Part of this trait of me as a writer is most definitely attributed to my creative outlook on just about everything, and my simultaneous habit of just thinking about random things when I may or may not supposed to be doing so (which when writing a narrative can be very helpful). So, without any further delay, in fear of boring you to death with the story of my meager existence as a writer, allow me to introduce three pieces which I believe not only manifest my writing abilities, but also my multifaceted life in which I maintain a vast array of interests. The first paper I completed this spring, a text-based research paper entitled The Ecstasy of Gold, focuses on the early days of Denver, Colorado and the ways by which the gold rush of the late Nineteenth Century served as a catalyst of urban transformation and development. The second piece I would like to introduce is my third project from this spring quarter, a group project in which I worked with three of my fellow classmates to compose a guide to nightlife for University of Denver students.