portfolio draft Baca

During my time in the Writ 1133 class I have learned how to revise. Out of every other skill that this class has offered, by the first paper that I wrote I could see that leaving my paper as the original is not the best way to write. I acknowledged that the first paper was a stepping-stone in my writing life. I realized that the revising process is an important stage in the writing process. Also, in my first paper, addressed the issue of Educational Issues in Denver. I didn’t use sources very much to write a research-based project.
During my second paper, I wrote the first draft early enough to submit for the class to revise as an activity in class. This helped me because I thought that if I awanted to learn about revision than who better to learn it from than the people around me in the same class. It always sounds better to hear the tough words about ones work from a peer than an authority figure.
The third project looked at what DU students do off of campus. I immediately thought of skiing. DU students flock to the mountains on the weekend to get away from the business of school. The main point of this essay was to show the outsiders looking in on DU students, even prospective students that there are so many things to do off campus even some that are just a short train ride into the city of Denver.
The first essay took up the topic of Education Issues of Denver, as presented in the first paragraph. I, thinking that I knew what education needed looked at a few sources then tried to write my essay based on two people opinions. Not looking at the broader scheme of the paper. I didn’t take into account the impact on the world if the USA doesn’t take education seriously. Through the revision process I added these ideas, as well as idea from more people to take into account the reality that educational issues have on people of America and not just what I think the classroom needs to do to improve the quality of education. Also, I didn’t read it over. I took it as I thought it was without reading back over it. I didn’t realize that the paper was the beginning of the process. The ideas were on the page but the scheme, the structure wasn’t. In order to make a paper better it needs to be revised. There is no way that just slamming down the keys the first time can get an A on a paper. Through the course I realized that. This in my eyes didn’t seem wrong at the time I wrote it however reading that paper again at this point in my writing maturation stage I can see why sources are important in writing anything. It credits the writer ethos. Sources also make it easier to write. What I mean by easier is that it is not just writing generally what happens with the topic at hand. It gives real world academic research done by Doctors and Professors who know what they are talking about.
In this essay, I will be discussing the topic of, College students. I want to know why these people come to college; namely the men in my fraternity. I asked these men because I feel like they of any other group of people here at DU they have the biggest sense of why they are here. The purpose is purely educational; I just want to learn more about why people do the things that they do. College is one of those things that most people think about but fewer actually do. I want to show more reasons for going to college other than getting a good job and my parents made me. I hope to find out the real reasons that students come to college. I narrowed it down to my fraternity because interviewing a whole 10,000 people would be too difficult to do. I believe the readers of my paper are people who want to learn more about their peers and or professors who think that fraternity men are just here to party. Not one person said that they are here to get drunk everyday. Independence, education, and making a career are what they want to get out of college. I was wondering one day about who everyone was when he was in high school i.e. the jock, the stoner, the badass etc. Then I started thinking about why they decided to come to DU. Then I started thinking, it would be easy to write a paper on this topic. Then I could interview the people in my fraternity, the people who I spend the most time with. I could learn about my brothers and do homework at the same time.
For this project I intend to show outsiders of DU, or even parents what DU students enjoy when they are not hitting the books. Most people think that college is just one big party but there are many more things to do in the beautiful landscape of the Rocky Mountains than just party and sleep all day recovering from the previous night. The weekends of winter quarter are a busy sensation for the mountains that border Denver to the west. Skiing is a huge activity that many people here at DU pride themselves on. They love getting out of the busy atmosphere of school to just forget about everything and just flow down the mountain with the wind in their faces.
In order to find out a little bit more about the lifestyle that is skiing here in Colorado I interviewed my neighbor and friend Bryant Wilkinson. When asked to write about what DU students do off campus skiing immediately came to mind, as did Bryant. I picked him to interview because out of the many people that go to the mountains extremely often I would say that he by far was up there the most. Each weekend he would leave early Friday morning and not come back until Sunday evening. I narrowed my search in the skiing world by choosing him to interview. I wrote up some questions that outlined what skiers do on the weekends that they are off on the slopes that Wilkinson answered beautifully. At first I was trying to write this as a research topic with a question to answer then I realized that the assignment was to show what DU students do off of campus there is really no question to answer. I changed my writing style after that. The comments helped out because I got to see what students here are actually interested in. By their questions I could see what I was lacking in.
During the Spring quarter taking Writ 1133 I realized the scope of writing, completing my package of writing. I have good words, but typing them out.