PORTFOLIO: Reflective Letter

"I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within." This quote by Gustave Flaubert is one that I find to be incredibly true when it comes to my own writing. This state of knowing what I want to say, but can’t actually get it to come out is the main problem I have always had when it comes to writing. I find that this is a problem that just about every writer faces sometime throughout their writing career. For me I found that there was no way to actually fix this problem but that I had to change my writing process in order to try and work around this dilemma. Through my writing 101 course and writing my first and second essays I feel like I was finally able to adapt to this flaw and truly improve my writing process and writing abilities.

When I first entered my writing 101 course I found myself having many problems writing at a college level. The first essay assigned was on Bacon’s Rebellion. Since this was my first essay I found myself doing just about everything wrong. One problem I found with my first essay was my ability to write a good thesis. Since the beginning of this quarter the word thesis was a word that I never heard before. I thought I understood how to write one, but after getting my first essay back I found I didn’t. For example at first my thesis was "Econmincs was a huge factor that caused bacon's rebellion". I really didn’t understand what I was doing wrong until I started to ask my classmates how I could improve. Then through the help I received, I attempted writing my thesis’s in a new way. I began to include the factors that are needed in a high level thesis, and now I believe that the thesis’s I write are considered higher quality. When I went back and wrote that thesis again it now reads "Economic problems were the major driving forces behind Bacon's Rebellion, and still shape the world as we know it today". As you can see my thesis writting has greatly improved. The second problem I found with writing this essay was how to incorporate my personal voice. When I first wrote this essay It was mainly just facts after facts with a little bit of what I thought near the bottom. After I received feedback however I started to try and change this in my writing. Through help from my teacher and classmates I started adapting my personal voice to all of my work and I feel that now it is present in all of my work giving it originality.

My creative aspect in writing started to blossom out as the quarter progressed, and we were given our second essay. This essay was a group project on Loyalist verses Patriots. This essay was very unique however; we were able to write it in pretty much any format that we wished. My partner and I decided to do a conversation between a Loyalist and a Patriot. While writing this essay I found that by being able to let out a more creative side I was able to write something that not only was better work but also something that was easier to read. One problem I found while writing this essay however was that I did not like writing assignments in groups. I found that for me having two different voices in a paper is something really hard to do. It was also a lot harder to be responsible for both myself and my partner. I realized however that this type of group work is something that is going to come up more and more in future work, so I started to try and make the best of it. I feel that this first group experience caused me to be ready for the next group writing assignment we had, in which after some time we were able to produce higher quality work.

While writing my final exam I started to realize all of the things I have learned throughout this quarter and began to incorporate them into my essay. I believe that I was able to write a truly wonderful essay using everything that I have learned and when I was done I was very pleased with myself. I started off with a very well written thesis that I was very proud of and I know that it was high level and had all the factors that make a thesis truly good. I also organized all of my thoughts well throughout this essay in a way that was easy to read and understand. One thing that I did have trouble on though was just trying to get all of my ideas out. I was able to write a lot of the key things I had to say about the prompt, but since it was a timed exam I was not able to take all of the time I usually need to think about a topic. By having this portion of my writing process limited by time I found it harder to get all of my points across. Even with this problem I still believe that I was able to make good points and I feel that I did make the essay as a whole a success and was proud of my work. While writing this essay I started to realize all the improvements I have made throughout this quarter, and I found it rewarding using these new writing skills successfully in this essay.

One factor that I found was present in doing all of my essays was that I am a huge procrastinator. For my first two essays I was procrastinating so much that I didn’t even start writing my essays until a couple hours before it was due. This is one of the major factors I found that hindered my writing. Once I recognized this fact however, I started to try my hardest to stop it. Now so close away from the end of the quarter, I have started to look back at all the work I have done. I can now truly see how much I have stopped my procrastinating habits, since the beginning of this quarter. This has been shown through all of my latter essays and my revised ones. I feel that I was finally able to kick this habit and now with getting things done sooner I am able to edit a lot more and have a lot more drafts. This is something that I feel has truly made life easier when it come to my writing and hopefully is shown the quality of my work.

For a lot of people writing come naturally to them. For me however writing is something that I have to keep working on continuously. By continuously working on my flaw of writing what I truly am trying to say, I found that I was able to make my writing better a small step at a time. If I don’t I find that everything I write is terrible and not of good quality at all. Through this writing 101 course however I feel I learned many skills that overall have improved not only the way I write but the way I think about writing as well. I now feel that my overall writing skill has improved and also my ability to write what I truly think is better. Through these revised essays it is very easy to see the improvements I have made with my writing. I still am not a perfect writer though, but hopefully through continuing to try and improve myself I one day will be considered a truly great writer.

PORTFOLIO: Revised Essay#1

Picture a world that is so corrupt, that one group of people control the world economy This group has all of the power and will do anything that it takes to keep themselves happy. In this type of world the majority of people would be poor and unable to live successful lives. This type of government not only existed in the past, but remains present in some countries today. It is my belief, that this is the world’s future unless the human race works to change their ways and becomes less selfish. Economic problems were the major driving forces behind Bacon's Rebellion , and shaped the world as we know it today.

From the beginning of the Jamestown colony its main purposes were to develop as a well functioning colony with a strong economy. From the inception of life in this new land it was seen as a means to get rich quick. There were vast acres of fertile land ripe for farming unlike the environment in England where every piece of land was already owned. Initially the settlers were unsuccessful at farming and many of the early citizens died of starvation. Eventually they discovered a profitable crop know as tobacco. Once found, the colonists began to grow massive amounts, which in turn made the Jamestown economy flourish. Soon there was a huge separation between the rich tobacco plantation owner and the poorer farmers.

During this time of new settlements, many economic problems started to occur. "These problems included declining tobacco prices, weather problems; including hailstorms, floods, dry spells, and hurricanes, growing commercial competition from Maryland and the Carolinas, an increasingly restricted English market, and the rising prices from English manufactured goods caused problems for the Virginians” (http://www.nps.gov/archive/colo/Jthanout/BacRebel.html,) as this source states these problems continued plaguing the colonist’s economy blow after blow. These facts demonstrate how there are so many factors that can cause the economy to fail. I believe that this was a major contributing problem that influenced the start of Bacon’s rebellion. These problems affected the large tobacco farmers dramatically, but poorer farmers like Bacon were the ones who really suffered the most economically. If the economy at that time was prosperous then I believe Bacon’s group would never have had a problem with the order of things. With this huge inequality Bacon and his men were forced to find ways to not only improve their own plight but to improve the whole colonies economy as well.

With the economy diminishing Bacon and his followers thought it was time to act and soon the rebellion began. It started with Bacon’s people trying to find a way to blame someone else for their misfortunes. The unlucky people they chose were the Indians. Instead of them trying to work harder on their own land they started to think that everything would be easier if they could take more land. So Bacon’s people started at first by just spreading over past the land that was theirs and into the Indians land. This caused the Governor at that time to intervene. Soon the colonist were fighting between following the land treaties and trying to just make everyone’s lives more profitable. It ended in Bacon’s people getting defeated. Our history book says “The ruling elite concluded that it was safer for the colonists to fight Indians rather than each other, and the government made little effort to restrict encroachment on Indian lands. (The American Promise page 93). I believe that the book did not go into how significant this decision truly was. It did not talk about how this decision came to be or what the aftermaths of making it would be. My opinion is that this decision was one of the most important ones in shaping the future of the Chesapeake society.

This Decision to break Indian treaties and do what was best for the colonies own needs, caused economy to improve not only in the Chesapeake area but all over east coast. As Joshua Cleveland says “Bacon’s Rebellion was a turning point in Virginia and in colonial history.” (http://www.wm.edu/niahd/journals/index.php?browse=entry&id=4124). As Cleveland states here this whole rebellion had much more effect on the world then just in Jamestown. It actually started to change the way in which colonists would take and use their land. This is because once the Englishmen started to break Indian land treaties they started to have even more land for which they could grow crops. In the end the new land they acquired made the economy only improve dramatically. Soon after the rebellion land started to be farmed more without any borders in the way. This caused Virginia and other east coast colonies to be one of the largest assets to England economy. This is one of those parts of history that people say was not morally right. But they simply need to understand that almost all of the actions of these early colonists were for economic profit and without a good economy the world is nothing. In my opinion I think that our world always has been based around creating this good economy and without one everything just crumbles to dust. So I think that even though the colonists broke their land treaties and killed many Indians, if the economy improved then it was all worth it

This style of do anything for the good of the economy is still present all over the world today. One example is how people in third world countries are getting paid slave wages making goods that the world depends on. While these people are getting treated terribly we must ask ourselves what we would do without these goods. The truth is that right now the way the world runs is based primary on who ever has the most money has the most power. This is the main problem with not only America but the whole entire world. The truth is that economy as it is now is based around making one group of people incredibly rich and the rest very poor. So we must accept that this is how the world works and there is no way it will change anytime soon so I say forget your morals and just do whatever is in your best economic interest. Now that you understand this we can go back and compare today’s world with Bacon’s rebellion. If you do this then you will obviously see that both in the past and still today the world is based off of one simple thing, that thing is economic profit. With out it there is no world that could exist.

Without economy there is no world. This is a statement that I have spent many hours contemplating over and over again. In the end I believe that I came to the conclusion that the world as we know it is doomed. I came to this conclusion by realizing that without money right now there is no way to live a successful life. With this being the way things are more then half of the population of the world is suffering. My hope is that some day the human race will evolve past their greedy ways, and then maybe we will finally have a world that I would be proud to live in. Bacon’s Rebellion was just one of these examples of economy causing people to turn into greedy monsters. Hopefully people will someday be able to learn from these past events and then start to try and change the world to a state of peace.

PORTFOLIO: Revised Essay#2

Character Background:

Patriot88jonnyboy is really a man by the name of John William. He is a merchant from Massachusetts and sells just about any good that people might need. John however is a die hard patriot. He is a visionary of his time and has many ideas that most patriots haven’t even thought of yet. In town he is thought of as a simple man who simply is trying to make a living for himself. However he really is much more. He tries to change the views of all other colonists to try and realize that his ideas are the only ones that really matter.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist is really a woman named Bridget Smith. She was raised as a proper British family and believes that being loyal to the king is the best thing for everyone. She is a single mother of two. Her husband died almost a year ago in a strange incident involving a cow. Bridget was forced to try and fend for her family as best she could. She kept her deceased husband’s vegetable farm going and tries her best to sell as many of the crops as she can. Luckily she has friends like John William around to help her when she needs it.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist- Hey there good sir. How is the day treating thee?

Patriot88jonnyboy-Not to shabby. Just out on the streets all day trying to earn money to feed myself.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist - I know what you mean. It is hard to try and support ourselves, not to mention our families with all of these problems that the patriots keep causing.

Patriot88jonnyboy -You do know I am a patriot right?

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -Yeah but I just don’t understand how you can go and disobey the rules that our king set down for us. After all he is doing what he thinks is best for all of Britain. When you truly think about it Being loyal to the king seems like the best option for us. Not only will our trade continue but we will still be in good terms with our king.

Patriot88jonnyboy - Yeah I know that. But when it comes down to it he just doesn’t know what it is like over here in the colonies. So what gives him rights to set our laws? We the people of this new land must be able to govern ourselves if we ever want to truly make a prosperous land for us to live.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -I get what you are saying. But you make it sound like you no longer even want to be British anymore. And if we aren’t British anymore then I just don’t know what else there is.

Patriot88jonnyboy -Our sense of identity is not what truly matters. All that matters is what is best for our own people, and that is to have laws that truly will help make our land thrive.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -That may be true. But with all of these taxes going on, not only are we repaying our debt for Britain’s help but as a merchant I myself make a better profit.

Patriot88jonnyboy -Yeah I know that. It makes our lives a lot better but at the same time everyone else keeps getting money taken from them that they never agreed to pay. How can you agree to this treatment of our people day after day? The King just keeps sending us laws and taxes without our consent at all. This is just wrong so how can you tolerate it?

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -What can I say? I am a little greedy but if I wasn’t then my whole family would probably suffer a lot more.

Patriot88jonnyboy -See that is the problem with you loyalists, you are unable to grasp the big picture. We are far away from Great Britain so we must have laws that are different that help us out more in the end.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -STFU!!! I don’t care what you have to say. We are British people and we must act like that and follow what our king says no matter what.

Patriot88jonnyboy - You are such a stupid little person. That is why we patriots act the way we do. We fight the king’s laws and taxes so we can better our country as a whole. We start movements to stop the taxes and have demonstrations to show this. The Boston Tea Party for example was a way to show how we won’t pay ridiculous taxes for our goods anymore.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -All that demonstration did was waste more of our money and cause more problems with our relationship with Britain. You must yourself understand that almost all of our goods are sold to Britain. If we cause them to stop trade with us then all that will happen is our economy will suffer and no one will win in the end. Our only way to keep our colony strong is to keep a good relationship with Britain and follow what we are told to do.

Patriot88jonnyboy -You have this naive way of thinking. I believe that we colonies if we have to, can fend for ourselves. We have the ability to keep ourselves wealthy. If we trade only with other colonies not only will we have more goods here but we will not need to pay British taxes anymore. We can start our own government and start to have laws and taxes that will actually be good for us.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist - Yeah I guess. But I don’t see how you can think that. We have always been British and will continue to be British also. I just don’t think anything good will happen if we change our ways. If we aren’t part of Britain then who are we? We would have no identity and that is not something I want.

Patriot88jonnyboy – I know. But we need to form a new identity. We need to try and change.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist – Maybe, but if you patriots would’ve just followed the king’s laws like the stamp act, then we wouldn’t be going through these issues.

Patriot88jonnyboy - We just wanted to have a say in what OUR colonies have to do. Instead of the King setting up all these rules and taxes without our consent, need I remind you!

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist - well it doesn’t change how powerful he is. HE IS THE KING…. He can do what he feels. He doesn’t need your consent. If it wasn’t for him the colonies wouldn’t have been formed to begin with.

Patriot88jonnyboy - Ok. But was it really necessary to place taxes on every paper and document??? What a waist of money which isn’t that easy to come by anyway. That is why we patriots don’t want to be under the king’s rule. The king doesn’t even consider us British anymore.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist -Who knows exactly? It doesn’t matter whether that is necessary or not.

Patriot88jonnyboy - How can you say that??? You do know that the taxes were charged to your fellow loyalists don’t you??

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist - How can you not obey the king? How can you go against all he says? What makes you think you’re so right and he’s so wrong??

Patriot88jonnyboy - First of all, it’s not that we want to disobey the king. We just don’t agree with everything he has done thus far with the colonies. He hasn’t been here; he doesn’t know what we go through, or what our colonies have become. It’s not a matter of right and wrong. WE want what may be better.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist - But the king IS BETTER. He is ruler of England and it’s unbelievable to think that anyone would even try to go against his rule. I don’t understand.

Patriot88jonnyboy – And that is the problem with you loyalists. You are unable to grasp the big picture. You need to realize that we are becoming our own land. If we don’t start to try and separate from the kingdom then nothing good will ever happen for us. So I will just leave you be to try and understand this better. We will talk again soon I hope. And maybe you will even try to be more open-minded and understand where I am coming from.

Hey_itz_BS_the_loyalist –Maybe I will. Well goodbye I will talk with you later my friend.

Sources:1) The American Promise Text book

2) http://www.constitution.org/bcp/vir_res1765.htm

3) http://www.si.umich.edu/SPIES/index-people.html

PORTFOLIO: FINAL EXAM

“Why consider history? Simply because I am interested in the past? No, if one means by that… a history of the past in terms of the present. Yes, if one means… the history of the present.” This quote was said by a famous philosopher by the name of Michel Foucault. This quote means that when we think about history we must think about it in terms of learning from past events to try and learn from them and reach a better outcome for the present or the future. This is the reason why I believe that history is important. I see it as a way to create a better world. This is because when ever we are faced with a problem, if we go back in and history and look at past events then we can see what worked, and what didn’t, which will ultimately lead to a better solution to solving that problem. This also applies to problems faced from day to day, where you can go back and look at past mistakes you made and try to learn what the best way to solve them is. I have witnessed this many times throughout my history and writing combined study class and believe that by applying this theory I have indeed bettered myself.

I have used this theory of looking back to better myself countless times throughout this quarter to try and improve my writing. One experience that comes to mind is when we first started to use sources in our essays. I began by simply finding any relevant information and just putting it in my work because that is what I thought was right. Latter however when the grades were given back, it was obvious that I was not doing this correctly. At first I didn’t understand what I was doing wrong but eventually I started to apply the theory of learning from past mistakes and started to realize exactly what I was doing wrong. I started to understand that the way I used to do things in writing was not good enough anymore and that I had to start and learn how to truly find sources that would impact my work greatly. Another way that I have used this theory is by truly evaluating my writing process and trying to see what past habits I would need to change in order to improve my process as a whole. By looking at how I used to write an essay I narrowed in to what one real problem as a writer that I had. This problem was protracting. I would always do my essays at the latest possible time. When I truly realized how much this hindered the overall quality of my essay I started to actually change this habit I had. By looking back and seeing how much of a problem this truly was I finally was able to can it and started to procrastinate less which I believe did cause my grades to improve. When it came to writing I was able to apply this theory many times in order to truly better myself.

When it came to history however I applied this theory in a very different way. I used it to try look at past events and see how they relate to my life today. One event in history that I truly started to realize how it is affecting me today was the ratification of the constitution. By applying this theory of how the past can affect us today I was able to understand that this event truly did shape what today is know as America. I can see that without this we would not be such a united nation and that we would not be any where as powerful as we are unless this event did happen. So by using this theory and looking at this event in history I was able to come to the conclusion that when it comes down to it even in the present that when people are more equal everything is just more successful.

Overall as a student I feel that by using this theory is the only way that you can ever improve yourself in any way. This is because if you can not learn from past experiences then every decision you make will just be instinct, and that first instinct that you have usually is not the best way to solve anything. So by looking back at past events and learning from then it will in the end lead simply to a solution that will most likely benefit everyone. When it comes down to it there are so many different ways to interpret this quote and the questions that Foucault ask, that it can cause people to think different things about history. This is why I always interpret things in what ever way I feel can cause me to try and improve myself. And it is my belief that any other way that that this quote is interpreted ultimately will not make people truly learn from history at all. They will not know how to truly understand how to improve themselves and that will simply lead to people repeating past mistakes over and over again causing more chaos and destruction throughout the world.

Reflective Letter (newest version) Edit please

"I am irritated by my own writing. I am like a violinist whose ear is true, but whose fingers refuse to reproduce precisely the sound he hears within." This quote by Gustave Flaubert is one that I find to be incredibly true when it comes to my own writing. This state of knowing what I want to say, but can’t actually get it to come out is the main problem I have always had when it comes to writing. Through my writing 101 course and writing my first and second essays I feel like I was finally able to adapt to this flaw and truly improve my writing process and writing abilities.

My first essay was on Bacon’s Rebellion. Since this was my first essay I found myself doing just about everything wrong. One problem I found with my first essay was my ability to write a good thesis. Since the beginning of this quarter the word thesis was a word that I never heard before. I thought I understood how to write one, but after getting my first essay back I found I didn’t. I really didn’t understand what I was doing wrong until I started to ask my classmates how I could improve. Then through the help I received, I attempted writing my thesis’s in a new way. I began to include the factors that are needed in a high level thesis, and now I believe that the thesis’s I write are considered higher quality. The second problem I found with writing this essay was how to incorporate my personal voice. When I first wrote this essay It was mainly just facts after facts with a little bit of what I thought near the bottom. After I received feedback however I started to try and change this in my writing. Through help from my teacher and classmates I started adapting my personal voice to all of my work and I feel that now it is present in all of my work giving it originality.

My second essay was one that was much more creative. This essay was a group project on Loyalist vs. Patriots. This essay was very unique however; we were able to write it in pretty much any format that we wished. My partner and I decided to do a conversation between a Loyalist and a Patriot. While writing this essay I found that by being able to let out a more creative side I was able to write something that not only was better work but also something that was easier to read. One problem I found while writing this essay however was that I did not like writing assignments in groups. I found that for me having two different voices in a paper is something really hard to do. It was also a lot harder to be responsible for both myself and my partner. I realized however that this type of group work is something that is going to come up more and more in future work, so I started to try and make the best of it. I feel that this first group experience caused me to be ready for the next group writing assignment we had, in which after some time we were able to produce higher quality work.

One factor that I found was present in doing all of my essays was that I am a huge procrastinator. For my first two essays I was procrastinating so much that I didn’t even start writing my essays until a couple hours before it was due. This is one of the major factors I found that hindered my writing. Once I recognized this fact however, I started to try my hardest to stop it. Now so close away from the end of the quarter, I have started to look back at all the work I have done. I can now truly see how much I have stopped my procrastinating habits, since the beginning of this quarter. This has been shown through all of my latter essays and my revised ones. I feel that I was finally able to kick this habit and now with getting things done sooner I am able to edit a lot more and have a lot more drafts. This is something that I feel has truly made life easier when it come to my writing and hopefully is shown the quality of my work.

For a lot of people writing come naturally to them. For me however writing is something that I have to keep working on continuously. If I don’t I find that everything I write is terrible and not worth anything. Through this writing 101 course however I feel I learned many skills that overall have improved not only the way I write but the way I think about writing as well. I now feel that my overall writing skill has improved and also my ability to write what I truly think is better. Through these revised essays it is very easy to see the improvements I have made with my writing. I still am not a perfect writer though, but hopefully though continuing to try and improve myself I one day will be considered a truly good writer.