Dear Reader

To start things off, let me give you a brief introduction of myself. Well I consider myself to be a well seasoned, older student attending Everett Community College, in a cozy lil town nestled between two beautiful mountain ranges, in the wonderful state of Washington. I am a proud mother of five children, four boys and one girl. My oldest is 26, my youngest 14 and the only one living at home. This is my 3rd quarter here at the college. I began my endeavor not really knowing for sure what direction I wanted to go, or what degree I wanted to pursue. However I did know that I needed to acquire some updated office skills as it was quite clear that flipping burgers was just not going to cut it.

After my first quarter it became much clearer the direction I wanted to go. It all began with high school, taking all the office type classes I could fit into my schedule. And with my intense organizational skills, and my love for math, accounting just made sense. With that said, I am currently working toward a degree to become a CPA. Little did I know that I would be taking an English class as part of my degree. Since classes in humanities and social sciences are required, this brought me to English 98.

It is amazing that I ended up in English 98, because for me, one of my all time favorite things to do has always been writing. Becoming an effective writer is just one of the many things I have been learning in this class. One of my most favorite projects has been putting together a class blog titled ‘Journal Entries’. My intent for the blog was to share my thoughts and writings with others and encourage others to do the same. Next is the ‘birth’ of my newest project, an E-Portfolio. This will include some of my favorite pieces from the class blog, along with many other pieces I have had the pleasure to work on this quarter.

The most rewarding yet challenging assignments would have to be the Major Writing Assignments. I am not certain I have it down to a science after three different attempts, but with practice I am certain this will come easier to me. MWA’s are 3-4 page essays. The biggest challenge for me was putting together the first paragraph, the introduction. I had to be certain that my introduction had a strong thesis and good lead in, necessary to help the reader follow and understand my paper. Although I understand this process, I feel that more practice is needed to perfect this writing skill. The most rewarding part of completing a MWA would be getting my paper back with a better grade than anticipated!! The best out of my three attempts at a MWA's will be included in this portfolio, which will reflect the challenges I faced in writing these papers. Along with some other pieces of work I have done this quarter, I will end with the finale, my master piece. It is called: ‘Inventory of Being’, the piece I am most proud of.

English 98 has been an awesome experience and wonderful journey in learning to master and improve my once rusty writing skills. I own more confidence in my skills as a writer and would like to some day write a book. I have even expanded my goals to also work on a degree in Journalism. Amazingly the requirements for both degrees are very similar, so it is like “killing two birds with one stone”. Finally I would like to add that not only did I learn a lot of different writing skills, I had the opportunity to read a couple of great books, ones that I would have never picked up to read had it not been for this class. Reading these books also helped in my development of adding more meaning to the words I chose to use in my writings. Regardless of the challenges I faced, the rewards out numbered any challenge that came my way.

I hope you enjoy reading my portfolio as much as I have enjoyed putting it together for you!! Happy reading!!