Jose Miranda E-Portfolio

Jose Miranda

Prof. Robert A. Brown

August 30, 2015

 

Dear Andrew,

            My name is Jose and I am in your UWRT 1103 class on Mondays and Wednesdays at 12:30 to 1:45. I am originally from New York, but I moved to North Carolina when I was around eight years old. It was unexpected at the time because my parents did not have a talk with me and my siblings about a move prior to actually moving. It was for the best though because where I lived previously was home to a lot of unneeded temptation. The move also introduced me to a number of good schools, such as UNC Charlotte (UNCC) and others, which pushed me to one day attend one of those universities. UNCC was always at the top of the schools I wanted to attend for a number of reasons. I found out that UNCC had one of the top business programs in North Carolina as well as being only a few minutes from my house, so I can save as much money as I can. What solidified my choice though was that the powder blue university down the road rejected me. That has passed though and I do not think about it anymore. It is better to focus on my upcoming classes.

            I do not expect your class to be a walk in the park because I am not a strong writer at all. In fact, when I saw the e-portfolio on the syllabus I nearly had a heart attack. What I worry most is that my writing does not improve enough to do well in your class. I have written essays and a few three to five page papers before, but it was not nearly as successful as I had hoped it was. What I lack in writing ability I make up for in reading comprehension. I do not mean that I can read quickly, because I cannot, but I can comprehend what the text means relatively well; however the exception to that is poetry. I believe the most interesting thing about me is that I am huge into sports. I follow a number of sports and even when there is about a sport I do not know that well I can hold the conversation a bit. Once my knowledge about football helped my friend get out of training for the Army for the day.

             “You’re only given a little spark of madness. You mustn’t lose it.” – Robin Williams. With writing, creativity is a huge part of it. So what I believe it means for thus class is that we (being the students and yourself) must channel our inner crazy to write something meaningful. This is also why I believe the quote was put under the course description. In the course description it mentions complex questions and discussions, which fits perfectly with the quote above because it is that crazy inside each of us that allows us to think about these issues. This in combination with critical reflection helps perfect our writing to the best of our abilities.  I would define critical reflection as the ability to notice your mistakes and work on fixing them so you do not make those same mistakes again. I am looking forward to a productive semester!

 

Sincerely, Jose Miranda

P.S. I do not have any questions that I can think of as of writing this letter.