Shannon Colmo
Honors English III
Portfolio Self-Assessment
My authentic voice is passionate. You can tell when I really care about something and when I’m only doing it for an assignment. If I’m only doing it because I have too, it’s just the facts and nothing about how I feel. But when it’s something I care deeply about I throw my whole heart into and you can tell. All of my essays include a strong passionate voice except for my family reflective essay. I was burned out on writing and I was very stressed out and it shows. I simply told facts without any personal insight to the material. Things about when my great-grandmother came to this country and her children being born were simply dates in time not anything I was honestly interested in. I put very little effort in to writing it and honestly didn’t care. On the other hand in an essay like my bubble piece, I was drawn to it. It was something completely random that I had never thought to write about before and I liked the challenge. In class we had done many other prompts about best or worst days, closet items, and process essays. None of these really spoke to me as the bubble option did. It let me become a bit playful with my writing and as I started to write I just let it go. Once I got the prompt of writing to a person who hated bubbles I put myself in their shoes and by the time I finished my persuasive essay I had convinced myself that I hated bubbles. I think my strongest process would be a persuasive essay because they give me a chance to argue and debate, which is what I do well. I like to pick a side and argue my point with facts and logic behind it. I always say “Agree with me, or be wrong,” meaning that I am always right and you will lose against me, in anything you challenge me too. Like in my American definition essay I liked using quotes that actually related to the subject material that I felt so strongly about. I used quotes from documents such as the Declaration of Independence and The Gettysburg’s Address to prove my statements on American identities. I intertwined those quotes with Miracle; one of my favorite movies of all time and a book, The Boys of Winter, which I read for my summer assignment.My ideas are what fuel my passion, when an idea pops into my head I just write it out and then fit them all together later in regards to my audience, and if the ideas don’t fit I throw them out like all the prompts that I couldn’t listen too.