114B Portfolio – Julian Soriano

Chris BeecherArgument, Blog, Literary Analysis, Portfolio, Portfolio Preface, Responding to a Text, Website, Wings

In this online portfolio and blog, the author showcases his works for “Project Text” and “Project Space.” Throughout the essay “Medical Procedures and Psychological Scars in Literary Works,” he compares and contrasts Next to Normal by Tom Kitt and Brian Yorkey to One Flew Over the Cukoo’s Nest by Ken Kesey. For “Project Space,” he submits a proposal to build …

Motivational Story for English Learners – Wondia Mireille Yeo

Chris BeecherPortfolio Preface, Wings

Here, you will find a creative take on the portfolio reflective essay each CSUN first-year writer must create. This author frames this reflection as a newsletter written in the third person as a means to convey the compelling story of her journey as an international student in English 113B. While the form of this essay draws the reader in, the …

English 115 Desk Photo

Chris BeecherPortfolio Preface, Wings

  This photograph speaks to the many tools students use to succeed in writing. According to the student who took this photography, this is what his desk usually looks like by the end of a long night of writing or annotating a book . He said, “I think this picture captures what it means to be a college student.”

Being Average: A Short, Poorly Drawn Comic

Chris BeecherCreative Writing, Wings

This charming comic depicts the types of concerns that are shared by so many first-year college students, like the feeling of being average or simply not good enough. Her candid writing, along with her so-called “poorly drawn” illustrations, appeal to the reader in a humorous, unpretentious way. Click on the link below to read the entire comic. Wings2014BeingAverage

The Struggle and the Real Writing Process

Chris BeecherPortfolio Preface, Wings

  Here, you will find an interesting example of a student drawing inspiration from their interests, like screenwriting, to motivate their writing. Her tone and her attention to detail make this script an interesting example of a truly reflective piece for a portfolio.  Click on the link below to read the script in its entirety. Wings2014The Struggle and the Real Writing …

English 114 Course Website – Nia Deocampo

Chris BeecherFilm and Media, Literary Analysis, Social Criticism, Uncategorized, Wings

This student takes the informal route in her exploration of relevant social and cultural issues, including finding one’s identity and social conceptions of beauty.  Here, you’ll also find an interesting reflection on this student’s 114B experience.  Informal and conventional aspects come together to create and interesting rhetorical experience.

Today I Am Alive – Lizeth Avalos

Chris BeecherArgument, Literary Analysis, Social Criticism, Uncategorized, Wings

This student’s multi-faceted site is an excellent example of the variety made possible on a digital platform.  Here, you’ll find formal essays analyzing contemporary novels, an exploration of the hypersexualization of women, and a blog.  To move fluidly from one kind of writing to another makes one thing clear about writing in the digital world — it too, is writing.

English 114B Portfolio – Charlene Gipuland

Chris BeecherUncategorized

  In this student’s creative English 114B portfolio, new kinds of text are employed for an interesting and charming result.  Her essays on Watchmen and Geek Love demonstrate cogent analysis and are really enhanced by accompanying visual elements.  Also, don’t miss her comic preface.