Hello, my name is Charlotte “Charley” Potts. I am an English Major, with a concentration in Secondary Education. I have been in higher education for almost six years and will be graduating Spring of 2020 with my bachelors degree. I am a screen writer as well as a owner of a production company, and intern as a screen writer for a production company in Virginia as well. I have been an English major at heart since I was a sophomore in high school, and have wanted to be a teacher since I was in community college. My passion for English was sparked by my Journalism teacher when I was 15. She had been an inspiration for gaining an appreciation writing, as well as a yearning to teach and inspire others just like she has for the past 50+ years. My passion for reading, writing, and teaching also spawned from the educational neglect I faced from my teachers from second grade in elementary school to freshman year of high school. With teachers just choosing to ignore anything I wrote or said, I took to writing my own works and reading books that were generally higher than my class level, and promised that I would never treat a student that way.
The purpose of this ePortfolio is not just for an exam, but to also to use this when the time comes for me to enter into the world of careers. I was able to learn about the importance of persuasive writing and how it will help me in the professional world with this ENGL 400 course. Class activities, such as the journal discussions, have allowed me to learn about holding a formal discussion and paying attention to important details. Working on a rhetorical analysis, with a subject I know about, has helped me improve my knowledge and ability to write as a way to inform and educate a general, public audience. I was also able to improve my citizen leadership skills by using the Common Good Project to cultivate my skills and watch them grow exponentially. The course learning outcomes have helped me become more confident in my professional writing skills with the assignments and the course journal entries, as well as teach teach me what Active Citizenship means as a writer and how publishing items, like this ePortfolio and the Common Good Project can improve on this.
Course Learning Outcomes
1) engage in the process of citizen leadership by investigating multiple perspectives on important public issues;
2) understand the nature of public discourse/debate as determined by purpose, audience, and context;
3) choose appropriate formats in writing for a variety of purposes;
4) analyze the effectiveness of their own texts and processes for specific rhetorical situations;
5) understand how the knowledge, skills, and values learned in general education are interwoven and interrelated, and how they can contribute to the process of citizen leadership.