Portfolio Assignment

Question :

A college portfolio is a collection of work that documents a student's learning in a course or field of study. Create a midterm portfolio by organizing your formal academic essays and self-assessment writing into a single Microsoft Word document. 

Answer :

Portfolio Cover Letter

Introduction 

Writing is a complex and very tough task as it requires a set of skills and competencies to be an effective writer. There are several points that should be considered while writing a piece of paper. Everyone can write but writing effectively and organizing the content in an effective manner is a tough task. Therefore, it is necessary to learn how to collect the right information about a topic and organize that in an effective manner in order to make the piece of paper an effective and easy one for the reader. My college writing has been improved significantly so far in the first half of English 101. 

I have learned different writing skills and competencies so far that helps me to write effectively. However, I still need to learn many things in order to be an effective college writer. The first and foremost thing that I have learned is the importance of formal and informal writing. It is very important to distinguish between formal and informal writing in order to write formally or informally effectively. It is because the format of formal as well as informal writing is different along with the selection of words and phrases. The word and phrase that can be used in informal writing may not be used in formal writing. Hence, I learned what should be avoided or included in formal writing. 

I also learned that in order to write effectively and efficiently, it is important to reading comprehension. Reading comprehension helps in collecting information and understanding how to organize content in an effective manner so that the reader can read and understand the message of the writing. I have also learned the basic writing skill that is writing mechanics. Writing mechanics includes grammar, sentence structure, as well as spelling. It is very important to be an effective writer to focus on grammar, sentence structure, and spelling because mistakes or errors in writing significantly reduces the effectiveness of writing. A professional college writer cannot make a grammatical mistake, sentence structure, and spelling error.

My strengths are my commitment to learn and improve my writing skills. I considerably focus on learning new skills and competencies to write effectively and organize ideas significantly. Apart from this, I know how to make the piece of writing interesting and attractive for readers because it is important to make writing interesting and attractive to attract more readers and motivate them to read the writing thoroughly and completely. However, I also face challenges while writing on a new topic or writing on the topic on which I have not written until now. I also face challenges while writing argumentative paper because I think I lack skills to convince people. Therefore, I need to improve these fields as well by reading more and learning convincing skills.

I would like to learn writing strategies in order to further improve my writing. Writing strategies significantly improve the effectiveness of writing. I also need to learn how to communicate ideas clearly and concisely. Apart from this, using effective marshaling evidence as well as using sources appropriately is important for me to be an effective college writer and hence, I should focus on learning these aspects of writing in the second half. 

Conclusion 

In the first half of English, I have improved my college writing and reading skills and competencies. I am continuously focusing on improving my writing and reading skills. I have learned basic writing skills that is necessary to write effectively. However, I have some weaknesses (writing on new topic effectively) as well that I need to improve in the second half of English 101. 

Portfolio2: Digital Literacy in the Academic Environment 

Importance 

Digital literacy can be defined as the ability of an individual to find, evaluate, as well as compose information through writing as well as other digital media on different digital platforms (Pangrazio, 2016). The importance of digital media in every aspect of human life is increasing day by day including the education sector. Almost everything now depends on digital media and digital platforms. Hence, digital literacy is very important for everyone nowadays. It has a significant impact on college students. Digital literacy helps in improving learning ability, efficiency, and effectiveness of students. 

Digital literacy benefits college students in many ways. One of the significant impacts of digital literacy for college students is that it helps in improving quality of school work because with the help of the availability of the digital media as well as the digital platform they can easily access reading materials and resources that may include lecture video email correspondence of teacher-student, library database, etc. These resources significantly help students to focus on their studies and assignments. Digital literacy can help every college student in one way or another way. It significantly helps in accommodating members of group schedules for meetings (Neumann et al., 2017). Various software has been developed such as Adobe Creative Cloud with the help of which students can learn from peers through group projects. College students can also share notes with each other through digital media or digital platforms such as cloud-based document editing software.

With the help of digital media and digital platforms, college students can also engage deeply with the subject matter as it helps students in consulting with professors on different creative subjects. Thus, it can be said that digital media and digital platforms improve the efficiency and effectiveness of students. Students can access reading materials and resource easily from anywhere and read. It saves time as well as money of college students that are very crucial for them. Both time and money are crucial for students because it is very important for them to manage time and money in order to allocate these resources effectively and efficiently for greater results. Digital literacy does not help students in student life but also after student life. It helps in finding relevant and dream job. With the help of digital tools, students can easily apply for a job along with doing online banking (Chetty et al., 2018). Digital literacy also makes individuals socially aware. They can use social networks to connect with people all over the world. Video conferencing as well as e-mail correspondence can also strengthen family ties across vast geographical distances.

Conclusion 

Digital literacy is very important for students as it helps them to improve their learning abilities. It motivates them to learn effectively and efficiently. Using digital media and tools, students can save time and money that are very important for them. It significantly helps them to manage time. Digital media helps in making reading material and resources easily available to them so that they can learn effectively and efficiently. 

References 

Chetty, K., Qigui, L., Gcora, N., Josie, J., Wenwei, L., & Fang, C. (2018). Bridging the digital divide: measuring digital literacy. Economics: The Open-Access, Open-Assessment E-Journal, 12(2018-23), 1-20.

Neumann, M. M., Finger, G., & Neumann, D. L. (2017). A conceptual framework for emergent digital literacy. Early Childhood Education Journal, 45(4), 471-479. 

Pangrazio, L. (2016). Reconceptualizing critical digital literacy. Discourse: Studies in the cultural politics of education, 37(2), 163-174.