Micro-Activity #21: Reflecting and Building the Portfolio

1. Something I’ve learned about myself as a reader is that I enjoy reading something that people or myself do not know or overlook. When I was reading different articles for the Discourse community assignment, I noticed I wanted to look at more in-depth information about police brutality and the Black community. For example, I never knew that the police budget in Minneapolis is $1.3 billion. As a writer, I learned that I can write a lot of information, but can be indirect when it comes to targeting a specific audience. I need to also understand how to be persuasive when adding statistics to support a claim.   
2. What I developed as a reader and writer is brainstorming and doing one part of the assignment each week. Writing an essay without brainstorming information can be stressful, and many times I have done it. By doing this, it becomes stressful especially when writing it on the due date. Doing each part of the assignment per week was extremely helpful. Many professors just assign essays without helping you build it.
3.  Moving forward, I will definitely transfer the brainstorming and breaking up each part of an assignment for each week method. It helped me send in my work on time. Other than schoolwork, I can use this method on the daily basis. Sometimes I can get overwhelmed with errands, managing finances, and other personal things, therefore I know brainstorming ahead of time will eliminate half the stress. 

One piece of work I will choose is Micro-Activity #3: Brainstorming Discourse Communities. I choose this work because this was one of the relatable assignments to write about. I did not struggle to complete the assignment and I used experiences with what happened this year and personal experiences. There were various articles to pick from and it had a good amount of information to write about. It came easily to me and I believe as a writer it says that when I am writing about something I am passionate about, it would be a breeze to write. For example, I stated, “Police are placed in urban communities where they aren’t familiar with and harass innocent residents and residents who are walking around minding their business.” I knew this based on personal experience. I was not harassed by the officers, thankfully, but I usually get cautionary or aggressive looks by White officers that are in my neighborhood that is prominently Black and Hispanic.

Another work I will choose is Micro-Activity #11: Developing Research Questions. This assignment was also relatable and easy to brainstorm. My annotated bibliography was about student debt and the crisis that is impacting America. It was easy due to my experience as a college student and understands how expensive college is. From textbook costs to traveling expenses, especially if a student is using public transportation. I know student debt is increasing every year and it currently has no solutions to fix the crisis. I always hear someone being frustrated about how expensive their charges are and how it is impacting their finances and mental well-being. I got inspired by a Tiktok video that showed a girl with constant charges, even after paying her loans for 10 years.