Category: Student Posts

This website is an archive of the work I completed as part of ENG101 at Emory University during the Fall 2025 semester. It includes major projects, sketches, and reflection posts that document my writing process over time. Rather than presenting writing as something finished, this portfolio reflects writing as an evolving practice shaped by revision and feedback. The organization of the site allows readers to move between final drafts and earlier stages of thinking, which shows that writing is not a single act but a process that develops through time and reflection. The project I chose to reflect on is Literacy Narrative, Part 1, an essay that explores how my understanding of reading and writing has changed throughout my life. In this narrative, I focus on my early years at Success Academy Bronx 2, a highly structured and demanding elementary school that emphasized early mastery of reading and writing. At Success Academy, literacy was treated as a measure of discipline and intelligence rather than a tool for exploration or self-expression. I contrast those early experiences with later moments in my life, specifically participation in a summer debate program and involvement in an Afrobeats dance group that helped me reimagine writing as expressive and rhythmic. I chose this project because it best represents a turning point in my relationship with writing and because it required me to think carefully about how personal experience can function rhetorically. If I were given another month to revise this project, I would not change my thesis. I am very confident in my central claim that my relationship with literacy was initially shaped by pressure and rigid expectations, but later transformed through experiences that allowed for interpretation, creativity, and rhythm. Instead of altering my argument, I would focus on revising how effectively the essay communicates that thesis to readers who may not share my background. My primary goal would be to strengthen the essay’s attention to audience by clarifying context and expanding moments of reflection so that readers unfamiliar with Success Academy can fully understand the significance of those experiences. One of the strongest sections of my literacy narrative appears at the opening of the essay, where I establish tone and atmosphere through detailed storytelling. I begin with the sound of an alarm clock, describing the early mornings, strict routines, and sense of urgency that defined my childhood. This opening works rhetorically because it puts the reader in my lived experience rather than simply explaining it. The repetition of routine and the physical details of preparation mirror the discipline Success Academy demanded from its students. By connecting these early mornings to how reading and writing were treated with the same urgency, I show how literacy became associated with obligation rather than curiosity. If I were revising this section, I would slow down the reflection that follows the narrative. While the imagery is vivid, I move quickly past its long-term effects. With more time, I would more explicitly analyze how these routines shaped my early beliefs about learning and success, helping readers better understand the emotional and psychological impact of this environment. Another key moment in the essay occurs when I describe the reading level system used at Success Academy, where books were labeled from A to Z and students were expected to reach the highest level by fourth grade. This passage captures how literacy became a form of measurement and survival rather than enjoyment. By explaining how students were randomly pulled from class to read aloud under pressure, I communicate the fear and anxiety that surrounded reading at such a young age. This section is effective because it presents a concrete system that symbolizes how intelligence was quantified. However, if I were revising the essay, I would deepen my reflection here by making the consequences of this system more explicit. I describe what happened and how it felt, but I could further explore how constant evaluation affected my confidence and willingness to take risks as a reader and writer. Expanding this analysis would strengthen the essay’s impact by showing how institutional expectations shaped my identity over time. As the essay shifts toward later experiences, particularly debate and Afrobeats dance, I begin to show how my relationship with literacy evolved. Debate introduced me to writing as persuasion rather than compliance, forcing me to research, analyze, and argue with intention rather than simply follow a rubric. Afrobeats dance further expanded my understanding of expression, teaching me that rhythm and flow could exist beyond traditional academic writing. These experiences allowed me to see writing as something dynamic and personal. If I were revising this section, I would clarify these transitions more deliberately, emphasizing how each experience built upon the last. Doing so would help readers follow the progression of my growth more clearly and understand how these moments collectively reshaped my approach to reading and writing. If I were revising this project for a context beyond first-year writing, I would consider adapting it into a public-facing personal essay focused on education and literacy. Writing for a broader audience would require additional context about Success Academy and a clearer explanation of why this experience matters beyond my individual story. I would also be more intentional about connecting my narrative to larger conversations about educational pressure, early literacy standards, and how institutions define success. This shift in audience would not require changing the core of my story, but it would require more deliberate rhetorical framing. The biggest challenge in revising this project would be capturing the full complexity of my experience without overwhelming the reader. Because my journey with literacy spans multiple stages of my life, it would be easy to include too much detail or lose narrative focus. To address this challenge, I would approach revision in stages, beginning with a reflection, followed by structural refinement, and ending with sentence-level edits focused on clarity and flow. Overall, this literacy narrative matters to me because it represents the moment when I began to understand writing as more than a requirement to meet someone else’s expectations. It reflects how I moved from viewing literacy as survival within a rigid system to seeing it as a form of expression shaped by rhythm and personal voice.

I incorporated preparing for a swim race with assignments in class. I wanted to compare benefits from my essential swim items to the assignments I completed. I am very happy with how this turned out and it was very enjoyable to make due to my love for swimming.

Before I made the presentation, I planned out 5 elements from each book I want to talk about. Then I found corresponding pages in the book and made the slide show. Then I wrote a rough script which has fewer academic sentences than the essay I typically write since it’s more important that the words are easy to follow, both for me and the audience. When I planned it out, I was not thinking about having a thesis that spans the entire presentation. Instead, I just picked a few interesting points in the book to discuss and relate to the Hillary Shute essay and the quotations. I think that not having a main argument allowed me to have more freedom to say the things I wanted to say, and it would be easier to follow the 20s pattern. I also decided to talk about the two texts separately instead of comparing them side by side because I knew I was not able to fit that much content into 20 seconds. Another reason is that one is an autobiography, and the other is fiction. I think the genre differs a bit too much for meaningful comparison in how they present trauma and healing. Thus, I talked about It’s Lonely at the Center of Earth in the first 5 slides and Sabrina in the last 5. For my visuals, I included minimal words and mostly pages from the book because I thought of them as evidence for the arguments I made. I tried to connect my spoken words to the slides, but there was simply not enough time for phrases like “look at the second panel where Calvin checks his phone, here he…” Prior to this experience, I was used to putting a few keywords on the slide show that help me remember what I am going to say, and maybe help a little with the audience’s understanding. However, due to the time constraint, I decided to use notecards that would ensure I don’t fumble, so I put fewer keywords on the slide show. However, in the end, I think I relied a little too much on the note cards due to nervousness, which means less interaction with the audience. I really admire the confidence of those who can just walk up there with nothing in their hands. I think Oliver did that. Next time, I would practice more so I can present without notes as well.

The moment I chose to recreate is a scene from The Hangover. This movie is one of my favorites, so as soon as we were given the assignment, several scenes immediately came to mind that I thought I could realistically recreate. I rewatched the movie and looked around my room to find props that might work. While watching, I came across this specific scene and realized I could recreate it using the stuffed animal duck I have in my room. The final result actually turned out much better than I expected. The hardest part was lining up the angle correctly, since the phone needed to be perfectly level with the ground. My roommate, Ibi, also had to lie down in order to capture the scene as accurately as possible. Overall, I really enjoyed this assignment. It was fun working on it with Ibi, and it was a nice break from the more challenging assignments and studying I have had recently.

For this assignment, I reflected on what I learned throughout this semester and presented it in an order that is both chronological and reflective of how important each element is. When I thought I was finished, I found that I had not included the literacy narrative, so I added it in the blank space. I think my subjective interpretations of what I learned played a big role in how I created this diagram, and it might not accurately reflect what I actually gained from the course.

I made my construction chart for this past semester digitally using Canva. I split a single page into six different boxes in an attempt to make it look similar to the cocktail construction chart. The middle section is the most essential part. It includes an overview of my portfolio which is an honest reflection and summary of what all of these assignments have done for me this semester. It also includes a diagram of a mechanism that I’ve adopted when making all of these assignments. It includes brainstorming (or thinking/daydreaming), applying, revising, and thinking again. On the left, I dedicated a panel to the sketch assignments. I certainly had ones that I preferred above others, but I would say that in general, they were the creative foundation that got my brain working for all the larger assignments. As for those, I dedicated a panel to the halfa kucha, tracing pages, and literacy narratives, listing how they were beneficial to me and characteristics that were unique to each assignment, such as the oral element of the halfa kucha.

The rhetorical situation which I chose for my sketch assignment number ten was: five minutes after winning the national final. It’s a pretty odd rhetorical situation to choose for this assignment, but it’s one that I hold very dearly to me. I have won two national championships, and I can confidently say that they’ve been two of the best experiences of my life. The post-game celebrations were pure jubilation. All the hard work that it took to get to that point. Beyond the achievement itself, it was the pleasure of being able to celebrate with a group of guys who suffered and overcame obstacles alongside me that brought me the real joy. Additionally, with our soccer team here at Emory advancing to the NCAA final four, I was already getting flashbacks of celebrating national victories. My playlist is approximately 45 minutes long and it consists of two categories of songs. The first category is songs that felt like the moment I was in. The second category was a set of iconic songs that my teammates and I celebrated to after each victory. As an outlier, I end my playlist with the song “The Show Goes On” by Lupe Fiasco, because the only thing you can do after winning a national championship is start working to win another one. Here is the link to my playlist: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5ecYFhdRFZV0isDgFn6Jdm?si=M8ZAKT-pTpKxAAPT8cdv3w Discography: Freed From Desire (Gala, Molella, Phil Jay), Dreams and Nightmares (Meek Mill), Our Time (Lil Tecca), No Hands (Waka Flocka Flame, Roscoe Dash, Wale), Homecoming (Kanye West, Chris Martin), It Was a Good Day (Ice Cube), The Thrill (Wiz Khalifa, Empire of the Sun), Viva la Vida (Coldplay), Wonderwall (Oasis), Bittersweet Symphony – Remastered 2016 (The Verve), The Show Goes On (Lupe Fiasco)