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INTRODUCTION

Before enrolling in College Writing 2 my opinion of literature and writing classes was generally negative. In all my previous English/writing classes, I would only ever write about some century old work of literature like Shakespeare, or respond to a prompt riddled with specific requirements. There was little freedom with what I could write about or how I could write it, and as a science major I knew the lab reports I would need to write in the future were nothing like the formal essays I was writing in my literature, language, and rhetoric classes. College Writing 2 did not follow that trend. In this class I was able to use images in my papers, different formats, different fonts, and most enjoyed of all: modern subject material.

My skills as a writer has broadened and advanced with the assignments and tools I have been introduced to in College Writing 2. I believe these skills and techniques are demonstrated in my writing projects which have been compiled and included in the above/following pages of this final portfolio. With exception to the argument synthesis which had predetermined subject matter, I decided early on that I wanted to write about issues the science community has recently ran into throughout this semester. I do this by exploring the conflict between science and religion trends in my photo essay. I advance this idea in my visual/textual analysis by looking at a science museums advertisements and discussing what kind of image the science community is trying to assert in todays society. Finally, I take a more specific approach with science and introduce a synthesis of scientific research from professional journals to argue for reform in the practice of solitary confinement in the U.S incarceration system. I think with the new methods and tools I have developed, these writing projects have features that my past writing did not, features that are necessary for effective writing in modern times.