To all my readers,

This portfolio is a compilation of all my work that I have done throughout the semester. I
have worked extremely hard throughout the course of this semester and have really grown in
my writing skills. I think that I have really grown as a writer and throughout this semester I have
analyzed issues in higher education. I began by studying the articles that we were assigned and
talking about those issues in higher education, like where money is going to and what the
institutions are becoming and how they are affecting students. We were then able to choose our
own topic and I chose to look at issues with fraternities and sororities on college campuses. I
hope that you find my writing both insightful and well thought out.
What I learned in this course will really help me in my future classes. Writing is
something that many of us take for granted and forget how important it is. We are forced to write
assignments in every class and through this writing course I was able to gain skills that will be
utilized throughout the rest of my college experience. One thing in particular that I gained
valuable skills in through this class was my organization. Before this class, I would never really
outline what I would write and when doing writing assignments I would just spit the information
out without any true organization. Throughout this course I was able to develop a lot of
organizational skills with my writing and I think this was the most beneficial thing that I learned
from this class. This is something that I definitely will continue to work on in my writing. I think
the biggest thing that I will continue to work on in my writing is the gathering of information and
the time that I spend on an assignment. I think that I improved drastically on both of these
aspects, but I think that I definitely can continue to keep improving upon them.
The first thing that I believe I improved on throughout the semester was my titles. We
recently did an assignment towards the end of the semester where we talked about titles and
how important they can be in grabbing the attention of our readers. The first title is the title that I
used for my contribution paper Fraternities and Student Well Being. After completing the

assignment, Revision work: Titles and Introductions I came up with a title that definitely jumps
out to readers a lot more and I believe to be a lot more effective to readers. The title I changed it
to was, Are College Kids Truly Safe? The analysis of Sororities and Fraternities and their
effects on student health. I think that by changing these titles, it drastically improved my piece.
The next thing that I noticed in my writing was my development of my introductions. When
looking back at my first piece, Synthesis 1, my introduction is very basic and not very
interesting. In it, I just list the titles of the pieces I will be talking about and I am very explicit and
state exactly what I am talking about, which is good, it just did not have anything to grab my
readers attention. This is the first few sentences of my synthesis one introduction, Throughout
all of the articles, Obtaining Integrity by Adrianna Kezar, Research and the Bottom Line in
Todays University by Sarah Bonewits and Lawrence Soley, Deconstructing Academe: The
Birth of Critical University Studies by Jeffrey Williams, Out of the Ruins, the University to
Come by Bob Hanke and Alison Hearn, and Linking Diversity with the Educational and Civic
Missions of higher Education by Sylvia Hurtado, it is clear that all of these have one thing in
common, they all are written to bring attention to problems in higher education. There were
three main camps and clusters that I found while reading these articles. It is very straight
forward, but when comparing this to my contribution paper, it is clear that I have developed a lot
more skills in introductions to capture the attention of my readers, College should be a safe
place where students can go and gain an education while making connections and friendships
that will last a lifetime. College should not be a place where students feel pressured to fit in.
College should definitely not be a place where people feel so pressured to fit in, that they lose
sight of what is important and do things that could damage their lives forever. More and more
frequently we are hearing about incidents that are occurring due to decisions made by fraternity
and sorority members. The next thing that I noticed about my writing throughout the semester
was that it flowed a lot clearer. If you read my synthesis 1 and contribution paper, you will notice
that the topics flow into one another better. When looking at my first writing of the semester, my

synthesis 1, it is extremely chopey and basically flows like this then this, there is no meshing of
ideas and no good sentences that tie two ideas together.
I think that the process that I went through when developing these improvements was
just through practice and peer and teacher feedback. Through this class I was able to work at
my own pace and because of this I was able to develop better ideas. Peer and teacher review
was extremely helpful with gaining these improvements. Throughout our designated groups, I
was able to gain a close relationship with one of my peers and being able to speak with her and
bounce ideas back and forth was extremely helpful as well.
Like stated, this course is meant to help us throughout our entire college career. I think
that I struggled with writing at first, but throughout the course of this semester I believe I was
able to do these assignments very well and was able to present my ideas very clearly. Like
stated at the beginning I was able to learn how to organize and thoroughly think my papers out
before I write them and I think that that is one of the hardest things for students to do. I think that
this will be the most beneficial aspect when moving forward in my college writing career. I know
that I have great grammar skills, the only thing I struggled with was organization and I think that
I have finally figured it out and will be able to continue using this in my college classes.
One thing that I would like to continue working on is just the structure of my papers.
There is always room for improvement and I think that I have gained a lot of valuable skills that I
will continue to utilize throughout my college career. I think I need to continue maturing my
writing. I was definitely able to start doing that throughout this semester but I think that the
flowing in my paper can always get better and I would love to improve on that. I would also like
to continue to work on gaining more vocabulary for my paper. One thing that I also noticed that I
do a lot in my writing is use words like and then this, first, second, things like that. I would like
to learn to lean away from those types of words and develop a more clear paper.

Lydia Leary