Hello everyone! My name is Morgan Stefanoff and I am 20 years old and I love all things purple.. if you haven't already noticed! I graduated from Northmont Senior High School in 2013 and was a 2 year varsity soccer letterman, peer tutor for the differently abled, and a peer facilitator for student conflict- all things which I am still passionate about. Currently, I am pursuing my undergraduate degree in Biology with a focus of Applied Physiology at Wright State University and am in my senior year. I take online classes through Sinclair to fill in general education requirements, save on time, and hopefully graduate a year early. My biggest aspiration is to attend and complete the University of Dayton's Doctorate of Physical Therapy program. Meanwhile, I spend my extra time working as a psychology tutor at WSU, an after school daycare provider through Northmont, and watching houses/dogs. The rest of my time is spent with friends and family, reading books, binge watching HGTV, and rooting on my favorite sports teams. My schedule often gets overwhelming, but I have a great, understanding support system and the motivation to succeed.
For a majority of my childhood years, I could be found outside in the crevice of our Japanese weeping willow tree reading a book in the shade. There was nothing I enjoyed more than the emotional connection I felt with the characters the authors created. I never lost interest in reading, but I lost time to spend reading for leisure. Admittedly, I have broken the golden rule of reading more times than I'm willing to confess: never watch the movie before you read the book. However when I have been able to read, I find it harder to connect to the story, like I have been outcast by literature for abandoning it so long and am paying a karmic debt. I've been in search of a book good enough that I need to put it in the freezer (oh, did I mention my favorite TV series in the entire world is FRIENDS?)
As a result of reading less, I feel like my writing capabilities have suffered. I am stuck in a concrete world with little imagination because my mind hasn't been given the opportunity to properly exercise creativity. In my teen angst, I wrote poetry as a means of expressing myself. Rhyme schemes and rhythm spoke to my soul and so I found particular resonance while reading Maya Angelou. Throughout the years, one thing has remained the same- I've always been a little shy to share my works. However, I hope to gain confidence throughout this course.
Within this e-portfolio, I have included my research proposal, research essay, online casebook, research essay revision, and 3 poems I wrote in my "teen angst" stage. All of my research has centered upon the various ways young women are affected by the media and ways to prevent any negative effects they may experience.
For me, the easiest part of this process was finding inspiration and motivation to delve deeper into the topic and find information and potential solutions to this crucial issue. However, I think my investment in this process has also been a challenge throughout the writing process. At times, I feel like my strong beliefs about this topic made it difficult to look at sources without bias and made it harder to write my research paper impartially. However, by the final revision of my paper I believe I conquered this task and was able to deliver a very equitable argument. The most beneficial writing process was the peer feedback. By receiving peer feedback, I was able to get a better picture of how others viewed my work and make the appropriate changes for my intended audience. I believe that I need to work on the pre-writing process in the future. A lot of the time, I feel like I go into the pre-writing process with large general idea and this leaves me scatterbrained for following writing processes. Developing a more concise idea from the beginning will allow me to focus more clearly later on.
In my final research essay, I really liked my organizational pattern. After the introduction and background information, I would first introduce and explain a way that young girls are negatively affected by the media, then introduce a counterargument, and then explain how a media literacy course could be beneficial to neutralize the negative effects of the media. My thesis statement is at the very end of my introduction and sets the stage for the following argument. Analyzing the sources without bias at first may have been cloudy, but by my final product I believe the analysis of their credibility and information was effectively incorporated into my research paper. Additionally, I am very confident in my grammar and word choice throughout the piece. The weaknesses in my paper I believe largely come from my descriptions and visual element. Especially when describing and introducing my sources, I feel like my descriptions could be wordy and unclear. Although I did edit and revise my paper, succinct and effective descriptions seemed to allude me at times. Also, the visual element was not effective as I would have liked it to be. While it did show a picture of actress Sophia Bush battling against media labels, I think a chart or graph may have been more useful. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an appropriate piece of evidence for this type of visual element, so I had to chose the next best option.
Throughout this course I have contributed a lot of time and effort into constructing a piece of work I am proud to call my own. By providing extensive discussion forums posts and peer feedback, I hope to have contributed encouragement and support to other classmates. However, I think I could have worked on clearly formulating my thoughts better. Whether it had been when summarizing or pre-writing, my small lack of planning made me feel like I would go off on tangents at points. (Especially when summarizing- sometimes I have an issue finding the bigger picture!). Overall, I believe the grade I deserve is an A. I have worked hard during these 8 weeks and I think that is reflected in the works I have turned in. Additionally, I have taken, given, considered, and implemented constructive criticism to make my pieces as best they could be. In this English 1201 course I have learned the importance of considering the credentials of online sources and the need to incorporate a broad array of sources to increase credibility. Most importantly though, I have learned the importance of having confidence in your writing. When you have confidence in your writing it clearly shows and leads to positive results.
For a majority of my childhood years, I could be found outside in the crevice of our Japanese weeping willow tree reading a book in the shade. There was nothing I enjoyed more than the emotional connection I felt with the characters the authors created. I never lost interest in reading, but I lost time to spend reading for leisure. Admittedly, I have broken the golden rule of reading more times than I'm willing to confess: never watch the movie before you read the book. However when I have been able to read, I find it harder to connect to the story, like I have been outcast by literature for abandoning it so long and am paying a karmic debt. I've been in search of a book good enough that I need to put it in the freezer (oh, did I mention my favorite TV series in the entire world is FRIENDS?)
As a result of reading less, I feel like my writing capabilities have suffered. I am stuck in a concrete world with little imagination because my mind hasn't been given the opportunity to properly exercise creativity. In my teen angst, I wrote poetry as a means of expressing myself. Rhyme schemes and rhythm spoke to my soul and so I found particular resonance while reading Maya Angelou. Throughout the years, one thing has remained the same- I've always been a little shy to share my works. However, I hope to gain confidence throughout this course.
Within this e-portfolio, I have included my research proposal, research essay, online casebook, research essay revision, and 3 poems I wrote in my "teen angst" stage. All of my research has centered upon the various ways young women are affected by the media and ways to prevent any negative effects they may experience.
For me, the easiest part of this process was finding inspiration and motivation to delve deeper into the topic and find information and potential solutions to this crucial issue. However, I think my investment in this process has also been a challenge throughout the writing process. At times, I feel like my strong beliefs about this topic made it difficult to look at sources without bias and made it harder to write my research paper impartially. However, by the final revision of my paper I believe I conquered this task and was able to deliver a very equitable argument. The most beneficial writing process was the peer feedback. By receiving peer feedback, I was able to get a better picture of how others viewed my work and make the appropriate changes for my intended audience. I believe that I need to work on the pre-writing process in the future. A lot of the time, I feel like I go into the pre-writing process with large general idea and this leaves me scatterbrained for following writing processes. Developing a more concise idea from the beginning will allow me to focus more clearly later on.
In my final research essay, I really liked my organizational pattern. After the introduction and background information, I would first introduce and explain a way that young girls are negatively affected by the media, then introduce a counterargument, and then explain how a media literacy course could be beneficial to neutralize the negative effects of the media. My thesis statement is at the very end of my introduction and sets the stage for the following argument. Analyzing the sources without bias at first may have been cloudy, but by my final product I believe the analysis of their credibility and information was effectively incorporated into my research paper. Additionally, I am very confident in my grammar and word choice throughout the piece. The weaknesses in my paper I believe largely come from my descriptions and visual element. Especially when describing and introducing my sources, I feel like my descriptions could be wordy and unclear. Although I did edit and revise my paper, succinct and effective descriptions seemed to allude me at times. Also, the visual element was not effective as I would have liked it to be. While it did show a picture of actress Sophia Bush battling against media labels, I think a chart or graph may have been more useful. Unfortunately, I couldn't find an appropriate piece of evidence for this type of visual element, so I had to chose the next best option.
Throughout this course I have contributed a lot of time and effort into constructing a piece of work I am proud to call my own. By providing extensive discussion forums posts and peer feedback, I hope to have contributed encouragement and support to other classmates. However, I think I could have worked on clearly formulating my thoughts better. Whether it had been when summarizing or pre-writing, my small lack of planning made me feel like I would go off on tangents at points. (Especially when summarizing- sometimes I have an issue finding the bigger picture!). Overall, I believe the grade I deserve is an A. I have worked hard during these 8 weeks and I think that is reflected in the works I have turned in. Additionally, I have taken, given, considered, and implemented constructive criticism to make my pieces as best they could be. In this English 1201 course I have learned the importance of considering the credentials of online sources and the need to incorporate a broad array of sources to increase credibility. Most importantly though, I have learned the importance of having confidence in your writing. When you have confidence in your writing it clearly shows and leads to positive results.