zainafaireyportfolio

[zainafaireyportfolio]

Welcome To My Writing Portfolio!

My name is Zaina and I’m a freshmen Afro-American Studies Major at Howard University. This is my writing portfolio for Reflective Writing Portfolio Honors.

To the left, you’ll see the links to access all parts of my portfolio.

I hope you enjoy  💖 💖 💖

[zainafaireyportfolio]

It’s the End of the Road

I’ve definitely gained a new appreciation for the editing process. I’ve learned that, if done well, editing can completely transform a work. I’ve also learned that editing should not be easy. The first draft is truly only half the battle. If you want something to be good, it’s important to go back and revise it.

At the same time, I’ve learned that I shouldn’t put so much pressure on one work. There are a lot of things I want to say-- there will always be a lot of things I want to say. But that doesn’t mean I have to say them all. In fact, I probably shouldn’t. As I’ve seen, my message can get overwhelmed if I try to do too much with x amount of words.

I’ve always enjoyed writing. I don’t really want to ever stop. Currently, I write for The Hilltop. I hope I continue writing as a hobby even after I graduate. Before, I wasn’t really sure if I wanted to continue writing. But I genuinely enjoy putting effort into a piece and having people read it. I like creating a discussion about something, even if I’m only sharing it with my friends.

My least favorite part of the process is the way I get stuck in my head. I never know if what I’m writing is good enough. I want to make sure that I have enough to say and that it’s a valuable addition to the conversation surrounding the topic. Additionally, I have a hard time figuring out what the point of what I’m saying is. The point, in general, is that I think this is an interesting topic and therefore I want to talk about it. But that’s not really good enough. So I guess I should say I have a hard time identifying why other people should care about what I have to say.

[zainafaireyportfolio]

Read This to Find Out How Great I Am

One thing to know about me: I always have (and most likely always will) underestimate my abilities. One thing I’m trying to learn this semester is that I’m a good writer. I’m even starting to enjoy my writing. And I don’t mean the subjects I’m writing about-- I mean the actual content I’m producing. I was genuinely proud of my two full-revised essays. I think I did a good job rewriting them in a way that reflected how my thoughts had changed about the topic.

The thought-process was different between the two essays in a few major ways. For one, I think Revision 2 was easier. I went into it with an idea for how I would change it in mind-- I knew exactly what I wanted to say. The issue with Revision 1 was that I had no idea where I wanted to start or end. So I was kind of just along for the ride, making revisions here and there and then going back and deleting whole sections and starting over. With Revision 1, the emphasis was on how it read. With Revision 2, the emphasis was with my ideas. At least, that’s how I thought about it.

For the final revision, I think what I’m going to do differently is actually outline my paper beforehand. This way, I think, I can avoid a lot of the issues I had with the first assignment-- that is, not being clear on what my point was. I also want to treat it more seriously. As in it’s not just a revision but a stand alone work that should be able to be read without reading the original piece.

[zainafaireyportfolio]

I Didn’t Edit This to Prove a Point

I don’t know if I’ve improved as a writer so much as if I’ve changed as a writer. I wasn’t a bad writer last semester. Well, that’s not true. Sometimes my procrastination made me a bad writer, I think. That aside, I think my writing was pretty good. I’ve just learned a few things since then. The main one being a paper is not supposed to be everything I have to say on a subject. It’s just a tiny part of a much larger conversation. It should add to the discourse, of course. But I shouldn’t force myself to say everything I want to say about a subject into one little paper. That just gets overwhelming, especially if there’s a time crunch/word limit aspect. Then I’m forced to develop some ideas less than others and the whole thing seems sort of half-assed.

I think the belief that “the real work of writing happens in editing” is a good one in theory. Right now, I agree. That’s because I think that looking back on your work is essential, but not an hour or a day after you write it. I’m talking a week or longer. You need time to forget about it, to develop new ideas about the subject, and think about new writing styles. And then come back to it. It’s amazing how much you can change or improve something you’ve already written this way. But on the other hand, I think if you’re doing rushed editing, you might as well not even bother. How beneficial editing is depends on how much effort you put into it.

For my resource guide, I’m interviewing Theodore Shaw. He’s a law professor and director of the Center for Civil Rights at UNC.

[zainafaireyportfolio]

Grown-ish: My Journey as a Writer

In a lot of ways, I’m everything I never wanted to be. When I was young, I dreamed of being a writer. I wanted to be the next JK Rowling. I wanted to tell a story that I was passionate about and have everyone else love it, too. Since then, my perception of myself as a writer has changed significantly. I (like everyone) am multifaceted. I write poetry, I’m a news reporter for The Hilltop, and I, of course, engage in academic writing. Unfortunately, fiction writing is no longer my thing. My (very) brief stint as a fanfiction writer is a testament to that.

Something I have to constantly remind myself is that people and their interests grow and change. The fact that I no longer like writing fiction isn’t a bad thing. I’m happy I’m not the person I wanted to be ten years ago. Eight-year-old Zaina had no business planning her future. For that matter, neither did 13-year-old Zaina. I was so focused on what I thought I should do, I never considered what made me happy.

Now, I only do what I want to do. That’s what I want this class to help me with. Incorporating things that I like and that I’m passionate about in my writing. More than that, I want to be able to engage in productive discourse about things I’m passionate about. It’s all well and good to like things, but if you can’t say anything meaningful about them, what’s the point?

Something I’ve always been interested in (and that I plan on pursuing) is public policy. A goal I have is to further research affirmative action policies and eventually find a solution. This topic is important to me because it’s essential that the negative public opinion towards affirmative action is changed. The only way to do that is to prove that affirmative action can be and is successful in remedying inequalities faced by underrepresented groups in our society.