This portfolio will be an amalgamation of the work I have completed in Advanced Writing with professor Dedek. The work spans a few topics in a variety of styles. These include:

1. A Discourse Analysis of the American Journal of Political Science
2. A Literature Review of research completed within the realm of political science, primarily focused on political bias and polarization
3. A Policy Brief summarizing a viewpoint on nuclear energy promoting policies that increase its use
4. A popularization, in the form of an Op-Ed, arguing on a more personal level for the implementation of expanded nuclear power programs.

These assignments required a varied approach to writing. This directly relates to the final learning goal of the course, "11: Students reflect on their writing processes and self-assess as writers." As someone who has written nothing but research papers, it was challenging to begin to approach assignments with a different goal in mind than just laying out facts in favor of a thesis. I interpret this learning goal as asking the student to be honest about the challenges they faced in creating the course's work, as well as the strategies or decisions that helped them most in successfully completing it.

The revision process was perhaps the most important aspect of this course for me as a writer. Because I was unfamiliar with some of the aspects of these assignments, my first drafts often needed not just revision but complete redirection. Thanks to extensive review with peers and feedback from Professor Dedek, I was able to rethink my approaches to these works, especially the literature review and policy brief. My exposure to these different styles has forced me to think more critically about the way I am approaching a writing assignment from the start, instead of defaulting to a research paper style. This thinking has also allowed me to be more open to self-criticism, regardless of how far along an assignment is.