Author's Note for Unit 3 Portfolio

My unit 3 portfolio is finished and I am very proud of what I have written and drawn. For the letter to the editor, I have three drafts including the final draft and the prewriting. For the op-ed, there are two drafts including the final draft. I am really happy to have been able to write about the RA position. In the op-ed piece, it was therapeutic to write about my frustrations and when I finished that final draft this morning, I was able to look at it and add the positives of being an RA. In the humorous argument, I came up with the idea by Googling "office newspaper cartoons" and pulling from what I saw. When I had my meeting with my group at Barnes & Noble last Monday, Megan and Marian did not have any suggestions for me. They really liked what I had and thought that it tied in well with the op-ed and letter to the editor. After the in class workshop, I decided to redo the drawing after someone commented that it was a bit cluttered. I agreed with that and I think that the final draft of my drawing is cleaner, concise, and conveys the argument that RAs are overworked.

The theme that binds my letter to the editor, op-ed, and humorous argument is that the RA position is not understood. In the letter to the editor I point out that the economy is a driving factor in the spike in RA applications, but that people need to be aware of what they are getting themselves into because the position is overwhelming and stressful. In the op-ed, I give a more detailed description of what RAs do and basically, I try to bring awareness to my audience about how and why we need to be respected. Lastly, in the Humorous argument I depict how stressed an RA is and some of the crazy requests and calls that we deal with throughout the semester.

So that is my unit 3 portfolio. :)