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Table of Contents
Page no.
My bio Poem i) Let me Live ii) In the woods iii) Beauty iv) Job Interview Creative non-fiction i) The turnout ii) A big change Fiction
16-19 i) Darkness ii) Success teaches many things Rough Drafts
16-17 18-19 20-32
Reflection essay
33-34
3
5 7-14 7-8 9-10 11-12 13-14 15-18 15-16 17-18
4
Bio I am Priyam Patel, junior student at the University of Indianapolis. I am Finance major and Economics minor. Since my childhood, I have keen interest studying the financial literacy and ways trying to improve it. I want to start my career working with low-income and middleincome families, managing their funds investing in safe assets and trying to bring a financial impact in their lives. I have written most of my writing in this portfolio related to business, which is a subject matter of interest. I enjoyed bringing creativity while writing horror and romantic poems, which is my first time ever. I have tried best to write, different mix of genres to keep the readers attention and interest. I would appreciate if there’s any suggestion for me to improve my portfolio and make it even more fascinating.
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Poem
Let Me Live
I was walking down the street in New York city, where I always wanted to work, looked up and thanked the God and the city, for filling all my dreams. 23 years of career, same schedule every day, Never noticed sunrise nor sunset, But today I want to tell these people Please Let Me Live, Let Me Sleep on a beach, Let me see stars the whole night, Let me again play as a Child. I am not your banker anymore, I am the Soccer player who just knows how to goal, Not to make gold for Company. Feels like this childhood is lost somewhere, never ever realized when did I grow old. Today, I want to tell these people enough of this living a calculated life, Let’s enjoy it, let’s jump and fall together. Excited I was when I Came here, 7
Excited today I am to just Leave. Ready to sign my retirement letter but it’s the morning alarm again and another day.
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In the woods In the dark I walked, Like an owl, In the woods.
Scared like a wild bird fly, Was alone in the woods, Searching for a way.
Went with my friends for camping, But it turned out to a horrible nightmare.
Dark night, we were Partying in the woods, It was my 21st birthday, full of excitement.
I heard The noise from back,
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Followed it and here I am.
In the woods, Its dark like funeral scarf, I am just chanting
God’s name. It started raining, lightening heavily and heard animals talking aloud.
Here I learn to get serious, Here I learn to be patient.
In the dark, I hold myself tight. Just the hope to get back.
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Beauty He saw her and She was the beautiful girl on the planet. He was there, She was there, It was a good mere.
She looked upon him and then hold his hands in the crowd of thousands. He felt like a beauty from heaven stepped to take him with her. He felt like she was the one for Whom he was waiting forever.
She just walked and he followed too, Both ended up under the shadow of Cool breeze tree in summer. He was still noticing her like a painter to a painting, like a jeweler to a jewel, like a player to a ball, like a child to a ice-cream.
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He thought in his head and appreciated the God’s creation.
12
Job Interview It was fine Friday morning, woke up and got ready wearing professional outfit. Little nervous, little anxious, I drove to the location early, My heartbeats were fast as the countdown begin. It was making me more nervous and hands started sweating.
Closed my eyes, took deep breath and released all the tension. One, two, three, four and five. Felt better and entered the office, greeted the receptionist and waited outside for 5 minutes and then came the talent acquisition manager.
I do not know how to tell everyone, after meeting him, I became even more confident and it turned out to be a friendly conversation rather than 13
interview. Ending with positive gesture, I expect to hear by the end of next week.
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Creative Non-Fiction The Turnout Back in India, after completing my 10th grade and I was still working on a business model with my school friends, directly instructed by the principal as a part of representing the school in the upcoming semester. In, India 10th grade is given so much importance as they are state board exams and valued highly. So, this had already made so frustrated and this addition in project work was giving me a hard time. It was my summer vacation and I was supposed to relax and take some trip, but I was busy with this project work. However, I and my team members were trying our best to develop a very sharp business model, but we were not able to come up with some good ideas. In our weekly review meetings with the principal, we were not able to meet the deadlines, and this was making him mad. This was so even frustrating for me and one day I shouted on my siblings without his mistake. My parents came to me and handed me the tickets to Shimla, a beautiful hill station on the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayan foothills. I did not understand anything, but I was excited to take this trip. The next day, I was in the fresh air, surrounded by mountains and greenery. The temperature was little chilly with brighter sun even. The hill station is famous for different buildings styled in Tudorbethan and neo-Gothic architectures dating from the colonial era, as well as multiple temples and churches. I visited many historic structures such as Viceroy Lodge, the Christ Church and the Jakhoo temple, which forms the city center. I was amused by seeing the Kalka-Shimla Railway line built by Britishers, which I s a UNESCO World Heritage Site I went for hiking, which was adventurous and dangerous at the same time. I joined a group came from Delhi for hiking. On our hiking, we had to trust each member for help. This made me more patient and calm. During our trip, our tour guide took our camp to the peak early 15
in the morning for yoga. I felt real peace in the lap of nature. We also enjoyed the campfire in extreme cold, dancing, and singing. I made many friends from the camp. We also went for the river rafting, dangerous sport at this location as the river flows directly from the Himalayas with full force. Wow! What an experience. The water is so cold as it is all the melted ice due to summer. At one moment I thought, the rocks would almost hit my hand. I was scared initially but it turned to be more fun. Shimla is also famous for apple orchards and I got to visit one of them which was right next to the deep valley. It was scary but the fresh air blowing makes you so cheerful and all of sudden all your tension vanishes. I had one of the fresh organic apples from the orchards, which I never get to eat in the city. I also learned from the owner of the orchards, how they sell it to the local wholesalers and then those apples are exported directly abroad. This was something new to me. I was also so amazed by seeing the different handicrafts at the mall road shopping place near Lakkar bazar. I was enjoying learning the local people, culture and food. It was the time for me to return to home, but I took a lot of beautiful memories with me. This trip was even more than a vacation. It made me calmer and patient. It, of course, taught me a good habit of yoga, which my parents were telling me for long. This 10 day of vacation turned out to be so fruitful to me that we started working on the project work with full force. I also figured out the business plan for the competition during the trip. It was about the apple orchards and the handicraft industry of Shimla. My Principal and my team members were so impressed by hearing about my idea and we started our research to make a proper model.
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A Big Change Changes are the crucial part of life, and it is irresistible. The who adapts to it quickly, succeeds. Stepping into college after completing the high school is the biggest change in anyone’s life. This was the biggest transformation in my life too. I completed my high school in city called Ahmedabad in India. I had no clue what to do after my high school except joining some Business school and get a master’s degree. This isn’t enough, especially in the country like India where there are already many educated populations unemployed and such tough competition to get a job is a dream of millions of Indian. I come from a business family and I decided to join father’s business after graduation, but I did not know God had different plans for me. I came to united states for my further education at the University of Indianapolis at the age of 18 years. I never had any responsibilities in India and suddenly I have bunch of stuff to do, which made me feel like returning to India. I have to cook, do my groceries, clean my room, do laundry, clean utensils, organize my time to get things done, over and above these I have to manage my schoolwork too. I was fascinated by learning from American student who manage all the responsibilities so easily at such a young age. This was really a big change, which I resisted initially. I saw my friend Ujjaval who is from India too, working hard managing everything. This inspired me to do my best to make my parents proud of me. I never worked a job in India and never kept a count on money while spending. But now, things changed when I have to manage my own bills. My parents always wanted me to be independent and go out of comfort zone and work hard for all that I wanted. I always took all the advice from my parents lightly and never got serious. All my bad habits were paying me off with lot of work, which people of my age manages very well in America. 17
I soon realized that I have a very tough competitors, from whom I have to learn a lot. The biggest thing that was being a hurdle for me was language difference and especially the accent. I struggled initially to share my thoughts with other students, professors and wherever I went. But I knew if I stopped trying today just thinking that what others will think of me, I wouldn’t succeed in long run. I was making myself comfortable with all the responsibilities I had. I worked hard and it payed off me with getting outstanding GPA in my first semester. Also, I got the job and made my first ever paycheck. This worth millions to me. My parents were happy seeing me this way. After then, semesters passed, I built my profile by networking with professionals from different fields and making good connections. This ups and downs were so small, when alongside I made really good friends and strong relations with everyone. I came across many different kinds of challenges, which I faced rather than turning my back on it. There were many times when I felt alone in the dark but on the other side my faith in God, kept me going. I would really like to thank all the people whom I met in the United states, who helped me to become I always wanted to.
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Fiction Darkness Steven, a millionaire from USA, runs one of the fortune 500 company in the world. He is chairman of Real export corporation inc, member of advisory committee in the world bank and philanthropist, just at the age of 29 years old. He started his export-import business, where he made tons of money and diversified his investment in real estate, financial lending to businesses, pharmaceuticals and also various mergers and acquisition. He started a program of helping farmers and small businesses with lending them at zero interest to improv their wellbeing by giving them the opportunity to grow. He is a big believer of Karma/hard work. He is at his office before his employees and leaves after his employees leave. Everyone sees his bright side, lavish lifestyle and money but he only knows how hard he had to work for reaching this stage. At the age of 15 years old, he started working for the export company. During his working experience, John, the owner of the company teaches Steven different tactics and prepares him for the entrepreneurship skills. Steven is very polite and down to the earth kind of person. He is a leader and knows how to convince people with keeping everyone’s interest. Steven is very polite and down to the earth kind of person. He is a leader and knows how to convince people with keeping everyone’s interest. As his business grew at the very fast pace, nobody realized Steven’s background and history, everyone cared about his today. He believed in art of giving back to society what he earned. He runs one of the biggest foundations for spreading happiness to less privilege people. This foundation serves in 67 countries of the world providing housing, clothing, food packages, pollution free environment and educating the
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society, leading towards a bright future. He always used to say, “my life is devoted to making better tomorrow”. Behind this great leader, he is very scared with his past. This is about 20 years ago, when he was so happy with his father and mother. They used to live in one of the small houses in suburbs in New York. They owned a small farmland, his father used to work hard to put food on the table. Steve used to enjoy horse rides, fishing and hunting with his father. He used to love helping his mother cooking food for the family. Everything changes, when one day, Steven is waiting for his parents to come from the market. He waits for hours but his parents don’t come. He waits for two days, in the hope that they will be back from the market but there’s no one. He called the cops and described them the incident. After investigating, it put the cops in the very problematic situation to tell Steven about his parent’s accident. He was 9 years old to understand that he will not be able to see his parents from now, they are gone forever. They had to tell him, and he couldn’t handle this incident and it affected mentally and had to hospitalized for 2 months under the supervision. He did not have any clue what to do without them. He admitted couple of suicide attempts, because he thought no means of living without them. He lost everything; his parents were only his family. Whenever he closed his eyes, everything pops up his parents, their happy life. He still waits for his mother to bring chocolates from the market and his father told him to take him to horse riding. He does not know how and whom to express his feelings. His loneliness turns him to a successful industrialist at the very early age. He decided to open the largest foundation in the world to help the children, who lost their parents.
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Success teaches many things
Raj, at the age of 24, graduated from Stanford university. He is very ambitious about his goals from his childhood and worked hard to get into one of the best universities. He always believes in using the time optimally. After his studies, He gets privilege of working with one of the fortune 500 company. He is a Business analyst and operations specialist. Days passes and company is so much impressed by Raj’s work and his advices saves millions of dollars to the company. This is not a happy ending, there is much more to it. Raj receives promotion and responsibilities also increases along the way. This success in a short period of time made him little arrogant, and behavior changed over the period. He started taking his work lightly and unprofessionalism also increases. The board of directors noticed this change and warned him for couple of times, but it was too late. Finally, the Board members decide to fire him. This came with a big shock to Raj. He acted in a very disreputable with the directors. But this was not going to change the decision of the company. This made him clueless. He in fact of improving his behavior, started applying for jobs in many big companies. He was still the same arrogant person thinking he has very good degree and experience of managing the multinational company. But he forgot that he was fired for his own carelessness. All the companies, he applied rejected his application because they knew Raj’s character. He got so depressed that he started drinking day and night, relied on alcohol to heal his problems. During that period, he faced divorce and his children’s custody was given to his wife. Every problem was at his doors. After seeing 4 years of down fall, one day he encounters Sam, a successful entrepreneur. He was successful not because he was Stanford or well-known university pass out, but he had the
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passion and patience. He was very down to the earth person. He showed Raj the real path and guided him from darkness to light. Raj regains his confidence but this time being polite and determined. He had the potential, but he was only lacking behavior traits, which he now gained it with his experience. Sam helped Raj get back on the track and provided moral support whenever needed. Raj was working on one of the business plans since his childhood and never got the chance after his college to work. He recovered that file and started analyzing it. This time Raj came in full force of a business plan, which could save billions of dollars for the Big business houses. He joined the same fortune 500 company but this time as a CEO of the company. This was a huge success, but this time he did not let the success over his head.
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Rough Drafts Poem Let me Live I was walking down the street in the New York city, where I always wanted to work, Saw up and thanked the God and the city, for filling all my dreams. 23 years of life, same schedule every day, Never noticed sunrise nor sunset, But today I want to tell this people Please Let Me Live, Let Me sleep on beach, Let me see stars whole night, Let me again play as a Children. I am not your banker anymore, I am Soccer player who just knows how to goal, Not to make gold for company. Feels like this childhood is lost somewhere, never ever realized when did I grew old. Today, I want to tell this people enough of this living calculated life, Let’s enjoy it, let’s jump and fall together. Excited I was when I came here, Excited today I am to just Leave. Ready to sign my retirement letter and its morning alarm and another day.
23
In the woods In the dark I walked, Like an owl, In the woods. Scared like a wild bird fly, Was alone in the woods, Searching for a way. Went with my friends for camping, But it turned out to a horrible nightmare. Dark night, we were Partying in the woods, It was my 21st birthday, full of excitement. I heard The noise from back, Followed it and here I am. In the woods, Its dark like funeral scarf, I am just chanting God’s name. It started raining, lightening heavily and heard animals talking aloud. Here I learn to get serious, Here I learn to be patient. In the dark, I hold myself tight. Just the hope to get back. 24
Referring to the poem, “IN BLACKWATER WOODS” by Mary Oliver.
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Beauty He saw her and She was the beautiful girl on the planet. He was there, She was there, It was a good mere. She looked upon him and then hold his hands in the crowd of thousands. he felt like a beauty from heaven stepped to take him with her. He felt like she was the one for Whom he was waiting forever. She just walked and he followed too, Both ended up under the shadow of Cool breeze tree in summer. He was still noticing her like a painter to a painting, like a jeweler to a jewel, like a player to a ball, like a child to a ice-cream. He thought in his head and appreciated the God’s creation.
26
Job Interview It was fine Friday morning, woke up and got ready wearing professional outfit. Little nervous, little anxious, I drove to the location early, My heartbeats were fast as the countdown begin. It was making me more nervous and hands started sweating. Closed my eyes, took deep breath and released all the tension. One, two, three, four and five. Felt better and entered the office, greeted the receptionist and waited outside for 5 minutes and then came the talent acquisition manager. I do not know how to tell everyone, after meeting him, I became even more confident and it turned out to be a friendly conversation rather than interview. Ending with positive gesture, I expect to hear by the end of next week.
27
Creative Non-Fiction The turnout Back in India, after completing my 10th grade and I was still working on business model with my school friends, directly instructed by the principal as a part of representing the school in the upcoming semester. In, India 10th grade is given so much importance as they are state board exams and valued highly. So, this had already made so frustrated and this addition in project work was giving me hard time. It was my summer vacation and I was supposed to relax and take some trip, but I was busy with this project work. However, me and my team members were trying our best to develop very sharp business model, but we were not able to come up with some good ideas. In our weekly review meetings with principal, we were not able to meet the deadlines, and this was making him mad. This was so even frustrating for me and one day I shouted on my siblings without his mistake. My parents came to me and handed me the tickets to Shimla, a beautiful hill station on the northern Indian state of Himachal Pradesh, in the Himalayan foothills. I did not understand anything, but I was excited to take this trip. The next day I was in the fresh air, surrounded with mountains and greenery. I went for hiking, which was adventurous and dangerous at the same time. On our hiking, we had to trust each member for help. This made me more patient and calm. During our trip, our tour guide took our camp to the peak early in the morning for yoga. I felt real peace in the lap of nature. We also enjoyed campfire in extreme cold, dancing and singing. I made many friends from the camp. We also went for the river rafting, dangerous sport at this location as the river flows directly from the Himalayas with full force. Wow! What a experience. The water is so cold as it is all the melted ice due to summer. At one moment I thought, the rocks would almost hit my hand. I was scared initially but it turned to be more fun. Shimla is also famous for apple orchards and I got visit one 28
of them which was right next to the deep valley. It was scary but the fresh air blowing makes you so cheerful and all of sudden all your tension vanishes. I had one of the fresh organic apples from the orchards, which I never get to eat in the city. I also learned from the owner of the orchards, how they sell it to the local wholesalers and then those apples are exported directly abroad. This was something new to me. I was also so amazed by seeing the different handicrafts at the mall road sopping place near Lakkar bazar. I was enjoying learning the local people, culture and food. It was the time for me to return to home, but I took lot of beautiful memories with me. This trip was even more than a vacation. It made me calmer and patient. It of course taught me good habit of yoga, which my parents were telling me since long. This 10 day of vacation turned out to be so fruitful to me that we started working on the project work with full force. I also figured out the business plan for the competition during the trip. It was about the apple orchards and handicraft industry of Shimla. My Principal and my team members were so impressed by hearing to my idea and we started our research to make a proper model.
29
A big change Stepping into college after completing the high school is the biggest change in anyone’s life. This was the biggest transformation in my life too. I completed my high school in city called Ahmedabad in India. I came to united states for my further education at the University of Indianapolis at the age of 18 years. I never had any responsibilities in India and suddenly I have bunch of stuff to do, which made me feel like returning to India. I have to cook, do my groceries, clean my room, do laundry, clean utensils, organize my time to get things done, over and above this I have to manage my schoolwork too. This was really a big change, which I resisted initially. I saw my friend Ujjaval who is from India too, working hard managing everything. This inspired me to do my best to make my parents proud of me. I was also fascinated by learning from American student and their culture. I never worked a job in India and never kept a count on money while spending. But now, things changed when I have to manage my own bills. My parents always wanted me to be independent and go out of comfort zone and work hard for all that I wanted. I always took all the advice from my parents lightly and never got serious. All my bad habits were paying me off with lot of work, which people of my age manages very well in America. I soon realized that I have a very tough competitors, from whom I have to learn a lot. I was making myself comfortable with all the responsibilities I had. I worked hard and it payed off me with getting outstanding GPA in my first semester. Also, I got the job and made my first ever paycheck. This worth millions to me. My parents were happy seeing me this way. After then, semesters passed, I build my profile by networking with professionals from different fields and making good connections. This ups and downs were so small, when alongside I made really good friends and strong relations with everyone. I came across many different kinds of challenges, which I faced rather than turning my back on it. There were many times when I felt alone in the
30
dark but on the other side my faith in God, kept me going. I would really like to thank all the people whom I met in the United states, who helped me to become I always wanted to.
31
Fiction Darkness
Steven, a millionaire from USA, owns one of the biggest multinational company in the world. He is chairman of Real export corporation, member of advisory committee in the world bank and philanthropist, just at the age of 29 years old. He is a big believer of Karma/hard work. He is at his office before his employees and leaves after his employees leave. Everyone sees his bright side, lavish lifestyle and money but he only knows how hard he had to work for reaching this stage. Steven is very polite and down to the earth kind of person. He is a leader and knows how to convince people with keeping everyone’s interest. As his business grew at the very fast pace, nobody realized Steven’s background and history. He runs one of the biggest foundations for spreading happiness to less privilege people. Behind this great leader, he is very scared with his past. This is about 20 years ago, when he was so happy with his father and mother. They used to live in one of the small houses in suburbs in New York. They owned a small farmland, his father used to work hard to put food on the table. Steve used to enjoy horse rides, fishing and hunting with his father. He used to love helping his mother cooking food for the family. Everything changes, when one day, Steven is waiting for his parents to come from the market. He waits for hours but his parents don’t come. He waits for two days, in the hope that they will be back from the market but there’s no one. He called the cops and described them the incident. This was very problematic situation for the cops to tell him about his parent’s accident He was 9 years old to understand that he will not be able to see his parents from now, they are gone forever. They had to tell them, and He couldn’t handle this incident and mentally affected and has to hospitalized for 2 months under the supervision. did not have any clue what to do without 32
them. He admitted couple of suicide attempts, because he thought no means of living without them. He lost everything; his parents were only his family. He was so upset and started thinking that his mother did not bring chocolates from the market and his father told him to take him to horse riding. He did not know how and whom to express his feelings. He decided to open the largest foundation in the world to help the children, who lost their parents.
33
Success teaches many things Raj, at the age of 24, graduated from Stanford university. He is very ambitious about his targets and worked hard to get into one of the best universities. He gets privilege of working with one of the fortune 500 company. He is a Business analyst and operations specialist. Days passed and company is so much impresses by Raj’s work and his advices saves millions of dollars to the company. This is not a happy ending, there is much more to it. Raj receives promotion and responsibilities also increases along the way. This success in a short period of time made him little arrogant, and behavior changed over the period of time. He started taking his work lightly and unprofessional behavior also increases. The board of directors noticed this change and warned him for couple of times, but it was too late. Finally, the Board members decide to fire him. This came with a big shock to Raj. He acted in a very unprofessional way and misbehaved with the authorities. But this was not going to change the decision of the company. He applied for jobs in many big companies. This was not an indicator that he realized his mistake and trying to improve. He was still the same arrogant person thinking he has very good degree and experience of managing the multinational company. But he forgot that he was fired for his own carelessness. All the companies, he applied rejected his application because they knew Raj’s image. He got so depressed that he started drinking day and night, relied on alcohol to heal his problems. During that time, he faced divorce and his children’s custody was given to his wife. Every problem was at his doors. After seeing 4 years of down fall, one day he encounters Sam, a successful entrepreneur. He was successful not because he was Stanford or well-known university pass out, but he had the passion and patience. He was very down to the earth person. He showed Raj the real path and guided him from darkness to light. Raj regains his confidence but this time being polite and determined. He had the potential, but he was only lacking behavior
34
traits, which he now gained it. Sam helped Raj get back on the track and provided moral support whenever needed. This time Raj came in full force of a business plan, which could save billions of dollars for the Big business houses. He joined the same fortune 500 company but this time as a CEO of the company. This was a huge success, but this time he did not let the success over his head.
35
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Reflection essay English 270 Creative writing class turned out a success for me. During the beginning of my semester, I was not sure if I would be able to write good essays and poems, especially in a creative way but it was totally inverse of it. Professor Liz played an important role in encouraging and guiding me whenever I needed. She was so helpful throughout the process checking whether I understood and taking updates. She made me trust the process and opened my vision to it.
In my portfolio, the most of my writing was about successful entrepreneurs and businessmen, which indicates my interest. It aligns with my career that I see myself in future. I choose those topics to indicate the level of hard work that requires to achieve the goals. It also inspires me, and I enjoy writing about motivational stories. Also, I don’t like reading books, but I do read motivational autobiographies and articles on entrepreneur.
It was not at all easy since English is my second language, but the professor made me believe that content matters and not the grammar. She explained, “grammar can be fixed if we already have good content, but good grammar cannot fix the content”. Throughout the semester, I focused on freewriting before writing an essay, which helped a lot in bringing creativity. Sometimes, I was even surprised by the essays or poem, I end up writing. The professor’s feedback on each piece, helped a lot while preparing for the workshops. During workshops, it not only helped me improve my mistakes but face to face opinions and group discussions strengthened my essay. This was a great way to meet different people while
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learning from them. Workshop also gave me an opportunity to read other’s essay and learn from their work and mistakes.
When we entered into writing poems, I thought I would struggle with the poems most, but I was surprised how confident I am now, writing all the poems. It was so helpful when professor discussed different poems, different style, different topics and genres, and different poet in the class showing PowerPoint presentation, especially the breakdown activity of, “Scars to beautiful” song. These discussions made it clear that a poem can be written even without rhyming words. For writing poems, I used different content, line breaks, stops and writing it indirectly, ABAB rhyme scheme, 4-line stanzas, and the things I found my strengths at. Over the semester I wrote almost 6-7 poems and all of them different genres. I feel totally different at my poetic skills.
This class helped me build my writing skills and the professor pushed the students to think rhetorically. It turned out a great tool helping in my other business classes writing professional papers and case studies. During this semester, I was also working on a Real estate project proposal, where I had to write 30-page proposal and English creative writing class helped me to use my skills into professional world. I also use my learnings to write poem and get creative in my free time which seems always stress releasing.
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