Closing Reflection

Over the course of this semester, my writing and research process became more focused, detailed, and intentional. My portfolio shows my progress through the way my writing changed and developed from MA1 View MA1 to MA3 View MA3. At the start of the semester, I was still trying to find a research question that was specific, researchable, and strong enough to base my full project on. By the end of the semester, I had developed a much more refined research article View MA2 that not only analyzed rhetorical strategies on Instagram Reels, but also examined how those strategies shaped factual accuracy and audience interpretation. Across my artifacts, I made progress in Generating Inquiry, Multiple Ways of Writing, Information Literacy, Research Genre Production, Contributing Knowledge, and Revision. However, there are still areas where I can improve, such as organizing my writing and making sure I follow the rubric. My ePortfolio shows my growth as a writer in creating and tweaking my research question, gathering evidence, organizing research, and revising my essays.

My ePortfolio demonstrates progress in Generating Inquiry because my project did not stay fixed at its first idea. Instead, it developed through multiple stages as I figured out what question was actually worth asking and what kind of evidence I could realistically gather. In my brainstorming artifact Brainstorming Question, I started with broad personal interests such as video games, computers, and business. From there, I moved toward a question about rhetoric in Reddit communities debating AI-generated art. Later, I changed that question to the Minnesota childcare controversy on Instagram Reels, then refined it again into my final focus on the ICE controversy. By MA3 View MA3, my research question became: how do rhetorical strategies used by political creators on Instagram Reels shape both the framing and the factual accuracy of information about the ICE controversy? My earliest AI topic was interesting to me, but it was not the best fit for the kind of paper I needed to complete. The Minnesota childcare version was more specific, but not a lot of data was available on that specific topic. However, the final ICE question gave me a larger discourse community and more Reels to sample. I learned that a strong research question is not just one that sounds interesting, but one that is specific and researchable.

My ePortfolio also demonstrates progress in Multiple Ways of Writing because this class required more than just a traditional essay. Throughout the semester, I used outlines, planning documents, spreadsheets, coding systems, charts, and a final IMRAD research article View MA3 to show different parts of the same project. The coding and analysis plan especially shows this progress Coding Plan because I had to organize rhetorical categories in a structured way that I could later use in a spreadsheet and in my final analysis. Instead of only writing about my topic in a traditional academic essay, I had to formulate coding plans, sampling plans, and spreadsheets to answer my research question. I also demonstrated Multiple Ways of Writing in MA3. In the final research article, I used multimodality a lot in the Results section through charts and graphs that displayed verdict totals, rhetorical patterns, and coded findings. Those visuals were not included just to make the paper look more advanced, but because they supported the argument and made the patterns easier to understand. For example, the chart showing verdict totals helped make it clear that the most common factual problem in the sample was not entirely false claims, but partial claims. In the same way, the rhetorical pattern chart helped show that anger, fear, government accountability, and human rights framing were some of the the most commonly occuring codes. My spreadsheets and coding artifacts also count as evidence of this outcome. The Reels coding matrix Coding Matrix and planning documents required me work on Multiple Ways of Writing. I had to read academic sources, interpret short-form video rhetoric, code multimodal content, and organize data in a way that could later be turned into findings. On top of that, Instagram Reels combine speech, text overlays, images, music, pacing, editing, and audience interaction. To analyze that kind of discourse community, I had to code for multiple ways of discourse.

I have probablly developed the most in Information Literacy over this semester. In MA1 View MA1, I mostly used scholarly secondary sources. I looked for articles that explained how political influencers present data, how emotional framing affects audiences, and how credibility operates differently on social media than it does in traditional journalism. I also had to improve how I integrated those sources. One of the major patterns in my feedback was that I needed stronger synthesis and clearer language showing when I was reporting what scholars said instead of sounding like I was making unsupported claims myself. That feedback made me more aware that using sources well is not just about finding quotes. It is about presenting them accurately, connecting them clearly, and showing what each source contributes.

In MA2 and MA3, I practiced Information Literacy to collect data from Instagram Reels. I created a new Instagram account to reduce algorithmic bias, used specific search terms to gather Reels, and made inclusion and exclusion criteria for both Reels and comments. That process made the sample less bias and more repeatable. I also addressed any bias and imperfections in my limitations section rather than pretending my sample was perfect. I also used a comment extraction tool to reduce the amount of bias in the comment selection. That was important because it allowed me to get the comments that Instagram pushes to a new user. The fact-checking system in MA3 Fact-Checking Dashboard also shows growth in Information Literacy. In it, I had a system to separate factual claims from opinions, emotional rhetoric, and interpretation, and then evaluate those claims using defined labels (TRUE, FALSE, PARTIAL, and UNKNOWN).

My ePortfolio shows progress in Research Genre Production because I had to write in several research genres and adapt my writing to meet the expectations of each one. In MA1 View MA1, I wrote a literature review that required me to summarize and quote scholarly sources, organize body sections around topics in the sources, and identify a res earch gap.

In MA2 View MA2, I had to adapt to write in the research proposal genre. Instead of evaluating and summarizing scholorly discourse, I had to explain how I would conduct my own research. That meant organizing the paper into sections such as sampling plan, coding and analysis plan, limitations, and conclusion. The genre expectations were also different from MA1. In the proposal, I had to be clearly describle my methods for collecting data, such as inclusion criteria and coding categories, as well as acknowledging my limitations. I had to explain my process clearly enough so that another person could conduct the same research following my process.

In MA3 View MA3, I wrote a full IMRAD research article. This was the genre with the longest paper because it required me to combine my literature review, methods, results, and discussion into one essay. I had to change from talking about what scholars have said to presenting my own study, my coded findings, and my interpretation of those findings. I also had to write with MLA format with an academic structure while using easily readable language so my study could be understood by normal readers.

My ePortfolio demonstrates progress in Contributing Knowledge because I did not just summarize what other scholars said. Instead, I conducted my own research and used that research to draw conclusions and present those conclusions in my IMRAD paper. The most important evidence for this outcome is my MA3 article View MA3 and coding sheet Coding Matrix. I analyzed 30 Instagram Reels, coded their rhetorical strategies, coded 150 associated comments, and fact-checked 279 claims from all of the Reels. From that evidence, I was able to draw conclusions about how political creators framed the ICE controversy and how those framing choices related to factual reliability. For example, one of the clearest conclusions in my final paper is that creators frequently framed the ICE controversy through government accountability, enforcement actions, and human rights rather than through policy analysis and logos alone. Another key conclusion is that emotional appeals such as anger, fear, and sympathy were some of the most common rhetorical strategies used. I also concluded that the most common factual problem was not completely false Reels, but Reels that combined true facts with simplified conclusions that were not supported but facts. That matters because it adds information to the scholarly discussion. Instead of only repeating that influencers use emotional rhetoric, my paper shows how that can affect the factual accuracy of the claims being made.

My ePortolio demonstrates a lot of progress in Revison because every major assignment changed due to feedback and topic changes. My topic changed, my research question changed, my coding categories expanded, my sampling process became more precise, and my final paper added a fact-checking process that I did not include at the start of MA1. My feedback summary Feedback Summary shows that the main areas I needed to improve were clarity, adding sources, essay structure, and explaining my methods more clearly. I did not fix every issue perfectly, but I did use the feedback to improve my essays over time. For example, from MA1 to MA3, I improved my research question to be more researchable and relevant. I also added more background on the issue I was evaluating after getting feedback. In MA2, I revised a lot of my sampling and coding plans Sampling Plan after receiving feedback on how to improve them. My early coding plan was a lot less developed than the final version, with the final version adding a lot more codes to analyse the Reels more accuratly. Along with that, I also added more codes for comments, allowing me to analyse the audience's reactions, emotional tone, and rhetorical response in MA3. The final article View MA3 also shows revision in the shift from my original plan of colleting 300 comments to the updated plan of collecting 150 comments. This shows an adjustment I made to make the research more manageable and to focus more on analyzing the 30 Reels.

Overall, my portfolio demonstrates my progress across all six course outcomes. At the start of the semester, I began with a broad research question that I wrote my Literature Review on View MA1, and by the end, I had a much more refined my research question with a full research article View MA3 that showed my development in Generating Inquiry, Multiple Ways of Writing, Information Literacy, Research Genre Production, Contributing Knowledge, and Revision. Although my ePortfolio does not show perfect mastery in all the course outcomes, it does show my progress as a writer throughout the semester. It shows that my writing and research process became more refined over the course of the semester, which is clear evidence that I developed as a writer and researcher.