Written by Chandler: A Semester in English

Hello! My name is Chandler Ivory Pope. Welcome to Written by Chandler, a comprehensive portfolio documenting my progress in First-Year English at Howard University. This course was taught by Dr. Adrienne Carthon, who challenged us students to create a digital collection of our work throughout the semester as our final project. This semester has allowed me to really develop my skills as a thinker and strengthen my aptitude for putting those thoughts into words. I like to think of myself as a creative or abstract writer, as opposed to an analytical or research-focused one. I think that this is evident in the work that I have done for this project: I am very passionate about the assignments that allowed me to input my own views on whatever topic was at hand, rather than having to regurgitate facts that I found in articles or on the internet. My greatest strength in writing is coming up with the ideas themselves, however, I will admit that my greatest weakness is putting those thoughts onto paper in a way that makes sense. I sometimes struggle to write in a way that makes my thoughts comprehensible to the reader, and although I have improved this year, I have not yet mastered a way of fixing the issue completely. I think it is important to remember that there is always work to be done and there are always things to be improved, so I look forward to further exploring myself as a writer in my next English course. I believe that my growth this semester has made me more aware of the challenges I face when writing, and I am looking forward to progressing even further in my writing journey. All of that being said, I am very proud of the pieces that I have included in this portfolio and I hope that you enjoy reading them just as much as I enjoyed writing them!