My ENG211C Final Portfolio
KEEPING THE HUMAN IN THE WORK
A reflective portfolio about research, rhetoric, creativity, AI, and learning how to use sources without losing my voice.
View My ArtifactsAbout Me
Samantha Santasiero
Student, Writer, Designer & DeveloperI am a Software Design and Development student with a strong interest in creativity, interaction design, storytelling, and making things on the web. As a writer, I care about voice, personality, and meaning. At the beginning of this course, I thought research-based writing was mostly about finding credible sources and organizing them correctly. I still think that matters, but I now understand that research writing is also about entering a conversation, asking stronger questions, and connecting sources to my own ideas.
This semester helped me see that academic writing does not have to mean removing all personality from my work. I learned how to write with more focus, evaluate sources more carefully, synthesize ideas, and adapt my writing for different audiences and genres.
Portfolio Introduction
What This Portfolio Shows
This portfolio represents my growth as a writer, researcher, and creator throughout English 211C. When I started the semester, I was interested in broad questions about artificial intelligence, creativity, and what it means to keep humanity in creative work. At first, that topic felt huge and needed some reworking. Over time, I learned how to narrow that interest into a focused research question: How can creative workers use generative AI without losing originality, ethical responsibility, authorship, or human creative control?
One thing I want this portfolio to show is the process behind my choices. My research question became more focused, my annotated bibliography became more specific after feedback, my synthesis activities helped me see source connections, and my podcast changed through decisions about audience, genre, sound, accessibility, and tone. Because of that, I chose artifacts that show both finished work and the thinking that led to it.
One of my biggest learning goals was making research writing feel less overwhelming. I learned that a strong research question gives a project structure. Another goal was learning how to use sources without losing my own voice. The annotated bibliography helped me practice summarizing, evaluating, and reflecting on scholarly sources, while teacher feedback pushed me to be more specific about what each source actually contributed.
I also learned how to synthesize instead of simply summarize. The mind map and targeted connections activities helped me notice patterns across my sources, especially around originality, authorship, consent, credit, compensation, and creative labor. Finally, Project #2 helped me grow in genre and audience awareness because I had to turn academic research into a podcast for creative students, teachers, artists, designers, writers, and early-career creative workers.
Overall, the artifacts in this portfolio trace my learning process, from finding the question, building the research, connecting the ideas, shaping the genre, to reflecting on the choices behind the final project.
Portfolio Artifacts
These artifacts show different stages of my growth as a writer and researcher this semester. I arranged them as a learning path: first finding and focusing the question, then building the research, then connecting the sources, and finally turning that research into a multimodal argument for a real audience.
Research Question / Topic Development
What this artifact is:
This artifact shows the beginning of my research journey. It came from the stage where I was learning how to turn a broad topic into a focused research question.
Process behind the choices:
At first, I knew I wanted to research something about AI and creativity, but my idea was still too large. “Keeping humanity in AI” felt meaningful to me, but it needed more direction. Through the research question activity, I learned to ask what part of the issue I actually wanted to understand.
What changed:
My topic shifted from a broad concern about AI in general to a focused question about how creative people can use AI as a support tool without giving up authorship, originality, or creative control.
What I learned:
This artifact taught me that a strong research question gives a project structure. Once my question became clearer, the research process felt less like chasing every possible source and more like building a path.
[Link Research Question / Topic Development assignment]
Project #1: Annotated Bibliography
What this artifact is:
This artifact is my annotated bibliography, where I collected, summarized, evaluated, and reflected on sources connected to my research question.
Process behind the choices:
When I first started, I was mostly focused on finding sources that matched my topic. As I worked through the annotations, I realized that finding sources was only the first step. I also had to explain what each source actually did for my project.
What changed:
Teacher feedback helped me see that my evaluations were too general at first. I was saying sources were “useful” or “credible,” but I needed to point to specific claims, findings, arguments, or evidence.
What I learned:
This artifact helped me learn how to use sources more responsibly and thoughtfully. An annotated bibliography is not just a list of sources. It shows how each source enters the conversation and strengthens my thinking.
[Link Final Annotated Bibliography.]
Mind Map / Synthesis Activity
What this artifact is:
This artifact is my synthesis work, including the mind map and targeted connections activity. It helped me organize the major ideas and relationships between my sources.
Process behind the choices:
Before this activity, my sources felt more separate. I understood them one by one, but I was still working on seeing how they connected. The mind map gave me a visual way to sort my research into smaller clusters.
What changed:
I started noticing where sources agreed, where they focused on different parts of the issue, and how they could work together to support a larger argument. These connections later helped shape my podcast.
What I learned:
This artifact taught me that synthesis is not just summary with extra steps. It is about building meaning between sources and showing how they speak to each other.
[Link synthesis activity]
Project #2: Creative Control Hotline
What this artifact is:
This artifact is my podcast script and transcript for Creative Control Hotline: “Humanity in the Age of AI.” It is my multimodal argument for Project #2.
Process behind the choices:
I considered a few genres, including a public announcement or video, but the podcast format felt like the best fit because my topic is complicated and conversational. The call-in format helped me organize the argument around realistic concerns from a writer, a design student, a teacher, and a freelance illustrator.
What changed:
The podcast changed a lot during drafting. I revised the title, caller order, repeated phrases, ending checklist, and Creative Control Checkpoints. I also recorded the host sections on my iPhone, asked friends to record the caller sections as voice memos, and edited the final audio in Audacity.
What I learned:
This artifact taught me how much writing changes when the genre changes. A podcast has to be clear, listenable, and paced for an audience who cannot reread every sentence.
[Link podcast MP3 and transcript.]
What Changed in My Writing Process
Writing as a Series of Choices
This semester changed how I think about writing. I used to think of writing mostly as the final product: the essay, the paragraph, the assignment, the thing that gets submitted. Now I see writing as a series of choices, including what question I ask, which sources I trust, how I organize ideas, what genre I choose, what tone fits the audience, and how I revise when something is not working yet.
Learning Through Process
My research question did not appear fully formed. My annotated bibliography improved because of feedback. My synthesis work helped me see connections I had not noticed at first. My podcast became stronger because I revised the structure, sound, and repeated language until it felt more like a real project for a real audience.
Conclusion
Where I Go From Here
This semester helped me understand writing as a process of shaping ideas for different audiences, purposes, and genres. I learned how to narrow a topic, evaluate sources, synthesize research, revise more intentionally, and use evidence without losing my own voice. I also learned that strong writing is not only the final piece, but the series of choices that shape it.
Going forward, I want to keep paying attention to process: how I choose a genre, how I use sources, how I revise for audience, and how I explain the decisions behind my work. I want to keep growing in synthesis and source integration, especially making research feel natural instead of stitched together. This class showed me that research is not just something I complete for school. It can become part of how I build, design, argue, and create.
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