Term Exam (Mid-Portfolio Milestone)

By Adriana Bernaldez

I selected my term exam for this portfolio because it represents an important stage in my transition from gathering information to transforming knowledge through academic writing. This task challenged me to move beyond simply compiling literature and develop a more critical approach to organizing, evaluating, and presenting ideas within a research framework. Through this process, I understood that writing a research proposal involves not only collecting relevant sources but also creating meaningful connections between theoretical perspectives, contextual problems, research gaps, questions, and objectives.

Through this work, my research partner and I strengthened our ability to construct a coherent argument by applying John Swales’ macro-structural moves. We established a research territory, identified a contextual gap within the Argentine educational context, and developed research questions aligned with our objectives. The score received reflected the strengths of our thematic organization and theoretical grounding, particularly in the way we connected international perspectives on Global Englishes with local teacher education realities.

The feedback from my instructor provided valuable insights into how this work could be further refined. One of the main areas for development was achieving greater rhetorical clarity, as some sections contained dense theoretical explanations that affected the flow and accessibility of the text. Revising the proposal allowed me to recognize the importance of balancing academic complexity with readability. If I were to continue developing this paper, I would focus on creating more direct connections between the research problem, questions, and objectives, strengthening contextual explanations, and ensuring that each section contributes clearly to the overall purpose of the study.

This experience reinforced my understanding that research writing is an iterative process in which clarity, coherence, and precision are continuously developed through reflection and refinement. More importantly, it showed me that academic writing is not merely a way of reporting information but a process of constructing and transforming knowledge through critical engagement with sources and ideas. The subsequent refinement of this draft directly resolved these goals by streamlining dense syntax and embedding the exact operational constraints of our secondary school setting into the text. Ultimately, this final polish transformed the proposal from a highly abstract synthesis of literature into a precise, contextually grounded research tool ready for empirical application. The subsequent refinement of this draft directly resolved these goals by streamlining dense syntax and embedding the exact operational constraints of our secondary school setting into the text. Ultimately, this final polish transformed the proposal from a highly abstract synthesis of literature into a precise, contextually grounded research tool ready for empirical application.

You can access the Midterm Exam by clicking on this link.

Figure 1 Screenshot of Midterm Exam Feedback

You can access the revised versionby clicking on this link.



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