Cover Letter
Dear, Portfolio Committee:
As a writer, I have learned so much before entering this course but I knew there was a lot more to learn to become an efficient writer. I have learned so many ways to perform well as writer by using the MLA format. For about five years I have used this format but I know as a college writer there is more to learn. I have had struggled briefly when it comes to researching assignments. Learning how to use proper in text citation when given credit to authors was a struggle. I have always made minor errors when across it by citing it before each sentence. I knew that in the college level it’s mandatory to use in text situation when it comes to do researching. As a writer for me I have learned how to summarize work and shortening it use it in essays. It’s a very useful skill to have when analyzing long pieces of work; then to give a brief summary of the work you analyzed. In the college level of writing, it can be frustrating when writing because of how technical you must be. But thanks to professor Pappas, she has taught me so much with college writing.
My first piece that I chose was going back in time about my first time playing high school football. Writing my personal essay”Time to Shine” was happiness to me. Try to remember every detail was a struggle though. But my main goal was to give the readers a clear image of what I experienced and making them feel like they were to actually there. As you read it, you can picture the scenery of a special night that changed my football career in high school. In parts of this special essay, I explain how I feel from the beginning of the essay where I started football until the end of the essay when a football game ends.
My second piece was the visualizing essay “Love for Soccer” where my brother and his friends playing soccer game indoors, where no matter how old you are, and these people are so passionate for the sport they love. That day was very fun to observe and also be able to talk to them while they were playing. The people were intelligent and they allowed me to ask questions when the game was over. The struggle part about this is figuring out what each topic for each paragraph I was going to write. The paragraph structure was by far the biggest issue for me to do. I tend to add multiple sentences where some sentences don’t connect to the main idea of the paragraph. But after finishing this piece of work I proof read it over and finally it had hit me that I had made simple errors. Reading sentences or paragraphs over for me gives me a clear understanding of what I am trying to write but just simply placing it in the wrong paragraph.
Text wrestling was by far the most difficult one to write. Having to pick a side of the topic of “Should the NCAA give up on Amateurism” was hard to decide due to the fact that I agreed but disagreed with the topic. I had trouble analyzing the article to create my own summary was very complex because I had to figure out which pieces of the article are important. The research part was a bit tricky to find evidence to back up the authors claim. Research essay’s was by far my biggest weakness in writing. I had gone over my essay numerous times to make sure it was properly written with MLA format, a proper work cited page and in text citations. I had to revise this work a couple of times due to the fact I didn’t use proper in text citations. But my issue could of bin easily resolved by using my resources around me. The website Purdue University helped me a lot with properly citing college essays. After finishing this essay I’ve learned so much of how to properly write research essays and knowing that you have so much resources that can help you become a successful writer.
English 101 has taught me much so to become an excellent writer and I can’t wait to face my next challenge, English 102. Research essays are so much easier for me to write now than before I entered this course. From stepping into this course I had a bit of confidence that I would be a good writer but thanks to professor Pappas, she pushed me to work hard in my writing. With her, she gave me so much confidence with her guidance to help me with my writing skills. I would say I accomplished my goal in English 101 by overcoming my weakness in writing which is researching essays. I know in the rest of my college life, college writing will help me accomplish a lot in my Engineering program in the future. I want to thank you for taking the time to read my pieces of work for this course.
Sincerely,
Colby Martin