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Cover Letter: Final Writing Portfolio

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June 7 , 2019

Dear Writer,

My portfolio is more than a reflection of improvement in my writing these past few weeks, it is
something that has opened my mind as a writer and helped me realize what I am capable of.
Starting my revisions, I assumed that I would not change much beyond the recommended
comments I had received, but this was not the case. I found myself changing content that I
thought was great in my first submission and adding more context to improve clarity. This was
especially noticeable in my first revision of writing project 1. As you will see in the tracking, I
added paragraphs of information into my original writing in an attempt to ease my transitions
between ideas and also improve the quality of my explanations of the discourse community I am
a part of. When I had initially read the prompt for WP1, I had not realized how much I did not
understand it, and I think that experiencing the other prompts helped me to read between the
lines and actually believe in what I was writing. Mrs. Fedorova (my apologies if that isn’t your
preferred title) taught me so much about the importance of the reader, and how concepts that
may make sense to me as a writer may not make sense to someone who is reading my work.
Each time I write, I think of my essays as a timeline and how each explanation must connect to
the next in some way and build up to the final conclusion. Reviewing my previous work was
painful, realizing that I had not followed any sort of timeline, instead just spewing out
information to meet the length requirement. This was not the case in my revisions, and I tried to
follow this pattern of in depth explanation throughout each of them. My second revision of
writing project 3 was not altered as much as the first. I was very excited for my progress during
WP3 and the lack of change to its contents can be explained by the growth in my writing.
Although there is always room for improvement, I was very confident when I submitted this and
that is visible in my corrections, and how few of them there are compared to WP1 (there are still
a lot though do not get me wrong.) I decided to revise my first and last writing submissions to
show my reader the improvement I have faced over this course, and I hope that they are able to
recognize that. Even if it is not perfect, I am proud of myself and the development in my writing
that I had not expected to have in Writing 2.

Having prior experience in advanced writing classes from high school led me to believe that I
had a solid grasp on who I am as a writer, but I was happily disproven during my time in this
class. All of my prior writing classes followed a standard procedure with a 4-5 page length
requirement and an expectation for an intro with three body paragraphs and a conclusion. The
prompts in Writing 2 do mention a certain word count, but there are endless possibilities to the
ways in which we are able to format an essay. There is more creative opportunity in this course
followed by positive feedback that contributed to my own personal growth and helped me piece
my essays together. The commentary that was given to us after every rough and final draft
submission was always clear and to the point, often including recommendations on how to
improve and examples of better word choices. I appreciated this the most because I am a visual
learner who internalizes information by seeing examples like these. The feedback from my
teacher is always constructive, explaining new ideas to better my essays like “I wonder if your
introduction will work better if you move the first three sentences of this paragraph to the
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introductory paragraph” (Fedorova WP1). I am not always confident in my writing choices, so

being able to read comments like these and consider their effects on my essays are very
important to me. For every assignment, the confusion I had was answered in class, but now I am
able to make these smart choices on my own because of the experience I have gained in this
course. Thinking ahead can be difficult while you are in the zone (while writing,) but this quarter
has helped it to become second nature. I have also discovered a new way to approach editing
drafts by reading them from the perspective of an audience member to gain a better
understanding of what my writing will mean to someone. In the article, “How to Read Like a
Writer,” a writing professor named Michael Bunn explained that “you think about the choices
the author made and the techniques they used [and how they] are influencing your own responses
as a reader” (72). Anything from word choice to sentence structure can alter the way a reader
may interpret something, making it essential to consider who your audience will be and how they
would react to the things you have written. Eliminating and adding information after it has been
reviewed is essential if there are any portions that may not make as much sense. Writing is for
individual benefits, but when you consider how much the audience can be affected, you want to
ensure that it is logical while still invoking the emotion of your choice. I applied this to my final
writing project, trying to enforce a sense of fear into my readers as they read my take on a crime
novel. Receiving comments from my peers about this translation led to a few changes in the
criminal terminology I had used throughout my essay, and how some people may not have the
same knowledge that I do about the subject. These details may seem minor, but the result of
these choices can mean the difference between confusion and comprehension.

I have experienced struggles in both my writing and the improvement of it, but I have continued
to expand my strengths in this course to overcome any issues. The hardest part of writing for me
is successfully getting my point across in a way that is understandable to the audience, and not
just me. I have the tendency to leave out pieces of information that are critical to others’
understanding because I get overly excited about what I am talking about and tend to skip ahead.
This confusion is eased when I am able to provide an explanation, but a good writer should be
able to express everything on paper, without the explanation. Scott McCloud alleviated my
uncertainty when he explained that “your story’s moments should be like a dot-to-dot puzzle,
[when] removing one dot can change the shape of the story” (14). Unfortunately, I continue to
fill in the blanks, but with peer review and rough drafts, I am able to create a storyline that both
me and my readers can understand. Peer review is especially helpful because I am able to gain
different points of view and also compare my work with others my own age who generally have
the same experience with writing as myself, making me feel less alone and more like I am on the
right track. When I am reviewing my own paper, I approach it in the “read like a writer” way as I
would when reading one of my classmates’ papers, but additionally I “do not set out to seek and
destroy all errors and problems in the writing” (Straub 17). Assessing my work this way prevents
bias towards areas I may enjoy better than others and also helps me to analyze
comprehensiveness. It also improves my ability to step back and see if some sections would
make more sense in other areas or if some are just unnecessary and should be deleted. I have
gained the capability to give a deeper analysis into my writing and it has made me better in the
process when I can question what I am including. My final strength that I discovered only
recently was translating genres. This was incorporated into my third writing project when I
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altered a newspaper article into a journal entry and suicide note. I had never attempted to change
an original piece of writing into another genre, but I have accomplished a similar thing in music.
I enjoy changing the melodies of songs to not only make my listeners feel nostalgic towards the
pieces but prevent them from growing tired of hearing the same songs repeated overtime. I
followed these same tactics by relaxing and allowing my creative brain to do the work. Writing
that is free of stressful thought can become muddled and insincere, so instead I chose to type
whatever came to my mind first and then clean any misunderstandings later. This made my
writing more enjoyable to complete and helped me to produce something I could be proud of.
My main weakness is doubting myself, especially in a subject I am not as comfortable in such as
writing. I realize that I am still not perfect, but I have improved this weakness significantly over
my time spent in Writing 2. I hope to learn more about the ins and outs of writing, and the secret
tips that I may not have heard throughout my years in school. I did not expect to get the grades I
did on either of my first two writing projects, but the increase in my score on the third project
proved to me that I am capable of doing better. As a student that excels in subjects like math and
science, I am reassured that their results are exact, but writing brings a challenge. You never
know how someone may react to what you have written, but that is also something positive that
comes with writing. Not everyone has to enjoy it, but there are different styles and genres that
are suitable for each individual, and there are infinite answers to the long list of prompts with
infinite opportunities for improvement.
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Works Cited

McCloud, Scott. “Making Comics.” New York: Harper, 2006.

Bunn, Michael. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing, Volume 2 |

Writing Spaces, writingspaces.org/volume2.

Straub, Richard. Responding–Really Responding–to Other Student's Writing .