Cover+Letter

Dear Mr. Deome,

As a first semester freshman wrapping up his fall semester at Washington State University, I look back and I see how much I have already grown as a person as well as how I have grown as a writer. From the beginning of my semester I remember all of the varying stories from how English 101 is incredibly easy to how a student failed it because they misspelled a few words on their portfolio and I had no idea what to expect when I first entered your classroom. While I finish up my semester and think back on everything you taught me I can honestly say your class was a huge success for me and my career as a writer. You introduced me to templates which will most likely become one of my best friends when it comes to writing a successful paper. You showed us many resources when it comes to citing sources as well as instilled upon us the wise words only a graduate student in the English department could know regarding plagiarism. Overall at the end of the semester I feel that your class has greatly improved my writing and your feedback has helped me realize many recurring problems my writing holds. I know I have much room to improve and in the years to come I will continue to work to improve my writing as a whole in the hopes of perfecting it as much as possible.

My portfolio is a combination of the writing that I believe exemplifies my strengths and improvements over the semester. I chose to include Project #1, Project #2 and Project #3 because they fulfill all of the requirements for their rubrics as well as fulfill all of the requirements of the English 101 Writing Portfolio.

The first piece of writing I chose to include was Project #1 which was the "Letter to the Editor" assignment. I selected a newspaper article from "The Daily Evergreen" regarding the laws against smokers and took a stance against the author of the article. I addressed the opposing argument and provided a rebutle to the statements made in the article. I made sure to validly recognize the authors main points and then argue why his opinion is the incorrect one. After receiving feedback on this project I took all feedback given and made sure to check the grammar and spelling in the letter as well as change the paper so that i included support for my position in the paper as recommended by the reviewer. The paper meets the proper word count for the assignment and all other aspects of the rubric. I took a strong position in the letter and the argument I give is compelling and very hard to rebutle.

The second piece of writing I included in my portfolio was Project #2 which was the genre analysis paper. I followed the exact guidelines for the assignment and discussed the genre of writing a review for a video game. Using the popular website IGN.com, I found a review for the game "Halo:Reach" and provided examples from the actual review that would aid the readers of my project in recreating a review of their own. My group reviewed my paper and discovered many things that I could build upon such as "addressing the review as the review and not as the editor writing the review." I received this feedback and in the first and second edits my paper became stronger and well rounded due to the feedback. In the final edit of this project I include all of the criteria for Project 2 and even a link to the article found on IGN. This project held a direct focus throughout, portrayed an informative tone and addressed the assignment thoroughly. I am very proud of this particular piece of writing.

The final piece of writing in my portfolio is Project #3, the "How-to Genre Analysis" assignment. I chose the very broad topic of how to play the piano which I later narrowed down to a guide for beginning pianists. This piece of writing is a great example of how I built and expanded upon this project with each draft. After my initial project I received a lot of feedback telling me that my topic was "to broad" and that the information was not detailed or concise. From this feedback I re-examined my topic and chose to narrow it to beginning piano students. This choice had me researching new sources and including more detailed information that helped my paper greatly. My final edit is a well edited piece of writing with a proper work cited page including two scholarly sources, and the paper itself is well rounded and addresses the intended audience well. This project took the most work to edit and rework, but in the end it fulfills all the requirements and is a piece of writing I am pleased to include in my portfolio.

Overall my portfolio fulfills every requirement set forth in each of the assignments as well as all of the guidelines of the English 101 Portfolio Rubric. I believe my hard work and thorough editing should be displayed in a proper grade and that my efforts in editing others papers and being involved in the class throughout the semester should be taken into account as well. I was enthusiastic almost every day I was in class and never skipped a day, even attending the AML workshop day to simply improve my papers and writing more. This class taught me so much that I will use in my future and has helped me transform into a better writer. Thank you Mr. Deome for such an interesting and informative semester and the students who you are assigned next semester are lucky to have such a great teacher.

Sincerely,

Christopher Hogan