Cover letter
Dear Michele,
When I first entered this class, I felt really nervous and intimidated because writing has never been a strength of mine. Since I was required to take this class, I initially had the mindset of just trying to pass the class and get it over with. I thought I would not enjoy it at all and instantly assumed that it was just another writing class where I am required to write on more uninteresting topics. However, throughout this class, I was able to witness how much my writing has changed over time and most importantly, how I have improved as a writer. I learned to enjoy revisions and strengthened my skills in research by searching for reliable sources and integrating them into my essays effectively. In my ePortfolio, I chose to include my Wikipedia entry and my podcast because I have put in a lot of effort into both of these assignments and both of them showed how much I have grown as a writer the best.
For the Wikipedia Entry Project, I found it to be the most enjoyable task to write about since I was able to research on my favorite cosmetics company. Although this project was quite challenging and time consuming, I realized that the number of hours I have spent on locating different sources and determining whether a source is reliable or not was actually useful since it helped me gain credibility as a writer. Since this assignment was primarily based on facts, I learned to sort out credible sources, from news articles to blogs, that would best support my research topic. I had to remember to remain unbiased in my work in order to write a good informative article. I also learned to write for my targeted audience by considering the discourse community of Wikipedia. Since my topic was on makeup and new beauty trends, I made sure to identify my group of audience, which are teens and young adults. This project also strengthened my research skills as a whole, since I was able to provide factual data from trusted sources and leave out any personal thoughts or opinions behind in order to gain my audience’s trust.
The podcast project was very different from what I have written before. Even though I have done countless of research papers before, I do not recall being able to use my own observations and data as my primary source of information. Most of my past writing assignments typically required me to write formally, so presenting this writing piece in an informal tone and writing casually to a group of college students is a new experience for me. I also found it very interesting to observe people at a coffee shop and these ideas helped me become more aware of my surroundings and to focus on small details that I never really noticed about my community. I was also able to write for a new type of audience and the revisions helped me look back on the tone I used to make it seem less formal and more of a casual talk with my listeners.
Two course learning goals I strengthened in this class are processes and research. I feel like I have gradually strengthened my skills in prioritizing revisions and the editing processes. I was able to see the importance in revisions since it has helped me improve my writing skills by taking my peers’ feedback into consideration. Revisions have played a huge part after I wrote my first draft of the Wikipedia entry since the suggestions I received helped me reflect on my mistake and actually motivated me to write better. For example, my second draft still needed work since I clumped many ideas into one paragraph and used opinionated or dated language. After receiving feedback, I learned to break down my ideas into subsections so the readers can find the information easier, eliminated any opinion phrases, and used non-dated language by including specific years since the Wikipedia discourse community is timeless. In my early podcast drafts, I failed to identify my audience from the beginning and wrote my script in more of a speech-like manner. My peers’ feedbacks also helped me to speak to a specific group of audience and to write more casually as if I am having a conversation with my listeners.
Since both of these projects required a bit of research, I was able to differentiate between primary and secondary research by using the appropriate sources for each assignment. I conducted primary research for the podcast by incorporating my recorded observations and thoughts into my writing and used secondary research for my Wikipedia entry by finding reliable information online. I was also able to take these sources and introduce them properly into my writing without sounding abrupt and misplaced.
I believe that my writing skills have improved immensely after completing revisions and research assignments, since I can see the drastic change between my rough and final drafts after going through several revisions. I realized that my essays can never be perfect and that it can always be revised even further to make my writing even better. As a Biological Sciences major, I do expect to write many more research papers for my future courses so I feel prepared to write even better. I never thought that I would enjoy a writing class as much as I do in this class and I hope to retain these new writing skills that I have acquired over the last nine weeks for future references. One important takeaway from this class that I will always remember is that it is okay to write a bad first draft and that it is a good start for most creating writing to prosper.
Thanks for a wonderful quarter!
Sincerely,
Cathy Nguyen
When I first entered this class, I felt really nervous and intimidated because writing has never been a strength of mine. Since I was required to take this class, I initially had the mindset of just trying to pass the class and get it over with. I thought I would not enjoy it at all and instantly assumed that it was just another writing class where I am required to write on more uninteresting topics. However, throughout this class, I was able to witness how much my writing has changed over time and most importantly, how I have improved as a writer. I learned to enjoy revisions and strengthened my skills in research by searching for reliable sources and integrating them into my essays effectively. In my ePortfolio, I chose to include my Wikipedia entry and my podcast because I have put in a lot of effort into both of these assignments and both of them showed how much I have grown as a writer the best.
For the Wikipedia Entry Project, I found it to be the most enjoyable task to write about since I was able to research on my favorite cosmetics company. Although this project was quite challenging and time consuming, I realized that the number of hours I have spent on locating different sources and determining whether a source is reliable or not was actually useful since it helped me gain credibility as a writer. Since this assignment was primarily based on facts, I learned to sort out credible sources, from news articles to blogs, that would best support my research topic. I had to remember to remain unbiased in my work in order to write a good informative article. I also learned to write for my targeted audience by considering the discourse community of Wikipedia. Since my topic was on makeup and new beauty trends, I made sure to identify my group of audience, which are teens and young adults. This project also strengthened my research skills as a whole, since I was able to provide factual data from trusted sources and leave out any personal thoughts or opinions behind in order to gain my audience’s trust.
The podcast project was very different from what I have written before. Even though I have done countless of research papers before, I do not recall being able to use my own observations and data as my primary source of information. Most of my past writing assignments typically required me to write formally, so presenting this writing piece in an informal tone and writing casually to a group of college students is a new experience for me. I also found it very interesting to observe people at a coffee shop and these ideas helped me become more aware of my surroundings and to focus on small details that I never really noticed about my community. I was also able to write for a new type of audience and the revisions helped me look back on the tone I used to make it seem less formal and more of a casual talk with my listeners.
Two course learning goals I strengthened in this class are processes and research. I feel like I have gradually strengthened my skills in prioritizing revisions and the editing processes. I was able to see the importance in revisions since it has helped me improve my writing skills by taking my peers’ feedback into consideration. Revisions have played a huge part after I wrote my first draft of the Wikipedia entry since the suggestions I received helped me reflect on my mistake and actually motivated me to write better. For example, my second draft still needed work since I clumped many ideas into one paragraph and used opinionated or dated language. After receiving feedback, I learned to break down my ideas into subsections so the readers can find the information easier, eliminated any opinion phrases, and used non-dated language by including specific years since the Wikipedia discourse community is timeless. In my early podcast drafts, I failed to identify my audience from the beginning and wrote my script in more of a speech-like manner. My peers’ feedbacks also helped me to speak to a specific group of audience and to write more casually as if I am having a conversation with my listeners.
Since both of these projects required a bit of research, I was able to differentiate between primary and secondary research by using the appropriate sources for each assignment. I conducted primary research for the podcast by incorporating my recorded observations and thoughts into my writing and used secondary research for my Wikipedia entry by finding reliable information online. I was also able to take these sources and introduce them properly into my writing without sounding abrupt and misplaced.
I believe that my writing skills have improved immensely after completing revisions and research assignments, since I can see the drastic change between my rough and final drafts after going through several revisions. I realized that my essays can never be perfect and that it can always be revised even further to make my writing even better. As a Biological Sciences major, I do expect to write many more research papers for my future courses so I feel prepared to write even better. I never thought that I would enjoy a writing class as much as I do in this class and I hope to retain these new writing skills that I have acquired over the last nine weeks for future references. One important takeaway from this class that I will always remember is that it is okay to write a bad first draft and that it is a good start for most creating writing to prosper.
Thanks for a wonderful quarter!
Sincerely,
Cathy Nguyen