Cover Letter Draft

Dear Portfolio Reader,

Writing 102 has taught me more than how to construct an argument; it has taught me how to speak without a voice. This writing workshop has helped me focus my statements, making sure that my statements were not simply whimsical sentences but substantial claims. I learned that it took much more than a wide vocabulary to convince a reader of my credibility. I found myself taking the time to present the reader with my best work, work that contained a solid argument, my argument. 

The class not only shaped my writing style, but made me more receptive to criticism. I no longer dreaded a marked-up paper; I welcomed it. I wanted to constantly revise my writing and perfect it. But, deadlines gave me motivation to finish it.

Cover Letter Draft

Dear Portfolio Reader,

It is my honor to take WRT102 in Lucenko’s class this semester. I have learned a lot of writing skills from her class. In this effective class, I have learn to how to analyze texts by identifying rhetorical strategies, the audience, the author’s purpose and the evidence which supports the author’s claim, how to compare two articles, and how to conduct research by properly citing sources and providing credible evidence. Both my  analysis skill and writing skill have made great progress.

In my rhetorical analysis essay. I learned the knowledge about rhetorical situation and realized that  interpreting an article is to know not only the main idea of the article, but also the writer’s method. For example, in order to closely examine Sagan’s essay, I not only summarized and paraphrased the content to point out his main idea, but also provided an interpretation of the text and explaining how the author use pathos,logos, and ethos to built his persuasive argument, and why he uses these particular strategies to persuade the audience.

In my comparative analysis. I learned how to explore and discuss the similarities and difference between two articles by analyzing their themes and method. For example. I compared “Man Discovers a New Life-Form at a African Trunk Stop” and “Saving Ethiopia’s Church Forests”. First of all, I indicated out they had similar approaches on topic but different use of appeals. Then I used point by point structure to analyze each article by providing ample textual evidence and my critical interpretation.

In my researched paper, I learned how to develop an convinced paper by providing credible and supporting evidence. First, I defined key issue for my argument, and then I provided some background information. Next I used various evidence such expert quote , statistic, and examples which I researched from news, journal article and magazine for supporting my thesis. Then, I considered the opposing position and refute it. Finally, I concluded my idea and provide possible solution.

By taking this class, I see my potential to write. Before taking this class, I was afraid of wring due to my poor writing skill and weak language. Writing more than 5 page essay was nightmare to me. However, this class helped me develop my ability to read, think and write critically. Through this semester, I have gained not only confidence to write, but also pleasure to enjoy. I am very proud of  myself  because I have conducted college level analysis and writing.

Sincerely,

YingShi

Cover Letter

Dear portfolio readers:
The essays that I wrote in my Writing 102 class have taught me a valuable lessons that will be useful for the rest of my life. The rhetorical analysis essay and the comparative analysis showed me how to differentiate from summarizing and analyzing. With these papers, I learned to analyze beyond writing. While I talk to my peers or watch a movie, I find myself analyzing the tone that these people use and their surroundings. The rhetorical paper and the comparative analysis basically taught me to be more aware of the small details that people often miss. With the research paper, I was able to develop my debating skills and learn the valuable process to obtain credible materials for research. This might be useful to me, considering that I am planning on going to the Health professions.

I came in Writing 102 afraid that my writing skills were not good enough. I was nervous about posting my first blog because I was afraid that my writing skills might be below the writing standard. But with the help of Professor Lucenko and the weekly blog post she made us do, I realized that I was improving day by day and this motivated me into finding my areas of weakness and trying to improve on them.

Cover Letter Draft

Dear Portfolio Reader,

It has been a pleasure to take WRT 102 with Professor Lucenko, who helped me to get familiar with a second language and learn to be a writer. I did not take WRT 101, so this is technically the first writing class I have ever had in the U.S. Due to the difference between Chinese and English, learning to write effectively in English is not a easy thing for me. I am glad that I chose this class and such a nice Professor.

In the first essay, rhetorical analysis, I learned how to analyse a writer’s motives and it expanded my knowledge of the Aristotelian appeals. I have never written such detailed analysis before, and it helped me to build a language sense of English. I also learned to use examples and explanations properly in my own essay. In the second essay, comparative analysis, I got to know how to really look into two different essays and find out their differences and  things in common. I have developed the ability to target on certain audience and write purposive. In the third essay, researched argument, which is my favorite, I mastered the ability of performing research based on credible sources, integrate information and interpret them in my own perspectives. It is definitely a life-long benefit for me, which may help me over years after.

Draft Cover Letter

Dear Portfolio Reader,

At the beginning of the course this semester, I do not really like writing myself. One of my biggest weakness is that I cannot write the essay with several pages long. I will always find myself have nothing to write. Surprisingly, I found that I am no longer afraid of the length, I can also write ten pages essay without facing as much difficulties as I did before. I believe this is one of my biggest improvement by taking WRT102 this semester.

To be honest, I have never write rhetorical analysis before, I have never even read essay like that. So I feel totally lost in the progress of writing the first essay. After I read several examples of rhetorical analysis, things are becoming much easier. I also learned how the use of logos, ethos and pathos make essay persuasive, which also helps me in the writing of research argument. So far, my research argument is the longest essay I have ever written.

Everything I have learned in this course will help me a lot no matter in the further study of college or in the job finding. For example, it will help in writing of the upper division essay or personal statement, the skill I learned helps making my essay persuasive. No matter where my future will be, writing is always a good skill to have.

Cover Letter Progress

Dear Portfolio Reader,

Taking Writing 102 with Professor Lucenko this semester has allowed me to grow as a writer. Throughout this course, I learned how to analyze a text, interpret an author’s motives, perform research using credible sources, using evidence to support my claims, citing sources in papers, and write on a higher level. These skills have changed the way I look at a text and produce claims/arguments in a more effective and efficient way.

In the past, I would be able to identify the techniques that are used in a text, but I would have a hard time figuring out why that technique was used and how it was used to develop the argument. So, I mainly summarized and provided my own opinion of the text rather than use evidence from the text to come up with a strong interpretation. I was able to learn how to analyze a writer’s text through his/her use of specific techniques and tools in this course. For example, in my analysis of “106 Science Claims and a Truckful of Baloney” by William Weed

Cover Letter for ePortfolio

Dear portfolio reader

I am taking Professor Lucenko’s WRT 102 this semester, and I learned a lot from her lessons and reading material she provided for us students. I am a international student and just transferred from China last semester in which I took WRT 101 class. I got an A in that class, so I thought this semester I could do as well as I did in last semester.  Things did not go the same direction as I assumed. I faced a lot of difficulties such as many grammar errors, logic fallacies and work cited problems, all of which lowered my grade. However, I did not give in to these difficulties. Under the instruction of the professor, I gradually made progress.

When I was in China’s university, I have never been asked for writing a rhetorical analysis. It was a completely new kind of essay for me when I got to know it at WRT 101 class. Since the requirements of WRT 101 were lower in like the numbers of pages and tolerance for undeveloped argument, it is not so hard to finish a good rhetorical essay. However, the requirements in WRT102 reaches higher level, I cannot handle it easily. Besides trying to absorb everything the professor taught in class, I surf on Internet to find necessary examples of rhetorical techniques such as consideration for intended audience, language of article, attempt to fill interest gap, knowledge gap and etc. to help me understand them. After understanding these techniques, I did really detailed analysis for every reading material based on some simple rhetorical techniques that I learned from WRT 101 and these sophisticated techniques taught in WRT 102. Not until I had a full understanding about how these rhetorical techniques work in reading material, did I started to work on my essay. I am happy that through WRT 102 class, I learned a new thing.

Understanding what I am going to write is the first step. The second step is to integrate all my analysis together and form a complete essay. I will take my comparative paper as the example. Teacher provides us two ways of organizing the essay which are block style and point to point style. I chose the later one, because I thought it was better to make my argument clear. I organized every body paragraph in a same way. Firstly, I declared what the similarities or differences of the two articles. For example, I argued, “Both articles adopt comparison and contrast to arouse readers’ interests.” I explained how comparison and contrast help to stir readers’ interests and took out evidences from both articles to present readers my thinking process.

Trough all the semester, I can recognize my improvements: less grammar mistakes, less logical fallacies, and more solid argument. I will not just stop here. I am going to strive for better writing skills. Although my major is economics which does not require excellent skills, I love writing something to express myself even without a reader.

Sincerely

Nanjun Wang

cover letter draft

Dear Portfolio reader,
For the first essay, Rhetorical Analysis, I learned to analyze essays by rhetorical techniques at a college level, and support my claim with evidence from the essay. For example, in the second paragraph, I analyze the use of logos in the article. I suggest that the writer use statistics to appeal to people’s logic and convince the readers that America is behind in science education. I used in-text citation to provide evidences from the article. Then, I analyze how these evidence can persuade the readers. I also analyze pathos and writing self. I provide the evidence from the essay and further analyze its purpose.

cover draft

Dear portfolio reader,

i have learned many things in my writing and its not a lie. in my high school i did not do much writing which is why i think i have great difficulty to write long papers. i always have to struggle to get to five complete pages in all of my assignments in writing. but now especially after writing 102 i feel more confident with my writing and expressing my self on paper. i have also learned the basics of how a paragraph should be structured which makes things much more easier for the ideas to flow and have enough material to write about. i could defiantly use theses skill throughout my life such as arguing a point with a colleague at work. since i am aiming to go into the health care working area i have to do research in order to be more skilled and qualified for the job. research would require me to write about many things throughout the time we send on the research. besides being useful outside of school i could also use the knowledge i acquired on to other courses such as philosophy. i have taken philosophy before and required me to write a persuasive essay, the things i know now would have been very helpful and my grade would have been a big difference. looking back to how i used to write i think to myself what was i doing? I had never done a rhetorical analysis before coming to Stony Brook. I only did a few Rhetorical analysis in my previous writing courses maybe like one or two in order to prepare me for higher level writing.
for me rhetorical analysis is by far much more then just summary and opinion, its the writer understanding the meaning of the essay and proving evidence for his reason of his/her interpretation of the essay. An important part of the rhetorical analysis is the logical and organized way the essay is written to persuade the readers to view things as the reader does. I was horrible at that, again with the inexperience I had it was very noticeable in my first attempts of my essays. But with this course in my essay about “Why We Need to Understand Science” by Carl Sagan which I am very proud off or being my highest grade for an essay and also for the way it is structured along with its context.

Cover Letter So Far….

Dear Portfolio Reader,

I am a student in Professor Lucenko’s class. I am a freshman at Stony Brook University majoring in Athletic Training. My major focuses on many aspects of science, such as chemistry, biology, and anatomy. It involves diagnosing a patient and being able to record your findings in a clear, coherent manner. Also, my major requires a research paper focusing on something in the science field at the end of my senior year. Taking Writing 102 has made me able to communicate and organize thoughts coherently and concisely, as well as support the claims I make with evidence from a specific text. I am now able to transition from one idea to the next without losing the flow of my essay, something I had trouble with prior to the class.  I have also learned how to use correct citations and correct quotations from the text. By taking a college-level writing class, I was able to enhance my skills as a writer, and by doing so I fulfilled the requirements of the portfolio.

My essays displayed my ability to coherently analyze the text of another author and utilize evidence from the text to support my analysis. In my textual analysis of Carl Sagan’s “Why We Need to Understand Science,” I was able to analyze his work, pick out the rhetorical devices he used, and explain the meanings behind his messages. For example, in my second paragraph, I explained how Sagan’s use of diction was critical to establishing his ethos. The connecting factor that an author has to his or her audience is essential to his or her credibility. Sagan put himself on the same level as his audience to convey a stronger, more believable message. I utilized Carl Sagan’s article as a way to support the claims I made. My textual analysis taught me how to closely analyze a piece, using evidence from the work to support your own claims.

My essays also showed my ability to coherently organize my thoughts, especially when dealing when more than one work. In my comparative analysis, I juxtapose Michelle Nijhuis’ “Conservation Triage” and T. DeLene Beeland’s “Saving Ethiopia’s ‘Church Forests.’” The compared the two essays in a point by point format that illustrated the similarities, while showing why each respective essay utilized the methods they did. For example, in paragraphs seven and eight of my essay, I explain how both essays make biblical references, but do so for different reasons and have much different effects on their piece as a whole. My comparative analysis taught me how to bring two pieces together and find support for both of them, while still relating back to my thesis.

My final essay was one of the most interesting for me write. For my researched argument, I was able to choose a topic I had a strong interest in and find more information on it. This made the research process much less tedious. This essay displayed my ability to construct an argument with a specific point of view and support that argument with evidence from credible sources. In my researched argument about the effect of technology on body image, I utilized evidence from scholarly journals, like publications by national organizations focused on body image and eating disorders. I utilized evidence from these authoritative and credible sources to support all the claims I made. I also was able to see both sides of the spectrum and provide counterarguments that were backed by evidence. My researched argument taught me how to perform research and find credible sources to utilize. I also learned how to support claims I make while staying true to my viewpoint.