June 20, 2007
To Whom It May Concern:
First of all, I would like to thank you for taking your time to read this cover letter and my selected works for my portfolio.
In this blog, I present six documents which I put the most effort on during the course. They are far from perfect, but I like all of them. They are like my children who are lovely because they are true. I feel honored to present them to all of you and share the growing of them with you. It is welcome for any of you to give me some comments and suggestions.
The reading log about “Necklace”, a famous piece of Maupassant’s work, was the first article I wrote in this class. I like this story very much. When I was in the middle school, I read the Chinese edition of the same story. I was impressed by it and immediately bought a book of Maupassant, who later became one of my favorite writers.
The main pieces which the entire semester revolved around, Draft 1 to Draft 3, deal with “the Americanization of Shadrach Cohen”. From Draft 1 to Draft 3, you can see the process and progress how I do my literature. In the Draft 1, I have learnt how to develop a good thesis statement. Actually, I think I have a good and strong thesis. In Draft 2 I was puzzled by the quotation. I quoted too many words from the author that weakened my analyses and interpretation on the thesis statement. If I used too many quotations, the article would be boring. However, if I deleted most of my citation, then my thesis would lack evidence and become unconvincing. It really took time to find the balance. Finally I learnt to paraphrase the quotation which is a useful skill in comment writing. The draft 3 shows that I added new things to the thesis. I took Fandi and Demand’s suggestion into consideration and rethought on my thesis. I really appreciate what they have done to help me on my thesis. Thank you, my friends!
“The timed-writing” was the last piece. Since we have not much time to think and write, it is not well-structured and has numerous errors.
Honestly speaking, I really learnt a lot especially the comment on literature. At first I thought this course would teach us on academic writing. Though we didn’t practice on that part, the course is very helpful. In this class, the teacher created a free and cheerful writing environment. We can do peer review which I think is the most interesting step. We read each other’s work, gave and received some supportive comments and suggestions to one another. This pattern is fresh to me.
On the other hand, the schedule and arrangement of this course were well prepared. Every time we do free writing, read some novels and learn a lot of skills on writing. At the beginning, I thought the homework was too much since every week I spent much time on writing. Gradually, I began to realize the benefit. It is because we do writing every week that we can practise the skill we have learnt in class immediately. What I also learnt from the course is that the attitude is key important. Very often I don’t pay enough attention on grammatical skills. I even don’t bother to check errors over and over again. However, for an English learner, by no means can it be neglected if you wish to be a good writer.
Through the course, I can’t draw the conclusion that my writing skill has been upgraded in that the process of improving in writing is a long journey. Four months is not long enough to change the level of writing, but it is enough to change one’s perspective on writing. What I can firmly say is that my interest in reading and writing has been inspired. Some new concepts and notions have been absorbed. I really like this course from heart. Thank you indeed, Ron. It is your criticisms and suggestions that help me to realize the weakness.
All in all, I know that I have much room to improve in my English writing. Till now, I am not a good writer. I will try my best. It is a long way to go.
Thank you for reading my papers. I hope you may enjoy reading each one and get something.
Sincerely,
Alice Zhang