Cover Letter

Dear Masha,

This quarter I experienced my first writing course at the college level. Throughout this

course I have grown a lot as a writer. I learned many skills in this course that helped me write

research papers, and even ones that required more creativity. Many of the readings we’ve done in

class have helped in giving me strategies when writing and just inspiration overall to write. For

example, one of the readings that most inspired me, especially when working on Writing Project

3 was Kerry Dirk’s article “Navigating Genres.” He states, “there are no formal expectations of

what this paper might look like… I realized that perhaps I had been granted more freedom in

writing this essay” (251). There is no general rule or format that one should follow when writing.

All we have to do is follow our mind and with a bit of creativity we are able to create these

papers. There are many ways to approach a paper; there is no correct way to create it. This spoke

to me greatly and inspired me to write overall.

Over the course of this quarter I’ve learned a lot about formatting and what to do and not

do when writing. For instance, something I learned was avoiding contractions when creating a

paper. This is something that I have always used in my papers using phrases like “They’re, I’m,

we’re, etc.” I have learned that avoiding these makes your paper appear more formal and it is

something that I will try to perfect in future papers. In my earlier projects I did not really follow

this, but have improved when it comes to avoiding them as the course progressed. If you

compare my first and last writing projects you can tell that I have worked on fixing issues like

this making my writing appear more formal.

As a writer I’ve has a lot of strengths in my writing as well as weaknesses. Perhaps one

of my biggest strengths is the way in which I integrate evidence into my papers. I think that is
something that I have mastered throughout my years of writing, as it is something I’ve practiced

since my middle school days. Another thing I felt that I have strengthened in throughout the

years is honestly the way in which I format my papers overall. When I structure my paragraphs I

make sure to balance out evidence with my personal commentary. In terms of weakness, I think

my biggest one has always been starting my papers out. I just find it difficult finding an

interesting way to get the reader invested right from the start. This is something that I need to

practice more on as it is perhaps the most important aspect of writing a paper. Scott McCloud

takes into account when writing “Making Comics.” He states, “we want them to understand what

we have to tell them and we want them to care enough to stick around ‘til we’re done”

(McCloud, 8). This is something that I believe is my biggest flaw as a writer, as it has been

difficult over the past years in making an investing introduction. Another flaw that I have

struggled with a lot is just avoiding repeating things a lot. I usually end up repeating my thesis

over and over again, which is something I have to be careful about in the future to avoid the

reader getting distracted or annoyed with my writing.

Overall this course made me a better writer. I still need a lot of work on many different

aspects, but if I work on them I can improve for the better good. No one is perfect when it comes

to writing, but coming close to perfection is something I can try to work on in the future. I have

grown a lot in these past three months and have gained experience overall.

Sincerely,

Martin
 Works Cited

Dirk, Kerry. “Navigating Genres”. Writing Spaces: Reading on Writing. Volume 1. Parlor Press.

2010.

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