1

Dear Professor Feldman,

Writing has always been a stressor and struggle for me. A huge obstacle that I would have to

take on constantly in school. Something that would cause me dread, depression and an overall

lack of motivation. At the beginning of this quarter I felt all the things I described and even more

feelings, whenever I had to write anything. I was not excited about writing at first because I

always felt like a bad writer. It would take me forever to start my writing assignments, so in turn

I would always put off writing as much as I could and as often as I could. However, during my

time in this class this quarter, I feel as though my writing ability and approach to writing has

improved greatly. I feel a lot more confident, now, in my writing ability than I did at the

beginning of the quarter. Don’t get me wrong. Writing still stresses me out now, but I have way

more faith in my writing ability than I did before.

The last time I had to write anything was last spring quarter, when I had to write two essays

in my Greek mythology class. These writing assignments were mostly about getting the

argument across. I didn’t have to worry about showcasing my writing ability or worry about

local types of problems. All I really had to focus on was reaching the page count and checking

all the boxes on requirements of topics to touch on during the essay. Transitioning from that

class to writing 2 this quarter was a big change. I thought that in writing 2 I would have to try a

lot harder and write much better than I did in that class. Now, after getting to the end of writing

2, the way I write in this class isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. I thought it would be

practically impossible to get a good grade and that good writing would take a crazy amount of

effort. In truth, good writing does takes effort, but it is not impossible. All I had to do was

actually try and put in effort which made me realize that in my previous classes, where I had
 2

large writing assignments, I was actually just lazy and didn’t try very hard to write a good piece.

It is a bittersweet thing to realize because I’m happy to realize that when I put in effort I can

produce good pieces of writing, but disappointing to realize that I didn’t really put in effort in my

previous classes.

In writing 2, the most important thing that I learned was the revision process because before I

had a basic and not great revision process. The revision process is so important because after

coming up with your main idea and getting basic things down on paper you can revise that and

make it completely different to come up with an amazing piece of work. The best thing I can do

while revising a paper is read it out loud because I catch so many mistakes and awkward areas.

When I do this and I have to rewrite something, I usually rewrite the sentence in a much more

aesthetically pleasing way. Once that is done, I read again to make sure everything rolls

smoothly and if not I rearrange, delete or add sentences where they are needing make everything

end up both cohesive and coherent. In Joseph M. Williams book, Style: the Basics of Clarity and

Grace, he writes that “ Cohesion [is] The Sense of Flow,” (Williams 36) meaning that cohesion

is the way that words flow together. Each sentence is connected, even though they may not

actually make sense together, they are related somehow. Williams also writes that, “Coherence

[is] The Sense of the Whole,” (Williams 40) meaning that coherence is when the sentences

together make sense as a whole. When someone writes a well formulated paragraph where all the

sentences are contributing to the main idea the paragraph is coherent. Wanting to be both

cohesive and coherent would mean that I want all my sentences to flow together and be

connected, but also be contributing to the main idea at the same time to create a beautifully

written passage. Before writing 2, I didn’t take revisions very seriously and would barely make
 3

any changes when I had the chance to revise a paper. I am glad that I realized the importance of

revising my papers in this class, so I can start doing it every time I write something in the future.

During writing 2, I also learned about the process to build towards an essay with the use of

our project builders. The project builders were very useful in creating ideas to write an essay.

Since I usually struggle with coming up with ideas to start an essay, the project builders were

very convenient for me. During the project builders, we were able to come up the main topic for

the essay or things that would support the main topic. When the time came to write the actual

essays, the project builders were a great help for me. I didn’t have to sit and stare at the blank

screen for a long time like I usually do. I was able to get started with the essay with the help of

the project builders and then just fix the mistakes that I made with the revisions that came after

the first draft.

In writing 2, I also learned about rhetoric, genres and academic disciplines. While making an

argument, rhetoric is useful because people can use it to appeal to certain things such as logic,

credibility or emotions. Using rhetorical in an argument, can make an argument stronger because

deciding which one to use can cause the reader to feel a certain way while reading the passage. If

pathos is used, the readers may feel emotional. If ethos is used, the reader may believe what the

author is saying because the author seems credible. If logos is used, the reader may believe what

the author is saying because the author is using a lot of logic. I also learned that genres and

academic disciplines can be useful while analyzing a passage. I never thought about bringing up

a sources genre or academic discipline to analyze it in a different way. Using genres and

academic disciplines to analyze sources is helpful because it may be able to explain why the

author says what they say in their passage.

 4

Since I am planning on switching majors to Sociology, I know I will be using the things I

learned in writing 2 a lot more. The Sociology major is supposed to be a major with a heavy

amount of writing assignments and I feel like writing 2 has prepared me enough to take that

challenge on. Sociology is also a major with a heavy amount of reading, so with all the reading

done in this class I feel ready for that as well. Thank you so much for everything that you did for

us in class and teaching me ways to improve my writing. You have really helped me to improve

and feel prepared to write better papers in my future as a sociology major. I feel as though my

writing has improved a great deal and that makes me really happy.

Sincerely,

Raelee Taylor
 5

Bibliography

Williams, Joseph M. Style : the Basics of Clarity and Grace. 3rd ed., Pearson Longman, 2009.