Dear Professor Chajdas,

When I decided to take Writing 2, I wasn’t too excited because of my memory of the
boring writing classes that I took in high school. I thought that I knew how to construct
sentences and write an essay so there wasn’t much more I could learn. Coming into this
class, the only thing I was a bit uneasy about was my tendency to rush when writing a
paper. My rushing came from trying to get it done fast because writing was not my
favorite. Even though writing isn’t my favorite, I knew that it was going to be a big part
of college and would help me immensely in the future endeavors. Therefore, I jumped
into Writing 2 with both feet and was ready and excited to improve my writing skills and
adopt new capabilities.

I do believe I have greatly grown as a writer the past three months because of this class. I
have grown by becoming more patient with my writing, improving my organization, and
using a broader vocabulary. Many things contributed to that growth, however, the two
biggest reasons I grew were because of the readings as well as peer review days. The
readings were probably most effective for my growth because of the ones you chose.

Each reading you decided to use had a teaching lesson within it and I learned something
new in each. I realize that no one in our class really did the readings, however, I printed,
read, and annotated every single reading you gave us except for the reading for the last
day. Even though this was a long and tedious task, it helped me learn the new concepts
faster and more thoroughly. The readings you chose were perfect topics for the papers we
were composing at the time and allowed me to use a more specific vocabulary in my
writing. Through peer review, I was able to listen to criticism better and learn how to
compose my work in a more organized way. Peer review was helpful to get another
perspective on my writing from someone other than myself reading my own paper over
and over.

For my final portfolio, I focused on revising Writing Projects 1 and 3. I chose to revise
Writing Project 1 because I completed it when my writing was much less developed so it
was one of my worst pieces of writing. I enjoyed writing this essay because it allowed me
to write about a topic that I am passionate about as well as test my writing skills. Writing
Project 3 was one of the quickest but most difficult projects because it forced us to be
creative and get out of our comfort zone. This was also my favorite project because of its
creative aspect and the freedom that it allowed. In Writing Project 1, my paragraphs had a
tendency to get jumbled because my sentences didn’t flow effectively. I fixed this by
starting with the content and organization of my paper and simplified it. I also cleaned up
a lot of my sentences by taking out unnecessary phrases and replacing them with a more

 
 
 
straightforward version. Writing Project 1 was harder to revize because I feel that I have
improved so much since I wrote it so there was a lot to look at and edit. Writing Project 3
was similar in that I had to organize it better, but this project was already much cleaner
than the first one. I only tweaked my translation a little bit, but I had to make major
improvements to my reflective essay because it seemed very rushed. When revising the
reflective essay portion of Writing Project 3, I had to slow down a lot more than I did
when I wrote it. I organized my paragraphs better so that they each had a purpose rather
than just writing down my thoughts. I used the feedback that I got in class to make my
sentences more cohesive.

The feedback that was most helpful in my revising was the feedback in the form of a
question. When I was asked why I did something in my writing, it caused me to ask
myself the same question and decide if it was a good or bad decision. By asking myself
the questions that people asked me about my writing, I could analyze and fix my mistakes
in an efficient manner. In this portfolio, I like how I fixed the flow of my papers to
express my thoughts more clearly and organized the layouts better. I had more patience
when revizing my work than I did when writing it in the first place so I was more focused
on each part.

In my writing, I would still like to improve upon expressing things in a clearer and more
centered way because I feel that when I start to ramble it adds unnecessary details to my
papers. For example, before I revised WP1, it was a big mess of sentences that related to
each other but did not blend at all. Revising this project took way longer than I would’ve
hoped, but it allowed me to dissect and re-organize almost every sentence. This revision
changed my paper entirely and improved quality to my interest. The revision process was
not fun, but the end result of a far better paper made the whole process definitely worth it.

The work in this portfolio reflects what I have learned this quarter because of my
cleanliness, attention to detail, and thought I put into my writing. At the start of the
quarter, I was always in a rush to get things done, but throughout this class I have learned
to slow down and really think about what I am writing. The strongest part of my writing
now is its flow and cohesiveness. However, I still wish to improve this feature of my
writing throughout my college experience because if I can perfect it then I will be a much
more intelligent writer. This class has taught me to slow down and repeat steps if needed
so that my work is the best it can be. I will take the knowledge I have developed in this
class with me throughout the rest of college and my life. Thank you for your continuous
effort and writing skills you have given us in Writing 2.

Sincerely,

Lindsey Porter