Dear Portfolio Evaluator,
Since the semester started, I have made a noticeable amount of progress in my academic writing skills. Before I started this course, I believed that I needed a lot of work in my writing. I struggled with explaining myself in writing pieces, and I had trouble planning my time to work. I have learned a numerous number of skills after taking this English course, and there are many assignments that have shown my improvement in writing.
After taking this course, I feel that I am ready to move to the next writing course. Before starting this course, I had no knowledge of MLA format, how to write a business letter or even how to cite resources. I was not confident in my writing, and never got excited over the thought of writing an essay. I did not think that my writing met the college level. It was always difficult for me to know where to start or how to edit and fix mistakes. Now, I have learned how to correctly revise my papers, and clearly see differences after fixing or reassembling anything that needed to be changed. After taking this class, I now feel more confident in my writing after learning how to revise my pieces correctly. In addition, I can write a clean formatted essay, as well as writing a professional business letter after learning the difference between audiences.
I have changed my ways of editing by carefully reading over the text and fixing bigger mistakes first, and then taking time to go back and fix the smaller mistakes such as grammar before I resubmit my work. I have always had an issue with time management. I would stress over work, and catch myself taking up too much time over small things and then leaving no time to fix anything. I am always submitting my work at the very last minute. This would lead to more mistakes in my paper that I could have easily fixed by having time to read over my paper again.
My writing has successfully improved because I now have a better understanding of conventions, and research processes and ethical citation. I learned how to correctly format my essays, and write out and cite sources for research essays. I would like to continue working on editing my essays, in that I still need to work on structuring paragraphs and improving my descriptions and explanations of evidence from research.
The online medium changed my writing process and consideration of my work in the following ways: I began to take my work more seriously and had to adjust to submitting assignments online. This semester, I had to learn how to create a digital portfolio, and consider my work as public, or shared with a larger audience (beyond just my instructor). I would describe this process as nerve-racking, but I can confidently say that it has pushed me to work harder. In addition, learning how to write a formal business letter during this course has changed my writing to sound more professional. This has also helped me with my confidence in writing and being able to make my work public. I felt comfortable with showing my work, but it was a difficult process.
I definitely feel prepared to go into ENG170, and I feel fully capable of creating a correctly written critical analysis essay, because I can correctly format my work and thoroughly explain myself when writing about a topic. I can positively say I feel self-assured about my writing academically after taking this course.
I feel much more prepared for college level writing because I know what I need to do in order to write a clean and correctly written essay, including format and accurate evidence and reasoning. This class has also helped prepare me for future classes because being taught the correct way to write an essay, I can apply these skills to other assignments or writing pieces in other classes that I will take. Furthermore, using these skills will help me in my future with professionalism in job interviews or presenting ideas for work. This course has without a doubt helped with my knowledge of writing and will further aid in my academic career.
Sincerely,
Amber Fantaci