Reflective Cover Letter

Dear ePortfolio Reader,

I am writing this reflective cover letter to let you know what I have learned in ENG160. In this class, I have learned new skills, gained new knowledge, and developed new writing strategies that I can use in any paper that I write in the future.  

The aspects of writing and how it works that will be useful for me in my career include: how to write a good introduction, good body paragraphs, and good conclusions, choosing the right words for what I want to say, and practicing my spelling. These will be valuable because you need to receive all of these critiques to improve as a writer and then also to write a full essay. As an early childhood education teacher, for example, I will have many responsibilities and will have to be able to communicate, by email or written feedback, to parents how my students are improving. I will also be in charge of teaching them how to form sentences and write their own paragraphs, so by learning these methods in ENG 160 I will be able to teach younger students how to have this good writing foundation. 

The areas that I feel I grew the most in are: developing detailed evidence and explanation of examples (i.e., how to find my evidence and use it in my writing), learning how to better conform to conventions such as MLA formatting (I found out about the Purdue Owl, which is very useful), and engaging in the research process (using the right keywords in my searches, looking for trustworthy/unbiased websites for my research, etc.). 

My strengths as a writer are challenging, but if I had to choose some they would be having and open mind and my strong work ethic. The one that hits me most is me being open to changes because as a writer you need feedback to make your paper better and I always welcome feedback and other’s opinions to help me improve. I also would say that I work really hard and in order to be a good writer, you have to always improve and do your best, especially because it can be challenging at times. I believe the writing is challenging and that is because I have a hard time getting my ideas on the paper and starting my writing, which sometimes makes me feel stuck. Sometimes this happens because as a writer you need to know the key points, and know how to even write a specific paragraph/essay since there are different formats for different types of writing. Therefore, I also need more growth in how to style my formats, how to communicate my ideas to the reader, and not repeating myself. I look forward to becoming a better writer through my English classes at SUNY New Paltz. 

Thank you so much, my reader, for choosing to take a look at my portfolio. 

Sincerely,

Aracely Castillo