Derek Cedeno Mina

Professor Couch-Tellefsen

English 160

9 December 2022

English 160 Cover Letter

 

My first semester as a college student has been quite an interesting journey. When first starting my English 160 class I was very stressed as English has never been the subject I am the strongest in. I consider myself better at being able to work with numbers and being able to get good grades in math. Before beginning this course I knew a lot of writing was going to be required from my professor since I would now be doing English assignments at the collegiate level. Before starting my English 160 class I have always thought to myself that I wouldn’t be able to do well due to the low grades I would receive on writing assignments. When assigned an essay in high school I usually would procrastinate and leave it to the last minute which also contributed to my low grade as my writing was rushed and not fully thought through and planned out. In high school I never actually brainstormed ideas and outlined my writing to organize it correctly. When writing essays I always just get my thoughts out and revise what doesn’t make sense after reviewing my essay. After a long semester of English 160, I learned to organize all my ideas and plan out and outline my writing before I start drafting. My professor showed me and the rest of my class how to outline our thoughts to make it easier to start writing our essays.

In my English 160 class we had many main course assignments that I was able to improve on my writing and be able to be successful in different writing elements. A writing element I have felt that I have shown to be successful in is being able to organize and structure my work. I felt most comfortable doing this when writing my essay about ideology as I was able to organize information on the specific scene I chose to identify ideology in. Another writing element I felt confident and successful in is explaining my examples or evidence in my essays and showing their relevance to the topic at hand. When looking back at old assignments I turned in this semester I noticed improvement in many elements and I could make tons of revisions. A big revision I would’ve still liked to have made in some assignments is citation. In my essay about ideology I struggled with my citation page and properly citing. My professor sent me back my essay and advised me to fix my citation page to avoid plagiarism flags and a failing grade. I worked with an english tutor to fix this and be able to improve my grade on the assignment. Another revision I would like to make is to develop my tone and understanding how to write to my designated audience when writing. When writing my argumentative essay I wrote to just get my point across but not didn’t write in a way where I was able to speak to the designated audiences and have different tones depending on the type of essay. 

 

This semester I have also been required to make a digital portfolio with assignments I felt I did the best in and a small biography about myself and release it publicly. This process in creating a portfolio website at first was extremely difficult but soon I was able to get the hang of working around the website and was able to make the site look neat and add different features. After seeing my professor’s example of the digital work portfolio I was able to get an idea and start making my own website. Adding on my work to the digital portfolio was the easy part.The hardest part about this process was customizing the site, changing the color adding pictures and creating a presentable and appealing site was hard because this was my first time making a website and on top of that I have to include work I have done this semester to prove why I should move onto the next mandatory English course which is English 170. 

 

The online medium has been a major contributor to my success in english 160 and helped me get through major writing assignments.The online medium helps me with grammar when writing essays and helps research details and information that I don’t know that will later help finish writing my essay and make the writing process easier. I use the online medium to search definitions to get a better understanding of certain writing prompts, topics we learn in class, and other key concepts we discuss in class. After a long semester of writing and completing many essays and short writing assignments I feel prepared to move onto English 170 writing and rhetoric. After seeing what I have received on most of my grades it shows I am confident I will do well in my next semester. After writing my ideology essay I gained so much confidence in writing because I had no idea at first what the word ideology meant or what the whole idea of it meant. As we had class discussions about ideology and it’s significance in society I was able to comprehend what it meant and be able to do a good job in identifying it in real world situations. When I wrote my ideology essay about the Godfather part two I was able to connect the ideology shown in the movie to the real world and society’s morals. In my essay I wrote “Ideology is in everyday life, and the specific scene in the Godfather part two that was discussed shows that society’s ideology of family is to be loving and honor them. Overall society sees the ideal family to honor each other and to never betray one another.” This shows my ability of being able to understand the topic at hand which led to me being more confident in my own writing and being able to answer different prompts given to me. After completing this course I have been able to become more confident in writing and expressing my thoughts onto paper. I have gained enough knowledge and guidance to help me be prepared for English 170 and to officially start writing at a professional and collegiate level. My attitude towards writing has changed in where I am now more excited to take on different writing challenges. What I learned this semester I have implemented in my daily life when completing assignments from other classes, sending letters, emails and much more. I will continue to use the elements I learned this semester in English in the future when doing any sort of writing, as it helped me better my writing skills. 

 

Works Cited

Cedeno Mina, Derek. “The Normal Family.” SUNY, https://mylearning.suny.edu/d2l/le/dropbox/28511/858286/DownloadSubmissionFile?fid=24810851&sid=1941105.