Eng160 cover letter

Dear Reader,

My name is Daneisha Espinosa and I would like to tell you about my experience in English 160: Composition 1. When first starting this course my initial feeling about my writing is that I was a good writer at first glance but when looking more thoroughly into my process you’d see I’d have some issues with being repetitive and attempting to figure out where exactly I’m going with my essay. This is because by nature I am a very indecisive person so I’d have many ideas but wouldn’t know which to pick leading to me wither being repetitive through my whole essay or even restart from scratch. This course has changed my writing process immensely as now I realize that brainstorming is a vital part when writing an essay. Before I would just think for a few minutes and then write about the first thing that came to mind, but now I brainstorm and write out everything from what topics I have the options of choosing from to what each paragraph I write will be about. I feel like the clarity I showed in reaching my audience and how I was able to clearly explain to them why I’m writing about said topic and what the point I am making in relation is. I also exceled at finding accurate sources for my essays by using the sojourner truth library database and using the filters to be able to find recent peer reviewed journals. I feel like I can improve on how repetitive my points get at times, sometimes I’d write and end up restating exactly what I said in the last paragraph but in different works instead of adding a new point. This also ties into how I can improve on my structure of the paragraphs that I write as I feel like I could better organize them so my points flow more naturally into each other preventing me from being repetitive. Throughout this semester I had the knowledge of knowing I would have to make an e-portfolio for others to view for consideration of whether or not I’d be allowed to continue, this process can be descried as Nerve-wracking, I’m not someone who likes to have her writing displayed to others especially not when I don’t know the person personally. I felt like my work had to be perfect with no room for failure on my first attempt or else everything would go wrong. This portfolio changed my writing process as I felt like my work had to be the best possible quality as its essentially being published for whoever had access to read it. I also needed to edit my work more precisely than I would on average. I feel prepared to go onto ENG170 as in Eng160 I have learned to write clear, in depth research and analysis based essays. My essays went from being rushed and edited hastily to having a lot of thought put into my work. In class we read ‘Shitty first drafts’ by Anne Lamott and it helped me realize that your first draft does not have to be a perfect reflection of what your final draft will become. “The first draft is the child’s draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later.”(Lamott). I was also taught how to utilize the sojourner truth library for my research based essays when we covered the module. Once learning how to gather reliable research I used it not only to cite in my essays but to learn more background knowledge to improve them. My attitude towards my writing has changed immensely I now feel much more confident in my final drafts as I see how it’s all able to come together slowly. “Writers learn to move back and forth through different stages of writing, adapting those stages to the situation. This ability to employ flexible writing processes is important as students encounter different types of writing tasks that require them to work through the various stages independently to produce final, polished texts” (Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing) .I’ve learned in this class that my writing process should always consist of brainstorming, writing your first base draft, polish that draft into your second one, and finally submitting your final draft and citing your sources along with it. I feel prepared for other college level writing situations as I’ve learned very much about how to write different kinds of college level essays such as argumentative essays, narrative essays, and research based essays. All of which can be very useful to me later on in English 170 and future classes where I would have to write a paper. I’ve taken writing concepts in this class such as writing a research essay and applied it to writing my term paper for art history. I was required to pick an art piece from The Metropolitan Museum of Art and research it’s history and the life of the artist who created the piece. Utilizing what learned in English 160 I was able to get grade of  91/100. I will continue to do this as this class has been able to help me improve my writing to be more up to the standard that college expects from me. I hope you enjoyed being able to hear from me and I hope you’re able to enjoy the writing I’ve presented to you.

-Daneisha Espinosa

 

Works Cited

Lamott, Anne. Shitty First Drafts, wrd.as.uky.edu/sites/default/files/1-Shitty%20First%20Drafts.pdf. Accessed 5 Dec. 2023.

“Framework for Success in Postsecondary Writing (2011).” CWPA, wpacouncil.org/aws/cwpa/pt/sd/news_article/242845/_parent/layout_details/false. Accessed 7 Dec. 2023.