December 5,2013 Dear Reader, Welcome to my portfolio!

My name is Jeanette Shoukry and Id like to show you what Ive learned and achieved in English 114A. In the first pocket you will see the final revision for my Progression 3 essay entitled Are Higher Taxes the Solution or the Problem. You will also see one short summary from my Progression 3. As well as my outline and argument proposal and annotated bibliography for my Progression 3 essay. My essay talks about the difficulties that the lower and middle class face compared to the upper class. It also talks about taxing the rich more to improve the economy. This essay helped to open my eyes to the problems that our economy has been facing for the past few years now. Before this paper I had no idea how badly our nation was in debt. My paper needed some revisions such as fixing the grammar errors, introducing an expert author, and having my ideas connect to each other. The second pocket consists of my Progression 2 essay. As well as my AD summary, and my ethnography. My essay entitled Is A Long Lasting Love Possible, is about what makes a long lasting love really last. I choose this essay because I wanted to elaborate more on what can help or hurt a relationship. In my essay I used examples from the movie Crazy, Stupid, Love and my ethnography. The movie allowed me to give examples on how girls in todays world view relationships and the fact that movies give them a false hope about relationships. My ethnography was also very helpful because it allowed me to give examples of a couple that was truly in love with each other. This essay really interested me because I have friends that will sit and vent about their relationships and I wanted to write about the every day problems that relationships face in todays world. My paper needed some revisions such as adding more examples, making my thesis clearer, and correcting grammar errors. Over the course of the semester, I have seen my writing improving. Ive become better at using the quote sandwich technique. I have also become more open about voicing my opinions in my essays. The handouts that were handed out in class were also a big help. Those handouts helped me to better my writing and understand the techniques more, yet my writing still has some improvement to be made. With every paper my writing has slowly been improving little by little. Yet, I still have trouble making my thesis clear to the reader. My biggest weakness when it comes to writing essays is not making my thesis clear enough to the reader and that is my biggest weakness. Yet, my strengths are being able to introduce a quote, and use examples that relate to my essay and connect them to my claim. As I finish up my letter, I hope that you, as the reader will be able to understand my essays claim. I also wanted to thank you for taking time out of your busy day to read my letter and my portfolio. I hope you enjoy my essays from this semester. Sincerely, Jeanette Shoukry