Portfolio Cover Letter

Adam Behnke

Over the course of this semester, my writing improved by leaps and bounds. There is no comparison between my first essay and the Critical Research essay; almost every sentence in the first essay is wordy and unfocused. I worked hard to fix this by the time I wrote the Critical Research essay. Specifically, my organization and rhetorical analysis is stronger in my more recent papers. My first paper, which was a film review of A Time to Kill, did not answer the prompt or have good conventions. Most of the paper is a summary of the film, with no analysis of why it is a good film. Even further, I seldom wrapped up paragraphs with concluding sentences and my grammar was horrific. Throughout the course of the class, my awareness of the need for organization and focus has increased because of the feedback from Professor Coln and the Writing Workshops in class. In my final paper, each and every paragraph is focused to accomplish the purpose of the paper, the paragraphs flow, and there are minimal grammatical mistakes. Before pointing out some of my strengths as a writer, I would like to give one weakness. For some reason, I dread starting a paper. It is very hard for me to get the ball rolling and therefore it takes me an abnormally long time to write a paper. However, if I am passionate about the subject such as the topic of my Critical Research essay, I am descriptive and good at stirring the readers emotions toward my cause. I integrate source material well and understand how to establish credibility in the introduction paragraph. Overall, this course has pushed me to grow as a writer, and I have.