Nhan Nguyen

WRIT-1E-04

March 17th, 2021

A) Cover Letter (500-600 words)

COVER LETTER

Writing academic articles and term papers has often been a challenge to many

college students, including me. To be honest, I did not only have poor writing skills,

but also a poor command of English. To improve my writing, I had to research ways

of improving my writing skills. However, overcoming the hurdle of my writing

inadequacy was not an easy task. However, collaboration between my instruction’s

feedback and other Writing Group 2 members’ advice seems to play a vital part in

ameliorating my writing skills especially in organization, grammar, and the overall

quality of my paper.

Looking back on this class, I have realized just how much my writing has

improved since the beginning of the quarter. I went from being a writer that was not

confident in his work into someone who can revise his writing and can effectively

write an essay. This portfolio was made so that I can show what I have learned from

this class and how much I have improved as a writer. At the beginning of the quarter,

there were many obstacles that I had to revise many times in my essays, and they took

me twice as long to write as well. However, by the end of the quarter, my revision has

become more efficient and my writing in general has become much stronger as well.

Moreover, there are many things that I have learned about myself this quarter.

I have learned that if I do not over-think my papers, my writing cannot become

‘perfect’. This portfolio not only shows everyone how I have progressed as a writer,
but it also shows what I have learned about myself as a writer. It contains not only my

best works until now, but also my mistakes. And from the mistakes that I made from

my papers, I am now able to see the mistakes that I commonly make while writing

such as over-analyzing things in a personal essay and writing about something before

I completely understand it myself. There are also things that I realized that I need to

work well in my writing. Unlike what I thought at the beginning of the quarter, I

realize my writings become much better when I can able to make a general outline

and write out the paper without correcting myself as I go. In the end, the outcome of

the WRIT-01 course has helped me to achieve develop effective strategies for drafting

texts by working through multiple drafts of a project, recognizing the role of

reflecting, revising, and editing in the process, engaging in the collaborative and

social aspects of writing processes, and learning the feedback from my peers and

instructor.

Overall, writing is not something that I can leave behind after leaving school. I

must take these skills not only with me for the next four years, but the rest of my life.

If I succeed in doing that then I will always be prepared for any assignment that my

field of interest throws at me.

B) Personal Essay (1,000-1,250 words)

PERSONAL ESSAY

Losing a loved one is like having the rug swept from under you. I have my

plans for the day and do not think twice about how those plans can be taken away in

the blink of an eye. I never thought much about it myself, until I was faced with the

shock and undeniable truth of my grandmother’s death. I do not think anyone thinks

about tragedy until they are actually faced with shocking news. It is amazing how we

take life for granted.

 One of my most memorable and disheartening recent moments in my life was

the day that I heard my grandmother die at her house. The moment she died, I was at

home studying online for my upcoming exam without hearing any notifications about

my grandmother. This was a difficult time for me, I didn't understand why she had to

die. I was angry at myself because I didn’t spend enough time with my grandmother,

and the last time we had a conversation was a month before she passed away. Each

night I would ask God why does he need to take my grandmother away from me.

Things like this can drive someone insane; it certainly took its toll on me.

Trying to overcome this heartbreaking experience was awful and seemed to

take forever. I felt as if the world was caving in on me. My whole world was falling

down around me; it was almost as if everything I had ever known was taken from me.

Things just kept getting worse. Then, I saw a light when my mother spent some time

talking with me. Watching her and seeing how that she dealt with the death of her

mother, a woman whom she loved with all of her heart and who she had lived with for

so many years, made me realize that things would get better.

A week after my grandmother’s death, I tried to calm myself down and get

back to study as quickly as I could. And then, I bumped into some unique stories

about extraordinary people who have tragic stories just like me but the thing that

make them so special is that they choose to fight those tragedies by making some

funny stories out of the trauma. For example, in the short story “Now We Are Five”,

an American writer David Sedaris lost his youngest sister Tiffany, he didn’t hide the

story in the dark. Instead, he tried to bring the story to the light with the hope that

many people who have suffered the loss of a family member, including me, would

find a way to overcome the tragedy. After finished reading Sedaris’s story, I learn that

death is an idea that many struggle with throughout a lifetime, but Sedaris shows that
it is not impossible to find a cure. Also, he shows how important it is to embrace these

memories and cherish the loss one.

Another example is Tig Notaro, an American stand-up comedian, known for

her deadpan comedy. She underwent a more devastated time than I and Sedaris did.

She is the only person who has the will to overcome two big devastating events at the

same time: her mother’s death and her cancer diagnosis. "As soon as I was diagnosed

with cancer, everything came across to me as funny,” she said, pointing to the

extreme extent of her bad fortune that year. But rather make people sympathize with

her, she made the audience, including me, laugh for it. Though it is my first time I’ve

seen Tig, the story has illuminated the courage, compassion, and extraordinary

strength of Tig.

From the two above examples, I learned that a joke can change my perspective

about the world. I learned that Joking is a way to deal with conflict and trauma. One

way that joking can help with conflict and trauma resolution is that people can display

their intelligence and strength through the making of humor. Come to think of that, I

think it is quite true in real-world like how can Tig Notaro and David Sedaris make us

laugh without demonstrating their skill and intelligence to turn an awful experience

into a joyful one and revealing their strength to tell those awful experience in the first

place? I also learned that Joking is also a way of bonding with people, a way of

forming groups and alliances. To illustrate, if Tig didn’t joke that she had cancer then

how people can support her, sympathize with her, or cheer her up. In the end, she uses

humor to find out her groups and alliances.

For the comedian that makes me laugh the most, I would probably choose Tig

Notaro for her iconic tagline “Good Evening, Hello, I have cancer.” I found that I and

Tig have a thing in common is that we have lost a family member. However, she is
more incredible than me because she can keep fight by telling me about that while I

can do nothing about that. During her set, Notaro often joking about her medical

problems like cancer and numerous hospital visits, and I found that quite funny. I like

her because she can found a way to make light of her personal pain. After I watched

Tig., I can see why others found her funny. Even if the joke wasn’t funny, the

audience laughed at her deadpan expression. I think Tig Notaro’s comedy was

authentic. Whether she was talking about her family, her numerous medical problems,

or something like that, she was very honest and open with everyone. She made her

experiences, no matter how mundane or normal, funny for the audience. Tig Notaro

can hold the crowd’s attention even during some uncomfortable moments. But

because she’s Tig Notaro, it seemed that she could do fine, and the audience love it.