November 29, 2021

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
English Department
615 N Monroe St
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74076
Lauren Bevins

Dear Mrs. Davis,

I hope this letter reaches you well, I have recently resurfaced four of my own writing
pieces that I am most proud of. The four papers listed below are what I believe best capture my
creativity and authentic personality the best way possible without speaking. Although I have
never personally enjoyed writing, throughout the course of writing the following four papers, I
found a passion and enjoyment for writing that I would never expect.
Everyone seems to learn the rules of literacy in grade school when they were younger,
but a lot of people sadly did not have that opportunity or became as educated as others even if
they had the chance to attend school. Becoming and being literate means you can comprehend
what you are reading or listening to. Spelling, writing, listening, reading, and grammar, all those
things are examples of literacy. In order to capture a voice and imagery, going in depth with
details and truly making an image the reader can capture and live in inside their head is my
definition of imagery. A voice is very different though, a voice captures the tone of what the
dialogue is stating. Think of the story as a movie, if the actors’ lines were dry and monotone, the
movie would be boring. That analogy ties into a writer’s voice for a book. Giving the characters
personality and allowing the reader to hear each chapter or line in that certain person’s voice to
give them life. Becoming literate means understanding and analyzing each element a story has
behind it.
My personal writing ties into this writing particularly because it gives the reader insight
to who I am and how I think. Rather than a research paper, which is only facts, a personal writing
gives me my voice back. I have never been great at research papers, the few times I have enjoyed
research was when the topic was something I was truly invested in going deeper about. When I
think about my accomplishments as a writer, I reflect on my prior writing assignments such as
my college submission papers. Although the paper consisted of only 300 words each for both,
those two essays are what capture my prime writing skills. The first one was about what my
superpower would be if I could choose, and normally that’s a dry question that I could easily get
stuck on and only write a few sentences about and be stuck. Fortunately, I truly dove deep into
why and how I would use this certain superpower to not only benefit myself, but society as well.
That essay made me feel accomplished due to the detail and how close it was to my heart. I
believe that paper best exemplified my strength and creativity as a writer. Another example
would be my second college application essay, which was about motivation. I used a personal
story about my father explaining the trials and tribulations I went through in our relationship
during my years leading up to college. Taking a personal piece of my life and turning it into a
story really showed true emotion and I felt as if the reader could see and hear me through my
writing. I see those two essays as one of my biggest achievements as a writer because both
papers reflected my life and showed who I am through story telling.

Over the past years, I have developed a voice for myself and really dug into the style of
writing I’m the most successful at and enjoy the most. I realized I kept getting lower grades on
research papers rather than personal narratives or topics I was genuinely passionate about. I
enjoy having people hear my voice through my essays and I feel as if it is only portrayed when it
is story telling rather than research, or something I found straight from the internet. Knowing
research papers are not going anywhere anytime soon, to prepare myself for the future, getting
down a technique and setting a certain amount of time aside for myself would be helpful.
Finding the resources that stand out to me the most and seem more ‘entertaining’ in a sense is
what would prepare me for future papers. I am prepared to continue my readiness for more
advanced writing topics because I have picked up on a few new skills throughout the past two
years in college. Although I still struggle in the research field of writing, I feel a little more
confident than I did in my past semesters. I have learned how to cite my sources correctly, which
I never knew how to get right, I have learned to set an outline up correctly to help me format.
Those two skills were something I always have struggled with but now, those two things make
the writing process easier than I could’ve imagined.
My writing still has room to grow for many reasons, I feel that I need more
imagery and more detail rather than getting right to the chase. I hope to see more of those
two things in my later essays. Because personally, I love reading a book or an article and
feeling like I am in their world. Reflecting as I am writing this essay, I have realized that
there are many skills in other authors writing that I really enjoy. As I move forward, I
expect myself to be able to portray the same things in my own writing that I enjoy in
others writing. I have picked up so many unexpected skills throughout my time in this
class and skills that I will hold onto and bring with me in the future. Not only throughout
my next semesters but my career. My lack of writing skills to my upbringing during
college has shocked me, even if it means baby steps, I know I am getting somewhere.

Sincerely,

Lauren Bevins