Abby Welch

Writ 2 - Academic Writing

6/9/2002

Writing 2 Spring 2022 Cover Letter

Dear Mr. Chajdas,

Coming into taking this class, I was fearing the worst. As an almost rising junior, I

thought that taking Writing 2 at this point in my college career would provide me with little more

than a fulfilled GE class and a few more carbon copy essays under my belt. However, I found the

class to be quite the opposite, providing me the chance to reflect on my previous writing style

and expand upon it while focusing on improving areas of weakness I have disregarded for years.

I found the essays we wrote in this class thought-provoking, engaging, and challenging in the

sense that I felt a sense of accomplishment in seeing my essay writing elevate after listening to

suggestions given during my peer reviews. I will walk away from this class both a better writer

and with two new friends!

I took this class this past quarter because it was recommended to me through my McNair

Academic Management Plan to help me work on my conciseness when constructing ideas.

Because of this, my goal for this class was to “learn about writing into the future beyond a

particular class rather than remaining dependent on teachers or peer evaluators (171)” (Giles,

2010, p.198), such as our McNair Writing Specialist or my faculty advisor. I can definitively say

that is where I have seen the most growth within my writing this quarter, most notably in my

ability to make my argument and evidence much more direct. Observing my progress between

Writing Project #1 and #3, I witnessed myself blossom from someone who cared too much for

syntax and technicality (per my Linguistics major tendencies) to someone much more adaptive to
matching stylistically the nature of the work. I hope to apply these skills to future courses and my

McNair project.

One of my biggest strengths I developed as a writer has been being able to develop

connections between source materials and whatever prompt I am presented with. This can be

seen within my revision of Writing Project #1, a project where I struggled a little the first time to

provide strong connections between my argument and my evidence. As the course continued, I

found myself having to focus less on developing these connections because I was linearly

improving this skill with constructive criticism from my classmates and yourself. I would like to

continue to focus on being confident within my writing capabilities, such as sounding more

assertive and sure of my ideas through my writing style. This is something I tried to focus more

on in my revision of Writing Project #3 where I felt some of my sentences ran flat and could be

improved upon with word choice changes or slight rephrasing.

George Orwell wrote that "A writer who stops to think about what he's saying will avoid

misinterpreting the original phrase." (Orwell, 1946), a quote which has stood out to me

throughout this entire class. While revising these Writing Projects, I learned that the writing

process that works best for me may be a two-fold process. As I reread my own work the second

time through, I found myself flourishing with new ideas and things to consider I would never

have come up with just a few weeks prior. Taking my time to read through my source materials

at a more leisurely pace expanded my opinions and I was able to get more out of the experience.

I am slowly learning I need to start my writing assignments much easier than I do to allow

myself more time to process the prompts, write down initial ideas, and allow my ponderings to

eventually develop into more full-fledged works over time.

 I chose to revise the two Writing Projects that I did for entirely different reasons. In

Writing Project #1, my main focus was to better connect the two main ideas I was addressing and

strengthen my analysis of the sources I was using. Rereading my project, I felt a disconnect

between my former and latter paragraphs that I spent a lot of time trying to remedy through more

effective commentary that better aligned the Linguistics and Chicanx Studies disciplines. With

Writing Project #3 I placed more of an emphasis on trying to make my writing sound more like a

film review by adding links, an overall review at the beginning, and altering some of my initial

sentences that I felt needed rephrasing. Working on Writing Project #3 did give me a brand new

perspective on my other projects; while I was reading Film Handout #1, I came across a question

that asked me, ““How does the thematic content (such as history, race, gender, sexuality, class, or

the environment) affect your experience and interpretation?” (Film Review Handout #1, p.2)

Although this question was specifically directed at film reviews, I found myself using this quote

as my main inspiration for the changes I made to Writing Project #1 when I asked myself “How

does history of prejudice and race dictate the findings within the Linguistics and Chicanx Studies

disciplines?” With both Writing Projects, I also spent a good amount of time changing the word

choice in certain parts or removing filler words that added no additional value to what I wanted

to say.

The work in this portfolio reflects more of the writing style I hope to continue advancing

with further writing classes. I want to come off as confident, exact, and passionate, which I

believe I accomplish well with my revisions. My writing style can be described as a

‘work-in-progress’, something I plan to keep working on through my next two years in college.

My strongest feature within my writing right now would be addressing the prompt fully, ensuring

that all parts of what I hope to accomplish with my essay are answered and analyzed. If I had
more time in this class, I would have liked to have been able to schedule more office hour

sessions to go over finer details within my writing that I may continue to overlook. Asking for

more assistance when writing academic papers is something I hope to work on in my next

writing or research methods course. As of now though, if there is anything I will take from this

course going forward is to listen to the suggestions of my peers and strive to further understand

why they perceive my writing the way they do. I would like to thank Daniel and Juliette for

being such a big help in critiquing my arguments or suggesting ways to improve my thesis

statements. Lastly, I would like to thank you for all your feedback, engaging in-class activities,

and being a big stepping stone for me to continue improving my writing going forward.

Sincerely,

Abby Welch
 Works Cited

Giles, S. L. (2010). Reflective Writing and the Revision Process: What Were You Thinking?.

writingspaces, 191.

Orwell, G. (1946). Politics and the English language

Film Review Handout #1: Film Review - Thompson Writing Program: Duke University.

(n.d.).

https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/film-review-1.original.pdf