December 13, 2023

Dear Ms. Williams,

The purpose of this letter is to explain the revisions I have made as part of my final exam in
English 111. I would like to show my revised version of Formal Assignment #2, the Annotated
Bibliography, to show how I have improved this semester as a writer. I believe this course has
taught me a fair amount of information about English and writing that will help me in the future
such as in college or a formal job.

My writing has drastically changed over the course of this semester. Prior to enrolling in this
class, I was blindly writing my papers. English 111 has informed me on how to correctly
compose an essay so I am now able to confidently make one on my own. Before enrolling in
English 111 I had no idea how to do MLA format and would struggle when my teachers would
ask for it. I was never properly taught how to cite my sources and would just put the link to the
websites I used. I now have practice in this skill I will more than likely be seeing again in
college. I have also learned how to make my papers sound more professional. My vocabulary has
expanded greatly due to this class because I have been informed they play a big role in the
formality of papers and sounding more intelligent. In addition, this class has taught me how to
transition my information in a cohesive way that I struggled with before. Overall, this college-
level class has enhanced my writing skills so I can be more successful in what I choose to pursue
after high school and college.

I chose this assignment because according to my grades, it was the essay I had done the worse
on. I found it very challenging when I first looked at the instructions because I wasn't too
familiar with MLA format. I did it based on an image of what I thought was right but it turned
out it wasn’t. I believe I can do better on my annotated bibliography so I worked on fixing it so it
was correct.

My writing before taking this class was very childish and poorly written. I blabbered on and on
when I wrote instead of making sure I only wrote the most important parts. During this course, I
started to think more before I wrote. My summarizing improved as well. Beforehand, writing
summaries stressed me out and caused me to get overwhelmed because I didn’t know how to
distinguish between small unimportant details and the overall idea of articles. My revised
annotated bibliography demonstrates these changes because I had to use the new skills I learned
to summarize five different websites. I was also able to apply my new knowledge when citing
these websites in MLA format.

I chose this essay to represent my best work because I believe I showed the best improvement
with this paper. In addition to the annotated bibliography being my lowest grade this semester, I
also was self-aware of the quality of this assignment. I knew that I could do a lot better and make
one of my weaknesses stronger.

The first time I did this assignment I started by researching articles that were on topic for my
editorial essay. I used Gaston College Library and Google to find articles about music and how it
can affect people. I also found the background of the songs I was choosing for my playlist so I
could write about them. I also had to choose my top five songs to make the playlist which was a
very hard decision to make. To do this I went through my playlist I have on my Spotify account.
I have a personal fall playlist so I listened to all of the songs on it and picked the five songs I
believed were the best for this season and many audiences. Once I had the sources I read them in
depth and summarized them with the new skills I learned from this class.

You, Ms. Williams, gave me very good feedback on how I had done my MLA format. I had
italicized my article titles instead of my publication names and websites which you corrected me
on so I went back to fix that. I also went to research the proper MLA format to make sure I
wasn’t forgetting anything else. I found the website you had linked on Purdue Owl and went to
the citing webpages section. It turned out I was also missing the day I had accessed the site and
the link itself in the citation. Your corrections and the research I had done allowed me to make
sure my annotated bibliography was constructed precisely.

The Writing Process helped strengthen my essay because it let me organize and write out my
thoughts. Prewriting and planning the points I needed to put in my summaries allowed me to do
this. Drafting and revising allowed me to improve my paper because I was able to write it and
make corrections after I had already written the paper. Time allowed me to have a clear mind
when relooking over my paper so I could find my mistakes easier.

I believe the strongest part of my current revised essay is my citations. I made sure I did it
exactly in the MLA format the website told me to. I spent the most time working on these to
make sure they were correct down to the dot. I based mine on the examples on the website you
linked for us, so I am very confident in them.

If I had more time or instruction I would revise my summaries a little bit more thoroughly.
Although I did revise them to make sure they were long enough and had good vocabulary words
in them before the first draft of this assignment, I could still triple-check them and make sure I
covered all the main ideas of the websites and how they were going to help my paper. I am not
necessarily unhappy with them, but I still have room to improve.

I am very thankful for this course and I learned more than I could’ve expected. I have taken
away how to write and research papers, peer edit others, summarize, and answer discussion
board posts. I am confident in my ability to do all of these things now and know this will still
help me in the future no matter what I do. One thing I would like to work on if we had more time
this semester or if I took this class again is more writing assigments. I have found that I like to
use my creativity to write stories and make things because it allows me to express myself.
Another thing that I would work on personally is my procrastination with assignments. I will
admit that there were some cases in which I would do the assignment on the day off and not give
it my full potential. If I could go back, I would be more responsible and start them before the due
date so I wouldn’t be so rushed and wouldn't more than likely make careless mistakes that cost
me points. Overall, I am very appreciative of this class and am excited to take English 112 in
hopes that it will also help me as much as this course did.

Sincerely,
Jenna Krueger
jkrueger4@student.lincolncharter.org

Jenna Krueger

English 111

Prof. Jessica Williams

5 November 2023

Annotated Bibliography

Caron, Christina. “How Music can be Mental Health Care.” The New York Times, 30 Oct. 2023,

https://rb.gy/g3eoi5. Accessed 29 October 2023.

The significance of this article is to use real-life examples of how music can help people’s
mental health. The paper starts out talking about a girl, Isobell who has anxiety and has been in
music therapy for the past two years. She had tried a psychiatrist and medicine for her anxiety
but nothing had worked so she tried music therapy which ended up doing the best for her. On a
scientific level, music is shown to help the body decrease the hormones that the body releases
when stressed and instead produce dopamine. Many doctors’ offices all over have recently
started to use music therapy for their patients.

Ezarik, Melissa. “How Music Affects Your Moods.” Stamford: Scholastic Inc, 2001,

https://rb.gy/gv6qdd. Accessed 1 November 2023.

The purpose of this article is to show how music can be used to affect people's moods in many
different ways. This article talks about how people's moods can change very quickly if they listen
to certain types of music. Depending on the type of music, it can also calm the body physically
and mentally. Some doctors even use it in their office as music therapy as some studies have
shown it can help relieve patients of pain. When listening to music students have also been
shown to learn and memorize quicker when studying. Finding what type of music is personal to
you is significant as different types can affect people differently.
Harris, Alex. “Unravelling Steve Lacy’s Dark Red Lyrics: A Deep Dive into the Song’s

Emotional Core and Impact.” Neon Music, 9 May. 2023, https://rb.gy/6cx9xb. Accessed

29 October 2023.

The significance of this article is to give background information on Steve Lacy as an artist, how
he made Dark Red, and what it is about. He recorded most of his beginning songs on his iPhone
and created his first EP on GarageBand and iRig, doing it all himself. Although his songs were
all made in the comfort of his home, they were a big hit and quickly went viral. As for the song
itself, it's about one of his relationships where he was insecure and thought she was cheating on
him. He talks about how he just has a feeling that she doesn’t like him as much anymore
although there are no straightforward signs.

Nissim, Mayer. “'California Dreamin' by The Mamas & The Papas: The Making of the Sunshine

Pop Classic.” Gold Radio UK, 23 Sept. 2022, https://rb.gy/uxdk30. Accessed 1

November 2023.

The purpose of this article is to inform the reader about the song “California Dreaming” by the
Mamas and the Papas. Written in the 1960s, John and Michelle Phillips were not the first to sing
and record it, instead Barry McGuire was. There was a whole process through the journey of this
song but it eventually got recorded by the Mamas and the Papas to be their song. The song was
written as a way to express their longing for their warm home in LA instead of NYC’s cold
weather. It is a very literal song in this sense but still gives a warm fall vibe.

Rindner, Grant. “12 Stellar New Albums for Autumn 2023.” Vice Media Group, 2 Nov. 2023,

https://rb.gy/5tl997. Accessed 29 October 2023.

The significance of this article is to suggest some albums for fall, to the reader. I will be using
this to go off of when talking about my top favorite songs. Although I am not sure if I will be
doing social media posts or a website to show my information yet, I will lay it out similarly to
this website. The website lists 12 albums of all different genres of artists and a little bit about
them and why they’re suited for the new season. It talks about the album what audience it is
suited for and some background on the songs.