Shean 1

December 13th, 2015

Professor Jerome McKeever
Cuyahoga Community College
25425 Center Ridge Rd.
Westlake, OH 44145

Dear Professor McKeever,

Growing up, English was always my strongest subject. I struggled with math and science,
history was boring, but I always had quite the passion for reading and writing. My high school
teachers all recommended me to take honors English in college so that is why I signed up for this
class. Prior to taking English 101H, I didnt know what to expect, being one of my first college
courses ever, I had very little to no information to base predictions on. I am writing this memo to
inform you of my growth as a writer this semester.
The first week of class gave me a sense of relief after discussing how this course is ran
and how everything is available on blackboard. I have learned many tricks and techniques to
apply to my writing and I can confidently say I feel comfortable writing essays based on prompts
with particular requirements. I was taught how to correctly come up with accurate thesis
statements to apply to different types of essays. For example during the process of writing my
argument paper, I learned how to choose one of many ways to put my ideas together and to state
both sides of an argument, also how to cite my sources in MLA format. While reading "How to
Say Nothing in 500 Words," I gained a wealth of information about maintaining the readers'
attention consistently.
In this class, the process of writing weekly papers and putting them through
Smarthinking for feedback really strengthened my skills of being able to edit papers and revise
any further mistakes. Every essay in this term helped me develop as a writer. The first essay
along with the second written was the personal essay and personal narrative. These prompts
helped me refresh my writing skills by writing about something memorable and sentimental. I
remembered certain punctuation and quotation usage that I had forgotten over the years and I
also was able to recall a personal part of my life growing up by discussing my family and life
overseas in Palestine.
My third essay was writing a character profile about whomever, whether it be someone
you admire or someone you cannot stand. This paper helped me analyze and brainstorm ideas
about what character I wanted to write about, my research skills came into play when I decided
to write about a famous person that I admired, Angelina Jolie. Along with my opinions of deep
judgment I had to include a short biography of her life, physical appearance, and personality.
This research aspect allowed me to incorporate my opinions of Angelina with facts and
information from the media to support my thinking.

Shean 2

I included my fourth essay of writing a summary of "How to Say Nothing in 500 Words," I
believe it is important to be able to read a passage and summarize it using different words. I
practiced paraphrasing a run of information and I feel this helped me retain more information
from the reading and I can apply this to taking quick and effective notes in my upcoming classes.
In Robert's writing, he included many tips to become a good writer, one being show, dont tell.
This statement grasped my attention and allowed me to focus on how important it is to correctly
present my thoughts into writing by discussing the main points but also doing it in a way to make
the readers deeply ponder their thoughts. I hope to apply some of Robert's advice in future
writing assignments and papers. Once again it is vital to properly cite sources in a summary as
well.
In essays five and six, I was instructed to define ten allusions by simply describing the
symbolism behind each and including references. This allowed me to touch up on some creative
aspects by researching the true meanings of Greek myths. I was able to explore the Oxford
dictionary of classical allusions and cited my sources from different references including
dictionaries, encyclopedias, and online publications. This particular assignment incorporated
writing a summary, researching meanings and placing them in the correct format needed which
certainly taught me numerous lessons on researching and references. Essay 6 was putting all my
ideas together and explaining what I learned from studying allusions.
Through writing a response to Amy Chua's "Why Chinese Mothers are Superior," I
reviewed how to nail down a point by giving evidence. Writing two essays on arguments really
taught me how to state a strong opposition to prove certain statements wrong. I realized one of
the main points in writing an argument is to think about whom it is your writing too, who is your
audience? Then of course, coming up with valuable statements in favor of your readers and to
support your ideas is crucial for a good argument essay.
Lastly, the final aspect that truly helped me become a good writer was using
Smarthinking as mentioned earlier. The editors on the website gave very useful feedback, that
certainly helped me organize my ideas in the correct manner and forced me to properly use
punctuation when needed, and to solely focus on my thesis for each paper to make sure I am
discussing the main points of an issue and not bouncing back from topic to topic.
Overall, by brushing up on writing techniques for composition and exploring different
prompts, I have tremendously developed as a writer and I'd like to thank you professor
McKeever for being an amazing English teacher. Throughout this term I have used several
writing methods that I will continue to use in professional writing in the future. Your enthusiasm
and passion for writing was much appreciated and I will always think of you when writing my
papers for upcoming classes. I really enjoyed the way you ran your class and the fact that you
think writing is a process made matters much easier to work with because I focused more on
writing to get my point across rather than writing before the deadline. You were very flexible
with your due dates and I strongly appreciate that. English 101H was a great catalyst to inspire
growth in my writing.
Sincerely,
Samar Shean

Shean 3