May 4, 2017

Professor Watkins
English Comp II @TR 3:30

Dear Professor Watkins:

This portfolio collected my writings in different classes and under different situation, it is
a reflection of my capability of writing for different purpose. Two pieces was wrote for
English composition class, one for modern arts and culture and one for sociology.
Personally, it is also a summary of my writings within an academic year. There are
usually different requirement for different classes and different assignment, and it is
important for a writer to adopt to such circumstances. This collection aim to demonstrate
in what degree I can comprehend the topic and write correctly.

The first sample, When in Rome, Do as the Romans do is an essay I wrote for English
Composition class under the topic This I Believe. Since this is an essay with not many
special requirements, I put it in the first place to show what level I am at writing an
ordinary essay. This I believe is my first essay in this semester, and was based on the life
style I believed that I should have. In terms of topic, it might be considered easy as it is
something I believe deeply. However, I found out in the writing process that explaining
what I believe was harder than I thought. I knew this life style of mine very well, but I
never tried to explain and summarize it. Although there are much more to improve such
as grammar, punctuation, and transferring between paragraphs, this essay helped me
refined my basic writing skill and build up my ability of interpreting thoughts to words.

Letter to a Decision Maker was an interesting and fresh experience for me since it is the
first time I wrote in the format of business letter. This letter is the last essay I did in
English Composition it represent my process in this class along with the first sample
which is the first essay I wrote. One of the challenges of this letter is its spacing, distance
from edge of my paragraph and edge of page seems much longer than when the spacing
was double. This essay required more research and critical thinking than the first one due
to that it must be persuasive enough to influence the decision maker. For it to be
persuasive, the writer must have sturdy believe of his own on a topic that related to his
life but not his core value. As I was doing my research, I regularly ran into materials that
oppose my argument. Those materials sometimes shake my view towards the topic.
While there are data that proves the importance of raising higher education funding, there
are also data that claiming it will pressure the finance of the state too hard. This kind of
situation usually make it harder to write a persuasive paragraph since I cannot completely
persuade myself. This essay enhanced my ability in using sources in the right way, and
taught me that using unnecessary materials may lay down logical traps for myself and
make paragraphs less convincing.

The research project about a great athlete was one of the most important assignment for
my Modern Art and Culture class last semester. More like an after reading review, it may
be the least college level topic. As my instructor demanded that we should focus on
understanding the athlete instead of evaluate him or her since every person has both sides
and it is not our comment to make. Personally, it is easier for me to have a stand on
certain topic, find sources to support and argue for my statement. So when it comes to
generalizing most aspects of a person, it was somehow difficult for me. I needed to
restate information I got from the book while simple paraphrasing and quoting is not
allowed. This essay helped me in summarizing information and the process build up my
skill in effective reading.

The last sample Movie Analysis was written for midterm of Sociology class I took last
semester. The point of the assignment was to test our understanding to sociology terms
and ability to apply them to certain situation. Although it is a test of sociological terms,
the quality of essay itself was also evaluated. The analysis was focused on human
connections the movie created, the hardship for me is to apply enough sociological terms
to the analysis. Many of the terms was not quite applicable since the main flow of the
movie has its own focus. Through the process of writing I not only gained better
understanding of sociology knowledge but also enhanced my ability of explaining my
understanding in an essay through combining knowledge with related events.

As a writer, I believe I have an average college level of writing skill. Personally, I believe
that I can control the flow of my writing well and whenever I get into my pace of writing,
I can write somewhat of a moderate essay in a short amount of time. My disadvantages is
that I still have many grammar, punctuation, and wording problems that I still cannot
found out by myself. I also need to keep working on time management since I almost
always spend two long thinking about my opinion and stance on the topic. Outlining is
another thing that I need to improve, I rely too much on improvisation instead of a well-
planned process of writing.

I think that in the future I will face more research related essays, which could be much
longer, more difficult, and more harshly evaluated than writings in Composition class, but
the experience that I gained in writing will surely be of help for my future development.
Although I have not been following closely to the method and ways of writing, I have
learned and remembered them, which I will adjust my own method to them so that I can
better improve my writing.

Sincerely,

Yuanliang