Cover Letter
Your Honor Sir or Madam,
I’d like to express my deep appreciation to you for spending time on reading my writing portfolio. My writing portfolio consists of a reading log on “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant, three essay drafts on “Dead Men’s Path” by Chinua Achebe, and a final timed-writing. Including this cover letter, this portfolio shows my progress in the academic writing class in the spring of 2007.
I have been worried about English writing since I joined the class and studied with many brilliant students. It is the first time that I have learn to write in a logical way and try to accept a new writing conception.
With the help of my teacher, Mr. Corio, I have known a lot about how to prepare a precise essay. A reading log is the first step, and then the plot summary and thesis statement make contributions to the further understanding of the story. With the comments and suggestions from peers, revising the essay draft gradually is really meaningful to perfect the essay. I believe when you are reading my papers in this order, the improvement of my writing ability can be acknowledged.
My first paper in my portfolio is a reading log on “The Necklace” by Guy de Maupassant. As it is my first reading log, I choose it because it shows my original style and idea about writing. At that time, I knew little about how to write, so I just retold the story in another way. But some of my thoughts on the story have been shown as well. I believe it is a good beginning in my writing course.
The second paper is my timed-writing. I have three timed-writing activities during this course and this is the final one. It was finished in forty-five minutes. As I didn’t have enough time to proofread it, it contained some grammar mistakes. But I can build a clear structure and give voice to my main idea centered on the topic. I believe the timed-writing training enables me to write a completed paper in the period of limited time.
My three essay drafts are concerned with the character and failure of Michael Obi, the hero in the Dead Men’s Path. In the first draft, I presented some of my ideas with personal emotions and person pronouns. And I used many wrong conjunctions, which makes some paragraphs seem to be illogical. My partners gave me lots of comments which helped me understand that if I try to prove my thesis, I had better divide it into several parts with proper conjunctions. But owing to many practices in the class, I have a clear thesis statement, a brief plot summary and a vivid structure, which shows my improving command of organizing an essay.
So I revised my first draft and explained my thesis from two aspects in the second draft. In order to support the thesis, many evidences from the story are also revealed by incorporating quotes into the sentences. However, I failed to tell the story exactly to the readers, especially those who have never read the story. So my teacher, Mr. Corio, pointed out to me this weakness and advised me to tell the story in brief when necessary. By revising the second draft, I have learned to use moderate details from the story.
When working on, I took some comments from my partners and added the background materials of the author in the instruction instead of Igbo history. Meanwhile, I included the source of the information I used. The title is also changed to make the essay more attractive, too. I believe my writing ability is on the upgrade, as is my understanding of the formal pattern of English writing.
I have worked hard for this course for the whole semester and I truly hope to make my endeavor seen and recognized. Besides, I hope to thank my teachers and classmates again for their kind help and timely encouragements. And to my respectful readers, I also want to thank you for reading my papers and it is hoped that you will understand my progress and ideas on writing.
Your sincerely,
Ruby