Erin Moats
ENC 1101
Portfolio Cover Letter
December 1st, 2016
Cover Letter
Throughout my time in the ENC 1101
course we have addressed many topics that have expanded my writing to new
heights. I have learned to involve myself more in the process of writing than
just to rush through the essay because it’s “boring”. There is so much I have
taken from this course as both giving and receiving peer reviews and analyzing
my work to better my skills and proficiency in the field. As a student, I am
taught but to take a swing at being in the teachers’ position, I have learned
to pull apart what I know from what I am in need of learning.
In the beginning I assumed it was
all the same writing techniques we have learned and used since we started
writing works longer than a paragraph or two. The method of writing and the
tone and language used, I have since realized, is very fluid. To each piece of
writing there is a new and different approach than any other piece you’ve
written. To take into consideration the audience as not just being a single
teacher or test grader was a real curve ball for me. I have shown in my
progress, I feel, that from my literary narrative to my ethnography, that
researching your intended audience and adjusting your vocabulary and tone to
suit them can take your writing to a new level. To get your message across, you
have to be flexible and work with the community you’re presenting to as a starting
point. Knowing what they know and experiencing things as they do gives you a
clear point of origin in your arguments.
In the area of learning rhetoric and
rhetorical writing practice, I can say I have learned so much. In the way of
examining the ‘contest’ setting, I have gathered that there are more reasons
than just prizes to enter. The writing contest that I entered pushed me to
write in a format and on a topic I was not quite comfortable with. It provided
me with a sense of competiveness as I wrote to be above the expectations that
the prompt gave out. The purpose of writing something, I have learned, is more
than just written thoughts. There is an aura of persuasion, or
argumentativeness, one of education and learning, or one of demonstration and
fact. Each piece has a different edge that you have to separate and then apply
to the writing you provide.
In the process essay, I learned a
lot about myself. I had the chance to attempt some methods of drafting and
writing that I had never used before. I tested new environments and had to
develop my style and process to suit how I best wrote. In all of the trial and
errors, I was left with a process that I plan to use in future assignments and
free writing. In the analysis of others’ processes, I gained information and
knowledge on how other people work est. I grasped further the idea that people all
work differently and approach situations in ways that may or may not work for
myself. I learned further that attempting some of the processes of others can
help you personally find what works better for you.
Throughout the course we did many
peer reviews. This has helped me develop a better understanding of both my work
and others’ work as I was forced to look at both the positive and negative
aspects of an essay. Then coming to terms with criticism and applying the
corrections to a piece was to follow. It was a difficult lesson to learn, I
will admit, but having gone through it, I know what my bad habits in writing
are and I have learned to take edits from someone else and adjust it to fit my
audience better.
