Kyle Cyr

4517 N North Ave

Stillwater, Ok 74075
(580) 555-7777
Lonetrek@googlemail.com

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
English Department
1119 W Hall of Fame
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74074

December 10, 2017

Dear Portfolio Committee:

In todays world, an individuals ability to read and write effectively is essential. Not only is
reading and writing an important skill in ones life, it is important in college and in a career. Mrs.
Daviss English Composition courses are the first writing classes that I have taken in college. I
do not know how much writing lies ahead of me with the degree that I have chosen. However, I
do know that I have been more than adequately prepared for any writing challenges that I will
face in the future. I know that I am by no means the best writer and that writing is a skill that will
continually evolve. If anything, this course has shown me how much progress I have made as a
writer in terms of my strengths, weaknesses, and overall writing ability.

To begin, I want to discuss what the collection of essays I have chosen means to me. When I was
in high school, I did not put much work into writing. The English courses I took then felt as if I
were checking a box just to be able to graduate. However, since I have been enrolled in college, I
have put greater effort into my work, as I want to produce the best product that I am capable of.
Three of the four pieces that I have selected are documented essays. I believe this is where my
ability as a writer grew the most. I have had little experience writing this style of essay, and I
enjoyed doing the research. I feel that these essays are accomplishing two items at once: the
information I am researching is teaching me a new subject, and I am honing my writing skills as
I have to implement new information into my essays.

Although I enjoy writing documented essays, I also selected one personal essay to include in my
portfolio. I did this show that I also possess the capability of writing about a personal topic. The
other reason I selected only one personal essay was to convey how important that this piece is to
me. I believe this portfolio best represents and reflects my current abilities as a writer. All four
pieces in my portfolio serve a particular role in showcasing my writing ability as well as my
strengths and weaknesses, which I will get into later.

Now that we have discussed what the writing collection means to me, let us discuss the pieces
that I have chosen. The first Piece I have selected is The Great Garbage Patch, my research
paper over the great pacific garbage patch in the North Pacific Ocean. I selected this piece since
it conveys both my opinion on this topic and factual data to support my claims. I feel that the
mixture of fact and opinion shows an understanding and practical use of the rhetorical triangle.
My second selection is My Friend and Father, which is about my father and mentor. I wrote this
piece in the English Composition I course. This was the only personal essay that I chose to
include because it holds such significance to me. I think that I accurately captured how
significant of an impact Andy had on my life.

My third piece of writing that I chose is the annotated bibliographies. I chose the annotated
bibliographies because the sources are strictly neutral on the topic of genetically modified
organisms. I believe that this paper is where my writing started to see dramatic improvements. It
was also one of the more difficult essays to write due to the nature of the piece being strictly
factual. My final essay that I included was the Letter to President Trump. This was the by far the
most difficult essay that I have had to write. This letter shows how far my writing ability has
come since I began taking English composition courses. The most difficult part about this essay
was remaining respectful toward a person I am not particularly fond of while writing about a
topic that I am quite passionate about, since college tuition has played such a huge role in my
life.

Subsequently, the order that I have arranged these essays in my portfolio reflect the growth in
my writing ability. The first essay about The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is the oldest research
piece, and the letter to President Trump is the latest reflection of my writing ability. They
illustrate the development of my strengths and weaknesses in writing. I have a problem of losing
momentum; I feel like my essays start off strong, then about half way through I seem to lose the
ability to write effectively. This problem can be quite frustrating, especially when I am trying to
conclude an essay. Another issue I have is transitioning between paragraphs, which is less of a
problem now, but still a struggle from time-to-time. Some positives and growth in my writing
can also be observed. I think the ability to find joy out of almost any topic makes writing much
easier for me. I feel that I can make it seem that I am interested in most topics, which helps
maintain readers interests as well. Additionally, I feel that I have a good grasp on the mechanics
of writing. Overall, I feel that I do not have any major inhibiting factors in writing.

My next course of action is to further improve my writing ability. I definitely need to address and
work on transitional phrases between paragraphs. I plan on using what I have learned in this
course to continue writing as a hobby. There are many online communities which will critique
stories that other people have written. I plan on using this resource as a tool to learn and grow as
a writer. I expect that I will see many more writing assignments throughout my college career. I
especially anticipate projects of technical writing, as I am projected to take a couple writing
intensive courses at Oregon State University. Taking the English Composition courses at
Northern Oklahoma College has definitely prepared me for the future.

Through this course, I have developed a process of writing that suits my writing style and tone. I
start the writing process by first reviewing the topic given about a day before I start writing. This
allows me to mull the topic over and conduct research as needed. Next, I begin a bullet point
style outline, which gives me the ability to quickly formulate sentences instead of just shot
gunning ideas onto a page. By following an outline, writing and forming paragraphs is much
simpler. Once my outline is in place, I then begin my actual essay. A great writing tool that I use
on every assignment is a thesaurus. This allows me to quickly look up synonyms to enhance the
vocabulary in an essay or make a sentence more concise or coherent. Another great resource is
the multitude of websites that have listed transitional phrases. As I mentioned, I have issues
transitioning between paragraphs; using this resource makes coming up with appropriate
transitions much quicker and easier.

To conclude, I would like to discuss my development as a literate person. When I started this
course, I had a slight understanding of writing concepts. I used what I knew prior to this course
every day in my job. I can say that throughout the semester I have seen a vast improvement in
my writing ability. This improvement is especially noticeable at work when sending e-mails or
compiling reports. This improvement is not only noticeable in my writing; I have also seen the
growth of my vocabulary when speaking. The progress that I have made in this course since the
beginning is evident; not only when viewing my improvements through my portfolio, but in my
daily life as well.

Sincerely,

Kyle Cyr