Dear Miss Figueroa,

My whole life I have struggled with writing. I always take forever to start an essay

because my ideas do not come to me easily. I have to really think about it because I think that the

beginning of an essay is the most important part of the paper. Throughout this year I have been

able to include better beginnings to my essays. Since I now spend less time brainstorming on

how to start I have more time to deeply express myself in my writing. Another thing i had a

difficult time doing was staying on track with the prompt. I feel like I would get off track and

end up proving a totally different point. I now am able to keep my explanations and focus on the

topic of the essay. This helps my writing have more meaning and it allows it to leave a bigger

and better message to the audience. Another improvement that I have noticed is my vocabulary. I

have enhanced my vocabulary throughout this year and I feel like it makes my writing look

sound more serious and professional. This year has definitely helped me become a better writer

and it will help me in the future especially towards college because I will submit in better work.

Throughout the whole year we have written a number of essays. Out of all of them the one I am

most proud of is the social issue one. I think that I fully expressed myself and stated a good

point. It was an essay I truly identified with because the topic was something important to

society. The fact that I identified myself with it allowed me to truly get into the paper and speak

my mind on it. For this reason, I think that my paper came out just like I wanted it to. There were

a couple of mistakes but with the help of Miss Figueroa I was able to correct them. Her feedback

has been helpful in improving my writing skills overall. Since the beginning of the year she has

been helpful while writing the essay as well as at the end when it has been submitted. She gives

great advice and what I like that most is that the way she talks to us when doing so she makes us

feel confident. In the past I have had teacher that have been a bit rude and could make me feel
dumb if I made a mistake. When they would give us feedback they would come off as rude.

Therefore, Miss Figueroa has been amazing with giving helpful feedback. To me it is important

to take any advice into consideration. As a writer it is important for me to receive advice because

I can use it to better myself as a writer in the future. After my first essay and all the feedback I

got I was able to improve on my next assignment. When I submitted it and later saw what I got

on it I was surprised. When writing it I knew that I was doing better the previous essay but I

never thought that I would improve that much. At the end of the day, I know that this year has

taught me a lot. I am now able to better proof read my writing as well as to watch out for little

errors like spelling and punctuation. I will be able to be a better writer in the future which will

make me proud.

Sincerely, Paola Payan