15 November 2019

3205 N. Oakwood

Tammy Davis
Northern Oklahoma College
English Department
615 N. Monroe
Stillwater, OK 74076

Dear Mrs. Davis,

I have put together a few sample pieces of work I have done over the past few years that I hope
will show my improvements and progress I have made so far. I have learned to take pride in my
writing, and I think these pieces show just that. I believe to improve at a task you must repeat
and refine your work, this collection of writings display just how far I have come as a writer.

My initial sample writing was my first English assignment as a College Student. Prior to coming
to a college university, I was inexperienced and never really challenged, in result I didn’t care
too much about my writing and I think you can see that in this piece. This was an introductory
free-write assignment that I only did the bare minimum on. I was an amateur writer and had little
knowledge of dirty words or paraphrasing let alone organization skills. My second piece was
written at the end of that year, and my progress is evident. This was the first time I got to voice
my opinion on a topic, and this turned out to be the aspect I loved most about writing. Being able
to articulate your words is a skill that I did not learn the value of until my first year of College
English. I had the opportunity to voice my stance on popular books being taken off library
shelves in school’s due to their controversial nature. I am a firm believer of free speech, and
when that is challenged or compromised, I will be the first one to voice my opinion. I was very
happy with how this submission turned out. My third sample writing was my application essay
for Oklahoma state. I recall thinking my writing was exceptional but looking back at it now I can
see many mistakes in my writing. I have improved in many different areas of writing, including
sentence and paragraph structure, and improving how my words flow together to say what I
want. This was one of the first opportunities I got to put a piece of myself in my writing, which
makes the piece more genuine as well as makes the paper fun to write. I can implement my
emotions or beliefs into my writing and doing so repeatedly over time inadvertently caused
writing to be a fun and creative outlet for me. My final sample piece is a blog post I wrote in
your class this year, where I gave my insight as to why we are stuck as a society. This piece is
rather short, but I enjoyed the opportunity to write about something I’m interested in. The
moment I can find passion in whatever topic I am writing about is when I am enjoying it the
most.
Prior to taking your class, I often found myself searching for words to express how I am feeling
at a certain moment or not exactly knowing how to make literary sentences flow properly. I’m
often not too proud of my writing, but your criticism has helped me improve sentence structure,
as well as broaden my vocabulary. I continuously had the opportunity to repeat and refine my
work and I believe this is what has helped me improve the most. Resources like access to online
tutors also gave me great insight on how to write essays properly.
If I had a writing toolbox, the first tool inside would be Stephen King’s first rule of writing.
King says, “First write for yourself, and then worry about the audience”. When I write, I tend to
think about what everyone else would think, and it’s only when I release that thought from my
head that I write freer and more eloquently. At the start of this year, it was much harder to
implement this into my writing and almost felt impossible, but as the semester progressed, I was
challenged and learned to let the fear of others opinion’s go. Another tool I would have in my
toolbox would be the essay outline you initially gave us on our third essay. I personally am a
visual learner, and once I had an outline, I was able to see my essay come along in my head
much more smoothly. My rough drafts are usually all over the place with ideas or sentences I
would want to add, but without an outline my essay would be onne jumbled mess. A third tool
would be to use the people around you to your advantage. King’s seventh rule of writing brushes
over this tool “Read, read, read”. This concept is to read literature often in order to gain
information and insight from the authors. Since the dawn of time, working together has been an
exponential factor to success and learning others perspective. This can potentially give great
insight into what makes someone succeed and I can then integrate these ideas into my work.
In your class this year, I constantly felt challenged and in result I have been continuously getting
better at writing. Since the start of your class, my writing, in my opinion has improved
tremendously although there is still a lot to learn. I have improved in many areas such as my
ability to adapt to any prompt that is in front of me. Prior to composition two, I lacked the ability
to even properly structure an essay. I was also rather shy, so your group discussions were
beneficial for me to learn where others were coming from, even when I was anxiously hoping
you wouldn’t pick on me. Continuously writing has helped me evaluate my errors and find
evidently simple solutions to them. I seemed to always have many ideas, but they would amount
to nothing but a bunch of words with zero structure without organizational tools learned in your
class.
Although I have much to learn when it comes to writing extensive papers, I have learned the
basics of sentence structure and what not to do when writing a piece of literature. I have always
wanted to express my opinion on certain topics, but haven’t had the skills to Because I was
forced to continue striving when it comes to my work, I can say with great confidence that I am
more prepared than I ever have been for any writing task. The ability to sway people’s opinion
with your words is a skill I have only started to realize the potential of. I want to pursue a
business degree, and hopefully open a business of my own one day. Being able to make your
words flow together and the ability to articulate sentences will be essential to writing business
letters and will help me in various aspects of my career. Persuading people with words is a skill I
believe that can be learned through perfecting my English skills. I see myself using writing
skills such as learning to flow certain sentences in my everyday life. I will continue to improve at
the fundamentals of writing through organizational skills I have learned in your class.
Sincerely,
Kieran Jackson