Chris Mercado

English Skills
Professor Martinez
December 17th 2015

Cover Letter

During the first semester of college I have learned a lot of interesting things. The college
life did not seem to hit me as hard as it did for others. Taking English Skills helped expand my
reading and writing skills. At first, I never liked reading and writing, I found it hard to
comprehend, but taking this English Skills class opened my mind to new writing techniques and
strategies that I can use in the future to expand my knowledge. When I was in high school I
never understood why we took 4 years of English, when we have been learning it since we were
born, but I realized that taking a language, even when learning it in the country you live in, the
possibilities are endless. You can expand the use of the English language and apply it towards
any future occupation desired. The overall outcome of this class taught me techniques that I can
carry over to writing 101 to be a successful writer.
In addition, the first thing that crossed my mind when taking this class was the use of the
reading strategy annotation. The reason why I feel annotation is an important thing to use in life
is because it involves reading the articles then breaking it up in chunks to better comprehend and
advance my understanding of the topic. When I applied this, I took notes in one of my other

classes (Psychology), and it helped me separate the information into bits and pieces, which
helped me study for my final. The outcome was I ended up having a new study skill that helped
me succeed in passing my final in this class. I took a skill I learned in English and applied it to
another class. Also, while annotating to further get a better understanding, I learned that using the
paraphrasing skill helped me better to succeed in annotating. It was the step before writing
important information, because when I highlighted most of the information, it helped me when
going back and rereading and the important information. It was a skill that can be useful to long
paragraphs and finding the most useful ideas to underline or highlight, then take notes on. When
I got stuck on a lot of information that was hard to understand I could rely on taking it step by
step by highlighting the notes and then do the process all over again. This turned studying a lot of
information from rereading over and over again, into the information being minimized into easily
understood notes.
On the other hand, when writing a solid essay for any class or job there are certain steps
that need to be taken. Taking English skills helped me learn these skills to complete and have the
essay flow consistently. For example you have to identify your thesis statement this is your
reasoning behind your essay. When this is missing, your idea of your essay is useless because the
main point behind it is unidentified. Its like writing a bunch of ideas, but not stating why you
should read them or why youre writing this. The thesis should be stated after your introduction
but before your body paragraphs start. Also when writing an introduction it should be the hook of
your essay, I learned it needs to grab the reader into wanting to read your essay. The conclusion
wraps it up smoothly but there is one more important thing that needs to be listed before
completing each assignment. I learned when using the organization strategies, I had to list
multiple topic sentences before writing the meat of the article. This means keeping my ideas in

line and not having random thoughts throughout the essay. Each body paragraph would have a
topic sentence, then supporting details to go further into my argument or opinion. The topic
sentence helped state the difference between them and kept my information together so it reads
fluently. At first, before I attended this class, I used to have so many ideas running through my
head of what I wanted to write. When I was given a topic to write about, I would jump into
writing the argument and just list all my ideas down, but it never made sense to the teacher
reading it. It only made sense in my mind but in order to really get the reader to understand what
youre writing about, you have to keep an open mind and not assume they know what youre
trying to say. That is why structuring your essay in great detail is very important, or you are
going to end up starting over again because your ideas are outta sequence and go from one idea
to the other with no transition, making the reader question what is going on. This technique is
time consuming and I thought at first pointless but once my grades went up and my writing
sounded better I understood the importance of organization which is used in life with most
everything.
Furthermore, my supporting details couldnt be based off of opinions, I needed some type
of research to make my claim stronger. Like most court cases are won when bringing up
evidence to prove the criminal is guilty, that is exactly what I had to do. I had to make the reader
trust my information is accurate and since they never met me and couldnt go off on my word,
evidence was the next step. This is better known as research. Back in the days, research was
done by going to the library, but today technology advances has made it easier for this
generation. Statistics, facts, and quotes are just some things to use when writing essays to make
the reader believe you and why youre right and everyone elses statements is wrong. When
using statistics youre relating to the world how you agree or disagree. Using quotes opens up the

door in how we should listen to famous politics or people who state what we want to hear. Of
course, using facts too with the citations to back it up proves your argument even more. Your
essay should go over the top with your ideas based off of research to make the article strong and
give the reader a reason to agree with your point. Writing words can be moving when people
read but I learned without the proper supporting evidence people question why should I believe
this person? Not only that, I also learned in this class how to use proper websites related to my
article and not to plagiarize. When using proper articles you have to make sure the website is not
Wikipedia due to the fact people edit off the site and you need to make sure the site you are using
looks valid and can be trusted.
Furthermore, as I previously explained why it is important to go into more detail without
plagiarizing to really avoid an issue which could either get you a good grade or kicked out of the
class and I learned that clearly from this class. The Professor went into detail when I was writing
my description and I had trouble understanding whether my information was copied or if it was
facts but rewritten. He gave me valid advice to go to the English department and have their
approval of whether or not the documentation was copied. I learned that when citing documents
to put the name of the writer in parenthesis and the year. This is also known as in text citations. I
especially found it a pain to do this but I knew if I didnt I would be taking another persons
work which without a doubt would end in immediate punishment towards my grade and me. I
learned if I wanted to cite a documentary film the steps I needed to take was to state the title of
the film, where it was created, and the studio or distributor it was made in. My professor taught
me to evaluate my work and repeatedly check to make sure it was my own idea, if not it needed
to be cited.

Not only that, the essays assigned varied in the different genres we had to write about.
Another essay that was required was a personal narrative. I felt that it was one of the easier
topics to write about because I could go to the heart and write about my life. When writing about
who I was and what influenced this, I didnt have to research this information because it was all
in my head. Although I liked this essay it was difficult but in a different way because I had to
think of what approach I wanted to take, and the background story I would use as supporting
details. My professor made it clear that this essay had to have a cause and effect. This means the
cause of what made me this way (the background story) and the effect it made on me as a person.
Although this essay may sound easy, it can be difficult because you are not researching this
topic. This is your own story and you have to think really hard about what type of person you
are. I enjoyed writing this essay especially because I defined who I am. This taught me to
improve my flaws as a person and where I am strong in most ways which can be used in life. I
got a better understanding of myself. Another essay relating to this strategy in a way, was when
we had to write a descriptive essay about a made up person. I wrote about a solider with PTSD
and the importance of the illness. I took strict precaution making sure this persons life made
sense, but in the essay I wanted to touch the readers heart. My professor, I feel gave me these
essays to learn about me and to touch my creative side by letting me take any approach in the
descriptive essay. When only writing about research essays you could get writers block. This is
a well-known issue and everyone struggles with this. These two essays got my creative juices
flowing and I learned that I can use my creativity in life with any future jobs or writings
assigned.
More importantly, I learned from my professor that there is never any harm in getting a
second persons opinion. The peer edits from each essay taught me how I can better my essay or

what needed to be fixed or improved, from small things like grammar to sentence structure. As a
writer you write the same way your entire life. The only way that can open you up to new
techniques is reading. When I was reading others essays I was opened up to their techniques and
it gave me ideas on how I can take different approaches on the next ones to write. I liked these
peer edits especially because not only was I getting my teachers impute on my essay but also
from multiple students in my class and their opinions. I learned about myself that once you think
youre done, youve just begun. What this meant was I could read my essays a million times and
think it is perfectly fine but in another persons eyes there could be a million flaws. I thought it
was me at first and that I was doing something wrong. My teacher taught me successful writers
go through this problem every day. He told me that remember before a book gets published it has
to get approved not by the people who wrote it but by the editors that think it will sell. This was
what I was doing. I was getting it approved by the editors (classmates) to get the okay that it was
a seller (my professor). With writing you cant do it on your own. This applies to real life that no
matter how much of an independent person you are there is no wrong in asking for help. Even
the most successful people today have role models they looked up to that inspired them to be
where they are.
Regardless of all the things stated, the most important thing over all other things that will
make this successful is time management. When I was in high school I would wait to the last
minute to finish homework, having little sleep because I had to finish homework I learned in
high school time management is key in taking the steps needed to properly finish all my work.
Unfortunately, I learned it the hard way at first. The first assignment my professor gave me he
told us he would edit and hand back. He gave us around 4 days to complete it. I took advantage
of those days waiting until the very last day to complete this assignment. Once I got the essay

back I was more than disappointed. All I saw were corrections that needed to be made and it
basically stated that the essay needed to be rewritten. He gave us one night to rewrite this essay
and fix the errors. I took basically the whole night to complete each strategy and make it sound
worthy of a good grade. The night was painful and it felt as if my eyes couldnt open. I knew
never to take advantage of the days my professor gives me to finish the assignment. I also
learned from him that if I have doubts about anything from my essay to just go to him. He was a
big help in this struggle and Im lucky to have such a useful teacher to rely on.
In conclusion, I couldnt say enough to even begin to describe how much this class taught
me and how it will apply to real life because I would be talking forever. In high school I
remember asking the teachers how this will help me in life for classes like geometry, chemistry,
algebra, etc. They all gave me answers that didnt make much sense to me, but in my English
class I never really asked that question because I did understand the big picture in the end. He
taught me basic skills that can be applied to real life. I would like to thank my professor for
turning me into a better writer and all my classmates who read my essays and gave me their
advice.