William C.

Fowler
1207 West University Avenue
(405) 742-7231
wcfowle@okstate.edu
May 1 2016

Dear Mrs. Davis,

I am currently in the middle of my collegiate writing journey. I have come a long
way, but I also have a long way to go. While most of my writing classes are behind me, I
know that I will be required to write papers and letters for the rest of my collegiate and
professional career. When I came into college I considered myself to be an incredibly
weak writer, which made writing the last task I wanted to tackle. I would avoid writing
every chance I got. My writing skills were definitely my weakest skill at the start of my
college career. I saw some improvement my freshman year, but not as much as I was
hoping for. Now, almost done with my second year of college, I have seen major
improvement from when I first started college to now. My writing is far from where I
would like for it to be, but I feel that if I remain on the path I am on my writing skills will
continue to improve.

The collection as a whole is a diverse group of papers written from Composition

I, New Testament, and Composition II. All the essays that I have chosen are drastically
different from one another. Also, all of the essays are unique while still containing the
same writing techniques. The collection that I have chosen does a good job of showing
the strengths and weaknesses that I have in all my writings. I also believe the collection
shows many improvements that I have made from the start of my freshman year to now.

I will now introduce the papers that are in my collection. The four essays that I
have chosen to use for my portfolio contain two papers that I wrote my freshman year
and two papers that I have written during my sophomore year. To start, I will begin with
the first essay that I chose for my collection. The title of this paper is Evaluation Essay.
I chose to start my collection with this paper because it is my favorite paper that I wrote
during my freshman year. The reason this paper is so important to me is because of the
subject I was evaluating in my paper. In this paper I evaluate my own religion, the
Catholic faith. In this paper I discuss the strengths and the weaknesses of the Catholic
Church. This paper was one of the most challenging papers I have ever had to write
because I had to write about the weakness of my own faith. However, writing this paper
actually made my faith grow much stronger. I did extensive research for this paper and
also interviewed the Father Ken Harding, who is the priest at my church St. Francis
Xavier. Through my research and interview, many of the questions I had about the
Catholic faith were cleared up and answered. Writing this paper did wonders for my faith.
The second essay I chose to use for my portfolio is Profile. This paper was written my
first semester of college in Composition I. I chose to use this essay because it is written
about the most influential person in my life, my father. This paper is a personal profile on
my father Kevin Fowler. I loved writing this paper because I interviewed my father and
got to hear many stories about his childhood that I had never heard before. This paper has
more weaknesses than strengths and does a good job of showing how far I have come in
my ability as a writer. The third essay I have chosen for my portfolio is titled John 13: 1-
17. This paper was written this year in my New Testament class. I chose to use this
paper in my portfolio because I had the opportunity to write about one of my favorite
stories in the New Testament. In this paper I wrote about what I believed the message was
in this passage of John. I also wrote about how I try to use the same qualities Jesus
demonstrates in this passage in my everyday life. Writing this paper was fun and
challenging at the same time. I enjoyed examining a passage that I have read many times
but did not completely comprehend until I wrote about it. Writing about this passage
helped me to better understand the message that Jesus was teaching. In this paper I
believe that I showed quite a bit of improvement in comparison to my earlier writings.
The fourth essay I chose to use in my portfolio is titled Community. This paper was
written this year in my Composition II class. I chose to include this paper in my portfolio
because I truly believe it is one of my best pieces of writing. I believe this paper shows
drastic improvements and has minimal weaknesses.

I am now going to discuss my growth and development as literate person. I have

enjoyed reading but not writing. As a young kid, if I could find a book I liked, my mom
would have to force me to put it down because I would read through the night and be
tired for school the next day. I am still just as passionate about reading to this day.
Currently, Sci-Fi or fantasy books are my favorite books to read, especially the series
Game of Thrones. The same cannot be said about writing. Growing up I did not enjoy
writing. The main reason I did not enjoy it was because I was not a strong writer.
Throughout middle school and junior high nothing changed. I knew this was an issue
because I knew writing was not going away. During my junior year of high school I had
an English teacher named Joshua Taylor. In a short time, Mr. Taylor transformed my
writing from atrocious to fairly good for high school writing. Mr. Taylor gave me
confidence in my writing that I desperately needed. However, once I left his class I did
not continue to grow and improve as a writer. I saw my improvement and growth pick
back up when I was in Tomie Bittons Composition I class. Professor Bitton was a
tremendous help for my poor grammar and layout of my papers. My writing skills
sharpened even more since I have been in your class, Mrs. Davis. You have taken
strengths in my writing and made them much stronger while also helping me minimize
the weaknesses in my writing.

I am now going to address my writing process and how it has evolved. I have
never been one to write outlines before writing a paper. In fact, I hate writing outlines. I
enjoy writing rough drafts. I probably write four or five rough drafts for each writing
assignment I am given. The reason I enjoy rough drafts so much is because it is the
easiest way for me to get my ideas on paper. For my first rough draft all I focus on is
content. I do not worry about grammar, sentence structure, or punctuation. Not having to
worry about all of these others things lets me get my ideas on paper. I am not sure why
this works so well for me, but this is what I have always done. I believe that using this
process is part of the reason for the strengths in my writing. My writing toolbox includes
my content, creativity, and ideas, while my weaknesses are my grammar and sentence
structure. I have used this process of writing since I was in junior high. However, once I
got to college I quickly realized that this process was not going to be good enough if I
wanted to be a successful college writer. Some ways that my process has evolved
throughout the last two years is that I now do research between each rough draft so I can
gather more knowledge on the subject. I always also make sure to go to the Oklahoma
State writing center at least one time for each writing assignment I write. The tutors help
with my grammar and punctuation and drastically improve my paper. I also have a friend
read over my papers to get another opinion on the writing. I believe this addition to my
writing process has made me a much better writer.

I am now going to discuss the strengths and weaknesses of my writing. I believe

that one strength I have in my writing is my content. I feel that I always have pretty good
content in my writing because I write so many rough drafts to get all my ideas on paper
and then choose the best ideas to be on my final draft. Another strength I have in my
writing is my creativity. Creative writing has always been what I prefer to do. I have
always done exceptionally on papers that I have been able to be creative with and allow
me to get all my ideas on paper. One weakness in my writing is my grammar. I still
struggle commas, run on sentences, and apostrophes. This is clearly a weakness in my
writing, but I feel like I have improved this semester.

As of right now I am unsure of what my future holds. With a finance degree I will
most likely not be going into a heavy writing job. However, I know that writing will still
be an important tool to have as I pursue a career in financial advising. I also know that
writing is an important part of communication, which I will need in any job I choose. I
will continue to work on my weaknesses of grammar and punctuation. Although, those
have drastically improved since I began your class. In my future I see the most writing I
will be doing is letters and emails to clients and coworkers. This class, more than any
other, has prepared me for that. This class has done wonders for my letter writing skills,
which is what I see myself doing the most once I graduate college. I believe that this class
has done a great job of preparing me for writing in the business world. I now feel
comfortable and confident in my ability to write these letters.

I believe that my overall writing ability has improved immensely. From my first
day in college to now is like night and day. It took time and effort to get to this point in
my writing, but I still have much more to grow. During my time in your class I have been
able to sharpen the tools I already have, while also gathering new tools to increase the
quality of my writing. I have been able to get rid of old habits and not use as many dirty
words like a lot, things, and stuff. Thank you for helping me and for being such a
wonderful professor this semester.

Sincerely,

William C. Fowler