Aportfolio Cover Letter

Dr. Blackburn

Head of Rhetoric and Composition

Appalachian State University

Dear Dr. Blackburn,

This semester in your RC 1000 course has been an extremely eye-opening experience. Coming

into this college writing course I wasn’t really sure what I should expect. I not only realized a lot

about myself as a writer and researcher, but I quickly realized how to become a better writer. I

am really grateful that I had the opportunity to have you as my professor during this transition

into college. I truly feel better prepared for my future writing courses, and I feel that I have

benefited a lot from taking this course. My portfolio includes the three papers that I worked this

semester: The rhetorical analysis paper, the research proposal & annotated bibliography, and the

research-based argumentative paper. Each of these shaped me into a stronger writer and helped

me create papers that I could actually be proud of, as well as achieve the course objectives for

this semester.

The first official writing assignment that was given was the rhetorical analysis. I remember

feeling nervous and hesitant to begin this paper because I had never written one before coming

into college. After a period of procrastination, I began working on the “shitty rough draft”. This

was something that I felt really helped me throughout the course because it took all of the

pressure off of writing the “perfect paper”, and instead just pouring all of my thoughts and ideas
into the paper. Having the opportunity to meet with you, the writing center, and my fellow peers

to revise before turning the paper in was something that I really benefited from. Working with

the writing community was something valuable that I realized was necessary in order for me to

be the best writer I could be. I thoroughly enjoyed writing the rhetorical analysis paper because I

had the ability to be creative and choose whatever commercial I felt I could work best with. We

worked with rhetoric a lot in class so I feel as if I had a really good understanding with this

concept, and was able to be a strong writer. Out of all of my writing assignments, I am most

proud of this one because it is the one I was most confident about. While writing this paper I

demonstrated goal one of RC 1000, which was exhibiting increasing rhetorical knowledge.

The following paper was the research proposal and annotated bibliography. Although I was wary

about writing this paper, I was very excited to write it because I chose a topic that was quite

interesting. My topic for the research was why we eat the foods we do, and what specific factors

in our lives influence our food choices. There are various things that I found impact our

decisions such as culture, socio-economics, language, and more. Annotated bibliographies are

things that I have worked with in the past that I remember being pretty easy.. Goal 2, exhibiting

critical thinking, reading, and writing skills, was evident through this writing assignment because

I used what we were discussing in class to spark an interest and find a topic that I was intrigued

by and research it.

Writing the research-based argumentative paper was quite a long and difficult process. Being a

major assignment, this paper came with a lot of pressure. Procrastination was one of my biggest

problems with this paper. Procrastination is one of my biggest weaknesses when it comes to

writing papers, especially ones that I am nervous about. When I had my paper conference with
you I realized I had a lot of formatting, grammatical, citation, and pronoun errors with this paper

and honestly, it was sloppy.After my paper conference, I didn’t feel proud of myself at all. I

knew that the paper wasn’t a good way to end my semester, and I knew I could do better. The

writing center and peer review was a resource I used to help me work to achieve a better grade. I

met with the writing center and a couple of friends and got their input on my paper. During this

process I realized how much time and effort it can take to write something you’re proud of. I

went through many drafts and edits with this paper and soon became satisfied with my work. It

was clear that I had obtained goal 3, exhibiting an increasing understanding that writing is a

process.

I am also including my scholars’ circles in this portfolio because they were an activity that I

found to have an impact on me evolving into a better writer. Having to create a presentation that

presents my writing process was very valuable and made me write better. It was also important

because watching other scholars’ circles and being able to see how they worked through the

assignment. The scholars’ circles were a great example of goal 4, gaining the ability to research

and write in various environments, including electronic environments. Creating this portfolio

was also a way that this goal was accomplished. I find it very beneficial to work with different

writing platforms that may be out of your comfort zone because they may be useful in the future.

In conclusion, I have evolved quite a lot as a writer. My writing process has completely

transformed from what it was when before I came into college. I realized my strengths of writing

rhetorical analysis, and my weaknesses of procrastination. I am very proud of all of the work I

have accomplished in your course this semester. I feel extremely lucky to have had you as my

professor for this course because you helped me achieve things I didn’t even know I could
achieve. I think the things I take from your class will be very helpful in my future here at

Appalachian State.

Thank you,

Hailey M. Fletcher