Haden A.

Duran
Mrs. Tamera Davis
English Composition II
4/30/2021

Dear Mrs. Davis,

I hope that this letter finds you well and that you have had a pleasant last few weeks to
finish off this academic semester. The collection of writings included in my portfolio are all
pieces that were written by me in the most recent 2 years of my education, but most of them were
written last semester. The only exception to this is my DeMolay-related essay, which was written
just a few months previously. I have chosen these examples of my writing because I feel that
they best represent my ability to use my writing in a way that is productive in a business
environment, such as when writing technical reports or analysis. I believe that my writing ability
has improved drastically in the past several years, particularly in several key areas such as: Using
and citing sources correctly, conducting independent research, and creating visual presentations
to go along with my pieces of writing.

The first included example of my writing is actually from my History class last semester,
instead of from an English class as one might expect. Students of this class were asked to work
on a semester-long research project culminating in a carefully constructed research paper and an
accompanying visual presentation. For mine, I chose the topic of “Native American Participation
in American Wars”. This was an incredibly interesting topic to me personally, and I found it to
be quite powerful. It is a tragedy that the sacrifices that Native Americans have made in the
American military have only been recognized in recent years. While time restraints on the
assignment caused me to slightly struggle as I approached completion, I still found the
assignment to be greatly enjoyable. I believe this assignment improved my ability to do
independent research on complex history topics. I also gained experience in creating
presentations to aid in communicating a long piece of writing in a more approachable way. It is,
to date, the assignment in any class that I have been the most proud of. The second piece
included in my portfolio is still an important topic to me, and I enjoyed writing about it quite a
bit. The second piece is titled “Television, Film, and Morals” with a cheeky subtitle. This was
written as an assignment for my English Composition One course last semester. Despite my
interest in the subject, I believe it may be the weakest of the four pieces in my portfolio.

My third article of writing in the portfolio is the “DeMolay Eighth Preceptor Essay: Dare
to Hope”. This essay was written for a content that was created by my youth organization, the
Order of DeMolay. We work to help young men over the age of twelve years to remain busy and
learn helpful life skills, frequently even giving financial help to try to secure a better tomorrow
for these young men. This organization has a long and storied history, and has held the same
seven core beliefs since its creation. The prompt for the contest was to write about a hypothetical
eighth preceptor (Another name for a strongly held belief), and I chose to write about hope. The
idea behind creating this essay was that youth has become too cynical, too jaded. Without
encouraging hope to return to the younger generation, the future of humanity will forever be
doomed to pessimism and depression. I cannot emphasize how important this is to me. The
fourth and final piece of writing in my portfolio is a research and analysis paper titled “What’s
the Science Behind Sci-Fi?”. The goal of this research and analysis paper was to determine the
key factors to quality science fiction, and use these key factors to decide which Sci-Fi film
franchise is the greatest. While it is not the deepest or most thought-provoking subject matter, I
found it to be very interesting to write about.

I have always greatly enjoyed reading, which I imagine influences my tendency in my

own writing to be overly verbose. I began reading at a very early age, and began writing not long
afterward. I never took writing seriously as a child, adolescent, or even as I began approaching
adulthood. While I loved to write, for some unknown reason I never practiced any of the finer
skills of authoring. For example, I had no idea that sources were expected in an essay until my
first year of university. Never in my entire high school career had I been asked to use a source
for my writing, or even educated on the subject of using sources in essays. Similarly, I was never
taught how to format a letter in high school. However, I have quickly moved on from this slow
start to my writing ability. Last semester I learned the crucial things I needed to know about
essay construction, and I was able to implement them to the best of my ability this year. Due to
certain circumstances, I believe that I will excel even more in writing assignments in the future
than I have during this year. I look forward to continuing to develop as a writer, and as a student
in general.

My “writer’s toolbox” has only begun to be developed in the past year or two, but I have
made quick progress. I have developed a fairly effective system for creating quality writing in a
short period of time, for example. I typically begin writing by extensively outlining and
researching, while simultaneously developing my internal opinions on the subject. Following a
short period of reflection on my outline and research, I would typically begin a freewriting
session. I have been very impressed in the past with how much I can write during freewriting
when I have properly prepared. After I finish my freewriting and take a short break, I would
revise my writing from that session. After several sessions of freewriting, I would then be ready
to focus solely on revision. While my writing process is relatively simple, I find it to be far more
helpful than any other approaches that I have tried in the past.

I have learned many things in recent years which have improved the production speed
and overall quality of my writing. Primarily, the tools that I listed in my “writer’s toolbox” have
drastically changed my writing process for the better. I now have a system that works well for
me to accomplish assignments, and is even entertaining! I hope that as I continue to develop as a
writer, my ability to complete unusual or “out-of-the-box” assignments with more ease.
Currently, I struggle with assignments that do not involve essay writing directly. Hopefully I can
address this and other issues with my writing ability in the future. The next step in my
development in this area will likely be my continued study in academia, with my intended goal
being to transfer to University of Oklahoma and earn all three of the available degrees in Civil
Engineering. I foresee that in the pursuit of this, I will have a lot of analysis or technical review
papers to write. Even once receiving my degree, analysis or technical review is a very important
aspect of Civil Engineering. I believe that this class and others before it have appropriately
prepared me for these tasks, and I look forward to facing the challenges of the future. While I am
very aware that my writing could greatly improve, I still feel ready to face anything I could
encounter in academia. I have a measured confidence in the future, I would say. I think that’s
about the most any of us could hope for after the past year.

Sincerely,

Haden Alan Duran

NOC Stillwater Student