Karrissa Sealey                                                                                       12/13/21

                                                     Letter of Introduction

Writing was something that always came easy to me even if it wasn’t reflected in the grades I received. I found that writing was a good way to express myself as I didn’t have many other ways to do so. Other kids were creative and had some type of talent but I didn’t. Even when I tried my best it felt like everyone was about 10 times better than I was. Writing was the only thing I found myself enjoying and I really believed that I was good at it. Looking back now I don’t think I realized how diverse writing could be and I didn’t realize the aspects that were put into it. 

At the beginning of the semester, I was kind of lost as I didn’t take an English class during my senior year of high school. While I did have a history class where I had to write essays it gave off a completely different vibe than an actual English class. So in my eyes, it was scary having to jump back into something that I hadn’t touched in a while. Throughout the course, I was able to bring my writing skills back to life as well as discuss topics I had an interest in which made the whole process easier. Writing about topics I chose instead of writing about one specifically assigned to me really made the process enjoyable and it brought me some sort of fulfillment. 

Over this class, there were times where we had to participate in group work. I found it annoying as I thought I could just figure out everything by myself as I usually had but I learned that engaging in the collaborative and social aspects of writing was only there to benefit me. I got feedback from my peers as well as feedback from my professor which really helped me narrow down certain choices or completely change them and improve my writing. This was the case specifically when it came to my Inquiry-Based research paper. I changed my topic so many times that I had to stop counting at one point but interacting with others allowed me to clear my head and granted me clarity which helped me move forward.

Another thing that I learned during this class was how to locate research sources especially ones I wouldn’t typically look for like academic journals and newspaper articles as well as evaluate their credibility/bias. At the start of the semester, we were introduced to this library database owned by our school which provided a bunch of different sources. All we had to do was search for the topic at hand and the database would provide us with results. At first, it was really confusing and tie consuming as some of the sources held no importance to my topics but after getting used to it I found that the database allowed me to thoroughly look and screen out things that weren’t necessary. During my sophomore and junior year, I was in AP English so I had a rough idea of how to determine an author’s credibility but I was able to improve the way I determined if they were biased or not.

Lastly, I was able to develop strategies for revising and editing. I remember during one of our classes the professor introduced his way of seeing if he had written enough analysis to go with his evidence. The way he did it was by highlighting the evidence and analysis in two different colors throughout his entire writing and I found that it was very effective. It helped me kind of keep a balance within my own writing and I was really grateful to have learned something like that. 

As you look through my portfolio you’ll be able to see the outcome of these skills I learned. This experience was very meaningful to me as I learned about things I had no clue about. I think engaging in the social aspect of writing had the most influence as I was able to receive feedback and ask questions if I needed to. It brought me out of my comfort zone but my writing was improved as a result of that.