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Chillicothe Mo, 64601 December 14, 2015 Dr. Watkins Adjunct Professor North Central Missouri College 1301 Main Street Trenton Mo, 64643 Dear Dr. Watkins: As I look back over this past semester, I have come to the realization that I have made many improvements in my writing. I have been pleased with the writing I have done throughout this class. Although, I still have weaknesses I hope to improve this coming semester. To start off, I took this class because I knew my writing was choppy and I needed the extra help before going to college. When I was to write my first essay in this class I did not know what a thesis was, let alone how to write one. For example, my first essay for this class my thesis was, “As we pulled up to the complex and saw the kids at the site, it finally hit me how blessed I really am.” As you can see, there is no thesis here, and no specific points that tell the reader what I was going talk about. My last essay I wrote for this class my thesis was, “Medical testing on a variety of animals is beneficial to the medical field because of the many breakthroughs in medicine, animals suffer from the same diseases as humans, and testing on animals gives scientists an efficient way to study reactions to medications.” Here it lists the three points in my argumentative essay that I was going to address and prepare the reader for what they were going to read. Secondly, I have improved my grammar and comma errors. In the beginning of the semester I did not know what an appositive was or a comma splice. Now in my essays, as we peer edit, these two things are what most of my classmates have problems with; I can now look at a sentence and tell whether or not commas need to precede that sentence or not. My essay that I am most proud of, is the interview essay. The reason I am most proud of that essay is because I was intrigued with the person who our class interviewed. In this essay I got to write about a guy who investigated murders. This essay also taught us how to properly cite the information as well. Although I have improved greatly in my writing I still have flaws that I have not mastered yet. My weaknesses that I have yet to master would be my attention getting devices. These are always what I have to write last because I am not creative and I over think things too much. I always refer to a quote to catch the reader's eye. For example, in my interview essay I used a quote from Brent Taney, the person we interviewed. I thought it was creative but I feel like I need to venture out and use something else like a list or interesting fact. Another weakness I have, is procrastination. I always wait till the last minute to do my homework. I usually tell myself after I get home, I will do my homework and go to bed early, but that never happens. This past essay, argumentative essay, I waited till eight o’clock to even start on it at home. This essay that was supposed to take me a good four days to work on took me two days and my grade that I received reflected that. Another weakness I have yet to master is transitioning. I have trouble with knowing what to put in a transition sentence. For example, in my summary response essay, I had no transition from a paragraph that talked about the two women who now have the responsibility of a ranger to a paragraph that talked about the negative comments the two girls get from older men about being a ranger or simply having what it takes to be in the army. Topic sentences are also a weakness I have. I have a tendency to make my topic sentences too wordy and not quick to the point. Topic sentences are supposed to tell the readers in brief words what the rest of the paragraph will be about, my topic sentences tell the readers what the paragraphs are about, in a wordy sentence that is not clear. A quick example is from my argumentative essay, “Scientists test on animals because testing new medications on humans is impractical and unsafe; many animals are closely related to humans, so testing on them gives almost an exact look at how the medication or vaccination will affect the patient.” This sentence is too long and should be shortened by just stating that testing on animals is safer than testing on humans. Overall, this class has helped me grow as a writer. This class has taught me many valuable skills I will be able to take to college. I am looking forward to this next semester to look at my improvement over the whole year. I also look forward to learning more skills that will improve my writing. Thank you for taking the time to help me. Sincerely, Rebecca Pitchford |