Dear Reader Letter

Dear Reader,

I’ve heard that you grow more as a person in your twenties and after high school then ever, which I have never really understood until now. So far, that has been very true for me. I have grown as in individual, as a writer, as a friend, and as a student, more in this quarter then I ever did in high school. Being in college and in a different social environment, has opened my eyes to many different people and career options. I think that right now is a time for me to explore all my options and directions that my life may take me, and that’s why I enrolled in college. I took a few years off after graduating high school because I didn't feel ready to start all over again. Unfortunately my full time job, working in a grocery store, made me feel like I was stuck in a rut. I didn't feel like that was the career path I was meant to be taking. I have always been very interested in art, and over the past year I had really begun to crave learning new things again. Now almost 21, I feel like I’m taking full advantage of what my life is offering me.

Although growing socially hasn’t all come from my college experience, furthering my education has expanded my views on different people and other career options. I have made friends new friends, who I probably would have never met otherwise, and I also have much more respect for teachers and professors then I ever did before. I think seeing what other options I have, has given me a chance to broaden my goals. However, this quarter has mainly helped me expand my writing skills.

I have never really been great at writing, and actually have never enjoyed writing anything before. I used to always get horrible grades in school for my writing assignments. It may have been because I didn’t use proper grammar, or maybe it was because I didn’t know how to express myself in detail. English 97 has given a whole new light to writing that I never realized before. The biggest thing that I have learned is to show not tell, which is basically describing everything with sensory details to involve the reader as much as possible. I think this is the easiest way to also keep the readers attention instead of boring them. Not only that, but it makes writing enjoyable for me, the writer, as well. I take pleasure in expressing everything with a better vocabulary. I think another reason I was never a good writer is because I used to word my writing in a weird order to make it sound more knowledgeable, which, in fact, did the exact opposite. I did this because I didn’t know proper grammar, for example, correcting run-ons, comma splices, or even as simple as where to place a comma. Learning how to punctuate properly has helped my writing make more sense, and it has also made it much more interesting to read.

The pieces that I have chosen for my E-Portfolio express a lot of description and voice, which are new strengths that I have acquired over this quarter. I chose pieces that show a considerable amount about myself as well. My major writing assignment, as well as my descriptive piece, demonstrates show not telling. I could not decide between two of my blogs to show voice through my writing, so I have included both, and my writers choice is a story about my childhood that shows a bit of entertainment in my writing, which my portfolio would not be complete without.

Thank you for your time, and I hope that you enjoy all that I have learned throughout this quarter.