Cover Letter

To All My Writing Portfolio Readers:

It is my great honor to present you with my writing portfolio, in which you will find six items of my selected papers done in the Academic Writing Class this semester in Fudan University, Shanghai, China. As a sophomore here, I have tried my best to adapt to my first experience in this American style class, which requires more interactions and independent thinking compared with traditional Chinese classes. Because of cultural differences, my strengths in Chinese writing seem difficult to meet the needs of English ones. Therefore, my weaknesses in vocabulary and in proper use of the language become my biggest obstacles in English writing. Besides, English academic writing requires profound analysis and careful consideration, which is a great challenge to me. Thanks to my teacher, Mr. Ron’s valuable instructions and classmates’ constant help, I finally make it in doing all these achievements in this portfolio and as the course moves on, it gradually occurs to me that my written English is improving not only in the language I use, but also in the critical thinking and analytical abilities I pick up.

In Essay Draft One to Three, I undergo a change from a good reader to a totally writer. By reading the stories of great writers at first, I not only try to find the main ideas of the stories, but also focus especially on the patterns of their writing and the ways they convey their ideas. In this process, I learned what great stories have in common, how the ideas are expressed and why the authors choose the particular details or plots just as in the stories. All these elements lay solid foundations for my further writing by myself.

As I find something serious and worth reflecting on in the story of “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen” written by Bruno Lessing, I choose this story to analyze and focus on the true meaning and essence of Americanization in order to present a successful way of living in the modern society. The process of conceiving a thesis and supporting it convincingly is quite demanding. It not only requires much closer understanding of the stories but also challenges our skills of expressing ideas. You can compare the first two drafts with the last one to find my progress in citing quotations and interpreting my own ideas.

In Reading Log, I find some extraordinary ideas in Chinua Achebe’s “Dead Men’s Path” and demonstrate my own points on cultural conflicts as well as on the process of civilization. What I have to mention is that, rather than writing reading log itself, I learned much more in giving and receiving comments on it among us students. During this process, I found the value of cooperation and sharing, realized the importance of forming creative ideas, and appreciated the beauty of respecting any opinion different from mine.

Furthermore, I present my ability in writing on a specific topic under a 45-minute time pressure in “Final Timed-Writing”. It is not until several practices that I realize the importance of proofreading, the skills of writing fast and the proper attitude in face of pressure and time limit. Fortunately, I master these abilities step by step and now I am much confident in English writing and feel at ease in expressing my own opinions whether under time pressure or not.

Lastly, in terms of my progress and achievements in this class, I cannot make it without mentioning the importance of my teacher and classmates. So please allow me to say thank you to Mr. Ron, who always offers ready help and important instructions to me. Moreover, the six items in this portfolio are also a reflection of Mr. Ron’s ingenious way of imbuing us with the principles and skills in academic writing, which is very helpful to my improvement in analytical abilities and in formal writing. In addition, thank you to my classmates who have given me useful suggestions and constant support and helped me a lot in my becoming a good listener as well as a good cooperator.

Moreover, thank you for your taking precious time to read my papers. Although they may not be perfect, they can be well witnesses of my struggling, persisting, improving and maturing as a writer and critical thinker. Hope you appreciate them and learn from the ideas they provide for living a better life in this ever-changing world.


Sincerely,
Chenny