Final Portfolio: Cover Letter

Shelby Ray

M. Tetterton

Engl 1200

29 April 2011

Final Portfolio: Cover Letter

            During English 1200, I feel that I have learned a multitude of skills that will help me in writing future papers. My high school English experience consisted of preparing for the AP exam my Junior year and writing papers in what I thought was MLA format my Senior year. My teacher never really taught us the proper technique for writing a paper in MLA. She told us that we would learn that skill in college and it was not necessary in a high school English class. Of course, once I arrived in English 1200, I had a really vague idea on how to construct a thought out, understandable paper. Also, seeing as I placed out of English 1100 because of my score on the AP Literature exam, I jumped right in to 1200 without this knowledge.  I feel that I had a strong voice when it came to writing, but I just lacked structure and technique.

            This fact was really revealed to me as I was revising Project One. It was obvious that I had not looked over it at all and just handed it in without reading through it thoroughly. The main thing that I notice was that I would repeat the same fact over and over again throughout the paper. I had a good point and explained myself, but I did it too much. During the revision, I took out some of the sentences that were not necessary and elaborated on the parts that needed it. I chose that Project solely because I knew that it would need that most work, technique wise. Because of this course, I have learned how to explain myself and flesh out my point of view on an issue, but in fewer, more accurate words.