29 April 2019

Portfolio Committee
Northern Oklahoma College
English Department
615 N. Monroe
Stillwater, Oklahoma 74075

Dear Mrs. Davis,

Hello I hope that you are doing great! I am submitting a collection of a few writing’s I have done
thus far in various classes that demonstrate my ability as a writer, and my comprehensive
vocabulary. All of the writing’s I have included show light to who I am, and how I write.

My first writing is a piece that I had wrote for this class during the first part of the semester. I
decide upon this piece because of the structure and organization of this piece. This piece is a
opinion paper that I wrote called “How To be Good a Neighbor”. This piece talks about the code
that I try and use in my own life to help try to make the world and people a little better. The
second piece that I chose is another selection from your composition class. “Is The Food Industry
To Blame For Obesity In The United States” is a annotated bibliography about the cause of
obesity in the United States. I chose this writing because it shows my ability to support my thesis
with quality evidence. In writing this paper I show great article choice and transitions into the
writing. “I Believe” is a essay that I had wrote for my government class about my beliefs in the
government and where I stood on certain issues. I think that “ I Believe” demonstrates my ability
to articulate my words and thoughts onto a page while also having very few grammatical errors.
This selection shine’s light also to whom I am as a person and my beliefs. Finally for my fourth
selection is a letter to state superintendent Joy Hofmister I wrote this for your composition two
class. I chose this letter for my portfolio because it shows how I can be formal while talking to
someone of power. On this letter project I chose to write about how the Oklahoma Public School
System was broke and, what I thought we should do about it.

Throughout the last year of college my academic career my writing skills have improved
immensely in the way I portray my thoughts onto the paper also my grammar skills and
formatting as come a long ways. I think also that I have matured a lot in my college writing a lot
thanks to you because you push me to use a larger vocabulary with more complex sentence
structure. I have had a long journey in my academic career to get where I am although I wrote
quite a bit in high school the way I did it was like a robot just spitting information on paper with
a small vocabulary and simple sentences. This year has been encouraging to me to be able to see
my progress and how far I have come in such a sort time it will be interesting to see how far I
will be in three years.

A tool that I would probably keep in my writer’s tool box is that I would work distraction free. I
think working distraction free is the best thing I can do for my writing , because when I work
distraction free I accomplish much more and my creativity in writing flows much better and
easier. I am a easily distracted person and I can often struggle getting myself to focus on just
sitting down and writing, because of this my writing can often become choppy and not flow well
because I lose my train of thought everytime I pause while I get distracted. I usually combat this
by waking up really early like four or five in the morning to cut all distractions. I think the other
thing I would keep in my writer’s tool box is previous writing I think that because you may get a
idea from a old writing or maybe you forgot how to do something like a annotated bibliography
later on down the road keeping your old writings may help with many things. Also it may sound
cliche but it is always nice to see how much you have improved and to just reflect on previous
writings. Finally I would keep easybib it is a great website for writing citations makes life so
much easier on big papers that I have to write so that I can correctly cite the work I do.

I think I have both strengths and weaknesses in my writing. I for starters think some of my
strengths are being very good at telling a story in my writing I feel that I can convey stories onto
the paper just as I am thinking them in my head. I think that another one of my strengths is that
my writing seems to flow well I can usually stay right on topic and make good quality arguments
that are easy to follow. My biggest weaknesses are definitely my grammar although my grammar
has come a long way it could still be better. Another weakness in my writing is or can be finding
sufficient evidence for my writing backing up statements that I make or points I am trying to
prove is something that I struggle with. Finally I think that I struggle with hitting a set pet page
limit if I have one I hate just writing to try and hit a page limit sometimes I just run out of things
to say.

Moving forward from this writing I have done is going to tremendously help me not just in the
rest of my schooling but also as long as I am alive. As I move on in my writing I will need to
address and do better with my grammar it has come a long ways in this class, but I think it still
has a ways to go to be where I would like it to be. The writings I see in my future is every
college class I will be in till I graduate but also in my career I would like to be a Army officer
and a lot of that job is writing well written reports that are clear and concise. I think that I will
also be writing the rest of my life so it is important that I can be able to write and write well at
that to be taken seriously. I think that I am more prepared for life I still have much to learn about
writing and I can always improve my writing, but i think that you Mrs.Davis and my other
teachers have given me the tools in my toolbox successfully write and communicate my thoughts
to look like a competent person.

Sincerely,

Cole Carpenter