Letter to the Reader

June 14, 2013

Dear Reader,

As I entered College Composition, I was a little bit scared to be honest. I wasn’t sure exactly what we were going to be learning, or what we were going to be writing about. The big college word really dispersed some fear amongst me and most of my classmates as we walked in for the first day in January. I however was quick to learn that it would be one of the most low-key, yet productive classes that I have taken throughout high school.

Despite what my friends had told me about College Comp, I still had no idea what to expect. All I could think about was the extensive amount of homework I would have in the second half of my senior year, as many of my classmates were thinking as well. My friends had told me that it was nothing to worry about, and that Mrs. Basko leveled out the course so you never really had too much work at one time, and were still able to grasp the concepts she was teaching without having to bend over backwards to learn the material.

As the course unfolded throughout the semester, I soon came to find out exactly what I was enrolled in, and how much it was really helping me. As I mentioned before, I really expected to have a lot of homework, with hard grading on ‘College composition’. This fear was quickly put down because we were taught a bunch of new material, such as strategies, then given example of different kinds of writing, and then told to go out and write our own paper using that strategy. This process made it so much easier for our class, because by the time it came to writing our paper, we had so much background information on that type of writing, and examples that all we had to do was sit down and simply put our thoughts on paper.

The first couple of weeks we simply learned about the different types of writing (definition, exemplification, narrative, dominant impression etc.). I usually don’t take to many notes in class, but this class was one place where I found it almost essential to take notes. Not only did it make the process of writing our different pieces throughout the year easier, but will allow me in the future to look back while in college and be able to know the different skills used in each technique.

For the different pieces we wrote, we were given several examples of topics and forms to write in. As we highlighted each paper for different techniques used, we were able to see how real life authors and writers used these same techniques in their papers. We would highlight all the different writing styles, and different techniques used to back up their topic. We then used these examples in our own pieces.

One of the biggest things I always have struggled with when it comes to writing is trying to find a topic that not only I feel comfortable writing about, but also that I can really expand upon. Usually I will pick a topic and end up hitting a dead end. One of the greatest topics we studied this year was the use of examples. I recall one class period when all we did was watch a bunch of commercials, and then at the end, had to figure out how they all related and how each one related to a certain topic. We then had to find a bunch of examples of different commercials to back up what our topic was.

As I began to write my paper on determination used in commercials, I first began to research different commercials that distilled the idea of determination. Mostly sports commercials, I used these examples to expand on my thesis that commercials use different athletes and products to determine the people watching the commercial.

My dominant impression paper is the paper that affected me the most this year. I wrote about my friend Paul and his impact on my life. I found it easy to write about a subject that I had so much of a background on. I have nearly spent my last three years hanging out with him, and playing soccer with him. This paper demonstrated the power of the use of examples. You can write a paper using a bunch of general statements, but it will do nothing in grabbing the reader’s attention. The use of examples in this paper really demonstrated to me how by simply expanding upon certain topics, can make a boring topic interesting.

I have seen a lot of improvement from my first paper to my last. It is hard to compare certain pieces of writing from just this semester because we explored with so many different forms. Some I found to have strengths in, and others I found to have weakness in.  

There is no doubt that I grew in my writing skills as I finish up with college composition. The two biggest areas that I grew in this year were the use of creativity in writing, and the use of examples in all types of writing.

I feel as though my creativity grew this year more than ever. I became more of an individual writer with a deeper sense of different techniques to grab the reader’s attention. One of the biggest ways I improved on my creativity was the use of clever titles. The title is the first words the reader will read, and can ultimately decide whether they read your piece or not. I was able to think of funny puns, clever hooks, and bold titles.

Examples may be my new strongest attribute when it comes down to writing a paper. I realized how every form of literature uses examples no matter what. Commercials use a ton of examples to sell their product, TV shows use flashbacks to expand upon a point, and books use explode a moments to give examples of certain scenes. All these different form of literature proved to me that you really have to back up your thesis to prove your prove your point.

My writing throughout college composition has thrived and expanded just by simply learning all these somewhat basic topics and techniques. These new skills will pay off as I enter college, and I can now take all these new learned skills and apply them to my new stage in life.

Sincerely Yours,

Christian Amering