Dear Mx.

Pennington, March 16th, 2023

Within this website, my original Writing Project 1 and Writing Project 2 are included along with
this cover letter. As I am writing this, I truly cannot believe this quarter has come to an end. In all
honesty, I was dreading this class. I had tried to enroll in it all of last year but could never secure
a spot. Pushing it off longer and longer made me even less excited than before. However, to my
surprise, I enjoyed the class. I have developed so many valuable skills that I know will be
beneficial for my future. At first, learning I was going to be forced to read through your feedback
and then have to edit my work was quite scary. In the past, when I turned in an assignment I took
comfort that there was nothing I could do. But, that is not the case for this class. As Lamont says,
“Very few writers know what they are doing until they’ve done it” (2005). The layout of this
class teaches you exactly that, it’s ok to have shitty first drafts. Learning to accept that some of
my work might be “shitty” is one of my greatest takeaways from this class. By receiving a
second shot at creating and editing my work, I can ultimately turn something in that I am truly
proud of.

When it comes to Writing Project 1, I had a ton of fun with it. As I was looking for an article on
any topic I wished, fashion was high on my list. Combining that with my interest in graphic
design, creating my magazine was quite enjoyable, as it felt less like school and more like a
hobby. However, I still missed some key design and editorial aspects. The main things I changed
from your comments were adding a “Table of Contents” page, placing fake quotes from the
interview my translation addressed, changing some wording, and finally making significant
changes to my reflection paper. The altercations to my magazine article help showcase the genre
as an article within a greater magazine, not a zine. As for my reflection paper, I added an extra
paragraph to address more of my design choices. Numerous edits were made to the remaining
writing, with many sentences being changed, added, or removed.

Moving forward, it was time to work on my final draft of Writing Project 2. For this assignment,
I will admit I enjoyed it a bit less. I did struggle a bit to find scholarly articles in conversation
that were also present on CompPile and the UCSB Library. This project was tedious, and I
caught myself losing steam as the due date rolled around. The first edit I made was changing
how my reflection was included. I changed it into an email being sent to the College of Letters
and Science Advising. This helped address the audience as teachers and also illuminated that it
was a student (me) who made the infographic. In replacement of the original reflection page, I
added “4 Key Takeaways” to the end of the infographic. This furthered the conversation between
scholars into a concise area, and also further emphasized the audience as teachers. From there I
made some minor changes to grammar and wording, while also changing out a few graphics.

After completing both projects, I feel confident in my growth as a writer. This class has taught
me the importance of patience and reflection. Growth does not come quickly, nor does it look the
same for everyone. Through your guidance and feedback, I could identify the areas of my
writing that needed improvement. In week three, we read Taczak’s essay, “The Importance of
Transfer in Your First Year Writing Course”', a reading that I have often found myself thinking
back on. All of high school I was placed into the honors or AP courses offered through the
school. At the moment I was sure they would readily prepare me for college, and they did in
some ways. However, most of the essay writing techniques are built to prepare you for the AP
test. Many of those skills were not needed or prevalent in college writing. As Taczak says, the
concept of transfer is “the ability to take knowledge and practices learned about writing in
one context and repurpose or reframe that knowledge and practice to help you in another
context,” (2021). This class taught me exactly that. By learning how to take my high
school writing skills and morphing them into things that will help me in college, I have
become a much stronger writer.

To wrap up this letter, I’ll start off by thanking you for a great quarter. Although I have
learned and grown throughout this class, there is always room for improvement. I am
planning to go into the professional writing minor, where I will get to continue to practice
skills in multimedia writing (such as my magazine for Writing Project 1). Thank you for
allowing us freedom in our topics and genres, as the work felt like it had a personal
purpose. I am excited to use and strengthen my writing skills in the future.

Sincerely,
Stella Schmautz
 References

Lamott, A. (2005). Shitty First Drafts. Language Awareness: Reading for College Writers, 9,
93-96.

Taczak, T. (202). The Importance of Transfer in Your First Year Writing Course. Writing Spaces:
Readings on Writing, 4, 301-311.