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Introduction

The following portfolio is designed to showcase the work I have done in Writing 2 in

winter quarter of 2019 and display my growth as a writer. It consists of a cover letter and two

writing projects that I am most proud of. In the cover letter, I describe my writing process,

growth, and my takeaways from the class as well as a description of how I modified the two

writing projects for the final submission. Next is the first writing project that focuses on

standards in academic writing, its convention and how writing is used in the discipline. There, I

present my findings on the writing conventions in computer science education, supporting my

claims with examples from various publication as well as words of an expert in computer science

that I have interviewed for this project. Finally, the second writing project on display is a fun

project on translating different genres. I picked a piece of writing in a chosen genre, specifically,

a manual for a power strip, and translated it into an entirely new genre of TV cartoons. In the

project I present a script for the cartoon and describe my translation, the choices I have made,

and the skills required to craft a genre translation. On the website, you can also find my first

submission drafts that are intended to showcase my growth and results of the revision process. I

am hugely proud of both projects and hope that you will have fun exploring my portfolio.

Yours,

Arthur Gatin
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Cover Letter

March 22, 2019

Dear Maria,

I have written so much this quarter that it becomes hard to remember and access my level

as a writer before Writing 2. To call it to mind, I went to the first piece of writing I have created

this quarter, where I described my goals for the class as well as reading and writing skills I

wanted to strengthen. One of such goals was to feel more confident about making writing

choices. Starting a cover letter with a recollection of my first piece of writing is one such choice,

and I have made many more in this class to now be certain about it. Another goal was to be able

to read differently and more efficiently, identifying the most important pieces and putting myself

in shoes of the author, seeing what has led them to making one writing choice or another. The

first thing that comes to mind is the amount of text I have read this quarter. Publications,

magazines, my own works, cover letters, scripts, and many more have done the job of making

my reading more efficient. Take publications, for example. As a college freshman, I wasn’t used

to reading long academic articles on topics I might have never heard of. Yet in this class not only

have I read many such works, I also identified common themes and features among them to

come up with several writing conventions of the discipline I was exploring. Mike Bunn’s “How

to Read Like a Writer” has also helped me increase my efficiency by looking at the writing

choices authors have made and then, if appropriate, use those in my own writing as well (Bunn

73). These improvements alone would make this class worth my time and effort, but the change

that brings me the most joy and confidence in my growth is being proud of my own works of

writing.
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Another change that I have noticed in myself was looking differently at a piece of

writing. Just like a physicist imagines formulas and equations when looking at ordinary objects, I

can see the genres in which a piece of writing was made in and can easily identify the

conventions of that genre based on what I see. In my opinion, Dirk’s “Navigating Genres” has

resulted in this effect, as well as the in-class activity with identifying genres in everyday life, and

the first Writing Project as a whole. Although it is weird to think about writing choices made in

the creating of a poster or instruction to a microwave, this skill proved to be a great help in

analyzing works of writing and creating a piece of writing myself.

Learning more about stories is also something I will remember long after Writing 2.

Surprisingly, MasterClass videos of famous writers turned out to be very memorable, and the

advices of those writers were invaluable in the writing projects, which I have described in

Writing Project 3. However, an article that I wish I gave more credit to was Scott McCloud’s

“Writing with Pictures”. I don’t know whether it was its format that made me come back to it

time after time and still be able to learn something new about stories. The story of a hungry lion

has not only helped me create my own story, but opened a new perspective on composition in

general, and I have discovered an interesting mental experiment – to take any popular story and

try to weigh it against McCloud’s five choices. This inside view on composition is very valuable,

and I will also remember it for a long time.

Furthermore, I would like to talk about the revision process in creation of the final

portfolio. I have used a strategy that I learned during your office hours which was to take a step

back from your work for some time, and then come back to it and revise it with a fresh take on it.

I have never done it before and was surprised when I was able to find mistakes and point out

awkward wording in something that I considered good enough for the WP submissions. It turned
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out to be a great strategy, and the only improvement to the results of it would have been a later

deadline to be able to take a longer break from my own work. I have thoroughly edited my

writing projects according not only to your comments to my submission, but also to my own

vision of these projects. In Writing Project 2, I was able to identify and fix poor wording, lack of

evidence in one case, and rewrote the conclusion, which I didn’t like before, but didn’t know

how to improve. Now, I was editing my projects with a feeling for what works well in writing

and what does not, which I have seen in others and always wanted to acquire myself. I’m looking

forward to reading the feedback on my portfolio to hopefully understand to what extent I do have

that feeling and how I could improve it. As for Writing Project 3, I felt proud of my work

already, but still was able to find ways to improve. The fresh take revealed minor details such as

the unnecessary use of passive voice, words such as “this” and “that” is sentences that I now

knew I had to get rid of. Apart from that, I have made changes to the conclusion which were not

groundbreaking, but in my opinion have significantly improved the flow of the final sentences. I

think that my revision process has made the pieces even stronger and fell safe with posting them

on the website for others to see. In conclusion, I would like to talk about my strengths and

weaknesses as a writer.

Surprisingly, it is not easier to access my own strengths and weaknesses than it was in the

beginning of the quarter. I have brought clarity of writing to a new level and am now confident

in it. My organization is also something I am proud of, and I haven’t had a problem with

structuring my works in the class. Something I will continue working on in concision and

language. I can make a piece concise if I have to but knowing where something needs detail or

when it could be summarized is a skill I will continue practicing. I will improve my language

through reading more, as I have this quarter, and this sure will improve my word choice and
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structural aspects for all kinds of writing I will encounter. As I have stated before, I think that I

have grown a lot this quarter, and my experiences, works, and growth will remain with me for

decades to come.

Sincerely yours,

Arthur Gatin
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Works Cited

Bunn, Mike. “How to Read Like a Writer.” Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Parlor

Press, 2010.

Dirk, Kerry. "Navigating Genres." Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing. Parlor Press,

2010. Web. 07 Mar. 2019.

McCloud, Scott. “Writing With Pictures” Making comics. Harper Press, 2006