Preparing Your Portfolio: Cover Letter
Part of the Gavilan Writing Center Workshop Series
What is a Cover Letter?
 The cover letter is the introduction to your collection
of writing. This is the first impression you are making
on your reader.
 The cover letter should discuss and reflect upon the
revised work that appears in your portfolio.
 The cover letter also allows you to discuss your
writing, your experiences as a writer, and/or your
writing process.
Things to Consider
 Audience & Purpose
 Who are you writing the cover letter for?
 Why are you writing it?
 Essays in Your Portfolio
 What essays will you include in your portfolio?
 How will these influence your cover letter?
What have you learned about writing
in this class?
Higher-level Concerns
Lower-level Concerns
Revision
Punctuation
Transitions
Grammar
Organization
Formatting
Incorporating Sources
Citation
Try It Now
 Write down what you’ve learned in the class.
 Be specific. Use examples.
 Papers you’ve written
 Specific Assignments
Revision
Transitions
Organization
Incorporating
Sources
What should I put in my Cover Letter?
Some possible areas
of exploration might include:
 What you have learned through revising your essays.
 Your motivations for including particular essays into the
portfolio.
 What challenges you face/have faced as a writer and how you
have learned to overcome/deal with them.
 What you feel are your greatest strengths as a writer and how
this portfolio reflects those.
 What you feel unified the work.
 How your writing demonstrates the diversity of expression that
is within you.
What Should the Cover Letter Look
Like?
May 8, 2013
English Department
Gavilan College
Dear Committee Members,
In English 250, I have learned many
valuable skills. I have learned to make outlines
to organize my ideas, write strong thesis
statements, and to support my ideas with
evidence to make a better argument.
When I began this class, I thought outlines
were just for jotting down ideas. I had no idea I
could use them to revise a draft I had already
written. But the essay, “Don’t Blame TV,” I
included in this portfolio got much stronger…
Sincerely,
#999999
The cover letter should:
 be formatted like a letter.
 be single spaced.
 have standard paragraph
indentions.
 be no longer than one page.
 be addressed to your
audience.
 have several paragraphs.
Organizing the Cover Letter
 How will you organize your cover letter?
 Basic things you need to have:
 Introduction, body, closing
 Discuss higher-level concerns
 Discuss specific examples from the essays in your portfolio
as evidence
 The rest is up to you!
 Invest some time in writing the cover letter—make it
sound like you.
Brainstorming for the Cover Letter
(1 of 2)
 What were your goals when you first came to Gavilan?
What did you want to get out of this class in
particular?
 What are your biggest challenges with school this
semester, and with academic reading and writing in
particular? Think about challenges in life as well as in
school.
 How have you addressed or overcome those
challenges or barriers?
Brainstorming for the Cover Letter
(2 of 2)
 What changes have you noticed in your reading and
writing this semester? Have you improved? In what
ways? Has your attitude about academic reading and
writing changed at all? How?
 What do you feel you want to work on as you
progress through the English classes at Gavilan?
 Do you feel ready for the next level of English? Why or
why not?
 What is your next step with school? Have your goals
changed at all?
Try It Now
Remember:
 Be specific. Use examples from
 papers you’ve written
 specific assignments
Revision
Transitions
Organization
Incorporating
Sources