Rosnellys Perez
Portfolio Cover Letter
Before English 103, my writing skills were not the best I have to admit, I am not
the "I love writing" type of person, to be honest I highly dislike having to write papers,
essays or anything that is not facebook or twitter and let's not forget texting! I’m not sure
how or why, I guess I just don't like to have to think of big words or professional ways to
fix my papers because it is when reality slaps me in the face and reminds me that I still
have to learn English, I still have to fix a lot of grammar and it makes me remember how
limited my vocabulary is even if I have been trying my hardest to fix it and it just
frustrates me.
I used to love writing before I moved to The United States, but it was only
because it was in Spanish, I used to write all kind of poems and stories and even diary
entries, I used to love book reports and everything the teachers used to make us write in
high school. I still have a collection of all my writing and not trying to brag but it is pretty
impressive, I notice I was very organized and clear about what I wanted to say, to be
honest I never drafted or did free writing because ideas just came to my mind and it was
like I was out of the world while I was writing, pretty weird, I know; anyways,
sometimes, when I get homesick, I still write a lot of letters and poems for my family, but
when it comes to write in English, I just get stuck, I don't know what to say, well I do
know, I just don't know how to explain it in a way that it is good enough.
When I moved to Zion, IL, where I did my senior year of high school and my first
six months speaking English, I never had to really do nothing because I had enough
credits to graduate but I was sixteen years-old by the time plus I had to complete one year
of Government class and take the ACT's, anyways, my English class in high school was
all about reading books and answering some questions, but not in an essay way, just like
questionnaires, but for our final, we had to do something pretty similar to this portfolio
just that instead of just putting together papers we did during the semester, the
requirement was to write ten different essays about whatever we want, then I realized
how limited I was when it came to essays, I got stuck for the longest and to solve it I did
the biggest mistake ever, I wrote everything I wanted to say in Spanish and then
translated it, HUGE mistake, why? Well because I didn't learn a thing, yes I got an A in
the final yet I graduated high school and was way too limited in my writing because I
always had to translate in order to write my ideas down, I don't remember my score on
the written part of the ACT but I am pretty sure it was not that great, maybe because I
was way too sleepy that day (thank you senior skip day) or just because like I said, I still
have
a
very
limited
vocabulary.
I am glad I was put in English 103, even if I complained a lot, a lot, seriously, a
lot, about having to write long papers, having to do draft and don't even let me talk about
how many nights of sleep I lost because of my freshman procrastination issues and
insecurities about my papers but yet getting negatives comments or things that I have to
improve in every single one of my essays, it was pretty upsetting, I felt like gave up many
times, but I am proud of myself for not doing that, for sticking to the positive attitude and
just try again and again and putting passion in my papers, now I feel better about my
writing, I am a little more confident and I believe if I really try and put time into it I can
make a great paper about whatever I want. I am conscious I still have some improvement
to do, but for just being here for a year, I believe I am doing pretty well so I will give
myself some credits. If there is one advice I could give myself for the future is to please
be more organized and consider with my time, I need to quit leaving everything for the
last minute just because I believe I work better under pressure because I know the quality
of my papers could be higher if I only just dedicate time into doing them.