First I would like to thank you for taking the time to read the selected works for my portfolio. The three parts of the portfolio (five items excluding the cover letter) represent what we have done in the course during this semester, which revolved around a book entitled International Story. In the book we read stories about various people in different backgrounds, present our personal opinions concerning our feelings for each of the stories and finally, select one from them, and learn to write an essay about it. Although all the four stories are worth talking about, the last one, namely The Grass-Eater by Krishnan Varma, has given me the strongest feeling. As a result, the topics of most of the items in the portfolio would reside on that specific story.

Ever since I successfully went though the GRE writing test, I have always been confident about my writing ability, especially in the structural and grammatical part. But the term writing ability turns out to be more meaningful than I have previously thought, which by definition should also involve the ability to choose a proper thesis statement and a lot more technical skills such as the usage of quotations in an essay. Both of them are not what I was good at before. But after taking the course of this term, I have made evident progresses in these two aspects. By my teacher, Mr. Ron’s help, I have learned to make a clear thesis statement of my essay, as could be seen in the three editions of the same essay pasted below. With regard to the problem of quotations, I tend to quote too much, which, in Ron’s words, makes my essays Krishnan’s instead of mine. From comments on my paper and class lectures on introducing quotes, I gradually began to know the various ways of using quotations in an essay, which greatly improved the originality of my paper. Overall, despite the fact that my clear thesis statement does not necessarily mean that it is strong, and the fact that there still remains many other skills that I have to learn in my future way of English writing, I have already achieved much in this single course. And I believe that I could walk faster and smoother in my progress of improving my English writing ability.

The first part of the portfolio includes three essays, which I have set great emphasis writing. I put them first because they clearly show my trace of progressing during this course. Draft three is the final edition, in which the thesis statement has been clearly stated, the quotations been properly used and the grammar mistakes almost eliminated. It stands for the fruit of joining the course. Comparably, draft two is inferior in that the thesis statement is not so clearly stated and there are still too many quotations in some paragraphs. Draft one is the first edition, in which the thesis is vague, quotations have not been properly introduced and some grammatical mistakes are evident.

The second part involves the timed-writing paper. This paper shows my ability to write on a specific topic within the time limits. I paste it here because it constitutes a certain part of the curriculum.

The final part is the reading log, in which I have given my personal views of the story The Grass-Eaters. In this part, my ability of free writing could be seen. Besides, it also gives hints about what I think of the story, which after the later careful thought, finally evolves into the topic of my essay of the course.

Thank you for taking the time to read this paper. I hope it will help you understand the items in my portfolio and notice the progresses that I have made in this course.

Sincerely,
Stephen