Midterm Portfolio Letter

Laura Darrow

Course Name: ENG 102, Section # 32354

Date: 10/16/2010

Dear Laura,

Subject: Midterm Portfolio Letter

After completing English 101, I was excited about beginning this class. Although the first eight weeks of this class seem to have flown by, when I look back over what I have completed and learned I am surprised at what I have been able to accomplish. The major test I have faced so far would have to be Poetry, besides the word always making me cringe; I struggled at first attempting to wrap my mind around the poems in Poetry of Witness. When you know you have troubles with a particular area it seems to make the whole process even more of a struggle because of the mental blocks you subconsciously put up. After pushing through the blocks and reading more and more poetry and writings on the concept of poetry I was happily surprised with the progress I began to make, it all started to become less of a blur and shock horror I actually got it. Due to this revelation I had I would say the work I completed in the poetry section of this class was by fair my biggest success, I even attempted at writing my own piece of poetry.

The readings as far have been some what out of the norm for me, which I have enjoyed.

Tim O’Brien’s and Sean Huze’s writings I found to be oddly captivating and disturbing at the same time. Being a Psychology student the obvious psychological issue and themes in both stories drew me in immediately, and I have found it enjoyable and a great practice to address them in my writing.

The theory of literary analysis I found particular interesting in that you get to deal more into the mind of the author more so than any other writing I have done to now, thinking out of the box and delving that deeply into a store can give you such a more in depth opinion and outlook on the story you have just read. As for the rest of this semester I hope to keep fine polishing my writing skills and use of  grammar, I am still finding myself getting so into what I am writing and not paying attention to how I am writing it. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for the insight you have given me so far in this class, it has been a very rewarding experience.

Sincerely,

Sarah Robinson