Cover letter

In this essay, I narrate a story about my first experiences learning English in this country. I remember a crucial moment when my mindset had to change in order to move forward. My essay is intended for those English learners or any other language learners that struggle to give their first steps into the process of learning effectively. I talk about the foolishness of thinking that you alone can learn with no help at all from someone else, and by doing so it only creates a barrier that will prevent you from moving forward. 

Some meaningful insights I have gained during this phase and through writing this assignment are the use of pathos, ethos, and logos in other people’s writing. Particularly, the use of logos, and how powerful it can be in writing. The use of purposely placed words to awaken emotions into the reader’s heart, and mind. I believe that the ability to feel emotions is the greatest weakness in the human mind, therefore, I wonder how many times it has been used in speeches in order to manipulate the masses. 

The concept of intended audience has impacted the most in my learning and writing practices. Before learning this concept most of my writing either made for myself only or for school projects were written with the whole purpose of telling myself a story or a memory that I had forgotten. But, after learning the concept of having an intended audience, made me constantly think of my writing as a method of communicating, and mostly teaching others with my writing and my experiences rather than asking myself if I like it or not, I also think about how will the reader feel? It has made me more aware of my word choices. 

I think this phase’s assignments have helped me to achieve the following learning outcomes: 

“Recognize the role of language in empowering, oppressing, and hierarchizing languages and their users, and be open to communicating across different languages and cultures.”

“Develop strategies for reading, drafting, collaborating, revising, and editing.”

“Find joy or meaning in the act and practice of writing.”

The reading “Mother Tongue” by Amy Tan helped me to achieve the first outcome “… to be open to communication across different languages and cultures.” After reading Amy Tan’s writing, and analyzing it during class. I realized how unconsciously I was judging people based on their so-called “Broken English”. Amy Tan describes it as just a term people use because they don’t know what else to call it. But it made me think about what it means for me. I used to think that your ability to speak and how you use words represented how much effort you put into learning. I have changed my mind over the years, and learned to not judge, but this reading particularly, made me think that even if I use fancy words, others will still perceive my english as “broken”. So I should not focus on fixing what’s not broken, and help others as well to understand communication shouldn’t be fancy, we just need to understand each other easily. 

Class workshops helped me to improve my editing skills, not by giving feedback, but by analyzing the feedback I received from my classmates, they found mistakes where I found perfection. I learned to see one word from three different angles to make sure my writing can be understood by more people rather than just me. 

Finally, the spoken language narrative helped me specially it helped me to find meaning in my writing. I was given freedom on how to present my writing, at the same time, freedom on what to write about. I have always enjoyed expressing my ideas but I don’t always have the time to do it. I used to think I write to redirect my thoughts into something more relaxing and that I would drop dead if anyone read what I write, but strangely, in this project I had the chance to enjoy my writing with others as well. Now I know I have a passion for sharing my poems with others. And made me think about in the future doing the same but in a bigger scenario.