Dear Reviewer,

.....Let me start this letter out with an apology. I am very sorry, but this letter will contain no snappy metaphors or catchy phrases. I sat and I honestly thought for a week and a half over what I wanted to say, but I couldn't come up with anything. So, I'm very sorry, once again that this letter may bore you, but in this letter I will inform you of my writing process, my growth as a writer and my opinions about the pieces I choose to share with you. So sit back and please read the letter all the way through, even if it does bore you to tears, and then you can read my portfolio with a better understanding of the person who wrote these pieces.

.....When a teacher tells me about an up-coming paper, my writing process begins. First I sit anywhere and think about what I want to write, and how to approach the topic. To be quite honest the best time for me to write is in my room, on my bed, and on the verge of sleep. My ideas seem to become clearer to me, or maybe I'm so tired I don't care, but my best grades have come from these "sleepy" papers. After I write a paper I revise it until I can't stand to look at it. The last step of my process is to turn in the paper and the whole time it is being graded I think to myself it is the worst paper in the world. My writing process is pretty simple, as you can see.

.....The next item on the agenda is how I have grown as a writer. (This is basically a paragraph of me tooting my horn.) I believe I have the right to tell you I am very proud of myself. In this year alone I have accomplished so many goals that I have set for myself. I am better "Grammar Cop"; I can catch all my grammatical errors before I turn the paper in. I will be the first to admit I don't catch all my grammatical errors; I'm not perfect. One thing area of English that gives me trouble is spelling. I am slowly, but surely overcoming this nasty habit. My best area in editing is punctuation. It always has been. I can comma and semi-colon with the best of them. All these things are combine to make me paper relatively error free, but I have been taught one very important lesson this year. You can have no mechanical mistakes, but the paper will still be awful unless you have details and emotion in your paper. Details and emotion make a paper, plain and simple. Details put the reader in to the setting, and emotions in a paper makes the reader feel and understand the piece better though the author's eyes. These are only a few areas I have developed in, but I could write a five page paper telling you all the areas that I have grown in.

.....Now here is the hard part, telling you what I think about the pieces in my portfolio. In all honesty I don't like the pieces, well, I do like two of them. I could sit down and nit-pick through them some more and change a few things and move some stuff around, but I'm tired of looking at them. So I'll stop criticizing myself, and tell you my opinion on my pieces. The first paper you will read was the hardest for me to write. It is my personal narrative. I entitled the paper "Tear-Stained Memory", a name which fits the paper to the fullest. "Tear-Stained Memory" is about my deceased father and the times we shared together on Sundays. The paper also addresses the time of his sickness. I love this paper. Yes, it could use more revision , but I refuse. To revise "Tear-Stained Memory" any more would take away its meaning to me.

.....The second piece is another one I am proud of, "The Loss of Daddy". The poem is about a re-occurring nightmare I have had for several years. That is the only piece of information I will give you about it. I want you to read it without actually knowing all about it.

.....The third piece is a comedy I wrote about my chemistry teacher. I wrote the piece in his class about testing for silver. The teacher always teased me so I retaliated with the mighty pen. The fourth piece is a letter I wrote in American Studies. Our assignment was to put ourselves in the place of someone in the Civil War and describe the battle of Gettysburg. I chose to be a nurse. The last piece you will read is an essay, but it sounds better as an article. Well, five pieces and five descriptions--this paragraph is completed.

.....I'm at a loss for words. So, I will resort to finishing this letter the old fashion way. I will restate my thesis sentence. This letter has hopefully told you about my writing process, my growth as a writer, and my thoughts on my portfolio pieces. Thank you for your time.

..............................................................................................Sincerely,