Liudichen Liu
June 20, 2007
Cover Letter
To Whom It May Concern:
First of all, thank you for your viewing my blog. There are several portfolios in my blog to show what I have learnt in this semester. And I would like to lay out the great shift in my writing ability. After attending this class, I have read a large amount of essays and articles that may help me in my composition. As we all know, the way of writing an article varies in China and in the Western world. If we want to be familiar with the English way of writing, we had better learn about their way of think. And in this class, we know this technique in details. This helps a lot of people who intend to acquire real means of composition facing the same kind of problem. Here I have chosen three portfolios to share with you to support my idea.
For the past years, I learnt writing just for one goal: passing the university entrance examination. As a result, what I acquire is writing a typical Chinese English essay, which can meet the needs of the teachers who give grade. But now with the help of Mr. Ron, I begin to open my eye to see the outside world. The technique of writing is useful because we write in our daily life. It occurred to me that we write due to we need to. After reading the articles and essays in the book, I know in details how I can write a composition and how I can think as a native speaker. At the same time, I tried to understand other’s idea and I also make up for my weakness by receiving comments from my classmates. In this semester, we learnt a lot. We have been able to understand other’s idea before we try to make out our own. Writing is a process that we need to read as well as to write. Because of the lesson, I have a more broad view than before. So here I want to show my gratitude to Ron for his help in this semester. All in all, after the study of academic writing for a semester, I make great progress in my writing skill, for example, more critical and so on.
The four stories we have read in our lessons are really interesting and not to be sneezed at. So it is a nice idea to change them in to film. In the “Time-writing Three”, we attempt to make a film trailer for them. We select “The Grass-Eaters” as the source of the movie. In the essay, I manage to find out the right scene to represent the theme of the movie. For me, I decide to use the great contrast that Ajit Babu and his wife are tolerably satisfied with they life, although they live in the tough condition. What’s more, I describe how to make the advertisement in my article as the last part. This type of writing is quite fresh for me, and I hope that it will give you something new as well.
The three drafts are articles about “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen” given by the American author Bruno Lessing in 1903. In the essay, I deal with the secret of winning respect. We have read the story before, so, with some of my classmates, I discussed the key for Shadrach to winning his sons’ respect. However, certain of them hold the opinion that Shadrach succeed in the end because he sticks to his religious belief all the time. I do not quite agree with them. From my point of view, Shadrach’s firm belief plays such a tiny role in the story that his sons do not realize the importance of him and his belief. Shadrach turns in the story; as a result he wins the respect. The secret of his victory is his business skill. In my essays, I try to analysis why it should be his business skill instead of his firm belief that gives him the respect and dignity he deserves.
And the rest part of my blog is reading log, which has something with regard to my first impression of the story. Among the four stories we have in this semester, I like “The Americanization of Shadrach Cohen” most, because I think this story has something positive. In the context, what made me puzzled has been listed. If you read it, you may probably know how I felt about the story the first time I read it. It will bring you the rough picture of the story.
Thank you for reading my letter.
Sincerely,
Liudichen Liu
June 20, 2007
