Preparing Your Portfolio: Cover Letter Part of the Gavilan Writing Center Workshop Series

 The cover letter is the introduction to your collection of writing. This is the first impression you are making on your reader.  The cover letter should discuss and reflect upon the revised work that appears in your portfolio.  The cover letter also allows you to discuss your writing, your experiences as a writer, and/or your writing process. What is a Cover Letter?

 Audience & Purpose  Who are you writing the cover letter for?  Why are you writing it?  Essays in Your Portfolio  What essays will you include in your portfolio?  How will these influence your cover letter? Things to Consider

What have you learned about writing in this class? Higher-level Concerns RevisionTransitionsOrganizationIncorporating Sources Lower-level Concerns PunctuationGrammarFormattingCitation

 Write down what you’ve learned in the class.  Be specific. Use examples.  Papers you’ve written  Specific Assignments Try It Now RevisionTransitionsOrganization Incorporating Sources

Some possible areas of exploration might include:  What you have learned through revising your essays.  Your motivations for including particular essays into the portfolio.  What challenges you face/have faced as a writer and how you have learned to overcome/deal with them.  What you feel are your greatest strengths as a writer and how this portfolio reflects those.  What you feel unified the work.  How your writing demonstrates the diversity of expression that is within you. What should I put in my Cover Letter?

What Should the Cover Letter Look Like? The cover letter should:  be formatted like a letter.  be single spaced.  have standard paragraph indentions.  be no longer than one page.  be addressed to your audience.  have several paragraphs. May 8, 2013 English Department Gavilan College Dear Committee Members, In English 250, I have learned many valuable skills. I have learned to make outlines to organize my ideas, write strong thesis statements, and to support my ideas with evidence to make a better argument. When I began this class, I thought outlines were just for jotting down ideas. I had no idea I could use them to revise a draft I had already written. But the essay, “Don’t Blame TV,” I included in this portfolio got much stronger… Sincerely, #999999

 How will you organize your cover letter?  Basic things you need to have:  Introduction, body, closing  Discuss higher-level concerns  Discuss specific examples from the essays in your portfolio as evidence  The rest is up to you!  Invest some time in writing the cover letter—make it sound like you. Organizing the Cover Letter

 What were your goals when you first came to Gavilan? What did you want to get out of this class in particular?  What are your biggest challenges with school this semester, and with academic reading and writing in particular? Think about challenges in life as well as in school.  How have you addressed or overcome those challenges or barriers? Brainstorming for the Cover Letter (1 of 2)

 What changes have you noticed in your reading and writing this semester? Have you improved? In what ways? Has your attitude about academic reading and writing changed at all? How?  What do you feel you want to work on as you progress through the English classes at Gavilan?  Do you feel ready for the next level of English? Why or why not?  What is your next step with school? Have your goals changed at all? Brainstorming for the Cover Letter (2 of 2)

Remember:  Be specific. Use examples from  papers you’ve written  specific assignments Try It Now RevisionTransitionsOrganization Incorporating Sources