The first artifact I think I might discuss in my cover letter is my Pecha Kucha presentation. Not only was it the first major assessment we did in this class, but it was a presentation style I have never heard of before. Thus, I was really nervous at the beginning of the project, but afterwards I was really proud of myself for giving this presentation in front of the whole class (and first). The second and third artifacts I might showcase in my cover letter are blog posts number 7 and 9. Blog post number 7 was one in which I summarized Eleanor Salotto’s article “Frankenstein and Dis(re)membered Identity,” as well as give a possible way that I could use this article in my research paper. I did end up using this article in my final paper and thus I think it is interesting to compare my original summary with my actual argument in my paper and how my ideas change over time. Blog post number 9 was my (very) rough outline for my paper. In my paper I did end up discussing these rough outline of points and arguments, but in a different order and not exactly the same. Again, I think it is interesting to see how the process of writing includes a lot of editing and looking back, what I thought was an outline for my paper ended up not being how my paper actually turned out. My fourth, fifth and sixth artifacts will be my paper proposal/ annotated bibliography, rough draft and final draft. I think these three are the most important writings I have done in this class and not only reflect my writing, but really illustrate how much editing goes into the writing process. It takes multiple attempts and corrections to reach full potential and these three stages demonstrate that.

The objective that I would like to focus on is Objective #3: “Writing as Process.”  

“Getting started: Consider describing the changes in one of the projects included in the portfolio from beginning to end. Did you use techniques that your instructor may have mentioned: outlining, response paragraphs, and blogging? Did informal kinds of writing find their way into the process such as emailing a professor about an idea, sketching out notes on a napkin at a coffee shop, or talking to a friend about your ideas? Ultimately, your writing process includes each step you take from the coffee shop napkin to an outline to a first draft and eventually, a final product.”

I think the artifacts that I mentioned to put in my cover letter are the ones that best respond to this prompt. These showcase the steps it takes to create the final product. Each illustrate how my ideas change over and over again until a final product is created. Also, the paper utilized talking to peers and others to make the final product such as peer editing and conferences and thus demonstrates how many steps are taken to reach the final paper.