How to write a reflective cover letter

Reflective Cover Letter Of Portfolio

Task:
You will write a letter that reflects upon what you have learned this quarter and indicates how the essays included in the portfolio are indicative of your growth as a writer.

While this task is similar to the cover letters you have been writing all quarter, this should be more formal and have a clear, cohesive theme. It should also be broader in scope, discussing your developments in your writing over the entire quarter. For example, you might focus on how you have improved your organization throughout this quarter, or how revision was a crucial influence on your growth as a writer, or how your biggest take-away from the class is a strong understanding of audience.

You can structure your letter in any way that makes sense to you, but it should cover the following ground:

What have you learned this quarter? Make an argument for how you have met the UWP1 learning outcomes.

To answer this question, you might consider: How did you define “good writing” at the beginning of the quarter and how do you define it now? How have you developed as a writer this quarter? How will the knowledge, skills, or experiences from this course help you in the future to accomplish reading/writing tasks in other courses and in professional settings?

Why are the essays in your portfolio representative of what you’ve learned? Support your argument by citing specific examples from the projects in your portfolio

To answer this question, you will want to explain why you chose to include your problem essay or literacy narrative, and ask yourself: What does including this text tell you about how you write, or about how you assess your work? How does this essay compare with others you’ve written? (I choose the literacy narrative because the revised of this one is more changeling than the problem essay. Mention that in the cover letter.)

You’ll also want to explain why the problem essay/literacy narrative and the rhetorical analysis essay demonstrate your ability as a writer. Use specifics from the essays as evidence (you can paraphrase, describe, or use direct quotes).

What does this electronic portfolio say about you as a writer, student, researcher, and thinker?

To answer this question, you might consider: Why did you include the visuals you did? Why did you design your navigation the way you did? How do the essays, your design decisions, and this reflective letter combine to represent you? Consider how what you learned about reading and composing in UWP1 could apply to your future writing contexts.

Throughout the letter, you will want to provide evidence to support your claims. Use this evidence to prove that you have learned what you say you have learned. For example, when discussing what you’ve learned this quarter, you may want to look back at the earlier drafts of your writing, or compare first and final drafts of your essays, or review the cover letters you wrote throughout the quarter. When you describe how the essays in the portfolio are representative of your learning, you will probably paraphrase, describe, or directly quote from the essays. Similarly, when you discuss the design of the portfolio, you may use description, but you can also link to other parts of the portfolio or include screenshots.

Genre:
The genre is a reflective letter. You will write in first-person and include personal examples, and can directly address your audience.