Bailey Cleere

(405)323-3820
bcleere@okstate.edu
2 December 2015
Mrs. Davis
Northern Oklahoma College
English Department
1118 W Hall of Fame
Stillwater, OK 74074
Dear Mrs. Davis,
As a FFA member, I was fortunate to learn proper writing skills at a young age. Part of
my job as an officer was to keep the public informed on current events and achievements of our
chapter. Participating in public speaking contests was also a large part of my FFA career. The
first step in public speaking is writing the speech. I worked on them months in advance.
Multiple rough drafts and revisions were made. After I thought I had perfected a speech, I would
ask the high school English teachers as well as my advisors to proof read it so I could correct any
errors. They never failed to find more mistakes. They pushed me to perform better in writing.
The taught me the importance of grammar and word choice. I understand because of them, I was
able to become a successful writer in my college career, although mistakes continue to be made.
By evaluating and reflecting on my growth, development, and writing process I hope to discover
a solution to my continuing mistakes as well as identifying my strengths and weaknesses.
I am currently an Animal Science major, therefore I make it a point to write the majority
of my essays over Animal Science. Essays involve research. By choosing a topic I am not only
interested in, but also seeking as my career choice, I set myself up to learn about that topic. As a
writer, I believe it shows my determination to acquire knowledge and my dedication to receive a
degree in Animal Science. My essays also reflects my experience as a writer. Although
choosing the same general topic provides me with benefits, it can also be considered a weakness.
If I write only about Animal Science, I will be illiterate on other topics and it could greatly
impact my writing if I must write about something other than Animal Science.
I have grown and developed significantly as a writer from when I began writing as a
young student to writing as a college student and I continue to improve with every essay.
Because I took a year and a half off from college, I only have essays from the fall 2015 semester.
Therefore, my portfolio begins with Showing Cattle, which is a speech I wrote for my Intro to
Oral Communications course. I decided to begin with this speech because it is the first essay I
wrote upon returning to college. My writing skills were unused and slightly rusty. This speech
will help show the improvement during my first semester back in college. Although I am happy
with the overall outcome of this essay, I know there are grammatical errors among other mistakes
that need more attention. I attempted to address them in my next essay, Morals Gained Through
Madness. The two writings are similar in content, both about showing cattle. I decided to learn
from mistakes made in the first speech in order to write a successful essay for my English
Composition II course, which is my reason for writing Morals Gained Through Madness.

My inexperience in integrating quotes and paraphrases was relieved in Relationship of

Fresh Food and Poverty, an essay also wrote for English Composition II. I have not
incorporated quotes and paraphrases in my previous writings. I also greatly struggled with citing
those quotes and paraphrases, which continued to show in future essays such as The Good, The
Bad, and The Misinformed, the last essay included in my portfolio. Furthermore, time
management was an issue for both of these papers. I underestimated the time it would take to
research my topics and find reliable sources I felt I could count on. This was greatly revealed in
The Good, The Bad, and The Misinformed, a paper intended for English Composition II. I
mistakenly thought I could research and write about antibiotics and genetically modifies crops in
one paper. These should have been two separate topics due to the amount of information and
personal opinion I possessed on both subjects. The more I write, the more mistakes I will make,
such as these, to learn from.
An outline has never been a part of my writing process. I struggled greatly with outlines,
therefore, I always began my writings by opening my computer and immediately beginning my
rough draft. This semester, I was required to write and use an outline alone when giving
speeches for Intro to Oral Communications. I was forced to learn how to write an outline, which
I began using for other essays outside of my speech class. Knowing how to write and use an
outline has greatly improved my writing ability and helped me grow and develop as a writer.
As an Animal Science major, I will be required to write letters, emails, reports, and
various other pieces of literature in order to fulfill my duties. Because I have grown and
developed as a writer, I have a new found understanding for how to write proper and
professionally. This will greatly benefit my career in the future. I feel confident and prepared to
deliver those writings to future customers, employees, and others. However, I recognize my
need to further improve integrating quotes and paraphrasing, citing those, and grammatical
errors.
I believe my portfolio contains essays that will assist in the evaluation and reflection of
my growth, development, and writing process in order to determine a resolution to my ongoing
mistakes as well as detecting my strengths and weaknesses. There will always be room for
improvement and I will forever continue to progress my growth and development. Through
unending practice, I will become a successful writer.
Sincerely,
Bailey Cleere