December 15, 2009

Portfolio Committee
English Department
North Dakota State University
Fargo, ND 58102.

Dear Portfolio Reader:

In my portfolio ‘Suara’ meaning voice, I included a variety of material in order to display

a wide breadth of my abilities and interests in this course as well as knowledge I gained
from architecture. I tried to show the presence of awareness of my audience and
rhetorical purpose by providing several different styles of writing.

In the first unit of this course, I wrote materials in response to my career. This includes
my resume, cover letter, as well as the marketing letter. I wrote documents that were
directed to future employers. I felt that the value of these documents was twofold: I could
learn how to write career materials while fulfilling a class requirement. I feel that these
documents are highly important because it is necessary for me to have a good command
on preparing them as I begin to apply for internships. And it was also my opportunity to
practice professional writing.

Although I wrote these documents for a class, I tried to be watchful of my vocabulary and
also grammar because if I had used over-confident language, my documents would have
been easier to be dismissed or discredited. I wanted to make my resume be short and
concise. I wanted to state my strengths and not overload it with claims that may end up
being skimmed over. I had trouble being bold enough in my cover letter as well as my
marketing letter, since it seemed like to me that it was contradicting my cultural values.
However, with much assistance and reviews, I was able to make bolder sentences, and
while providing more supporting information for my claims. My marketing letter
however still has multiple flaws to it, as some phrases seem a little ‘awkward’ as said by
my instructor. This is one of the two aspects I want to work on as I continue my
education; weakness in writing logical prose.

For the second unit of this course, we were required to write a photo essay. My essay
"Slam the Slums" gives readers a better insight into my interests in a specific manner by
drawing the topic focus towards slum development. I take this piece as my strongest
work. I have never written an essay which had a combination of text and pictures. I have
also never written an essay that was specifically directed towards a certain community. In
this case, I was writing for the readers of an online site called InHabitat. I found it easier
for me to write this essay because it was a blend of an objective essay as well as a
research paper, and it still gave me room to express my thoughts in a less formal manner.
I feel that the photographs in the essay helped support my points and bring the essay to
life. This essay however, forced me to understand my sources and deliver them in a
professional manner by citing them. I have trouble preparing my citation in a consistent
manner, and according to the requested style which is APA.
As much as I was comfortable with this essay, I was afraid of simple errors such as
grammar, spelling and sentence prose that could jeopardize the quality of my essay. I
therefore, had many people review this paper for me to give me the opportunity to
improve on it. My instructor mainly recommended that I look into the consistency of my
citation and be more specific by providing more details to the points I make. For example
when I made a statement that went by this ‘ This leads to a bad system of urban
planning.’, I reviewed it and made it more specific to what now is ‘ This leads to a bad
system of urban planning such as shaky housing structures , undefined road systems, and
poor amenities (water and electricity).’ I also made major review to my reference list by
using a more consistent format of citation.

Finally, the third unit of this course required preparing a proposal memo that was a group
effort. The proposal was about additions for the Virtual Peace Garden on Second Life. I
thought it would be a strong piece to end with as it demonstrates my skills and
professionalism to use collective information from my teammates, analyze them, and
then put them as a whole into one document. This document was a collective effort of our
group. I put the sources together in a manageable and readable manner for a final
proposal document. I edited the cover letter which was written by one of my group
members. I also developed on our ideas in a logical sequence to give readers a better
understanding of what we were proposing. For example, I added narratives to the Ball of
Life as well as the Sky of Memories. After the first review, I went back and added the
footer as well as corrections to the flow of the content that was wrongly inserted.

The tried and true methods I used to write this paper made it one that I felt quite
comfortable including in my portfolio. For example, I outlined this piece by using a
method for writing research papers suggested to me by a previous instructor. As I
concluded my research, I simply wrote down any relevant points that I wanted to use.
Then, when I felt I had enough information to begin writing, I laid out the cards in the
order in which I wanted to present the information they held which instantly provided me
with an outline.

Fortunately, I entered this semester with a relatively good command in English which
allowed many of my revisions to focus on style, purpose, and trying to make my voice
heard. However, I still had a lot to focus on grammar and vocabulary. And although
much of this semester's work validated the effectiveness of strategies that I had used in
the past, I learned the areas in which my writing is weakest and needs the most work. I
now know that to improve my overall writing abilities I need to continue to practice
writing subjectively and add more details to my points and claims to add depth to my
work. I will also need to continuously work on citation format as I continue my
education.

Sincerely,

Malini Foobalan