4.18 Personal Statement + Introductory letters

In class today you worked on your personal statements and introductory letters.  While we referred to guidelines at the links - today's real lesson was that your personal statement + introductory letter needed to address the particular demands of your profession and of the group/institution you were writing to.

For example, we did a sample rhetorical analysis for Yasmin's personal statement.  We thought about the purpose of her statement (what she wanted her statement to do); the audience, and the form.

For her purpose - she wanted to identify herself has having the right "politics" with respect to dogs, to demonstrate her writing abilities, and to distinguish herself as creative and a self-starter

Audience: staff at Bark magazine - and she had to do some thinking about who they were and what they expected (for example - what is THEIR idea of good writing?) in order to get down the details for her purpose.

The form of her personal statement would be determined partly by general reading patterns for this kind of document (first and last sentences are what really counts because that is what the reader sees on a quick read = but the WHOLE document needs to stand up to careful reading if you make it to later stages for consideration), and partly by Yasmin's sense of which information about herself she wanted to highlight.

Finishing the portfolio:
After the break we went through the portfolio site (sample portfolio to the left) and spoke page by page about how to present your work.  See the sample portfolio + the portfolio assignment sheet for complete directions.

Presentation schedule. You also signed up for presentations on your portfolios.  So far, the schedule is as follows:
April 25:  Liana, Corinne, Marietta, Nahimot, Alison
May 2:  Daniel, Jessica, Allison, Sara
May 9: Yasmin, Allyson

Sarah, Bridget, Arlette, and Erin can fill in the blanks next week.

The last part of class was devoted to identifying your writing samples, and analyzing what you wanted to put in your introductory letter.  Again, these choices will depend on your future profession.  See sample portfolio/assignment sheet for information about reflective writing/introductions associated with each piece.

For next week:
We will begin class with presentations - and the remainder of the class will be devoted to workshopping.