short essay editing

Hashim malallah

633 W Rittenhouse st,

Philadelphia, PA 19144

May 1, 2017

Carolina Maugeri

First-Year Writing Program

10th Floor Anderson Hall

1114 West Berks Street

Philadelphia, PA, 19122-6090

Dear Carolina Maugeri and portfolio committee,

Even though I have joined this class a week later after it started, I found myself to be part of the group swiftly without any suffering. Throughout this semester, I really enjoyed working with my classmates. They were helpful, creative, and always motivated for working harder. At the very beginning, I thought that the size of the class would be an obstacle, but then I have changed my mind. Our small class contributes significantly in a better collaborative working and better learning. I have seen how important was the collaborative work with my classmates throughout this semester. We all have benefited a lot, and I guess my classmates would agree with me. Just like in English 0711, I tried always to be part of the class discussing by providing my opinions. It is important to me to share my knowledge with the professor and my classmates because they would help me if I have something wrong. Experiencing other cultures was cool and I have enjoyed it. My in class discussion goal was not to earn grades because the way how I like to be involved in discussions outside the class is the same inside class. What most matters to me is learning through constructive discussions.

What I really enjoyed during writing our essays is the research process, which is different that English 0711 writing assignments. The theme of the first essay was perceptions regarding plagiarism or academic dishonesty among college students. In the first essay, I wrote about how to prevent plagiarism, which is not easy. We need first to understand the reasons behind cheating, and then we can discuss the solutions. I have raised the ethical awareness among students as a solution, also revising the education system is helpful as it might contribute to cheating. My focus was to clearly point out the impulses behind cheating and then to rationally discuss the solutions trying hardly to convince my readers. We did not use too much sources in this essay. However, the second essay required more research effort. The theme of the essay was about issues related to technology and how technology affects our perceptions. I wrote about fake news and misinformation but this time in a unique way. I tried to be logical to deliver my message. I talked about the thread and the danger of misinformation on both individuals and communities and the reasons that make people believe in fake news. Then I gave the logical solution, which is part of the “probability theory,” that would make people avoid falling into fake news trap. I spent too much time trying to figure out the best way to talk about probability theory since many people have never read about logic. It was challenging. The third and last essay was about food in Philadelphia. To be honest, this sounds too boring to me at the beginning. I could not imagine myself after talking about philosophy and logic, to talk about food! However, P. Maugeri helped me to think about it differently. And because she knows my style of thinking, she suggested that food could be political and philosophical. I wrote about food culture and perceptions driven by social construction and the political consequences resulting from false perceptions and the issue of halal food. An intense research process with 8 sources, eventually I was happy because I recognize that I talked about food in such a new way. I spend more than 12 hours writing this paper through many days, it was exhausted. However, at the end when I read it again, I feel satisfied.

I tried very hard to attend all my classes without any absent. However, sometimes things out of my hands happen, therefore I have missed 2 classes. I always put a huge effort doing my in class writing assignments and I believe that P. Maugeri have noticed that I always give her my in class writing at the end. Actually, I always wanted to be helpful, specifically when we had to give feedbacks for the presentations. I could simply write anything, but this is not the thing I would like to. I would like to be helpful for my classmates as much as I want them to help me, and this is what I have learned from P. Maugeri. I worked hard to improve my writing through many things. I tried to read novels and books because the more you read the better you get in writing. I also tried to focus on my grammar mistakes, and I believe I became better, but still need more work.

I hope my essays show my progress in writing. I will learn from my mistakes because there is no perfect writer. I can say that overall I have done many things to get a good grade in this class, and every thing I did for this class, helped me not only in the class, but also in my life. I have been also working on my weaknesses as a reader and writer. I have learned new vocabulary words, new reading strategies and even new writing strategies. I tried to show more expression in my writings to grab the readers’ attention, and it works with me. I feel that I have achieved my goal for this class, but I still need to work harder to move forward and not just to stop here because learning has no boundaries.

Sincerely,

Hashim Malallah

Encl. Portfolio