Jordan Thompson

9/30/2014
RHE-101
Draft #3
Cover Letter
Ive always had a passion for education ever since I was little kid. In this essay, I want to
express to the reader on how I came about to obtain my literary identity. I want to explain how
one obstacle in my life, has helped shaped my literary identity today. At a young age, I was
always encouraged to read by my mother. Because of that, I developed a strong passion for
reading and writing ahead of my peers. I will explain why writing became a passion for me.
Then illustrate the bad personal experience, which quickly became the changing point of my
literacy. I shall share my experience, and describe how it became a changeling moment in my
life, which has shaped me into the man I am now.

Growing up as an only child I was always bored, so my mother would push me to read
books. Even though I never really enjoyed reading, I was still good because I practiced it. Long
story short, my literacy began as kid when my mother would force me to read books to her. That
was her way of keeping me busy, instead of getting in trouble with my neighborhood friends.
She always pushed me to be more eager about learning. My mother has been the biggest
influence in my life, so I take pride in my education because of her. On days when I had nothing
to do, she would push me to read and write. My readings allowed me to learn and become more
educated about why things are, the way they are, while writing allowed me to voice my own
personal opinions. Ive always enjoyed learning new things, and being educated about the world.
As a kid I never really enjoyed English classes, because I rather preferred math as my favorite
subject in school. Then I was faced with my first real challenge in middle school.
I can remember the first time I took the end of grade, EOG, test in the eighth-grade in the
middle of March. The test would ultimately determine if whether students may move on to the
next grade. After several months of my teachers preparation and anxiety, the pressure was on.
Throughout my elementary and middle school years, I considered myself to be a strong student
in the classroom. I never had a GPA below 3.0. I was never the smartest student in my class, but
my work ethic allowed me to be a good student. I also had supreme confidence in myself, and I
just knew I was going to pass this writing test. That is, until I saw the writing results.
Although the test was very challenging, covering reading, writing, and math, I was just
sure I had passed every part of that test. Never had I felt so confident about taking a test a day in
my life. I even remember going home telling my mother about how I kilt that test. To my
surprise, I did pass every part of the test, except writing. I thought to myself in disbelief, I just
couldnt come to the realization that I had failed such an easy subject. Seeing my test results

destroyed my confidence. I honestly could not believe it. To make matters worse, most of my
classmates, including some who were barely passing eighth-grade English, passed the writing
portion of the test. Until that time, I had liked writing just as much as I liked math. I considered it
to be one of my strengths. I really thought I was good at it, and I somewhat enjoyed it. If
anything, I thought I might fail the reading portion of the test, because my attention span is
awful. My short attention span makes it extremely difficult for me to focus on reading. Every day
I would ask myself the same question; how could I have screwed up the writing portion? I surely
spelled every word correctly, used good grammar, and even used big words in the proper
context. So how could I have failed?
Finally I got over it and decided it was no big deal. Surely I would pass the next time. In
my English class I just worked diligently, passing with an A. By May I'd be ready to conquer the
writing portion of the test. Well, guess what? I failed the test again, with only 2.5 of the 3 points
needed to pass. This time I was pissed, and even went to my English teacher, Mrs. Russ, and
asked, "How can I pass all my English classes but fail the writing part of the test twice?" Even
she couldn't answer my question. Even my friends and classmates were also confused. At that
moment, I felt like huge a failure. I had disappointed my mother and seriously let myself down.
Worst of all, I still couldn't figure out what I was doing wrong.
I then decided to quit trying so hard. I continued to excel in class and passed the test on
the third try, during summer school. But I never again felt the same passion for writing. This
experience showed me just how differently my writing could be judged by various readers.
Obviously all my English teachers and many others enjoyed or at least appreciated my writing. I
must have been a pretty good writer. Unfortunately the graders of the eighth-grade test didn't feel

the same, and when students fail the test, the state of North Carolina doesn't offer any
explanation.
After I failed the test the first time, I began to hate writing more and more, mostly
because I started to doubt myself. I doubted my ability to write, and the ideas I was writing
about. Failing the second time made things much worse, so perhaps to protect myself from my
doubts, I stopped taking my English classes seriously. Perhaps because of that lack of
seriousness, I earned a 2 on the Advanced Placement English Exam, and barely passed my
twelfth-grade writing test, and was placed in developmental writing in college. I wish I knew
why I failed those writing test, because then I might have been able to get a better understanding
for the second test. In my honest opinion I might have been able to maintain my enthusiasm for
writing, and continued to do well.