Shilong Li

UWP001Y

(A girl who holds a pen to write her essay confidently. Source: WIKI How)

Cover Letter
Hi, dear Michele

As we are getting to the end of this quarter, I can still remember the first class that
you taught us. You said that you want us to really enjoy the writing process and learn
from it, and I think I did it. Honestly, I once thought that we need to do tedious writing
again in our UWP001 class. Also, I have no confidence to do well in this class at
beginning. But through various and meaningful work that you gave us, I learned a lot
and began to enjoy writing. During the whole UWP001Y class, I enhanced my review
and research skill and grow up as a “confident writer.”
I choose the Wikipedia Entry included in my portfolio to demonstrate my research
skill and the ability of integrating sources. I had a hard time of choosing whether I
should include the Wikipedia entry or the Living Picture Narrative. Though I think the
Living Picture Narrative helps me to re-realize myself and can introduce my readers
who I am, I want to writer about something I really love, which is my idol--Zhiguang.
I want more people to know about him because his is an outstanding boy who has great
talent of dancing and singing. I also want to challenge myself to write about something
new because I have never edit a Wikipedia entry. Also, I think this process better
demonstrate my research skills as a writer.
I enhanced my research skills from the UWP001Y class. My ability of collecting
sources got improved. For instance, when I was doing the Wikipedia entry, I had a hard
time of collecting the data because there’s little information about Zhiguang as a non-
famous idol. I searched his name on Google and tried to find the most credible source,
but there’s little source about him. So I try to find much sources from Zhiguang’s
Chinese official site and translated them into English. Even the information was
published by the official site, I double checked the credibility to make sure they were
accurate. For this reason, I also learned how to ensure that I am using the credible
sources, and learned how to edit and design the page with words and pictures. For
another example, when I was selecting the picture of Zhiguang, I mostly choose
brighter and his frontal photo to help the readers know him well and help the website
look better with effective design. So during the process of finding, collecting sources
and integrate them, I improved my research ability as a writer.

(A magnifying glass which magnify (The pointer points at the “Time For REVIEW”)
the word “RESEARCH”)

I also achieved the goal of learning how to “review” as a writer. For me, there are
two kinds of “review” which are same important for my writing process. One is the
self-review and the other is the peer-review. For self-review, I mainly focus on the
revision after my first draft. I have the habit of reviewing my work and revising them
myself when I finish a rough draft. For example, when I am done with my podcast
script, I read out loudly my script for twice and found many grammar mistakes which
I had ignore before, like I misused tense for the whole first paragraph of introduction.
I think this is a good process to examine my self-review and check ability. Also, this
helps me to be more independent of my work. For peer review, my peers always give
me helpful suggestions which I did not think of before. The best thing about peer review
is I can gain ideas from native speaker. When we were doing peer review for the Living
Picture Narrative, my peers told me how could I write details to support my dance
journey and how to write captions correctly with descriptive words. I also feel proud
when others tell me that I gave helpful suggestions. In the process of peer review, I can
rethink about the requirement and get many useful ideas. In a nutshell, both self-review
and peer-review shape me to be a better writer.
I appreciate the writing journey in UWP001Y much because it helps me to become
a better “confident writer.” When I took UWP23 and WLD57, I sometimes not sure
how to start a process. I even had a time hate writing a long, academic essay. But after
taking this course, I grow up a lot as a better writer. Those colorful projects help me
love writing again. Also, now when I get a task, whether in writing or daily life. I am
more confident to deal with it. I will try to analyze it step by step and I know I can solve
it with correct method. Even sometimes I can’t, I can get support from my peers and
teachers. So now I am much more confident of writing, and this confidence even brings
light to my daily life.
This ePortfolio is the crystal of all my hard work in the UWP001Y class. It is also
a period for me to say goodbye to my UWP001 class and start a new writing journey.
So I hope you would like it and enjoy reading as I write it. In the future, I will always
keep my love and passion of writing, and from now, I can proudly say “I will continue
writing as a ‘confident writer’.”

(The picture of me and Mrs. Michele, which I drew for weekly reflection one)