Dear Camille,
It fills me with a feeling of pride to be have been asked to write this letter, it has been my great pleasure throughout the year to watch you grow as a writer, and especially as a person. Since I first started reading your papers, I have noticed a tremendous change in your ability. Although there are many contributing factors to what makes a great paper, the place where you made the greatest leap in my opinion is the borderline intangible readability. The word English teachers (and hip-hop artists) like to use to describe this so called intangible factor is flow, or the ability to go from one sentence to the proceeding, to transition deftly from one paragraph to the next. At the beginning of the year from your English 111 class, I remember there being quite a few times over skype you would get extremely frustrated and restart entire paragraphs because of a perceived lack of this illusive flow. I noticed as the weather got colder and you began writing more and more, this skill came far more naturally to you. I was impressed with the way you could pre-write a paper and have it come out buttery smooth needing only minor tweaks before entering further stages of the writing process. All of these thoughts were based solely on the things I read throughout the year. However, a greater benchmark was presented when I looked at your impressive portfolio. It took me through a rollercoaster of emotions. Feelings felt as I stood by your side resurfaced while reading about tragedies that befell you during the spring. However, among the standouts, a single outlier emerged, a paper from the dawn of your high school career written about confidence. The great irony being that this paper, although acclaimed by your teacher, seemed to lack any semblance of confidence. The choppy nature of the paper shocked me as it exemplified to me just how far you have come as a writer since then. This was a good feeling for me, as only four short years ago you were writing very adeptly, albeit with a lack of a fundamental flow. It raises quite an exciting question for me. Where will you be four years from now? Yours Truly, Kevin Jahn |