Fayette County Literary
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March 30, 2005

To flat out tell you, I love writing! But it wasn't always this way. In third grade, writing was my least favorite and my probably worst academic subject. Moving right along to fourth grade, my teacher, Mrs. Wells, was able to dig down inside me, along with the help of Mrs. Rosenberg. Working together, gradually teaching me to write better or more efficiently, I began to love writing the way I love it today. Over the course of this year, again with of the help of Mrs. Rosenberg, my writing teacher, and Mrs. Wells, they taught me how to enhance my writing by using voice, figurative language, and alliterations,

I'll be the first to admit that voice is my favorite and probably my best technique in writing. Voice allows my personality to flow through like when California had all of those landslides! If I don't have a lot of voice in my writing, it doesn't allow the audience to hear my message or to know how or what I want the audience to feel. My teacher, Mrs. Wells, loved in my personal narrative when I said "Leaped into my dad's black car, then yelled "Step on it" as if I just robbed a bank!" This helps the reader know that I was in a hurry. Instead of saying that I was in hurry, I showed it with expression. Using voice in your piece allows the reader to know how I act most of the time. It also lets the reader feel ' as if they know my writing like the back of their hand.

Another strength of mine that I learned this year is figurative language. It includes similes, metaphors, alliterations, and repetition. Here's an example of repetition from my poem; "Down, down, down it dives," Repeating the same word over and over again is repetition. I've learned many techniques to enhance my figurative language, One of the ways is by using my yellow writing folder, this is a reference to use like a dictionary or a thesaurus. It has lots of ideas and techniques to upgrade my writing like all of the other words to use instead of said and how to spell them. Another way that I enhance my writing is by reading published author's writing and listening to my friends writing. I can learn from my friend's mistakes and I can learn good things from them. From my friends writing, I learned that poems don't have to rhyme; this helped my literary piece, Our American Symbol. From authors like Leigh Anne Florence, I learned to use more effective wording. Reviewer, if you don't already know, reading and writing go together like this and that. The more you read, the better your writing.

Beyond all odds, my final way that I've grown as writer this year is by using transitions. Transitions are an awesome way to help my writing. My teacher, Mrs. Wells, informed me that "Transitions help to put the reader at ease. If the writer doesn't put any transitions in, it makes them feel "uneasy"." I like to use my writing folder for transitions. On page 22, there must be over 100 transitions to choose from. In my transactive piece I used lots of transitions. One of them is "In addition, I'll bet there are loads of animal adaptations that you haven't heard of."

Reviewer, I thank you for reading my letter and I hope you enjoy scoring and reading my portfolio. This year voice, figurative language, and transitions have helped me become an awesome writer. Next year it will sort of give me a jump start for fifth grade. I'll NEVER forget this year and all of this information will help me to love writing even more than I already do today!

Sincerely,
Evan