Matthew Vaughn1001 18th St. NApt #1Fargo, ND 58102May 12, 2014

Department of EnglishNDSU, Dept. 2320P.O. Box 6050Fargo, ND 58108-6050

Dear Committee Members:

My completed portfolio contains various documents that I have completed during my time in the English program. I transferred to NDSU during my sophomore year from University of Minnesota – Duluth. It really wasn’t until I worked in the program here at NDSU that I knew that I had chosen the right major. I mostly involved myself with linguistic related works but the literary classes I had to take helped me write more creatively. Looking back through all my works I realize now just how much I’ve written and how much my voice now resonates in my papers. I feel like I can express myself clearly and precisely, which are skills that will aid me in my endeavors outside of college. Furthermore the faculty here at NDSU has been so approachable and so willing to explain any statement they ever make. It has been refreshing to have such a bond with the one equipping you for your future. In this letter I outline how I achieved the objectives set by the English department. I have collected all the sample work I’m submitting to you in a webpress blog. The URL for this blog is: http://mwvaughn19.wordpress.com/

Creative Thinking:

Creative writing is probably one of my favorite hobbies but one problem I always run into is that I never have the motivation to really follow through with a project. The creative writing classes I’ve taken here have helped me get across the finish line and show me the work it takes to finish a creative piece (and of course still have fun). Also these courses have made me a lot more comfortable reading my (sometimes intimate) stories aloud and open for critiquing. I think that is a huge benefit that will help me for the rest of my life. One story I chose came from my ENG 322 – Creative Writing I Class. This was probably the most creative (and hardest) creatively written project I undertook. In it I made a story where aliens attack NDSU and you had to make various choices throughout the story. The choices you made affected where the story proceeded. In total it

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was about 9 pages long. It was unique to the creative writing class and should exemplify abstract creativity.

Another example I provided comes from ENG 455 – International Technical Writing. In this project, I received a document from engineering students located in Barcelona, Spain. They wrote a document, in English, as a guide on how to wire a solar powered house. Since these students were not trained in English, I needed to heavily edit the document along with keep in close communication with them for it to retain meaning. I also had to do research on my own to understand the meaning of the terms they were using. This exemplifies real world, unscripted issues that mirror a work place. I had to think creatively to solve many of the problems that arose.

Critical Thinking

I have four examples of critical thinking that I am submitting. The first is from ENG 271 – Literary Analysis. This paper would show how I analyzed a text using a specific lens. I had to find evidence in the text and apply it to my discussion of the text. I had to take the story Frankenstein and analyze it though a Feminist lens. I had to search the text and find examples of how women were treated and how that evidence interacted with feminist theory in determining how Frankenstein would be perceived through a feminist lens.

The second paper is from ENG 453 Social/Regional Varieties of English. This paper would show all the steps I had to take in order to collect primary research. This is an IMRAD report so it will show how I collected and then integrated data into my project. In it I had to travel to various places such as, White Earth, MN and Wahpeton, SD in order to interview Native Americans. I then had to record their voice and study the recoding for any “slang” words specific to Native American reservations. This would serve as my data collection.

The third paper is from the same class of ENG 453 Social/Regional Varieties of English. This was a paper examining recent trends in speech concerning the dialect of Cajun English. I highlighted both sides of the academic conversation and discussed the various conflicting viewpoints surrounding the dialect. The point of the paper was around the specific /u/ sound that is specific to southern Louisiana. One group of scholars, mostly younger ones, argued that the /u/ sound was not fading away; while many older scholars felt there seemed to be a decline in every day speech. The evidence is unconvincing for either side.

The final example I have for critical thinking comes from Writing in the Humanities. In this final paper I had to create a police report based off the book The Sweater Letter using all sorts of different styles. I had to write transcripts of conversations and fill out police reports of incidents. I had to map out a timeline of events and then compile them all into

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one final police portfolio. I had to critically think in order to organize all the various pieces to this project.

Problem Solving

I chose one example to show problem solving. The example I chose is from ENG 455 – International Technical Writing. In this project I was editing a translated document sent to me directly from the translator (located in Milan, Italy). I edited the document while keeping in close communication with the translator in order to maintain the documents original voice and meaning. Disagreements with word meanings and choices were handled directly by me, exemplifying problem solving in complex and real world situations

I hope the submissions I have chosen will help the committee accurately review the department of English. I would like to thank the English Department for making my stay at NDSU pleasant and productive.

Thank you for your time,

Best Regards,

Matthew W Vaughn