Dear Reader,
    
I enjoyed my Writing 102 class a great deal more than I anticipated. I liked the diversity of the selection of short stories my class read and found my classmate’s perception of the weekly readings interesting.

The first essay I wrote was a textual analysis of an excerpt of "The Things They Carried" by Tim O'Brien entitled "A Trickling Catharsis". The goal of this essay was to pinpoint an emotion expressed in the story and use quotes to demonstrate how the author created the aforementioned emotion.

The second essay I wrote was a seven page research paper, this time on how Robert Olen Butler manipulates the reader into feeling sympathy for a character in "Jealous Husband Returns in Form of Parrot". The main target of this essay was to successfully analyze and incorporate primary and secondary sources.

The third and last essay was a short story, entitled “Diary of the Alter Ego”. The goal of this assignment was to write creatively, rather than analytically.
    
Thank you for your time.




Sincerely,
Emily M. Madsen