Patrick Hinchcliffe

Writing Portfilio Cover Letter

Professor Michael Marx

The the pieces of my portfolio effectively portray my interests and abilities as a writer. Looking over the arrangement now, it seems to me that it consists of largely less formal papers (other than the one from class). The other pieces in my portfolio were as follows: an academic sociological memo for my Intro to Sociology class; two poems with a writer's reflection, an adaptation of a short story, an introductory paragraph to a satire paper, and my college essay along with an analysis of what's changed. 

I realize now how much I prefer informal prompts, and how much better my writing is when I am free from the confines of a ridged analytical structure. My preferences to write loosely structure pieces, like the sociological memo, the poems and the story, undoubtedly stems from a larger difficulty I have with maintaining a central point. I discuss this trend in my Sustainability paper #3 analysis, but essentially, I drift toward developing the small components of a large idea. Often, this results in unrelated concepts and plans placed awkwardly within the overall structure that distract from the central goal of the paper. This trend is relevant through the pieces I did for the sustainability class, as well as through the pieces that I chose to include in my portfolio.

In any case, pursuing creative writing endeavors will remain a top priority of mine. After taking Poetry next semester Satire will come next. As much as I enjoy this type of writing though, I realize that the ability to write a proper term paper is imperative for a college student. Moving forth, I’ve learned from the recurring mistakes, similarities and differences between the papers for the English class. In addition, I’ve learned even more from the compilation of my creative writing, sociological writing and my past writing into one place. The wide spectrum of my pieces, as properly exemplified by my portfolio, puts into context my abilities and interests, and embodies my writing identity.

Introduction

My name is Patrick Hinchcliffe. I’ve been a student for as long as I can remember. I like learning about science, math, writing, animals, Spanish, fun facts, space, history, and wars to name a few. Outside of school, I enjoy playing outside—whether it be playing sports or flipping rocks and discovering new bugs. My favorite sports are tennis, lacrosse, baseball, basketball, golf, Frisbees are cool, swimming’s all right too.

I love dinosaurs and turtles and most animals. Other favorites are giraffes, hippos, elephants, platypus, and octopi. I play the drums and percussion and love music as well. This translates to writing and reading through poetry and rap. I love listening and creating both—some of which will hopefully make it on this blog.

My older brother just graduated Boston College last year and currently works for Morgan Stanley. He was lucky to land such a job but his 14 hour work days are rough. My sister is a junior at Muhlenberg College in Allentown Pennsylvania. We’ve also got a dog named Petey and he’s equal parts beagle, lab and awesome. My mom and dad play an important role too. Mom’s job is pretty much destroying and rebuilding our house while my Dad works up in Canada.