Write an e-mail (at least 1 pages long if printed) to your instructor describing the experiences you've

Write an e-mail (at least 1½ pages long if printed) to your instructor describing the experiences you've had writing and what you'd like to learn about writing during this course. (See Appendix A for examples of e-mail format.)

Answer several of the following questions:

■ What memories do you have of writing? What made writing fun or frightening in the past?

■ What have you been taught about writing? List the topics, rules, and advice you remember.

■ What kinds of writing have you done in school?

How long have the papers been?

■ How has your school writing been evaluated? Did the instructor mark or comment on mechanics and grammar? Style? Organization? Logic? Content?

Audience analysis and adaptation? Have you gotten extended comments on your papers? Have instructors in different classes had the same standards, or have you changed aspects of your writing for different classes?

■ What voluntary writing have you done—journals, poems, stories, essays? Has this writing been just for you, or has some of it been shared or published?

■ Have you ever written on a job or in a student or volunteer organization? Have you ever edited other people's writing? What have these experiences led you to think about real-world writing?

■ What do you see as your current strengths and weaknesses in writing skills? What skills do you think you’ll need in the future? What kinds of writing do you expect to do after you graduate?

Use appropriate headings and a conversational writing style; edit your final draft for mechanical and grammatical correctness.