February 7, 2018

Argenis Taveras
P. Sherman 42 Wallaby Way
Sydney, Australia

Dear Ms. von Uhl:

I’d like to start off by expressing how much I actually look forward to the experience and knowledge of social science and basic sociology that this class will grant me. It helps even more that this class is centered on writing, a skill that I’ve been confident about for years. Each writing class I’ve taken throughout my time in college has improved my writing ever so slightly, and I expect this class to do the same.

On top of all that, I’m currently in the process of choosing a major, despite the fact that I’m in my fourth semester. Time is ticking, but in just the few classes we’ve had so far, I’ve seriously began thinking about pursuing a sociology major. I’ve always been fascinated by people and society, the evolution of communities, and the way humans function socially. I’ve always been the kind of person to sit back and observe a room, see how the people in it interact with one another by way of speech, swagger, and mannerisms, and simply take notes of it all in my mind. This is usually my find-a-friend procedure, but I find myself doing it often. I thought this meant I was into politics, and I don’t know why it’s taken so long to realize this means I’m (at the very least kind of) into sociology. This class has helped me make that admittedly small, but also admittedly significant realization.

The reason I even chose this class was because my advisor recommended I keep taking classes that are in my interests, so that when I eventually choose my major, my time and effort in classes prior to having declared wouldn’t go to waste. Like I said, I like observing, and I like to think I’m good at writing. In fact, in high school, it was all I was ever praised for, but I attribute that to the fantastic writing teachers I had. They were so good that by my junior year, I had the formula for a good essay burned into my synapses. I’d already been experienced in writing though. When I was younger, I had an entire flash drive filled with dumb stories – one about a demon who disguises himself as a boy and falls in love with a girl in the middle of his mission to destroy the earth, another about a group of kids in line for the last cake at a shop. So it’s evident I like to write, and evident that I want to get better, and I’m sure this class will help me with that.

In high school though, I lost that flash drive and with it, my interest in writing fiction. Most of my writing after that were essays about politics, history, and society. They were mostly in practice for social studies regents, but it made me really like writing about these subjects. Eventually I’d go on to read other essays or articles about these subjects in my free time by publishers like Vox, The Atlantic, Kurzgesagt, even satire from The Onion. It made me want to be a journalist. In the era of 2013-2014 though, websites like BuzzFeed were taking over, and many proclaimed journalism was dead. My interest in it followed suit. But ever since #45 said he’d run for president, society has entered turmoil, and the institution of the free press and journalism has become relevant again.

I know this course will further strengthen my already strong interest in this field, and there are a couple of things I could get better at, such as developing and engaging in the collaborative aspects of writing.  I know this class will help me with that, especially when we have to give out-of-campus interviews. I genuinely look forward to the rest of this course.

Sincerely,

Argenis Taveras
Student

P.S. The address at the top of this letter is a Finding Nemo reference.