3592 W 22nd Ave
Vancouver, BC V6S 1K1
September 16, 2019
ENGL 301 Technical Writing Class
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC V6T 1Z4
Dear Technical Writing 301 class:
My name is Connor Runnalls, and I am applying for the position of a professional writing member on a writing team in ENGL 301. I am a fifth-year psychology major, who is ultimately pursuing a Juris Doctor at Allard School of Law. I feel as though I would be a strong member of a professional writing team for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, I have an extensive history of successful writing that has been displayed through the first four years of my undergraduate degree, both in psychology as well as writing courses. Furthermore, as the current captain of my baseball team, communication and leadership are two of my greatest assets.
As a teammate, what sets me apart from everybody else is my versatility, as well as experience in numerous facets of daily life. I have worked for an extremely successful company in Lululemon for the last three years, where I was taught the importance of communication, as well as developed my critical thinking/problem-solving. I have witnessed and volunteered for start-up animal charities in which I learned not only compassion but the leadership required to ensure a successful start-up company. Qualities such as time management, communication of what one is required to do on tasks, the delegation of tasks, and punctuality have been my most prominently developed throughout my time with the various charities. Finally, baseball has taught me perhaps the most valuable lessons of my life. Resiliency, grit, determination are a few of the countless traits that have evolved throughout the last five years of college baseball. To face a challenge head-on, even when your body or mind are telling you to give up, is perhaps the most valuable trait anybody on a team could possess.
My greatest strength in writing is that of persuasion. The art of persuasion in written pieces comes from the inclusion of logos, pathos, and ethos. The ability to appeal to the readers logic, ethics, and emotion is much easier said than done and requires a balance of all three. My greatest weakness in writing comes when I personally am too emotionally attached to a topic, and thus attempt to appeal too much to the pathos of the audience. When emotion drives an argument, the argument becomes vulnerable to either lack of logic, or issues in ethics. It is the same reason why lawyers are typically advised against representing themselves in a court of law, or why a police officer typically won’t investigate a crime commit against his or her family.
My learning philosophy is contingent on the relationships I develop in the class, both with my professors and fellow students. While I am quite independent in my studies, the amount in which I can discuss the topics learned, free of looking at my notes, is my direct feedback on how well I grasp the content learned. In other words, my philosophy is to learn it for myself and put my knowledge to the test before official testing of knowledge. As a result, there is not only a positive effect for myself with realizations of which areas need work, it also aids in the advancement of my group or peers learning through us collectively testing and increasing our knowledge amongst each other.
Thank you all for your time and consideration in this matter. If you have any further inquiries, please email me at connor.runnalls@gmail.com, and I look forward to future communication.
Sincerely,
Connor Runnalls
301-Connor-Runnalls-Application-Letter
