5607 Yalta Place, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1L7
January 21st, 2017
English 301 Technical Writing Class
University of British Columbia
2329 West Mall, Vancouver, BC, V6T 1Z4
Dear English 301 classmates,
I am writing to express my interest to be part of your writing team. I am a third year student in the bachelor of computer science program. An internship experience during my first degree’s study inspired me to consider my interest and potentials in the computer science field. While most of my classmates went on to be lawyer or to seek a position in the government as that’s typical when you are from a law school, I followed my intuition here.
From my own experience as a second language learner, my strengths build up on the awareness of writing being the part that takes most efforts to get improved. To achieve my goals, I once participated in the weekly free writing class provided by the UBC’s continuing studies where I learned the idea of free writing. It’s a great way to warm up before one starts the formal writing tasks. I have also reached out to the writing center and had someone to review my works. During my last internship with the Genome Sciences Center, I was involved in the complete process of creating a web application, from writing the project and design plans to the documentation of technical specifications, in which I paid particular attention regarding how to effectively explain concepts to non-technical users. I can see my writing skills being improved through these activities.
But there is still a long way to go. A lack of more advanced vocabulary is one thing that may lead to being incapable of accurate description of certain scenarios. There also has been many a time that I understood every word in an expression but still didn’t know the meaning of it as a whole. In addition, discrepancy exists between recognition of some expressions and my ability to apply them properly in writing. Understanding my weakness is the first step to become a mature writer. The learning philosophy I have been pursuing is to start small but contributes persistently every day, and believe in the qualitative changes will eventually happen.
Thank you for taking the time to read my application. I can be reached at linda_cai2014@hotmail.com, or through the group Facebook page.
Sincerely,
Xiaoying (Linda) Cai