Cover Letters

Objectives:Each time you submit an essay in Expos 20, whether it’s a draft or a revision, you'll include a cover letter. This letter is your chance to reflect on your work and (for drafts) to consider its future directions. You can also use the letter as an opportunity to ask for the kind of feedback you think you particularly need, so you should note any specific concerns you may have.

Instructions: Cover letters for drafts should describe your reading, thinking, and writing process and respond to some of the following questions:

  • What is your problem – i.e., what analytical question are you trying to answer? (State it in a new way here – don’t just quote your draft.) What makes your argument one that needs to be made?
  • How did you come to your question/problem?
  • What do you see as your thesis or main idea so far? (Again, don’t just quote your draft.) If you had to write your thesis in 10 words, what would it be?
  • How has your argument evolved throughout your response papers and draft writing?
  • What kind of essay are you writing? E.g., Unit 1 might be a close reading or a theorization; Unit 2 a historicist or comparative or lens essay; Unit 3 might draw from multiple kinds. What’s the logic of how your evidence fits together to create an argument? 
  • What’s at stake in your argument? How might it be transformative or revelatory for a standard or surface reading of your text?
  • How does your essay relate to life today (if it does - not all essays need to or will)? If your argument has some current resonance, how do you indicate that in the essay?
  • What point or idea do you feel you've conveyed most successfully in the draft?
  • What are your lingering questions about the text and your argument?
  • What are the biggest problems you’re having at this point in the writing process? Which ideas or points are you still struggling to communicate? Are there any skills or lessons that you think we should revisit in classtime?
  • Are there ideas you haven’t said as well as you’d like to in the draft, or that you haven’t yet managed to include at all?
  • How have you brought your experiences and perspective – your unique voice as a writer – to bear in this essay (either in the development of ideas or the presentation of the argument)?
  • What intellectual risks have you taken in this piece? 

Cover letters for revisions should describe your re-reading, re-thinking, and re-writing process and respond to some or all of the following questions:

  • What is your thesis? How has it changed from draft to revision?
  • What are you happiest with in this revision?
  • What was most challenging with this revision? How did you approach those challenges?
  • What revision techniques did you use?
  • What was new about the writing process for you this time around?
  • What would you continue to work on in further revision?

In writing your cover letters for both drafts and revisions, avoid cutting-and-pasting from your draft. At the same time, my experience with reading cover letters leads me to say that students often state their ideas (problem, thesis, stakes, etc.) more clearly and more straightforwardly in their cover letters, where they’ve taken a step back from the paper (whether draft or revision) and formulated their sentences having fully worked through a paper. Please consider going back to your paper to revise it after writing your cover letter. If you do so, simply alert me to this fact in the letter itself (so that I know you copied-and-pasted from letter to paper, not vice versa).

Requirements: All cover letters should be:

  • Typed single-spaced;
  • About one page long;
  • Attached to the front of your essay (so that it’s all in a single document).

Sample Cover Letters

Sample Cover Letter for a Draft

Dear Wilson,

First, I’d like to make clear that the question I’m really trying to answer is: Who is Horatio? A basic reading of Hamlettells us that Horatio is Hamlet’s friend who stands by him even when he has no others. But a close reading reveals that he may not actually be the best friend Hamlet needs. Furthermore, Horatio is a storyteller and a bit of a gossip; holding the role of a bard, he may serve Shakespeare’s purpose as a vehicle for self-reflection. This is what is at stake¾exploring the character of Horatio is actually an exploration of Shakespeare, a person whose writing and life we have studied for centuries. Perhaps his character reveals more about Shakespeare than we have realized in the past.

When I wrote this paper, I tried to order my ideas in a clear, logical way, and I would really like to know if the arguments that I put forward flow from one to the next in a way that makes sense to you. I think my strongest argument comes in paragraph 4; in my opinion, the short quotes that I chose to use there fit my analysis especially well, helping me get my point across.

Something I’m wondering about is whether I should find more quoted evidence to support my claims. I would really like feedback on that subject. Also, do you think that the text I chose to interpret (Horatio’s words and actions from throughout the entire play) is narrow enough? I realize that changing the text would require an entire reworking of my paper, but I would like to know if you think that the subject I’m taking on, that is, Horatio’s entire character, is too wide for a five-page paper.

Finally, what do you think of the title? Do you think that “Exploring Horatio” is too raunchy or provocative? It wasn’t exactly my intention to give my title such an aspect, but I think that it sounds good and accurately foreshadows what the paper aims to do.

Thank you for reading my letter, and I look forward to hearing your comments on my paper.

Sincerely,

Justin 

 

Sample Cover Letter for a Revision

Dear Wilson,

Thanks for choosing my essay to be workshopped. The comments I received during that session coupled with the comments and suggestions you provided me have really helped me to re-envision my paper.

I really liked the idea of starting with a blank page. This is how I approached this revision. Though I retained much of what was originally written, the process of transferring it to somewhere new led me to notice moments that could be smoothed out with just a small change and also helped in deciding the order in which I included everything.

First off, I’d like to discuss how I changed my introduction. Realizing that my in-class spoken explanation of the thought process that led to my paper was a more effective introduction than my written one, I employed it. I believe that this new introduction, which begins with the instance in Hamletthat got me thinking about Horatio in the first place, is a better lead-in to my thesis and is also more compelling. Furthermore, it shows the reader the rabbit instead of keeping it in the hat until the end of the trick i.e. Horatio isn’t such a good friend, and his purpose lies elsewhere.

Next, I’d like to speak about word choice. As we discussed in our conference, I needed to decide which word to give for Horatio’s true role in the play¾of bard, storyteller, gossip, etc., which was the correct choice? Centering on “storyteller” while revising, I was able to unify my idea throughout the paper. I decided not to explicitly define storyteller in the introduction, but to save my definition for paragraph 7. I admit, it does seem strange to keep the explicit definition so deep into the essay, but hopefully upon reading my paper, you will agree with me that it belongs there and that it works well. Of course, relocating the definition to somewhere earlier in the paper would be something to consider in a further revision of this paper.

In my opinion, paragraph 7, which is almost completely new to my paper, was among my greatest successes in revising. While reviewing Horatio’s appearances throughout the play, I found some wonderful quotes from his telling of the ghost story to Hamlet that really advance my ideas. I was really happy upon making this find, and I think it adds a good deal to my paper. 

I think the most challenging thing about revision is the desire to always add more and never to take away. As the ideas posited in the draft bounced around in my head for two weeks, I kept seeing it from new angles, or more accurately, more focused angles. I wanted to write more to expound upon it, but I knew I had to keep it to five pages, which I failed to do perfectly (sorry, Wilson, there’s too much to say).

Finally, I’ll mention that my new title is definitely more directed toward my paper’s argument. It may have lost its possible provocativeness, but it fits the paper better.

Sincerely,

Justin