A reflection letter needs to set up the entire portfolio. Of course, the first thing I will see is the
cover, but this is the first thing I will read, so it is an opportunity
for you to show me how you wish me to perceive your writing.
You need to showcase your theme, of course, but you also
should showcase your ability to write.
As I said on the requirements page, this is a letter; enjoy it! Create something!
Here are a couple of examples of openings from wonderful reflection
letters:
from a portfolio called “To Walk
Alone:”
Dear Ms. Kopriva,
It is very late now. I am sitting down to write the final part of my portfolio and I feel sad. Everyone else is asleep and has been for a while now. I’m sitting alone at my computer with a black binder in front of me with everything I have written all year. It looks so small compared to the picture in my imagination of what it would be. The only sound that can be heard in the dark house is the clicking of the keys on the keyboard as the hairs on the back of my neck begin to rise. I turn around and look into the yellow light of the study where on lamp still blazes. There is no one there. I turn back to my work. I am alone.
Do you see how he is both inviting
me in and setting up his theme of loneliness here?
from a portfolio entitled
“Depths of Relief”:
Dear Ms. Kopriva,
Water is what we thrive upon; without it all life would perish. Our bodies consist of 80% water. It inflates every cell of every tissue of every organ that sustains our existence. It relieves us. In order to perform daily routines such as walking, thinking…and writing…we must consume it. It revitalizes us.
Throughout the past seven months I
have consumed over 1000 glasses of water: approximately one for every word of
the final drafts in my portfolio. Water
has always been a symbolic entity, for it can nurture in its clarity and
annihilate in its darkened and destructive states. It can be seen as rain falling from the pregnant clouds, murky
bogs of a swamp, frost that paints pictures on your window pane, and snow that
turns your town into heaven while you lie asleep though still nipping at your
toes as you walk to school. The state
that it is in does not matter; it is the relief and awakening that it brings to
all that it touches.
Can you tell that this is written
by someone who was, in addition to a strong writer, an artist? Her imagery is so dynamic and elaborate that
I find myself completely involved in her letter while I explore her
idea: that (as she says later) her writing is her water. Here is how she ends it:
The winter air is dry and my lips
crack and bleed. Sitting in bed now
thinking, just thinking, my eyes begin to swell. The tastes of blood mixes with the salt of my tears; it is
replenishing.
If you would like to read an entire reflection letters, go
here:
http://sunspark.com/classes/sample.reflection.htm.