Greetings,
My name is Rodney and I am writing this letter in an attempt to share with you a little about me and in particular about my experiences, perceptions and feelings in regards to writing, reading and learning in general. My first experiences with writing papers in high school, during the last millennia, were less than pleasant. Although I always did well in school, writing always proved to be the most difficult of endeavors. It seemed that the systems for grading of one's work were always ambiguous and subjective at best and understanding what exactly was wanted or required of me as writer always eluded me. My teachers would write comments such as develop more, which to me seemed to mean use more words to same the same thing. It also felt that when my opinion as to the analysis of a book or essay differed from my teachers', my grade reflected their disapproval of my dissenting opinion. To be fair, looking back I can understand what was meant by develop more and although there may have been one or two teachers who may have used my contrary attitude as a reason to score my work lower than deserved, for the most part my writing lacked rhythm and fluidity if you will as well as completely developed arguments with ample evidence to support them. One thing I have learned from my experiences is that the reader sees through eyes influenced by their perceptions of the world based upon values, beliefs and experiences as well as a host of other considerations.

Having chose to major in Spanish has caused me to take courses requiring me to read and analyze literature in Spanish, which has provided me with an opportunity to reexamine some of my feelings about writing and I am actually at a place in my life where I have come to appreciate the value of being able to write well. I think in part this comes not only from the reading and writing but also from the understanding of the formation of languages as well as their origins. Being able to see how languages are structured in relation to one another, for example verb conjugation and sentence structure, has helped me see not only how writing well is a skill that can be developed but also how it can be an art incorporating talent, creativity and feeling to evoke an emotional response in the reader.

To me language is means to communicate with others and although it is said the majority of communication between people is nonverbal, in this day in age written communication is a powerful toll that can be used to reach virtually the whole world via the Internet. The more languages one can speak and write the larger the audience that he or she can reach. While I find joy in reading fiction I am more strongly drawn to writing that seeks to inform the reader about real life conditions and aspires to make positive changes or raise awareness of specific issues facing us as individuals and as a society as a whole. Before I commence on a journey through all my thoughts of the current global condition, let me end by saying I hope to leave this class with the ability to write more proficiently and to communicate more clearly to my audience my thoughts and ideas.