Dear Sweetland Admissions Committee,

Learning how to integrate my personal experiences into my academic work has inspired me to study writing. The class I took to satisfy my first-year writing requirement, “English 125” sparked my interest in writing by opening my eyes to reflective writing, a style that I was unfamiliar with but soon came to enjoy.

In high school, I neither dreaded nor embraced writing assignments. The drill was always the same: I was given the rules and expected to fill in the blanks. My teachers emphasized style so much that I sometimes felt they valued structure over content. Every paper I wrote looked the same to me. Instead, “English 125” showed me how to reflect on experiences in my life and convey what I have learned to an audience. By reflecting on how these experiences shaped who I am today, I grew as an individual and as a writer.

However, my desire to study writing goes beyond my interest in reflective writing: I am an ardent researcher, and “English 125” is where I first learned how to unite the style of reflective writing to research content. Blending a personal story with real-world research is where I discovered my passion for writing.

 As a Neuroscience major on a pre-med track, I am repeatedly challenged by scientific research and the different styles of presenting the research itself. For my animal physiology laboratory class, I have to design an experiment on cardio-vascular physiology and write a scientific paper interpreting my results and supporting my thought-process. This semester I am also performing independent research in psychology through the HAILab (Health, Attitudes, and Influence Lab). My job includes writing a paper each week reporting on my findings and giving suggestions on how to improve the design of the research program. This is where the Minor in Writing will help me achieve my personal and academic goals: to find the perfect balance of research and reflection in my writing.

Attached to my application is perhaps my favorite paper I have ever written, a research paper on chronic homelessness for “English 325”. Volunteering in high school at Christ House, a medical resident facility for homeless men in Washington, D.C., inspired me to choose that topic. In the paper, I explain how Christ House shaped my understanding of homelessness. While working there I interacted with dozens of its clients, many of whom are plagued with mental disorders or victims of severe physical disabilities. What I love most about my paper is connecting my volunteering experience in Christ House to my research on chronic homelessness in the United States.

I believe that the Minor in Writing will help me to further understand the relationship between argumentative and personal writing and to develop my skills in scientific writing. I am attracted to the flexibility of the capstone and gateway courses, which will allow me to design a project to relate reflective- and argumentative-based topics. I have learned to always maintain a balance in writing and avoid being one-dimensional. In the Minor in Writing, I look forward to further learning through my peers and my teachers how to write through the lenses of reflection and research, a skill I have acquired at the University of Michigan.