Letter of Introduction

Dr Johnson,

My name is Rex Ryan. I am from the small town of Wellington, Missouri. Although the Wellington community is an agrarian society, I am most thoroughly a 'city boy'. Rural Missouri identifies closely with its ethnic roots - most commonly Low German. This means I am a proud descendant of Irish emigrants. On St-Patrick's Day, I proudly wear my verdant garb and remember when my name would have been Ó Mulriáin. I probably don't need to explain that my favourite colours are green and orange.

I am a political junkie. On their 18th birthdays, my friends obtained new licenses and bought lotto tickets; I joined the Democratic Party. I was a pledged delegate to the Democratic National Convention representing Missouri's 4th District. As Representative Emanuel Cleaver (MO-5) would say, 'colour me a hard-line liberal.' I also follow politics in several countries, including the UK, Commonwealth and EU nations.

I am a musician. I play the piano, bassoon, saxophone, flute and clarinet. I work on Sundays because I am a church organist. My favourite composers are Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, Debussy and Gershwin.

As I mentioned earlier, I am from a small town. My first-year class at Jewell is as large as my entire high school. The goal of most of my high school English teachers was to avoid grading papers. Nonetheless, we managed to write a few. Owing to my position in the class, I was regularly called upon to write papers twice to thrice the requisite length. I have done the traditional research papers and literary critiques. I have also tried my hand at various styles of sonnets. My favourite aspect of sonnets is their ability to draw upon ancient imagery of Greek and Roman gods and hero's and remain entirely within prospective.

I think I can write well when put to the task, but in general, I don't think highly of my writing skills. I know that I tend to punctuate my writing as if delivered in a speech (using excess punctuation), and I have a feeling that my usage of 'Briticisms' will prove out-of-place in an American composition class.

My favourite writers are Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Alfred Lord Tennyson, Robert Frost, Washington Irving, Willa Cather, Sylvia Plath, e e cummings, William Carlos Williams, Gabriela Mistral, Chinua Achebe and Simon Schama.

I hope this information proves useful. I look forward to this semester, and as I said in my meagre poem, I am ready to write, read and learn afresh.

Sincerely,

Rex B Ryan