Dr.

Leslie Bruce
University Hall room 435
800 N. State College Boulevard
Fullerton, CA 92831

Dear Dr. Bruce,

Throughout the semester, I have exercised my writing skills through the various
assignments given in ENGL 363 in hopes of improving my abilities as a scientific writer.
Altogether, this class taught me how to effectively communicate to both general and discipline
specific audiences by applying the six student learning outcomes (SLOs) to my works. I am
writing this letter to demonstrate my development as a writer and mastery of SLOs using my
best assignments to substantiate these claims.

The first assignment I chose to showcase was my revised annotated bibliography

because it was my most holistic assignment encompassing five out of the six SLOs. Proficient
utilization of rhetorical focus and academic language and design (SLOs 1 and 5) is exemplified
in my introduction. To ensure that this section would capture a wide range of scientific
audiences, I wrote in a formal tone supplemented with confident application of relevant scientific
terminology. Likewise, I omitted using heavy jargon that could distract or repel the less familiar
crowd. Organization and focus (SLO 4) is displayed in the format of this document. I
incorporated various functional and topical headings (purpose, introduction, summary, etc.) to
declutter the dense amount of material covered and logically convey my thought process to my
readers. In addressing each article’s contribution to my review paper, I exhibited my ability to
persuade my audience (SLO 3). To establish their importance, I specifically outlined the main
points of each article and assigned the section of my review paper where each respective point
would be discussed. Additionally, I contrived relationships between articles to emphasize their
malleability in my review. Lastly, I showed full competence of ethical research (SLO 2) by
consistently citing each article in correct APA format. Furthermore, my capability to discern
credible primary literature sources to use for my review increased my own ethos.

To demonstrate my ability to collaborate with my fellow peers (SLO 6), I selected the
group charter as this assignment required the consensus of my two teammates to fulfill this
task. Together, my teammates and I determined possible meeting times and established
deadlines for our review paper and presentation. We additionally devised fair resolutions to all
foreseeable conflicts. The formation of our collaborative network allowed us to freely critique
one another’s written work to improve our final review paper through incorporating our received
edits. This charter streamlined our writing process and established a strong sense of comradery
from the beginning.

This class has elevated my writing abilities and boosted my confidence of disseminating
scientific findings to diverse audiences. The skills I have acquired in ENGL 363 transcend well
beyond this course. I look forward to applying the SLOs in all my written classwork, research
presentations, and undergraduate thesis. I hope you find this letter useful as you review my
portfolio. Thank you so much for cultivating my writing and demonstrating to me my fullest
potential.

Sincerely,

Katia Niño