9 May 2014

Dr. Leslie Bruce

Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics
California State University, Fullerton
P.O. Box 34080
Fullerton, CA 92834-9480

Dear Dr. Bruce,
This letters purpose is to show my mastery of the student learning outcomes
(SLOs) described in the course syllabus by presenting a series of relevant documents. In
my portfolio, I have decided to include the following documents: statement of purpose
reflection; a proposal, re-written and original document including a peer-review grading
sheet for the proposal. These documents are arranged in chronological order based on the
dates they were due to show the process of improvement throughout the course and to
show the process of the various SLOs achieved throughout the semester.
The first piece of writing I will discuss will be the statement of purpose reflection
assignment which was written in my writers notebook. The purpose of this writing piece
was to analyze my statement of purpose based on the instructors comments and to assess
how I could use these comments for my proposal. This reflection allowed me to assess
my writing from a different perspective based on the instructors comments. I was able to
gain additional insights on how to improve my paper. For example, my personal
statement contained repetitive sentences which I was able to fix through this reflection.
This document allowed me to successfully write informally in different environments,
ultimately fulfilling SLO1.
The second piece of writing I will discuss is my peer review for my proposal. This
has been a critical step for my improvement as a writer. Throughout my past as a writer, I
have been the only one to revise a paper before submission. The advice I have gained on
all my assignments through the peer-review process has been nothing less than
invaluable. For example, a fellow scholar pointed out that I needed additional information
to let my audience know why ulcer disease needs to be studied. This allowed me to
improve my proposal through the critique of others, ultimately satisfying SLO6.
The third piece of writing I will discuss is the original document of the proposal
assignment. After going through a series of critiques from my peers, I was able to finally
start preparing for my final piece. This was a challenge considering that it was my first
time writing a proposal. I was able to create a storyboard to help me organize my
thoughts before actually writing which I have attached with my original document. The
storyboard satisfied SLO4 due to the fact that the storyboard exercise forced me to
organize my thoughts and communicate them effectively on paper regarding a scientific
topic. Another place I did this was in the proposal itself through my various headlines
that brought my reader through a persuasive story as to why ulcer disease research is
important. Additionally, the proposal allowed me to ethically cite and present information
from various sources which satisfies SLO2. My proficient citation can be seen in the
second paragraph of my introduction where I carefully cite multiple authors. Overall, this
document was neatly organized and had vast improvements from the previous drafts.
The final piece of writing I will discuss is the re-written draft of my proposal.
After going through many writing exercises and critiques from both peers and instructors,
I had the opportunity of rewriting my proposal. This final document serves to show how
my writing skills have progressed and how the final SLOs were met. Throughout the
process of revision and final comments from my instructor, I managed to recognize
features that needed to be added such as a detailed rationale to conform to a specific
audience, ultimately satisfying SLO5. One place I specifically did this, was through
effective sentence use when describing broader impacts. Additionally, I was able to
analyze many documents on peptic ulcers to compose the background of the proposal,
satisfying SLO3.
Looking forward, I know I will be prepared when Im writing research papers and
proposals in my research career. This portfolio suggest that writing is a process that
constantly needs work and help from outside sources. I know that I have a lot of writing
skills to improve on but I am confident that I have learned the necessary writing exercises
and fundamentals to be proficient. I hope that after reading this letter, you will see how I
have improved as a writer after learning new methods over a period of time. Thank you
for taking the time to review my letter.

Sincerely,
Rebecca Vargas