December 11th, 2013 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, The purpose of this letter is to present documents included in this portfolio to illustrate that I have successfully mastered the student learning outcomes (SLOs) listed in our course syllabus. Although there were many writing assignments throughout the semester, I have chosen to include only a selected few that best show my progress during the course. The assignments I have chosen to include are the persuasive essay, 2 peer reviews and a segment from my writers journal. With a total of these 4 assignments and this cover letter, I believe I have fully satisfied the 6 student learning outcomes. The documents in the portfolio are arranged to show my increasing ability as a writer to display how I have improved over the duration of this course. The first assignment I chose to include was a section of my writers journal. I choose to include my notes for when we read, Tracking the Imperiled Bluefin From Ocean to Sushi Platter by Andrew Revkin. This assignment satisfies a few of our SLOs from the syllabus. It satisfies SLO number one partially because it was in-class and informal. Most of our assignments were out-of-class so I chose to include this one to satisfy part of the SLO. Also, since the notes were mostly unstructured, I choose to use this assignment as an example of informally work. The article and my notes also satisfies SLO number one as an example of a variety of purposes. In the context we used this article, the purpose was to locate counterarguments. This leads me to bring up SLO number 3. I used this article to compare, contrast and synthesize an opposing argument. For example, one of the arguments is that there should be seasonal bans on long-line fishing in spawning hot spots in the gulf and tighter controls on fishing in the Central Atlantic. The counterargument from American boat owners is that the current restrictions are enough and the spawning zones shift every year so seasonal blocks are impossible. The second assignment I chose to include was a peer review I had completed for a classmate. I used this to satisfy part of SLO number 6. This document shows that I can point out any issues and provide feedback. I not only read and corrected grammar issues, I pointed out different aspects of my peers paper to fix. For example, I advised her to add more detail about waterboarding along with the details she had about Amnesty International. Ive also added corrections to the order of the paragraphs to make more sense as a whole. The third assignment I included in my portfolio is the peer review for my revised persuasive essay. This satisfies SLO number 6. I took the advice of my peer into consideration and changed my essay to address any issues. For example, I was told I should add clearer topic sentences to each paragraph. I went through each paragraph and added more concise topic sentences. I also limited each paragraph to one topic in order to strengthen the paper and make it

easier to understand. An example of this can be seen in paragraph 4 where I clearly state the topic of that paragraph is going to be about common signs and symptoms of hyponatremia. The fourth assignment was the persuasive essay. This assignment covered most of my SLOs including numbers 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. This paper is structured and involved research making it a more formal work that was done outside of class; this satisfies the first half of SLO number 1. It also reaches a variety of audiences such as the editor for On Water and my peers. Within the persuasive essay, I conducted research to support claims I made to my argument using various sources. For example, I used The National Institute of Health as well as an article from the San Francisco Gate. I have learned to ethically site both in-text and in my reference page. This is evident in most of the paragraphs. I can properly introduce a source and ethically cite it. I have also shown I can cite in APA format on my reference page at the end of the essay. The persuasive essay also covers SLO number 4. I use topic sentences to introduce and transition into every new paragraph. My paragraphs are in an appropriate order and my thoughts are communicated clearly. I satisfy SLO number 5 by using unbiased language that is gender and culturally appropriate. I hope that after reading this letter, it is apparent that I have improved my writing skills over the semester. I have discovered my weaknesses and now know how to work on them. I am confident that the knowledge I have gained throughout this semester has made me a strong writer. I feel more comfortable in my writing skills. I hope you enjoy this portfolio and understand why I choose these documents in order to satisfy the student learning outcomes of our course. Sincerely, Morni Shah