Dr.

Leslie Bruce

University Hall 435

800 N. State College Boulevard

Fullerton, CA 92831

Dear Dr. Bruce,

I began this course with an insecure background in writing, and willing to gain more
structure and confidence in my own writing. The objectives of this course have allowed me to
further my writing skills. Each of the six student learning outcomes (SLO), has advanced my
writing skills allowing for a stronger basis of writing. This cover letter will provide you
examples of my improvements in writing over the course of this semester. My portfolio will be
comprised of my fully revised annotated bibliography along with a revision of a peers Editorial.

The first piece I choose to add to my portfolio is my revised annotated bibliography. The
first student learning outcome is Rhetorical focus this relates to the revised annotated
bibliography (SLO1). In this piece, the objective was learning the audience and who my message
would be directed towards. The outcome allowed me to understand that my piece was directed
towards people who are against assisted suicide and anyone who is informed about the topic.

The next student learning outcome is Ethical research (SLO2), the annotated bibliography
is a good showcase of SLO 2. For this assignment research was required to understand the
ethical problem of assisted suicide. A good example from my piece to show I understand the
process of ethical research; was finding statistics regarding the amount of people who are for
assisted suicide, and citing this piece of information correctly. SLO 2 is an important one
because in an assignment that needs research you must be careful not to take the information
from a source. From this outcome, I have learned better citation skills.

Learning how to construct persuasive arguments is the next student learning outcome
(SLO3). My annotated bibliography is a perfect example of learning how to build a persuasive
argument. Persuasion was shown through the structure of the argument being presented, in this
piece I had to try and argue my position on why people should support assisted suicide. In my
piece, I talk about how it is a moral duty to these people who are suffering. They should be able
to have the choice of how to live out their life, and we dont have a right to tell a person what
they can or cannot do with their life.

Persuasion ties into the next student outcome organization and focus (SLO4).
Organization showed that placing certain ideas and topics throughout the piece allow it to flow
better. This flow presents the information in a clear manner for the readers. The annotated
bibliography shows my ability to follow organization, by showing the set-up of the introduction.
The introduction starts with general information and then follows with claims to support my
claim for assisted suicide. In this course, I have learned that organization is a key component in
writing. If you were to present a reader with information that was not it order, it would make the
piece very difficult to read. Working on organization and the placement of where information
should go has been a huge learning objective for me.

Academic language and design (SLO5) is the last outcome to support my annotated
bibliography. When writing this piece, a certain sensitive manner needed to be taken due to the
topic at hand. Assisted suicide is a very sensitive topic and applying the right type of language to
argue my side while being subtle.

The final student learning outcome is collaboration (SLO6), shown in one of my peer
reviews of an editorial. It allows for you to give feedback on the persons writing and help them
better themselves or even add ideas to their topic. Peer reviews have helped me out a lot in the
class with reviewing other writers work and improving my own with the help of others.

Even though I have much to work on in my writing abilities for the future, I feel that this
class has significantly helped in areas I felt very weak. Organization and rhetorical focus were
the two student learning outcomes that I feel in my own work improved over the semester. This
class gave me the tools needed to work and improve on my writing over time. In selecting the
pieces for this portfolio, I hope it shows my improvement over this course.

Sincerely,

Megan Perea