11 December 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,

The purpose of this letter is to show you how I have mastered this courses student learning
outcomes. I will do this by showing you two different documents, the results section of my
recommendation report and my resume. I will first address the struggles I faced with the
recommendation report and then speak about my strengths with the resume. By analyzing these
documents, I will be able to show you how much I have grown as a writer and how I have overall
mastered all six student learning outcomes.
Properly citing information has always been a weakness of mine. SLO number two, ethical
research, covers citations. Although I struggled in the beginning, I believe I have now mastered this SLO.
When I first worked on my recommendation report, I frequently referred to Purdue Owl. I was
completely unaware of this site before taking this class and I will definitely use it in the future. In the
results section of my recommendation report, you made me aware of two citation mistakes I made. I
have corrected these errors in my final draft and now understand why I was wrong. In the future, I will
be sure these same mistakes dont happen again.
Although a fairly simple one page document, the resume addresses several of the student
learning outcomes. The resume clearly addresses the persuasive arguments SLO because the entire
purpose of the resume was to persuade you to hire me. Before I even started writing my resume, I
carefully reviewed the job advertisement. While doing this, I paid extra attention to specific verbs that
were used. I strategically placed the same verbs from the advertisement into my resume. I believe doing
this made a major difference. This also shows that I have mastered the academic language and design
SLO. I was very careful to be sure that all verbs used were active verbs and were in the proper tense.
This made my resume that much stronger and reaffirms that I have mastered the academic language
and design SLO.
In this particular rhetorical situation, applying for a job, it was very important that you were able
to easily read my resume. For this reason I found the organization and focus SLO to be the most
important. In my resume, there are three main sections; objective, experience and education.
Everything has its place. Each section has a title in bold font so you could clearly see what would be
covered. I used bullet points when appropriate so my wording was succinct and easy to read. The first
word of each bullet point was a verb. Also, each verb was in the same tense. One critique you made on
my resume was to add more white space. After looking at my resume again I realized that more white

space was indeed necessary. I added another blank space between each section to make the document
less cluttered and easier on the eyes.
The collaboration SLO taught me how important it is to not only revise my own work, but to
have an outside person also review my work. In class, I had the opportunity to have one of my
classmates revise my resume. Due to his comments, I was able to make a few useful changes to my
document. In return, I revised his resume. This process helped me with my own work because I got to
see the same assignment from a different point of view. In addition, when I revised his resume, I wrote
directly on his resume and filled out a rubric. This writing was completely informal. This addresses the
rhetorical focus SLO. The resume is a very formal document addressed to you, not a classmate. This also
addresses the rhetorical focus SLO.
This class has significantly improved my skills as a writer. Although there are still some things I
could use more practice on, like proposals. I now know how to properly site APA and I know that I can
always refer to Purdue Owl. Also, I will always be sure to have someone else review my work before
submitting. I chose my resume as my major assignment because the way a resume is written can make a
difference on the first impression an employer will have of me. It can mean securing a job or not being
considered for a job. Before this semester, I always thought English was just about writing essays. I now
see the importance proper English will have in my future.

Best Regards,

Valerie Romo
Tuesday Class