Jeff Leister

Humanities 536

800 N. State College Boulevard

Fullerton, CA 92831

Dear Dr. Bruce,

My purpose for taking this course has been to improve my writing quality by meeting

your six student learning outcomes (SLOs). I have become more proficient at planning,

organizing, and producing written work that abides by the standards used in the scientific

community. I have chosen documents to comprise a portfolio in order to demonstrate to you that

I am capable of competently meeting each criteria outlined in your six SLOs and will explain

how each document fulfills this purpose.

The main document I have chosen to include is my definition assignment. This document

is the most comprehensive demonstration of my writing, covering the most SLO criteria. It is

written formally (no slang or contractions) using language intended to be clear and informative

to a reader of an encyclopedia whom may not have an extensive science background. For

example, I use terminology such as anionic but then explain that this refers to having negatively

charged properties in order to explain the term to my audience. This demonstrates both a specific

intended audience as well as a focused purpose for the document (SLO1). This also shows my

ability to use language that is concise and clear based on who the reader is for SLO5. I show this

with my explanation of electronegativity, giving a concise overview of what it means and how it

affects a bonds polarity. The information used here was all researched using primary literature

and is cited in text and on the reference page using APA formatting showing that I can use ethical

citation and can locate and research discipline relevant sources (SLO2). The whole text is written

in passive voice with no pronouns making it gender neutral, satisfying that component of SLO5.
My definition is broken up into several subheadings such as an Introduction, and sections for

individual reagents I discussed. This gives the paper an organized flow of topics starting broad

with an introduction to the concept as a whole then describing individual components of the

topic one by one. This organization helps convey the ideas clearly in an understandable manner

(SLO4).

Another document included to demonstrate my writing skill is this cover letter itself. The

letter is being written specifically to Dr. Bruce which is a different target audience from my

definition, suggesting that I can write to more than one audience (SLO1). This cover letter is also

being written with the intent to persuade the audience that the documents I have written

appropriately demonstrate my fulfillment of the six student learning outcomes (SLO3). For

example, in the previous paragraph I discuss the merits of my definition paper and draw

connections between those merits and specific student learning outcomes.

The last document I have included is a peer review of a classmates cover letter. I have

included this in order to fill in the missing criteria that my previous documents did not touch.

This document is written informally with the purpose to help my classmate to ensure the quality

of his assignment (SLO1). For example I wrote SLO 3 could use a more concrete example for

support. Maybe specific portion of a document that demonstrates each SLO would help Which

uses fragmented sentences and omits some punctuation to get my point across efficiently. This

also demonstrates collaboration (SLO6) as I reviewed work that he did in order to help improve

it.

These three documents give a good representation of how I perform as a writer in the

sciences. I feel that I have met each of the student learning outcomes that were expected of me
and have overall improved as a writer. As a chemistry major I hope to be able to apply the

techniques and skills that I have learned over this past semester to all of my future courses as

written communication is vital to publishing effective research.

Sincerely,

Jeff Leister