Dear Dr.

Bruce,

I enrolled in scientific writing with the goal of improving my written and oral communication skills. I was
provided plenty of opportunities to develop in these areas and many others as well by completing the
assignments and in class activities that were administered. The student learning outcomes (SLOs)
expected of this course included development in rhetorical focus, ethical research, persuasion,
organization and focus, academic language and design, and collaboration. I will outline one major
assignment along with a minor assignment that addressed these SLOs.

One major assignment that was directed at multiple SLOs was the definition assignment. Here, I was
required to define a scientific term that was intended to appear in an encyclopedia. The SLOs that were
met in this assignment included rhetorical focus, ethical research, persuasion, organization and focus, and
academic language and design. Rhetorical focus was addressed in this assignment as it required a style of
writing that would be appropriate for an encyclopedia that would be read by individuals with a diverse
background. Considering the diverse audience, all terms were defined in order to enhance understanding
and clarity of the information that was conveyed. In addition, ethical research was another SLO that was
satisfied in this assignment as information that was obtained from outside sources required citations.
Also, it was necessary to acquire information from variety of sources, which was accomplished as books,
internet sources, and journal articles were used as references. Furthermore, persuasion was an additional
SLO achieved in this assignment as it was necessary to maintain an objective style of writing to prevent
presenting biased information, and the information required support with evidence. For instance, after
discussing the significance of glycolysis, I supported this assertion by discussing a disease related to a
disruption in the pathway. Organization and focus was also exemplified as I divided different information
with headers and presented the information in a logical flow beginning with a description of glycolysis,
its regulation, and ending with a discussion of its significance and diseases caused by perturbation in the
pathway. Finally, academic language and design was met in this assignment as a variety of sentence
structures and verbiage were used in order to present the information in a more interesting manner.

The in-class summarizing activity was a minor assignment that satisfied collaboration. For this
assignment, we were instructed to pair with a partner and exchange ideas of how to summarize a selected
article. Therefore, collaboration was mandated, and I seemed to have performed well in this SLO my
partner and I earned extra credit for our summary.

Altogether, I am convinced that my skills in both oral and written communication have improved after
taking this course. I have completed in-class activities and assignment both independently and with
classmates, which provided a unique learning experience that will prove to be a valuable asset to my
continued academic career and beyond.