8 May 2014

Dr. Leslie Bruce

Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics
California State University, Fullerton
Fullerton, CA 92834-9480

Dear Dr. Bruce,
In this letter, I will write to you on why I arranged my documents this way and
understand why it is in my portfolio. These documents are the work that I have done in my
English 301 class which includes the writers notebook, my peer review, a classmates peer
review, and the original and revised argumentative paper. I believed that these assignments have
shown my improvements in the student learning outcomes (SLOs) throughout the semester and
that I am ready to take on to the next step in writing.
I would like to start off with the writers notebook which would cover the SLO one. At
the beginning of the semester, I found this class to be very challenging and difficult because I
was not able to write and express my ideas freely. However, these journals have helped me
developed the skills to write in an informal style.
My second document is the peer review that I wrote for a group project paper. This
document covers the requirements for SLO six because it helps evaluate the students paper from
any grammar mistakes and errors; as well as improving their writing skills. For example, there
was a paper that had the topic sauna and I wrote in the comments clearly expresses the use of a
sauna and how it works. Need to cite pictures. Some citations are not proper on pages 4 and
6.This shows that by giving feedbacks, it would help the student improve their writing and
prevents plagiarism. I also have the document of the students peer review on my argumentative
paper which I used to revise my paper. This shows that I recognized my mistakes and willing to
take their advice in order to become a great writer.
My last document that I would like is the argumentative paper which I put as my last
document in the portfolio because it is probably one of the biggest assignments I ever had in my
years of writing. With that being said, I believe that this document covers all four of the SLOs.
At first, it was very difficult for me to write this paper because of using the proper citation,
organizing my ideas, and having to write so many pages. The major problem I faced in this
assignment was the SLO two: ethically cite and presenting the information from a variety of
sources appropriately. For this reason, I did not use the proper citations and reference in my
original document and as of result; I made a number of errors in my paper and received a poor
grade. However, these mistakes have been fixed with the revised paper to show that I have
improved in this area and that I would not make the same mistake again. I learned to understand
that it is important to use the proper citation and reference because it helps provide evidence and
support for your arguments, as well as giving credit to the original scholars. In addition, this
assignment would meet the requirements for SLO three which is to show opposing arguments,
assumptions, and cultural values. In my paper, I argued that we need to have strict regulations on
oil spills to prevent harmful damage to the environment and the marine life. Although, I said that
we need to have strict regulations, I counter argued that we should not have more regulations
because it can have a negative impact on the countrys economy since the government would
have to spend millions of dollars to enforce it.
Lastly, this assignment would also cover SLO four and five because I argued to have a
more strict regulations on oil spill and explained the causes of oil spill and the impact it can have
on the environment, economy, atmosphere, and the marine life. Furthermore, I made sure to have
an open mind while writing this paper because many students may have different views on the
regulations of oil spill.
I would like to say that I have enjoyed this class because it has not only taught me a few
new writing techniques that I can use in future writings, but also helped improve me as a writer.
Furthermore, this class has led me to acquire more writing skills than I originally encompassed
before I enrolled into the class at the beginning of the semester. Hopefully, this letter would
show that I have accomplished all of the six student learning outcomes.