December 11, 2014

Dr. Leslie Bruce

Department of English, Comparative Literature, and Linguistics
California State University, Fullerton
800 N. State College Blvd, Fullerton, CA 93834-9480
I have accompanied with this letter a portfolio and in this portfolio a writing assignment that fully
satisfies all of the six student learning objectives (SLOs) in the English 360: Technical Writing course. The
particular assignment I chose was the recommendation report. In my portfolio you will come across six
items, a cover letter, the first draft of the report, a copy of report with your comments, another copy of
the report reviewed by a classmate; a final revision of the draft done by me. The sixth document
included is optional and is a peer review I did for a classmate. I truly believe that my portfolio captures
my improvement in upper-division academic writing. I will address all the SLOs in order from the
syllabus.
Rhetorical Focus: Write formally and informally, in-class and out-of-class, for a variety of
audiences and purposes (Bruce, 2014, pg. 1). Considering the first SLO, this report had an overview to
propose a solution to a problem for a specific audience. With that being said the objective of this report
was to recommend teaching of one genre within the home departments curriculum. Since I am a health
science major, the targeted audience for this report was the department of Health Science at California
State University, Fullerton. This report exhibits that I can write formally to a variety of audiences.
Ethical Research: Using the appropriate majors customary citation style, ethically cite and
communicate information from a variety of discipline-appropriate sources (Bruce, 2014, pg. 1). For the
second SLO, I clearly demonstrated ethical research by using the proper APA citation style. You can see
how I used in-text citations can be seen in the conventions, online research, and the recommendation
sections of the report. You can also see the APA format again in the reference page taking great
consideration that citation sources should be in alphabetical order. Since I am also citing the student
learning outcomes off the syllabus this also satisfies the same SLO. But again, you can clearly see I am
properly citing within the text, adding quotation marks when needed, and including the authors name
with corresponding page number.
Persuasive Arguments: Compare, evaluate, synthesize, and communicate carefully, objectively,
and persuasively the relative merits of alternative or opposing arguments, assumptions, and cultural
values. Integrate this evaluate work into ones own persuasive arguments (Bruce, 2014, pg.1). In
relation to SLO three, this report clearly has the persuasive tone. I have a good amount of supporting
claims in each heading with the strongest sections being the survey questionnaire, criteria chart, and the
concluding paragraph.
Organization and Focus: Organize, focus, and communicate ones thoughts clearly and
coherently to address a rhetorical situation (Bruce, 2014, pg. 1). With regard to SLO four, you can see a
beautiful layout of organization which allows my information understood. The headings and sub-

headings allows for clarity while the sentence transitions and double spacing make for a pleasurable and
easy read.
Academic language and Design: Recognize, evaluate, and employ the features and contexts of
language and design that express and influence meaning and that demonstrate sensitivity to gender and
cultural differences (Bruce, 2014, pg. 1). In consideration to SLO number five, I love being creative and
this recommendation report shows it very well. As you can see there is alignment and proximity
throughout my layout. I used a consistent font and font size of Times New Roman in size twelve. The
headings are in bold for the readers emphasis to see and take in the certain words; this made the report
overall more presentable. And the color coordinate bar graph and criteria chart were the icing on the
report.
Collaboration: Improve ones own and others writing skills through the assessment and
critique of written works (Bruce, 2014, pg.1). To complete the last SLO, I selected to add the peer
reviews that have were completed by you Dr. Bruce and a classmate. I have included both peer reviews
to show you the ability of my peers to improve on my writing. I opted to include an optional item, this
item is a peer review done by me. As you can I too can improve my on peers writing through a critique.
As you can see my writing ability in my report covers all six SLOs. I have compared both the
original and revised reports and have noticed a strong improvement in my writing ability. I would like
you to do the same and compare both and see how much of a writer I have grown by using your
methods of teaching through informative concepts and techniques. The recommendation report was
one assignment that challenged my writing skills on an entirely different level. This assignment made me
step out of my comfort zone in writing and step into a level of academic writing Ive never been in. This
portfolio displays the progress as a writer I have made. This was great preparation and now with six new
tools in my grasp I am ready to take on any writing assignments that come my way.
Sincerely,
Omar Cuevas

References
Bruce, L.,(2014)English 360: technical writing. california state university, fullerton, department of
english, comparative literature, and linguistics, (pg. 1-6). Print