December 16, 2014

Dear English Department,

Over the past several months I have expanded my writing abilities to now include, proposals and
memos. This portfolio contains the collection of my work completed in Jessica Jorgensons class
English 459: Researching and Writing Grants and Proposals. The assignments I completed
allowed me to practice writing to specific audiences in a persuasive manner. To familiarize
myself with the target audience and the situation I also learned how to research and gather
information.
The first writing assignment I completed is a proposal for Marys Books. Mary, the book store
owner, was the audience I was appealing to. I had to research the situation in Oak Park, IL to
understand how Marys Books fit into the community and to address the concerns of Borders
Books planned arrival. The purpose was to better understand Marys Books future in the Oak
Park community. I completed this writing assignment with two other group members. My role in
the group was its leader. I was able to delegate tasks effectively, but because my group members
lacked in their contributions I also added substantially to other members tasks and completed
independently much of the assignment.
The last writing assignment I completed is also a proposal, but it is a research proposal and was
written for a very different audience and purpose. The general audience was the research
community and more specifically Dr. Robert Gordon. This research proposal was for a study I
designed to evaluate PC tablets effectiveness regarding participants memory recall after
reading long duration tasks (e.g. novel). To complete my research proposal I researched other
studied that had been conducted that were similar to the study I intended to propose. I integrated
what I learned from my research in the Literature Review section my of research proposal. The
purpose of the proposal was to obtain money to do this study. In both proposals, it was critical to
outline the benefits that would be obtained by the funder. Overall, writing my research proposal
provided me with great experience and I am proud of the finished product. In addition to writing
proposals, I also gained experience writing memorandums.
Before writing my research proposal, I wrote a Letter of Intent outlining what project I would
like to complete for my final project and my plan to complete it. The Letter of Intent was
addressed to our instructor, Jessica Jorgenson, and the purpose it served was to plan ahead and
gain approval for my final project. In addition to my other works, I wrote a memorandum on an
interview I had with Dr. Carol Archbold on her experience with writing research proposals.
Because of this assignment I was able to learn from Dr. Archbolds experiences with writing
research proposals. I also gained the ability to organize interview questions, note take, and
present a memorandum in a visually pleasing manner.
Throughout all the writing assignment I completed there are several things that remained
constant. It is important to retain a high level of professionalism and with each writing
assignment I wrote each word with high integrity. I achieved this by properly citing my sources,
respecting whom I work with/interview, researching the current situation and never plagiarizing.
When conducting the interview with Dr. Archbold I ensured that I was respectful by listening to
her responses then responded accordingly and showing my gratitude for her meeting with me by

sending a thank you letter. I hope that you will find that my portfolio to follow this cover letter
has also been constructed with professionalism in mind.
The e-portfolio I have designed is a collection of my work completed in English 459:
Researching and Writing Grants and Proposals. I have arranged the documents in chronological
order from left to right. Thank you for taking the time to view the work I have completed.
Sincerely,

Brittany Nordick
Brittany Nordick