Dear Dr.

Bruce,
The purpose of this letter is to convey to you that I have successfully acquired the writing
skills that are outlined by the six student learning outcomes (SLOs) of your scientific writing
course. In order to prove to you that I mastered these skills I have decided to organize this letter
as a discussion of each SLO individually and refer you to specific examples within the
documents of my portfolio.
The rhetorical focus SLO has made me far more cognizant of the purpose, and intended
audience of my writings. The purpose of my proposal was to persuade the NSF board to award a
grant to my project. I addressed this purpose by describing the problem of age related cognitive
decline, and I fulfilled the NSFs desire for broader impacts by suggesting in the conclusion
that the study might lead to drug treatments for the worldwide problem. I also understood that
the review board is not made entirely of scientists in my field, and I therefore included a jargonfree introduction in the first paragraph, and a detailed description of BDNF in the third paragraph
to accommodate my audience. This cover letter also demonstrates an informal writing style
which I feel best allows me to communicate my evidence of SLO mastery to you.
One writing skill that has benefited through keeping a clear purpose is creating
persuasive arguments. You will notice that this cover letter provides specific examples from my
portfolio as evidence to create a persuasive case for my mastery of each SLO. You will also see
persuasion in the third paragraph of my proposal where I provide a comprehensive list of the
beneficial effects that BDNF has on the brain, emphasizing the importance of studying it. I then
point out specific areas where research on BDNF is lacking, and explain how my study will fill
in those gaps in knowledge. The final sentence of the paragraph then serves as a concluding
summary and call to action for the entire persuasive argument of the paper.
Part of my persuasiveness comes from the ethos obtained through ethical research.
Evidence for my mastery of this SLO can be found specifically in the first quote of the third
paragraph of my proposal where seven sources were required for a single quote and the verb
tense did not match my sentence. Still, I was able to appropriately incorporate this quote and the
necessary citations in an ethical and responsible manner, with each fact having a citation that
referenced the correct publication in the works cited page at the end of my proposal.
Throughout this course I have utilized organization and focus to maximize the
effectiveness of my writing. You will notice that this cover letter was purposefully organized to
address each of the SLOs individually as I believe this to be the most effective structure for
thoroughly demonstrating to you that I have successfully mastered each SLO. Organization is
also demonstrated in the proposal where I used subheadings in the methods section to clearly and
effectively communicate the various proposed procedures of the project.
Evidence for my appropriate use of language and design can be seen in this cover letter
which was able to use informal but effective language to illustrate my SLO mastery to you in
only 750 words. The proposal, however, utilizes a highly academic language intended to increase
credibility in the eyes of the review board, and clearly explain complex ideas and facts. Elements
of design can be seen on my portfolio weebly which utilizes a visually appealing color scheme,
and makes it easy for you to find and access each of the documents of the portfolio.

While I have indeed mastered the six SLOs, there is always room for improvement. My
mastery of the collaboration SLO ensures that I will continue with my growth as a scientific
writer. You will find improvement of my writing skills by looking at my incorporation of
subheadings in my methods section after they were suggested in the peer reviewers rubric. After
incorporating this element, my methods section is now far clearer and readers will have a much
easier time of understanding the projects procedures. You will find that I am capable of
providing useful feedback to others in the peer review where I recommend that my peer include
clearer descriptions of specific terms such as clamp recording. This suggestion will help her to
analyze her audience and modify her level of detail, resulting in an improved review.
Thank you,
Eric Hubbard