Kelly Cano

5312 Roanoke Ave.

Albuquerque, NM 87123

Elizabeth Benedict
UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO
8200 Central Ave.
Albuquerque, NM 87108
Dear Elizabeth Benedict:
I am writing to you to talk about the Technical and Professional Writing course I took
with you and the course outcomes that I have learned and utilized throughout the semester. I
want to tell you my understanding of each of the four learning outcomes, how I have used
them in your class as well as a short discussion on how they relate to my future academic and
professional life.
The first student learning outcome that we used in your class was Analyze Rhetorical
Situations. Overall, this student learning outcome was to make a decision on what kind of
document I should write based on the subject, purpose and audience given in the assignment.
This outcome was used in every single assignment that we did in your class. For the resume,
I had to tailor my resume to reflect the audience. The audience for this assignment was
potential employers that will take a look at my Weebly website. For the website as well, I had
to make a site that clearly had a professional feel for my potential employers. For the
Proposal, my group had to tailor our whole document for Albuquerques Board of Education.
We had to make sure we include many facts about our topic knowing that we had to be very
professional and straightforward with this audience. Lastly for the recommendation report
presentation, my audience was the general manager of Starbucks. I needed to present the
facts in a straight forward manner.
The second student learning outcome was Find and Evaluate Information. This
learning outcome is to gather professional, academic and government resources for the
rhetorical situation given with each project. I must make sure that these sources were
credible and appropriate to use for the rhetorical situation given in the assignment. I used this
student learning outcome in the proposal and the recommendation report. For the proposal,
my group needed to research on standardized testing in New Mexico. We needed to make
sure all of our sources were credible and not sources from blog sites or Wikipedia. For the

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recommendation report I needed to make sure all of the facts that I presented about universal
design were accurate.
The third student learning outcome was Compose Documents. This outcome was
used in every assignment that we have done in this class. We had to create documents. We
needed to develop methodology to create our documents and made sure the structure of our
documents were able to match the rhetorical situation that was assigned. Along with this, in
this learning outcome, we must work effectively with other peers to create a document. For
the website assignment, I had to create a professional and clean resume for my potential
employers who visit my website. I could not write just bullet points on a word document of
my skills, or a narrative essay. I needed to create a clean, readable document that has
different sections that clearly distinguish what skills I have and what work experience I have,
etc.
Lastly, the fourth student learning outcome is Present Documents. For this student
learning outcome we were expected to edit and revise our work to create exactly what was
asked in the prompt. Also, we are to create visual, multimodal pieces to enhance our
document(s). Each major writing assignment had a multimodal component to complement
our original document. For the resume and cover letter assignment, we were asked to create a
website to hold our documents. This website was used to present a professional and clean
look. Our resume and cover letter were professional documents, our website should have that
same professional look and feel. For my website, I went the minimalistic route to create a
sense of professionalism. Also, for the recommendation report, we had to create a
PowerPoint or Prezi presentation to accompany our report. It explained our recommendation
that we explained in our report.
All four of these outcomes and the skills that helped me achieve these student
learning outcomes will greatly help me in the future professionally with jobs as well as for
future classes. Being able to analyze a rhetorical situation and to pursue it as intended is
critical for my future classes. Especially for my up and coming speech and hearing classes. I
understand that I will need to create reports for specific scenarios. And being able to analyze
the rhetorical situation is key for assignments such as that. In the future for jobs and for
classes, being able to find reliable sources to back up for factual information is critical. You
cannot be presenting false material to your bosses at your job. Also, having credible sources
that are properly cited will make for a strong document for classroom assignments.
Composing a well written document is vital for future classes. If these documents are edited,
filled with valuable information and written correctly, these will guarantee you a very
pleasing grade. Also, creating a well compiled presentation of your idea for your employer
can create many new opportunities for you. Being able to create a presentation or even a
supplemental piece to a report can enhance your professionalism in the workplace.

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Sincerely,
Kelly Cano