Dear Dr.

Bruce,
Im writing this letter to describe to you, in detail, the growth that I have achieved as a
writer over the course of this semester. The portfolio that follows, consisting of a rhetorical
triangle, an original and revised annotated bibliography, as well as a peers rubric reviewing said
bibliography, serves to attest to this growth by providing you with examples that showcase my
proficiency of the six student learning outcomes (SLOs).
One of the first assignments we were given at the start of the semester was the rhetorical
triangle, a Scholars Notebook entry. Our class had been divided into groups based on our level
of interest in the books available for us to review. At the time, the peers in my group were
strangers to me, and yet we were able to come together as a team to assess Sam Keans The
Violinists Thumb and complete our rhetorical triangle. In doing this, I believe I truly
demonstrated my effective collaborative abilities (SLO 6). More so, the completion of this
assignment shows a clear understanding of rhetorical focus (SLO 1) through the compilation of
ideas for the purpose of building a foundation for our book review. Additionally, because we
were our own audience and because it was written in-class, the rhetorical triangle is
communicated through the informal use of fragments and listing, specifically to identify certain
components of our review such as our purpose to persuade our audience to pick up this book, or
our overall message that the story of DNA truly matters.
The main attraction of my portfolio is a revision of my review papers annotated
bibliography. My revision efforts were focused on creating thorough summaries for each of my
four sources. Moreover, I tried not to leave out as much information as I did in the original, and
did my best to steer away from plagiarism by better paraphrasing the content of my sources. The

tone of the document is formal and was written out-of-class with the purposes of informing you
on the variety of research available on meditation, and persuading you that I was on the right
track for my review article (SLO 1 & 3). The sources and summaries in the annotated
bibliography further demonstrate a comparing and contrasting between different studies
performed that exemplify the effects of meditation on the body (SLO 3). For example, one of my
summaries includes information on a study that used fMRIs and while another describes a study
that used EEGs both of which showed that experienced meditators have enhanced neurological
function. I even included opposing arguments to these experiments which involved limitations
caused by human error. The assignment as a whole allowed me to demonstrate effective use of
ethical citation by having me perform individual research to find and organize each of my
sources in APA-style format (SLO 2). I organized these sources and my thoughts on them by
providing a statement of purpose of twenty-five words or less for each, followed by a oneparagraph summary (SLO 4). Finally, I used concise language, especially when discussing the
results of each study as well as when mentioning how the information was to be used in the
design of my review without bias (SLO 5).
Although the semester has come to an end, my journey as a scientific writer has only just
begun. Aside from satisfying the SLOs, through consistent practice, and especially through the
revision of my annotated bibliography, I have come to develop my proficiency in several
components of writing such as APA formatting, reading, and paraphrasing qualities that are
invaluable to someone pursuing a career in the scientific field. All in all, the documents I have
selected to present within this portfolio are a representation of my best work and progress as a
writer, and I hope they adequately convey my understanding of the student learning outcomes.

Sincerely,
Krystal Loftis