December 11, 2013 Dr. Leslie Bruce English Department. Room: UH-435 800 N.

State College Boulevard Fullerton, CA 92831 Dear Professor, This letter is intended to justify my success as a writer in this class and to show my adherence to the Student Learning Outcomes outlined at the beginning of the semester. This semester has been an amazing opportunity for me to grow with my writing and to gain a better understanding of different structures and styles. The documents that I have carefully decided to include in my portfolio are my outline of my profile essay, a peer review of my profile essay, a peer review I did for another student, and the original and revised copies of my profile essays. I choose these pieces of work because I feel that these exemplify my abilities as a writer and they best reflect the SLOs described for the class. I will now take you through each piece of work and go into further detail as to why these works most aptly define my new abilities as an undergraduate writer. My first piece of work that I included is my outline of my profile essay. Before writing my essay, I went through what information I had and tried to create a structure for my essay that created an easy flow for the reader to follow. For example, I wanted to include a lot of factual details and events in my fourth paragraph; I just did not know exactly what information would go there quite yet. I felt this piece proves my ability to write informally outside of class for a variety of audiences and purposes because 1) this was the beginning phase to the structures of my entire

essay, and 2) because I was informally able to outline in such a way that will help guide me through a more formal essay. The next piece of work I decided to include in this portfolio is the peer review of my profile essay. Ian Morano gave me insight as to what I succeeded in doing on my essay, as well as what needed improvement. Ian informed me of the importance of including a variety of different sources into my essay. At the time of the review, I had roughly 4-5 references. Afterwards, I included another 5-6. Ian also recommended that I include pictures in my essay because I had none at the time. Another important point that he had made was my tendency to be wordy at times; so I tried to separate some of my ideas to clear the issue. This peer review reflects my ability to improve on my writing skills through the assessment and critique of others. Thirdly, I included a peer review that I did for Dana Malhass profile essay. I critiqued her essay and gave her feedback that I felt would help her create an even better piece of work. For example, I felt that she needed a little more detail as to what makes her subject stand out from other rehabilitation techniques. This peer review shows my ability to constructively critique other peoples writing and help make their work better. The final documents I included into my portfolio are my original and revised copy of my profile essay. This essay covers the remaining portions of the SLOs. The entire paper proves my capacity to write formally in class for a variety of audiences. Within the paper, I was able to reference 11 sources that I had carefully chosen to assist in reporting my topic. This ultimately shows my ability to meet the criteria of SLO #2. With the help of my outline, I was able to create a document that clearly organized my ideas as well as smoothly transition from one thought to the next. This was essentially the requirement for SLO #4. By the very nature of the essay, I remained unbiased or racist, which satisfies SLO #5. The last SLO that this essay satisfied was

my ability to compare and contrast opposing arguments objectively. For example, I recognized that the idea of using manure as fertilizer is actually a cheap and efficient idea. I also included facts about why manure is good for the soil and farming. However, I mentioned that when this process is used in excess, runoff can be very detrimental to the environment. I feel as though my abilities as a writer have considerably grown throughout the course of this semester. I feel much more confident in my ability to write for a number of different rhetorical situations. I also learned the importance of illustrations and how more sources is always better. This class taught me to cut away unnecessary sentences and be straight to the point. Thank you for reviewing my portfolio and I hope this serves as an adequate reflection of my abilities as a writer.

Sincerely, Chris McLaren