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Shayna M.

La Scala

May 8, 2017

Dr. Leslie Bruce


English Instructor
California State University, Fullerton
800 N. State College Blvd,
Fullerton, CA 912831

Dear Dr. Leslie Bruce:


Joining English 363: Scientific Writing has enabled me to effectively improve my critical
thinking and writing skills. Although I felt confident in my writing throughout my
academic career, the community of sciences requires more refined and specialized
communication, that I lacked. This led to my intentions of enrolling in your course. As a
McNair Scholar, I am conducting an undergraduate research project that entails writing
and presenting findings at the conclusion. I found that the curriculum in this course has
appropriately prepared me to continue research writing.

The Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs) advanced my knowledge of audience awareness


(in reference to readers), communication methods, discipline protocols, and the
standards in which the written information is held to. To validate my claims of
achievement and understanding I am including the following documents; this cover
letter, annotated bibliography, and a collaborative grid, reviewing the literature gathered
for the group research project. Further exemplifying my organization skills and ability to
present concise information, I will equate each document with two SLOs.

I have adapted to specializing my rhetorical focus, to meet SLO one by formally writing
my annotated bibliography. This document was prepared for the group review article
submission to a scientific journal that aligns with our research subject. The annotations
were condensed to present the most applicable information in support of the review
article. The prompt you provided, included reasons why this bibliography could be useful
and one of the reasons specifically aligns with SLO two, ethical research. My majors
customary citation style is American Psychological Association (APA), and that was
closely followed in my document. I ethically sited and synthesized studies important to
the group argument, so that a variety of sources could be presented.

SLO three, persuasive arguments, primarily focuses on comparison and evaluation of


documents in support of an argument. Although my annotated bibliography would suffice
as a supporting document for completion of this SLO, I would rather use my collaborative
grid, reviewing the chosen literature. Our group carefully evaluated relevant articles to
include in our review research paper, which also met SLO six, collaboration. This
semester I improved my writing within the partner dynamics established in class. We
effectively critiqued the texts to reflect our review of research. The group process was my
favorite part of the class curriculum and I feel I benefited most from the collaboration.
In conclusion, writing this cover letter exemplifies my ability to meet SLO four,
organization and focus. I have organized this cover letters contents to reflect my growth
in clearly communicating my thoughts to highlight my points. My points should
accurately express my evaluation of work and demonstrate my ability to integrate
culturally sensitive works that meet SLO five, utilizing academic language and design. I
believe I have successfully satisfied the universitys requirement for undergraduate
upper division writing, this semester.

Sincerely,

Shayna La Scala

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