April 12, 2012 To Whom It May Concern: As one of her professors at Weber State University, I am pleased to write a letter

of recommendation for Samantha Postma. I have known Sami for almost two years and during that time have had numerous opportunities to observe and evaluate her interpersonal skills and communication abilities. Based on these interactions, I find Sami to be one of my most qualified students. I first met Sami last spring (2011), when she took my ENGL 4100 Issues in Professional & Technical Writing: Theoretical Approaches class. This class is an advanced study of predominant theories and practical approaches in professional and technical writing. Students choose an organization then conduct a research project that investigates the rhetorical strategies, approaches, etc., of that organization. Sami chose Harlequin Press and studied its use of informal and formal communication, the effects of electronic devices on these communications, and the preferences of employees and authors involved with the Press. She discovered that Harlequin uses a much more informal style of communication and recommended that professional writing courses place greater emphasis on informal texts such as email and oral communication. I was impressed with her convincing argument and her articulate prose. Last fall, I asked a colleague who teaches the document design class to recommend two students who could create a template for the 2012 National Conference on Undergraduate Research (NCUR) program book. The conference would be held at Weber Statue University in the spring, and we needed to provide a program that covered over 3000 presentations and posters. My colleague found two of her best studentsone of whom was Sami Postmawho then used InDesign to develop a user-friendly and professional template. Because of her experience in creating this template and her technical and writing skills, the Office of Undergraduate Research at Weber State hired Sami as the NCUR program books technical writer. I supervised her work on this project. Between January and March of this year, she used the template she helped create to assemble roughly 200 pages of technical information, photos, background material, advertisements, session information, indexes, and so on. She efficiently handled hundreds of emails; diplomatically communicated deadlines to dozens of faculty members and community volunteers; deftly managed a variety of content types; and successfully compiled everything into a beautiful book. I was stunned by her professional work and only wish we could have paid her more! Also this spring, I asked Sami to serve as a supplemental instructor (SI) for my ENGL 2100 Technical Writing class. As an SI, she attended all of my classes, held supplemental instruction sessions for students outside of class, and basically served as an advocate for

them. Because this class was a community-based learning (CBL) class, students had to choose and then collaborate with a community partner on a technical writing project. Sami assisted them in this process by attending meetings with the partners and helping students navigate the sometimes-daunting prospect of working outside the classroom. Students benefitted from Samis expertise and enjoyed her enthusiasm for technical writingand writing in general. In addition to all of her NCUR and SI work, Sami took two classes from me this semester: ENGL 4530 American Literature: Realism to Naturalism and ENGL 4110 Content Management. The first class is a survey class, in which students read and interpret texts from ~1865-1914 and conduct scholarly inquiry as they write a variety of literary analyses. Sami wrote insightful readings responses each week and is in the process of writing a compelling argument about anti-feminist protagonists in a couple of seemingly feminist texts. The second class teaches students how to divide content into smaller chunks and reconfigure those chunks into usable structures. As they construct a content management project, students conduct a tools evaluation; create a reuse map; and develop an information model. Earlier in the semester, Sami wrote an XML document (a coding language used for managing content on various platforms) and is now analyzing the content she used for the NCUR program book as she produces the final content management project. Over the last year and a half, Ive come to view Sami as a colleague and friend. It has been a privilege to get to know a student of her caliber and watch her grow into a professional writer. I would characterize Sami Postma as highly motivated, passionate about her work, and incredibly self-disciplined. Therefore, I give her my highest, unmitigated recommendation. If you have any questions, please contact me at (801) 626-7083 or bmcshane@weber.edu. Sincerely,

Becky Jo McShane, PhD Professor & Assistant Chair of English Weber State University