May 8, 2015

Dr. Leslie Bruce

English Department. Room UH 435
California State University, Fullerton
800 N State College Blvd, Fullerton, CA 92831
Dear Dr. Bruce,
This letter's purpose is to show you that I accomplished the six
student learning outcomes (SLOs) listed in the syllabus. I have written many
different kinds of essays during the course, but I chose blog posting for this
portfolio because it was the first assignment. I was not a skilled writer and
so I could not write very well. After I learned different skills from your class,
I thought I could show you my great improvement by revising my blog post.
I arranged this letter in the order of the SLOs so as to make it organized
and easy to follow. I will start with rhetorical focus.
I had never written anything like a blog posting or any other kind of
informal writing in other English classes, so this assignment was very
challenging to me. However, I learned how to write informally and that
challenge made me a better writer. I imagined myself as a real blogger and
tried to think how I would start writing it. More importantly, I tried to do
what the assignment asked me to do, so I added a new paragraph. I hope
that it works well and I hope that this satisfies the rhetorical focus SLO.
The second SLO is ethical citation, which was one of my weaknesses
at the beginning of the course. I had written many essays which did not
require research so I did not need to cite sources and make a Works Cited
list. As a result, I was not familiar with citation. Because of that, I made
mistakes on my blog posting because I didnt create a Works Cited list
and didnt cite some of my sources. So I got a low grade on the ethical
citation part of SLOs for blog posting. From that assignment and the
lectures, I learned how important citations are and why they are required
whenever I use outside sources. As a result, I didnt make the same
mistakes after I fully understood them, and I will always be careful when I
use citations in the future.
I thought that the fourth SLO, organization, was a standard skill and
so I could take it easy. However, it was not as easy as it seemed. I had a
problem with creating a clear thesis, so I tried to make a more solid
connection between the conclusion and the body paragraphs. In the
conclusion of my blog posting, I talked about how people are ignorant about
the Marine Patrol and I said we should pay more attention to them. I believe
this satisfies the organization SLO. However, I still need to work on
organizing my thoughts and becoming more effective in creating an explicit
thesis.

Language and design is also a very basic SLO, but it's also very easy
to make spelling, syntax, diction, and/or punctuation errors. Even though it
is a basic skill, it has always been hard for me since English is my second
language. To keep errors to a minimum, I usually double-check the words
when I'm not sure of the spelling or their meaning and I also sometimes
have my work proofread by a personal tutor. I believe that is the best way I
can make fewer errors in my writing. This is something that will take a long
time to become proficient in, but I will keep doing my best to work on this.
The last SLO is collaboration and I think blog posting best satisfies
this category. Each student was told to post their blog posting on Titanium
and comment on three different students posts. So I put my blog posting on
Titanium. I posted comments on three other students posts and I also got
three comments on my own posting. This should satisfy the collaboration
SLO. As I did this assignment, I realized how other peoples comments are
helpful when revising my post because they told me what my weaknesses
and strengths are. For example, one of comments on my blog was that my
blog post was hard to follow and confusing. I took that advice and revised
the essay so that it was clearer.
I hope this letter will help you understand how I became a better
writer throughout the course. I realized my weaknesses and strengths, so
now I know what writing level I am at. I feel a lot more comfortable writing
various kinds of essays than before I took this class. However I still need to
practice on many skills, such as my language and creating a clear structure
in my essays, so that I can become an even better writer.
Sincerely,
Hyun Seung Kim