Dear Dr.

Bruce,
This semester of English was such an enlightening experience. Entering my first
college English class, Ive had to recollect older English skills and learn new ones. I truly
enjoyed learning new concepts and writing techniques almost every week. The student
learning outcomes (SLO) served as a great guideline, helping us master scientific
writing skills that will benefit us for careers in various scientific fields. My mastery of
each SLO is displayed through two documents: the review article and a Scholars
Notebook entry.
Both documents, the review article and SN entry, are both available on my
ePortfolio located on kenpacia.weebly.com. Within the ePortfolio is my cover letter on
the homepage, explaining the purpose of the website and serving as a guide through
my triumph of each SLO. The tab labeled Scientific Review contains the original
scientific review, the peer review sheets and the revised review article. The tab labeled
Scholars Notebook contains the SN entry displaying my proficiency of the SLOs.
I mastered the first SLO, rhetorical focus, of informal and formal writing through
the review article and the scholars notebook entry. The review article was a great
example of formal writing due to the scientific format with specified titles and headers.
The review article was for a scientific journal audience, requiring high levels of
organization for the clearest presentation. The SN entry is an example of informal
writing expressing our ideas and opinion without a specific format to follow. The review
article was for a cellular and molecular science journal pushing me to adjust my writing
to accommodate to my audience.

I displayed my complete grasp of the second SLO of ethical citation through the
review article. The review articles purpose was essentially finding multiple experiments
and research for synthesis. This was a great assignment to express SLO 2 as we
selected, synthesized, cited and presented information from multiple sources to present
an article of our own within our chosen topic. I complied with the format for my review
article, trying to adhere to the stem cell journal guidelines. The multiple sources of
information for our review article can be found within the reference paged and
throughout the article followed by their respective citation.
The SLO of persuasion was mastered through this cover letter. By displaying
proof and trying to persuade you, Dr. Bruce, of all the skills you have taught us through
every assignments and activities this semester. Comparing and contrasting ideas from
different research on my review article also helped me fortify my skills in order to
successfully cover all the concurrent stem cell cartilage information.
The review article displays my mastery of SLO 4, organization. The review article
required a stricter format utilizing headers, pictures and graphs to effectively combine
outside sourced articles together. By organizing the review article into smaller and more
focused sections like abstract and conclusion, it allowed for easier understanding and
presentation for the audience. The headers found within the review article helps the
reader navigate through the paper with clear description. The headers are in bold with
bigger font size to mark the beginning of new sections like the Articular Cartilage or
the Conclusion.
The fifth SLO of language and design was evident in the review article as well.
Using very scientific terms and details were very important in directing the review article

for a scientific audience. Being able to understand the audience and adapting through
writing was one of my weaknesses throughout the semester. I found myself writing
without specified audiences and not adapting my language use for my reader. Learning
how to adapt and write towards a class audience and a journal audience has taught me
how to effectively change my writing to accommodate for my audience through
explaining specific terminology or talking about extremely specific topics in our review
article. The knowledge of my audience paired with active and concise sentences
allowed me to become a very efficient writer.
I mastered SLO 6 through multiple collaborative activities but I have chosen one
specific Scholars Notebook entry to present my collaborative writing skills. Through
collaboration, Meg and I were able to put our thoughts and ideas together and address
the Scholars Notebook assignment of partner reviewing two example cover letters.
Although we disagreed on a few questions I was about to see her point-of-view to
strengthen my understanding of each writer and their cover letters. Collaboration has
been such an important aspect in our writing due to multiple peer review sessions,
highlighting flaws and learning ways to improve our writing.
I enjoyed the process of becoming a better scientific writer. Through each lesson,
assignment and activity I have gained skills that will take me further into my college and
post-collegiate career. Thank you for everything youve done and for always coming into
class with a positive and vibrant attitude.

Sincerely,
Ken Pacia