English 219 Performance Review

Nayelli Acosta - Instructor Elizabeth Barnett – November 30, 2018

The purpose of this memo is to outline the Student Learning Outcomes (SLO) for English 219
and how my work within the course pertains to these outcomes. The following text covers the
nine SLOs and how they have been met through my assignments throughout the course.
Please visit my website to view examples of my work.

SLO Analysis Example

1. Project Planning - Students
plan, research, and compose
technical documents in teams
and individually relative to the
lifecycle process for technical
documents.
This student learning outcome
explains how students must use some
type of planning, research, and
composing method to create technical
documents individually or in a team.
For MWA 2, my group and I planned
the questions to put on our survey
and how to find students to answer
our survey. This assignment also
required us to do research on health
insurance statistics.

2. Project Analysis - Students
work to identify readers for
their technical documents, the
contexts in which those
documents exist, with an
emphasis on how technical
documents are
best composed by and for
specific global, diverse, and
multicultural situations.
3. Content Development -
Students come to understand
how genre conventions impact
writing strategies, and use
contextual information to place
specialized information into an
appropriate
technical genre.
4. Organizational Design -
Students practice strong
research skills with primary
and secondary sources in order
to generate appropriate content
for their technical documents.
This student learning outcome
explains that students must identify
who their audience is and how this
will shape their technical document. It
states that technical documents are
best created when students focus on
their audience and the context of their
works.
This student learning outcome
explains to students to analyze and
decide which genre is appropriate for
what information. It tells that some
genres are inappropriate for the
workplace and others might be
inappropriate or less effective for the
casual public eye.
Student learning outcome 4 explains
that students should know how to
conduct proper research using
appropriate sources to generate
content for technical documents.
Deciding who my audience was at
the beginning of each assignment,
made it easier to decide what style
and context I wanted to write in. For
MWA 3, the recommendations
report, my audience was the UNM
SHAC. Knowing exactly who I was
writing to helped me keep a
professional tone throughout my
report.
Throughout this semester, I was
required to present information in
several different genre. For MWA 1,
I created a memo. For MWA 2, my
group created a PowerPoint
presentation to show the results
received from our surveys. MWA 3,
was a very formal recommendations
report. Each of these assignments
helped see how to use each genre in
a different setting.
For the research presentation, I
conducted research using other
students at UNM as primary sources.
I was required to use skills to
develop a hypothesis and then
convert that hypothesis into a thesis.
5. Written Communication -
Students compose clear prose
that is stylistically responsible,
avoids errors and pays
attention to readability for
audiences.
6. Visual Communication -
Students understand and
practice general visual design
principles by developing user-
friendly data displays
including charts, tables,
infographics, line graphics, and
presentations.
7. Reviewing and Editing -
Across media and contexts,
students learn informed
stylistic
choices, text-revision for user-
centeredness, and avoidance of
common misspellings and
mechanical errors.
8. Content Management -
Students gain foundational
knowledge of the organization
and management of complex
and extensive digital and
textual information and receive
an introduction to information
architecture, web content
management, and social
networking.
9. Production and Delivery -
Students develop confidence in
presenting information using a
variety of modes and delivered
in various media, including
web content, paper, oral
presentation, and video.
This student learning outcome tells
students to make sure they are
avoiding grammar or spelling errors
in their works. It explains that
students should make sure their
assignments are easy to follow and
are appropriate for the information
they are trying to convey.
This student learning outcome states
that students should understand how
to use visuals, design principles, and
data displays that are aesthetically
pleasing, informative, and trans-
culturally appropriate.
This student learning outcome
explains that students learn ways to
revise text for user-centeredness and
avoid common misspelling and
mechanical errors.
This student learning outcome wants
students to understand the importance
on organization in textual
information, web content, and social
networking.
This student learning outcome
explains that students should be able
to confidently present information in
many different genres. Students
should know how to create technical
documents in various media,
including web content, paper, oral
presentation, and video.
Every time my class had a major
writing assignment due, I would
have a peer review. The peer reviews
were extremely helpful to find errors
and to make the assignment easier to
follow and read.
Making the research presentation
from MWA 2 allowed me to practice
and master these skills. The research
presentation gave me practice
formatting data into charts and
graphs. My team and I created a
visual representation of our findings
using a pie chart and other visual
designs that were easy for our
readers to comprehend.
I mentioned before how the peer
reviews were extremely helpful in
achieving SLO 5. The peer reviews
also helped master SLO 7. I learned
things about my writing that I had
not noticed before and was able to
fix. The peer reviews are great
because I got another person’s
opinion on my work.
Creating the website for my final
portfolio allowed me to really
practice and engage my
organizational skills. I made sure to
organize my information in a
professional, clean style that will
help me communicate more
effectively.
Everything I did in this class allowed
me to master this SLO. For MWA 1,
I created a resume and cover letter
and learned how to be highly
professional in my writing. In MWA
2, I conducted research and
formatted the data into an oral
presentation which included visuals.
Finally, for MWA 3, I created a
recommendations report that was
professional and informative.
MWA 1 Reflection
For my MWA 1, I picked the US Bank internship because it is the internship I am
applying to. I picked this specific internship because I feel that I share core values with the
company. To create my cover letter and resume, I made a list of my skills and experiences and
then made that list into a more professional format. I wanted my cover letter and resume to
resemble me in a professional manner. My cover letter and resume are straightforward and
organized. In my resume, I made sure to keep all the information organized by including
different sections for qualifications, education, skills, and work experience. I used bullet points
to highlight key points. I used a functional resume style because I wanted to highlight my skills
and qualifications rather than work experience because I do not have a lot of experience in the
accounting field yet. This dossier is something I will use in real life. I will tailor my cover letter
and resume to use for other internships or jobs I apply to. I feel that MWA 1 helped me better
understand SLOs 3, and 5. I have a better understanding of SLO 3, content development, because
this assignment was all about placing specific information into the appropriate genre. This
assignment allowed me to practice writing to a specific audience without errors like SLO 5,
written communication, states. Overall, I feel that this assignment was very helpful because it
made me better something that I will use several times when applying to internships and jobs.

MWA 2 Reflection
I believe this MWA involved SLOs 1, 4, and 9. SLO 1, project planning, is about
planning, researching, and composing technical documents in a team. In this MWA, we planned
a survey to answer our research question. We used our survey to research students’ thoughts on
health insurance, and then we created a technical document that discussed our thesis, methods,
data, and our conclusion. SLO 4, organizational design, is generating strong research questions
and developing clear research practices. The first assignment in this MWA was to develop a
research question and then go out and conduct research to answer our question. SLO 9,
production and delivery, is developing skills in presenting information in multiple modes and in
various media. Throughout this sequence we were required to submit work in several different
formats. First, we created a survey, then we assembled our data into graphs, and we ended the
sequence by composing a power point presentation to present to the class.
This sequence, we conducted our assignments as a team. I am a natural leader, so I
quickly took on the role of the team leader and made sure we stayed on task when working on
our assignments, and that everyone had their own part to work on. When working on our
presentation, I tried to step back and let someone else be the leader. This was difficult for me
because I like to be in control. This sequence was good for me because I was able to put my
leadership skills to work and practice stepping back and not being in charge.
MWA 3 Reflection
For my recommendations report, I chose to address the UNM SHAC. I chose this
organization because I developed a survey asking students about their health insurance. After
conducting the survey, I realized that a lot of students do not know everything the SHAC offers
to students. I had a professional and concerned tone throughout my report. If I was the leader of
this organization, I would take into consideration that many students do not know of the health
insurance the SHAC offers and I would find ways to spread this information.
I think this writing assignment aligns with SLOs 3, 5, and 6. SLO 3, content
development, teaches us how to place specialized information into the appropriate genre. In this
assignment, we were required to use a report to convey our information. We were required to
write recommendations in a professional genre. SLO 5, written communication, explains that
writings should pay attention to the audience’s needs. When writing my recommendations report,
I kept in mind that my audience was an organization that needed to hear the thoughts of students
at UNM. SLO 6, visual communication, discusses using visual design principles to develop
audience-friendly data displays. In my report, I included an image of the SHAC website, and
images of my graphs from the data I collected.