Nathan McManus

English 360

Dec 4 2019

CSUF Fullerton

Dear Prof Bruce

When entering this class my thoughts were that we would just be writing a lot of papers
and at the end we would be graded for them. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that our
professor, professor Bruce had laid out a lesson plan that was going to be much more detailed
when it came to the structure of how a paper is properly done. In her lesson plan she used
what was called SLO’s(student learning objectives) to show us the proper way to structure our
papers. I feel that I was able to understand and use the SLO’s in my writing so that my audience
would have a clear and precise understanding about what I was trying to convey.
I feel that I achieved the ability to write for whatever audience was reading my work. By using
the Rhetorical Focus SLO #1 I gained the knowledge to write in a informal or formal writings style. I knew
that if I was going to be writing for a younger crowd such as college kids, I would be writing in an
informal style so that they could easily understand my writing. If I would be writing for doctors or
lawyers I could use more of a formal style of writing based on the fact that they have more experience in
the world. I would say that during my time in this class I focused more on the informal style of writing
knowing that the kids in my class were the ones reading it. Works that I used informal styles with were
my definition paper. In this paper I made it easier for the reader to understand because it was not as
detailed as lets say formal paper might be. I used general information that anyone could understand and
I used peer review sources that most college kids have seen before. I was able to master SLO #2 Ethical
Research. You can see this in my definition paper and my infographic. Both projects I used authoritative
sources and peer reviews. I was always using a more of an informative style that just gave facts.

I have learned to become very persuasive when it comes to my writing. You can see this in my
infographic where I make a claim that e-waist was very toxic and killing people in third world countries. I
then was able to back my argument up with evidence using information that I researched on the
subject. Who ever the reader would be they would easily be persuaded based on the fact that my
evidence came from reliable, authoritative sources. Therefore the Persuasive Argument SLO #3 was very
useful to me when writing my papers. By having the ability to use a persuasive argument also meant
that I had to be clear when it came to my work. So I feel that SLO #4 Organization and Focus went hand
in hand. I Showed this when I wrote my definition paper. By using a table of content I was able to show
the reader what they were going to be reading about. I used headers for each topic to make it clear and
organized for the reader so there was no confusion on what my point was.

I was able to use SLO #5 Academic Language and Design in my writing as well. Its shows in my
definition paper and infographic. I feel that SLO #2 goes hand in hand with SLO #5 because by using an
informative type of writing I always was able to make my point in my papers without offending any
particular gender. Finally I was able to use SLO #6 Collaboration when working on my group charter with
my group. As a group we found it easy to work together by sharing ideas with each-other with out
offending one another as well.

So looking back at all my works such as the definition paper, WN’s and my group charter I feel
very proud of what I did because it made me a better technical writer. I’m excited to take what I have
learned in this technical writing class and apply it to the real world. I feel confident that I will be able to
take on any task when it comes to technical writing.