Andrew Aitken

124 Conch Street

Bikini Bottom, Pacific Ocean

Dear Dr. Bruce,

I signed up for this class with the intention of improving my abilities and techniques in
writing scientific literature. You introduced us with distinct student learning outcomes (SLO)
that we would achieve throughout the semester. We were assigned various tasks that would
resemble the skills stated in the SLOs. This letter is an explanation of how I have improved my
writing skills and mastered the SLOs along the way. The documents I’ve included are my
definition, team charter, and lastly this cover letter. Each paragraph will include an individual
assignment and the SLOs it satisfies.

The first document is my extended definition assignment which satisfies rhetorical

awareness, ethical research, and organization. I mastered rhetorical awareness in this
document by defining technical biology terms in order to appeal to the average reader. I made
sure to explain terms such as “upwelling” and “trophic level” in order to ensure the
understanding of the reader. This document also demonstrates my knowledge of using ethical
research. Citations of multiple research articles were present in my definition assignment. Use
of paraphrased material paired with the works cited page shows that I fully understand how to
use ethical research within my work. Lastly this document demonstrates my expertise in
organization. The main subject was divided into categories in order to group the main ideas
within the definition. This allowed for a greater understanding by the reader because similar
ideas are read together and the overall flow of ideas in the document is improved. This
document was the one I chose to revise and refine using your comments and some from my
peers.

The second document is a team charter that was created with my group in preparation
for a project about antibiotic resistance. This document exemplifies the masterful use of
collaboration because it is a single document that was created by multiple individuals. Not only
was it written by me and my peers, but we worked together to ensure it met everyone’s needs
before submission. Various discussion and ideas were traded in order to ensure a finalized team
charter.

The final document is actually this very letter. Throughout this document I have
showcased my expertise in persuasion along with using language and design to get my points
across. Persuasion can be seen where I have supported my claims with specific evidence and
reasoning. Language and design can be seen throughout, but mainly where there is sentence
structure variety.
 This class has helped me master the various SLOs but also improved my overall
confidence and skill as a writer. Most of these techniques involving scientific literature directly
apply to my major in marine biology. I have greatly improved in both using and citing research
articles in my own work. Without this class I would not have come as far in writing as I have
today.