50559 Good Oak Loop RDFrazee, MN 56544

August 1, 2010

Portfolio Assessment Readers

Dear Readers:

Good day to you. I am excited to have you review my electronic portfolio because I believe it offers solid examples of reader-centered professional writing at various stages of my learning in association with ENG 320 Business and Professional Writing. Throughout the course the primary goal has been to learn to create documents, projects, and files that focus on the reader’s point of view. I have always known that a writer must keep the reader, audience, and context in mind when writing, but the task is compounded in business or professional writing by the need to inform and persuade while maintaining one’s ethics and credibility. The files I offer as proofs of my learning include the following: an application cover letter, three versions of my resume, an Employment Recommendation Report, the Individual Project Proposal, the Individual Project Progress Report, and the Individual Project, which is a language arts class website. Though the files are different genres of writing for various reasons and contexts, they offer proofs of the progress of my understanding and use of diction, tone, persuasion, and visual elements that target the readers’ points of view. The portfolio also serves as an opportunity for me to reflect on what I have learned. Reflection on my performance is necessary in my future career to make adjustments to content, methodology, and assessment practices to offer future students every opportunity for success. The same importance of reflection applies to my work on reader-centered professional writing to improve a skill that I will use in seeking employment and throughout my career as a teacher. As a teacher, I will need to communicate with readers who vary in their purpose from my students to parents and administrators. The writings contained in this portfolio reflect my understanding and ability to focus on the reader.

As you review the files in this portfolio, you may note that the progress throughout the writing is not necessarily blatantly obvious. For instance, the intent for reader-centered writing in the application cover letter is more subdued than the employment recommendation report. I consciously chose subtlety in the cover letter so that the persuasion was not overtly obvious and did not offend the reader by concentrating too heavily on the culturally diverse nature of the school, whereas the client-reader of the recommendation report expected the sales pitch approach. The necessity of various levels of subtlety in professional writing became more apparent through group work and peer review processes. My participation in these processes gave me an opportunity to see the perspectives of other writers and their approaches to targeting the reader’s point of view. Though not formal research, such as that used during the recommendation report, the opportunity to review the work of my peers was research that offered me the opportunity to revise my own assumptions and writing based on what I felt worked from a reader’s point of view.

All of the files in the portfolio represent reader-centered writing, but I feel that the writing throughout the website project remains the best example of what I have learned. This project required that I interview other students and educators to discover what they found desirable in a class-related website. The task of building a class-related website included numerous elements associated with reader-centered writing ranging from writing and using visual elements with the reader culture in mind to maintaining a credible and ethical foundation. The project tested my abilities in these areas with each web page I created and forced me to be more conscious of the numerous possible audiences of the writing. The website offers tone, vocabulary, general diction, and persuasive arguments that focus on the readers’ points of view, but interestingly, the writing must appeal to three very different audiences in students, parents, and

administrators – four, if one considers the general public. I focused on the student reader first when researching and writing the website materials and then modified or revised the writing to raise it up to the expectations of parent, administrator, and general public. I found this to be a difficult task without losing the friendly informal tone directed at the students, a tone I believe is essential when communicating with students. The first page of the site uses a friendly, but professional tone and diction that sets the foundation of my credibility and ethics, whereas every other page (with the exception of the parent page) contains a less formal, friendly, humorous, and first person tone directed at the student reader. I tried to make the writing that which other students and I like to read as students viewing a teacher or professor’s class site, while maintaining the professionalism that parents and administrators will seek and expect. My research and interviews show that students and educators alike want a site that is consistent and concise while offering information about the teacher and course that users need and want. I originally intended the site to contain only eight or nine pages, but my research and writing expanded original assumptions into the site you see now. Writing is a process of reflection and revision and this is no less true in professional writing such as that found in the website.

The website may reflect what I consider to be my best work, but that does not mean that I believe that there is no room for improving the reader-centered approach in my professional writing. For instance, I know that there are sections within the recommendation report where I can improve the reader-centered approach. In future revisions I can and should expound further on my interpretations in each community section of the report and more openly connect the facts presented to the needs perceived and vocalized during client interviews and communications. I believe I can improve my professional writing further through continued reflection and practice. By the time I am creating final drafts of documents for my employment search next year, I anticipate producing very solid reader-centered documents. Through continued reflection and practice my professional writing will improve throughout my future career as a teacher.

It is my hope that, as you review the files in this electronic portfolio, you are able to recognize the efforts made to improve my reader-centered professional writing throughout the various genres and contexts of the files. My prior knowledge about keeping the audience and context in mind while writing has expanded to include the various genres of professional writing from the simplest cover letter to research based reports and projects. This knowledge and associated skills will prove useful throughout future writing, most especially during my career as a teacher who must communicate to diverse readers of the same writing.

Should you have any problems in viewing any of the documents or files provided in this electronic portfolio, do not hesitate to contact me via email at Michael.Bashford@ndsu.edu or, if the need is urgent, feel free to call or text me at (701) 412 – 4771. I know your time is valuable and I am more than willing to assist in your review of my electronic portfolio.

Thank you for your time, consideration, and efforts in this matter.

Sincerely,

Michael Bashford