1.
St.
Cloud
State
University
values
diversity
of
all
kinds,
including
but
not
limited
to
race,
religion
and
ethnicity
(full
statement
at
bulletin.stcloudstate.edu/ugb/generalinfo/nondiscrimination.asp).
TTY:
1-‐800-‐627-‐3529
SCSU
is
an
affirmative
action/equal
opportunity
educator
and
employer.
This
material
can
be
made
available
in
an
alternative
format.
Contact
the
department/agency
listed
above.
A
member
of
the
Minnesota
State
Colleges
and
Universities
system.
ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
720 Fourth Avenue South
St. Cloud, MN 56301-4498
tel 320.308.3061
fax 320.308.5524
www.stcloudstate.edu/english
March 09, 2015
A letter of Recommendation for Ms. Maria Bloch
A student of mine, Ms. Maria Bloch, has asked me to write a letter of recommendation to support her
application to pursue a graduate program at your university. I do so unreservedly and with great enthusiasm for
several reasons. The applicant is academically gifted and has had a strong desire and motivation to do forensic
linguistics, especially forensic acoustic phonetics. I have had a tremendous pleasure advising, challenging, and
guiding her in this pursuit. I have prescribed a rigorous course of study for her in preparation for the graduate
work that she intends to do in forensic sciences. As you will notice from her transcripts, the applicant has taken
a wide variety of courses from Forensic Chemistry to Physics, to Pre-calculus to Computational Linguistics, to
Psychology. For her senior project, I’m having her study the Center of Gravity of the palatal fricative [ʃ] with
the hope of discovering whether or not, and to what extent if any, the vowel context has any impact on the
measurements of this segment. A secondary benefit that we wish to derive from this study is to test the
Acoustic Invariance Hypothesis. There are two theoretical schools in acoustic phonetics: one that subscribes to
the view that acoustic phonetic signals are unique to the individual speaker, and another that claims that given
the anatomical and aerodynamic similarities in speech production, individual differences are not robust. Indeed,
many leading studies of fricatives espouse the latter view. Since Ms. Bloch has a strong interest in forensic
linguistics, I’ve asked her to investigate this palatal fricative from an acoustic phonetic perspective with an eye
on invariance or variability. The participants in her study include three male and three female speakers from
Central Minnesota. She is examining [ʃ] in eleven vowel contexts, in pre-vocalic and post-vocalic
environments. Ms. Bloch has very strong analytical abilities and a genuine interest in forensic sciences. By
assigning her to work on such a challenging topic, she is honing her skills as a future forensic phonetician. She
is also learning the value of data triangulation, using information from biology, physics, mathematics/statistics,
and computational modeling to arrive at a conclusion that may or may not be of forensic significance. Ms.
Bloch is an exceptionally gifted student, one who is keenly interested in forensic linguistics. Because of this,
and of the aforementioned reasons, I strongly and unreservedly recommend her to your program. I can be
contacted by phone at (320)-308-3539, by fax at (320)-308-5524, or by electronic mail at
enkoffi@stcloudstate.edu should you want me to provide you with additional information regarding her
application.
Ettien N. Koffi, Ph. D.
Professor of Linguistics
Saint Cloud State University,
enKoffi
Digitally signed by enKoffi
DN: cn=enKoffi, o=SCSU, ou=English
Department, email=enkoffi@stcloudstate.edu,
c=US
Date: 2015.03.20 09:56:39 -06'00'
2.
St.
Cloud
State
University
values
diversity
of
all
kinds,
including
but
not
limited
to
race,
religion
and
ethnicity
(full
statement
at
bulletin.stcloudstate.edu/ugb/generalinfo/nondiscrimination.asp).
TTY:
1-‐800-‐627-‐3529
SCSU
is
an
affirmative
action/equal
opportunity
educator
and
employer.
This
material
can
be
made
available
in
an
alternative
format.
Contact
the
department/agency
listed
above.
A
member
of
the
Minnesota
State
Colleges
and
Universities
system.
Saint Cloud, MN.
![St.
Cloud
State
University
values
diversity
of
all
kinds,
including
but
not
limited
to
race,
religion
and
ethnicity
(full
statement
at
bulletin.stcloudstate.edu/ugb/generalinfo/nondiscrimination.asp).
TTY:
1-‐800-‐627-‐3529
SCSU
is
an
affirmative
action/equal
opportunity
educator
and
employer.
This
material
can
be
made
available
in
an
alternative
format.
Contact
the
department/agency
listed
above.
A
member
of
the
Minnesota
State
Colleges
and
Universities
system.
ST. CLOUD STATE UNIVERSITY
DEPARTMENT OF ENGLISH
720 Fourth Avenue South
St. Cloud, MN 56301-4498
tel 320.308.3061
fax 320.308.5524
www.stcloudstate.edu/english
March 09, 2015
A letter of Recommendation for Ms. Maria Bloch
A student of mine, Ms. Maria Bloch, has asked me to write a letter of recommendation to support her
application to pursue a graduate program at your university. I do so unreservedly and with great enthusiasm for
several reasons. The applicant is academically gifted and has had a strong desire and motivation to do forensic
linguistics, especially forensic acoustic phonetics. I have had a tremendous pleasure advising, challenging, and
guiding her in this pursuit. I have prescribed a rigorous course of study for her in preparation for the graduate
work that she intends to do in forensic sciences. As you will notice from her transcripts, the applicant has taken
a wide variety of courses from Forensic Chemistry to Physics, to Pre-calculus to Computational Linguistics, to
Psychology. For her senior project, I’m having her study the Center of Gravity of the palatal fricative [ʃ] with
the hope of discovering whether or not, and to what extent if any, the vowel context has any impact on the
measurements of this segment. A secondary benefit that we wish to derive from this study is to test the
Acoustic Invariance Hypothesis. There are two theoretical schools in acoustic phonetics: one that subscribes to
the view that acoustic phonetic signals are unique to the individual speaker, and another that claims that given
the anatomical and aerodynamic similarities in speech production, individual differences are not robust. Indeed,
many leading studies of fricatives espouse the latter view. Since Ms. Bloch has a strong interest in forensic
linguistics, I’ve asked her to investigate this palatal fricative from an acoustic phonetic perspective with an eye
on invariance or variability. The participants in her study include three male and three female speakers from
Central Minnesota. She is examining [ʃ] in eleven vowel contexts, in pre-vocalic and post-vocalic
environments. Ms. Bloch has very strong analytical abilities and a genuine interest in forensic sciences. By
assigning her to work on such a challenging topic, she is honing her skills as a future forensic phonetician. She
is also learning the value of data triangulation, using information from biology, physics, mathematics/statistics,
and computational modeling to arrive at a conclusion that may or may not be of forensic significance. Ms.
Bloch is an exceptionally gifted student, one who is keenly interested in forensic linguistics. Because of this,
and of the aforementioned reasons, I strongly and unreservedly recommend her to your program. I can be
contacted by phone at (320)-308-3539, by fax at (320)-308-5524, or by electronic mail at
enkoffi@stcloudstate.edu should you want me to provide you with additional information regarding her
application.
Ettien N. Koffi, Ph. D.
Professor of Linguistics
Saint Cloud State University,
enKoffi
Digitally signed by enKoffi
DN: cn=enKoffi, o=SCSU, ou=English
Department, email=enkoffi@stcloudstate.edu,
c=US
Date: 2015.03.20 09:56:39 -06'00'](https://image.slidesharecdn.com/0d15f166-e8c7-4c76-a450-b4fb7fd6a3ec-160902155324/85/CollegeRecommendation_2015-Maria-Bloch-1-320.jpg)
