Through out the term, we studied varies writing techniques and practiced writing technical documents such as definitions, peer review assessments, memos, formal report proposals, LinkedIn profiles, progress reports, complain and bad news letters, reflection blogs, job application packages, and formal reports. I have learned a lot from all the writing practices and feedback from my peers. There are still a lot of areas I need to improve on. Below are some assessments of my strength and weakness in terms of my writing skills.

Strengths

I am good at writing on topics I have deep knowledge of, and I am not comfortable writing about something until I have thoroughly studied them and have some detailed understanding of the issue. This ensures the integrity of the documents I write, because I have invested the time to study an research the topic. I would also like think my writing style is relatively easy to understand and explicit. I do not assume something is trivial therefore others should have known it, I tend to cover different aspects of an issue regardless how simple they are, because my audiences could be from different backgrounds and might not have insights of some areas. I think I also tend to put myself in my audience shoes and communicate in a way to make them feel respected. Originally, I have always been straight forward and got directly to the point without considering the feelings of my audiences much. However, because of long term communication to the clients required by my job. I realized that phrasing my words in a respectable way is equally important as to get the point across, otherwise I might end up offending others, and damaging the relationship.

Weakness

I am constantly struggling in finding the most effective wording to communicate to my audiences effectively. There are numerous cases at work where I could explain a problem clearly to my colleagues, but have problems in putting them on paper and explain them to clients.  I have improved a lot comparing to when I first started my job, but it’s nowhere near what I like it to be. I still need to put in significant efforts to improve my overall writing skills.

Applying my skills and strengths to my future career

The most important skills I learned from ENGL301 are writing with “you attitude”, starting a major piece of writing with an outline,  and editing my own work by reading it out loud. Wring with “you attitude” re-iterated what I learned from my job and improved my skill to a new level. Every piece of technical documents I write now, I start with an outline, this makes it so much easier to maintain a continuous thought process even if I have to jump to another task and come back to it latter. I have always hesitant to prove read my work, but I have been proven wrong many times. People make the simplest mistakes all the time. Reading my own writing out loud is the simplest method to identify those mistakes. Although I still might miss some of the mistakes, this is a big step forward for me to perfect my writing skills.

The last task of unit 4 is to create a web folio to showcase my personal and professional background and experience. This involves creating a web page , organizing and combining some of the work done this semester for the ENGL301 class. For example, a LinkedIn profile for professional networking, a resume for job hunting, an application package for a specific job including the original job description, a cover letter,  a resume, and three request letters for reference, finally the best works completed for the ENGL301 course.

WordPress seems to be a tool with a lot of potential and is capable of being use to create elegant blog pages. However, there is  steep learning curve to it especially for beginners. With so much functionalities to customize the website, but limited resources online to explain them in detail (perhaps due to the relatively inactivity of the WordPress community in terms of knowledge sharing), it was difficult to figure out how to create some of the layouts I wanted to achieve. Although I am slightly more comfortable of using it right now, there is still much to learn.

The process of creating the web folio was relatively straight forward, but it provided me with the opportunity to rethink the improvements and mistakes I have made. Looking back at some of the works done for this course reminds me some of the skills I obtained, and I should continuously remember to apply them in my work. Things like peer review other people’s work, creating an outline for a major piece of article, converting the outline to a formal report, and communicating with a “you attitude” are essential skills at the work place. ENGL301 is a constant reminder to pay attention to the details of every email message to clients or colleagues, and every technical document I create, so that they are effectively communicated to the audiences.

This course enabled me to face my weakness in communication to others and provided the opportunity to improve my technical writing skills. I strongly believe I will carry the benefits of this course to my career and continue to grow to become a better writer.