This is my last reflection blog for the course English 301 – Technical Writing. It feels like just yesterday when I signed up for the class, and looking back now, I still could not believe all the growth in my writing ability.

At the start of this course, I knew my biggest weaknesses were the limited English vocabulary and unconcise writing.  To my surprise, throughout this course, I learned to rephrase my writing better and better. For instance, I came up with more than five different ways to introduce the purpose of an assignment or to comment on a peer’s work. I also have improved on the conciseness of my writing. Through the Web Folio assignment, I revised many lengthy sentences in previous assignments and made them more direct and to-the-point. Although I still have a lot to improve on, I am astounded with the positive effects that this course has brought me.

My writing strengths shined throughout this course: attention-to-detail, high standard, and consideration of others. For each assignment, I followed the instructions very carefully and gave thorough, in-depth peer reviews. I maintained a high standard throughout my writing pieces, which reflects my professionalism and my dedication towards this course. I am considerate of others by giving constructive criticisms with a you-attitude and taking comments from others with high appreciation.

The course English 301 – Technical Writing has given me a jump start in my future career. As I aim to pursue a career in a consulting firm, the ability to write concisely and with a respectful, understanding manner is uttermost important. I can apply the knowledge from this course into email communication with co-workers and writing technical proposals or reports.

The last assignment in Unit 4 of English 301 – Technical Writing is to create a Web folio. This is considered a wrap-up assignment that takes in all the work in the past four months. Below, I reflect upon the process of creating my personal Web Folio.

The process of determining the audience and the purpose of my Web Folio is quite straightforward. Thanks to my previous Co-op experience, I am fully aware that I want to take on challenges in the industry after graduation. Hence, I designed my Web Folio to highlight my marketable skills – including Technical Writing, a valuable skillset that would help me stand out in the crowd.

Chapter 25 of the textbook Technical Communications helped me tremendously in designing my Web Folio. From this chapter, I realized that a web page’s design is almost (if not equally) important as its content. Like other assignments in this course, I took note on the need and expectation of the audience before creating my Web Folio. A good design must be clean, includes easy accessibility, sensible arrangement, and good use of visual effect. I found that the pre-made webpage design that I have been using only provided a basic webpage frame. It was crucial to logically think about how to organize my content, how to name the tab, what kind of graphic to include etc. in order to create an eye-catching, consistent, and easy-to-navigate Web Folio.

Putting the content of my Web Folio together was quite fulfilling to me. The amount and quality of my writing pieces in the last four months amazed me, especially the gradual improving progress that I saw in my writing. There were very few errors in my work by the end of the term and I did not have to do much revision before putting them up on my Web Folio. Perhaps the main challenge in terms of content in this assignment was to introduce my audience to every tab in my Web Folio. I spent most of my time on writing concisely while showing a professional tone throughout the tabs.