Self-Assessment Reflection
I was very excited to take ENGL 301 to improve my skills in writing business documents because I plan to apply for jobs next year. I learned so much more than just writing and composing business documents. I was introduced to the You-Attitude writing technique, peer reviews, and learned how to set up a Web Folio through different assignments throughout the course. The assignments have helped improve my technical writing skills which I believe will be very useful for my future career. However, I believe that my newly learned skills are just the beginning. I would like to constantly practice and hone these skills to write and communicate even better for years to come.
Like other courses I have taken in the past, ENGL 301 assignments helped expose my weaknesses and made me aware of my strengths in writing and other aspects.
Weaknesses
After the course introduced and became aware of the You-Attitude writing technique, I have tried writing with this method consciously for assignments. However, I still managed to write using a number of “I” and “you” in assignments. I believe it takes time and practice for the new notion of the You-Attitude to sink in and be used to incorporating it in technical writing.
Additionally, I tend to be wordy and use words in some parts of my assignments that are repetitive. I realized that very often, being wordy doesn’t really help clarify a message better. It may actually confuse the reader more and makes an article harder to comprehend. I need to practice writing concisely to address this weakness.
Strengths
I have put a good amount of effort in organizing my writing. I believe it is important because it makes my writing and articles easier to understand for readers. A less organized article risks confusing the reader and making the document less coherent. Additionally, being organized allows me to have good time management and be more productive by meeting tight deadlines.
I also believe that I quickly grasped the new concepts taught in this course. This allowed me to have more time to write and revise the assignments to meet course objectives and requirements. Having this strength would be beneficial in quickly adopting to new learning concepts.
Future
The skills I learned in this course will prove to be beneficial for me in the future. I am still improving in incorporating the concept of the You-Attitude in my technical writing as much as I can. By becoming more aware and consciously applying the You- Attitude to my writings, it will definitely improve the message that I want to communicate more effectively. Writing the application package and completing my LinkedIn profile also helped me learned new skills that will help me land a job in the future.
Overall, this is a great course for people trying to learn how to communicate more effectively, especially at work. Learning practical skills that can be used at work or even writing different articles is great to have. Consequently, I believe the new skills will serve me well in my future educational and professional career.