This class focused on building effective communication between business, professional, and technical contexts while providing the students with the opportunity to practice the proper techniques to approach writing professional documents. In this course, I was able to explore the various ways to design report proposals and outlines, build exceptional resumes along with developing job application skills, as well as how to draft formal reports. By working collaboratively with each other, we learned how to properly communicate with our peers in an online setting and be able to practice positive interactions on various frequently used medium. As this course is an online course with no specific in-person meeting requirements, we were required to manage our time effectively and efficiently in order to excel in the course.
Looking back on the first website I have created for this course and the content within in and comparing it to this Web Folio, I am incredibly satisfied with what I have learned and all of the assignments I have accomplished. An expectation of English 301 that I had at the beginning of this course was that I would learn how to sharpen my language and writing skills in order to create exceptional professional documents for future job applications, graduate school entrance essays, and to use in my professional career as well.
One thing that I aimed to do at the beginning of the course was to read ahead and to draft rough copies of each of my assignments so that I would have a base when it came time to reread the lesson and create the actual assignment. I underestimated the time I had and did not follow through with that goal. My weaknesses in this course lied in over perfecting my documents and feeling overwhelmed with my visions of each assignment and putting it off to the side for a little longer to clear my head. Instead, I should have stayed focused and goal oriented in order to meet each deadline.
Initially, my writing used a lot of imperatives and had a strict tone to it. Through each unit and each reflection unit, I learned new strategies to improve my writing and communication skills, and aimed to apply them to the next unit. Rereading my writing and comparing it to my work now, I’ve applied the “You Attitude” and tips from the Instructors blog. In my learning process, I read and reread the course material as well as the assignments and ensured my assignment fit the rubric accordingly. I found that my assignments took longer than any other course this semester because of my objective to hand in a perfect draft of everything I worked on.
My greatest strength in this course was my ability to take direction and revise my assignments to reflect to construct criticism given to me. I wanted to do the very best I could in each assignment and I made sure to take every criticism as a positive rather than a negative. I am looking forward to drafting more formal documentation in my future career and applying all I have learned to future career and grad school applications. I am looking forward to strengthening my technical skills further by continuing to revisit the communications textbook and by staying in touch with my writing partners.
Working in an online group setting for the entirety of the course was extremely helpful when it came to peer reviews, but difficult and stressful in moments of time constraints. Being accountable to your peers throughout the course was an extreme requirement and it was difficult to make time several times a week in order to create an assignment, create a peer review that benefits your peer and their assignment, then edit your assignment. Although this process was stressful at times, it was incredibly helpful.
Although I thoroughly enjoyed this class, I am relieved to be finished the many assignments that were required throughout the course. We did it!
