Through the various assignments in ENGL 301, I was able to improve my writing and learn many technical writing skills. Each assignment required careful consideration of the audience, the content of the paper, organization, writing style, tone and formatting.
The following is a selection of my best works from ENGL 301. These illustrate the technical skills I have learned in the course and applied to my daily life.
The learning goal of this assignment was to establish a clear image of what is expected of professionals in social media scenarios. The assignment consisted in coming up with best practices to boost your LinkedIn account. Students were asked to research on best practices and updater their profiles according to their results. During this assignment I learned how important it was to keep an updated LinkedIn account, and how powerful that tool can be for job seeking purposes.
The learning goal of this assignment was to practice communicating in a professional, respectful and friendly tone regardless of the situation and content of the letters. The assignment consists of a complaint letter and a bad news letter. Students were specifically asked to use the You-Attitude, which is a reader-centred writing technique, even when composing letters addressing a complaint and bad news. In this assignment, I learned that using the You-Attitude technique is particularly useful in business situations. Additionally, the You-Attitude technique heightens the chance for the reader to respond to our needs.
The learning goal of this assignment was to learn how to effectively write an email to a professor or a figure who demands higher respect. The assignment consisted on coming up with rules on how, what and when to write an email to a professor asking to be enrolled in a classroom environment. Using the You-attitude learned earlier in the course, the memo highlights step by step the best practices in email writing. During this assignment I learned how effective email writing can be and how one small mistake may affect your overall email effectiveness.