I have learned a lot from this course, not only about technical writing, but being able to organize my application package and web portfolio into a presentable manner. I enjoyed having weekly assignments that not only challenged our own writing capabilities, but also our ability to analyze and evaluate our peer’s work. Through this process I was able to get immediate feedback on my assignments and also keep my writing skills fresh and on point through the weekly tasks.
For my strengths, I feel I am able to empathize with my readers fairly well. I enjoyed doing the definitions and You attitude assignments because when I write a letter to communicate with another party, I always tailor my words with consideration of the other party’s opinions. These exercises will definitely help when working in the industry professionally. It is important to have good communication between co-workers, so there’s more time spent on solving a problem the team is working on rather than piecing together the meaning behind someone’s words.
My weaknesses are that I have trouble identifying and evaluating my peer’s work. This can stem from a lack of practice in writing in general. As a computer science student, my courses never put writing as a emphasis and I was never keen on developing my own writing skills. Through this course I was able to practice both writing and evaluating my peer’s writing. From my peer’s evaluations I took careful note of their recommendations and applied them to not only the assignment that was being reviewed at hand, but also future assignments as well. Although I still require more practice in this area, I feel I have made progress and will work towards improving my weaknesses through the techniques I have learned in this course.