Creating a Web Folio

After completing an assignment as dense as the formal report, putting together a Web Folio was a nice way to end our semester of English 301. I consider my Web Folio a comprehensive showcase of how my technical writing skills have evolved during our class. At the same time, my Web folio highlights my academic accomplishments, extracurricular interests and career goals. Establishing a professional presence online is especially important today and I believe that my Web Folio has helped me achieve this.

I chose to use my existing English 301 site to build my Web Folio. I felt that this was the right choice for me because I am not very savvy with technology. This way, I can focus my efforts on the content and presentation of my Web Folio rather than on learning a new web application. Furthermore, having my English 301/career work on one site (rather than on a web folio and a blog) will make it more convenient when I want to present my Web Folio to a potential employee or university. I also decided to change the overall theme of my Web Folio site. Originally, I gave my class site a colorful and creative look, however, I changed to a cleaner black and white theme for my Web Folio. I believe that this gives my Web Folio a more professional look.

The construction of the application package and its contents; resume, cover letter and reference requests, was by far the most important part of English 301 for me. Personally, I have struggled to find proper resume and cover letter writing techniques on the internet so I was very pleased that we were able to learn these through an assignment. It is a relief that I will have a finely tuned application package ready for the job search after graduation this spring. Learning how to write a proper reference request letter will surely be valuable to me in the future as well. For myself and anyone else applying to professional schools, reference letters are extremely important. Identifying the proper tone and format are two skills that we have learned in English 301 that lend themselves to producing an effective reference request letter.

Piecing together a Best Works page was a nostalgic and purposeful experience. Although some of my best works were from earlier in the semester, it is easy to see the improvement in my technical writing skills from the beginning to the end of the semester and this is a good feeling. The assignments chosen for my Best Works page range from unique assignments designed to practice a particular skill to in depth reviews of my peers work. Furthermore, having a Best Works page at hand is valuable as a variety of jobs require a writing sample as part of the application to them.

Overall, designing a Web Folio was a very rewarding experience. The Web Folio nicely concluded what was a wonderful semester. It has left us with a valuable tool to use as we pursue our future career and academic goals. Lastly, thank you for reading my reflections this semester. I hope they were as valuable to you as they were for me. Please contact me at nickbell23@hotmail.com if you have questions about any of my work in English 301. Cheers!