Final Reflection-Michaela

The research in Unit 2 was extensive leading me to a big selection of material to choose from. The way that I narrowed that down and focused on one topic is by focusing on sources and content that was reliable, from credible sources and accredited authors. I also choose to pinpoint the information that I found interesting along with what my classmates seemed to engage with most on the blog. Using tools from this course such as templates from “They Say I Say” and tips from the blog about genre and considering my audience. From those resources, I was able to create a presentation that I think has a clear purpose of educating those entering the workplace about empathy and perspective and a consistent voice that targeted my audience of college juniors and seniors.

As a college senior myself hoping to start a job when I graduate I learned a lot from researching the topic and creating a presentation for an audience that I am apart of. I learned how important it is to have empathy and perspective, especially when attempting to partake in an environment where all different people coexist. Since I am apart of the audience I was writing for I learned a lot about writing for my age group. I tried to keep my language and format short and sweet, with keeping the reader engaged as a big focus. Adding large clear graphics with my text was something I felt strongly about adding because I had read so many scholarly articles and journals during this class. Though I found those articles deeply interested I also know I am more motivated to read something eye-catching that highlights the important information to show the purpose. Summarizing the most important information from all of the great sources I found was a challenge, there were paragraphs of information throughout my research that I felt would add to my presentation, but after I referenced the tips about summaries that we used in this class I had a clearer focus and was able to pinpoint what was the most beneficial.

The blog was very helpful when crafting this project especially when I ran into challenges. If I was stuck on something I could look back on past posts from peers as a reference point. Along with the posts, feedback and comments were critical because without the critique I could not have improved on my draft, it allowed me to see what was working and what wasn’t. Many of my classmates are also apart of the audience of my project because some are college students so their opinion was of great value.

Overall this course taught me how to write with my own voice while keeping the purpose of my work clear. The readings given were valuable in a multitude of ways from the topic to the structure of the actual source. As a design major writing is not usually apart of our course work so the practice that I got from each week’s assignments made me more secure in my work. Before this class, I approached writing as a task that I never knew how to start but I now have the encouragement and resources to know how to start and complete my writing with confidence.