Project Report, Week Twelve

This week was all about reflecting on my portfolio and why I've made certain content choices. Michael prompted us with the following question: "What have I really learned in school and at work, and how can I represent that?"

Here is my reflection:

Early Learning

Throughout high school and my first two years of college, I learned a lot about writing – or at least I thought I did. I have always had a love of English and writing has always been one of my strengths. Since I always earned good grades on my writing assignments, I naturally hoped to become a writer.

Changes in Career Path

After enrolling at ASU, I was accepted into the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism. However, after just one semester, I had change of heart and decided to get my degree in Technical Communications (TWC). Although I have always tried to keep writing a constant part of my life by blogging and freelance writing for New Dimensions and Shades of Blue magazines, this type of writing has become more of a hobby since I have taken a different career path.

Learning Technical Writing

Since declaring TWC as my major my outlook on writing drastically changed, I have learned a completely different writing style – technical writing. I truly feel that I have learned the most about technical writing from my TWC courses during the 2009-2010 school year.

TWC 401: Principles of Technical Communications

In this course, I learned the art of writing in Plain English. My first assignment was to write a technical autobiography in which I had to take a look at technology throughout my childhood and document how it influenced my writing. Next, I worked in a small group to write a feasibility report about the use of Knowledge and Distributed Intelligence (KDI) for research in science and engineering fields. Lastly, I wrote a proposal to Blue Cross Blue Shield of AZ (BCBSAZ) to suggest the use of Kindle Readers to improve workplace efficiencies. The professor used each assignment as a learning opportunity to experience what a career in technical writing might involve. I think it is important to include these documents in my portfolio because they show my abilities as a student and also show a potential employer that I have had some experience in writing proposals and usability/feasibility reports.

TWC 411: Principles of Visual Communications

In this course I learned about the design elements that make or break a document. The four basic principles were CRAP – Contrast, Repetition, Alignment, and Proximity. Everything that was done in this class was designed around these principles. My projects that I decided to include in the portfolio are the Legacy Ladies Conference flyer and brochure. They were designed as advertisements that my church will use to promote the annual conference. Displaying these documents in the portfolio will help employers see how I might design a marketing tool.

TWC 421: Writing with Technology

This course has been beneficial for me to learn how to put all of these elements together to create a portfolio. I learned important organizational tools and my self-paced schedule helps keep me from feeling overwhelmed. As an end result, my portfolio will be used for graduate school admissions as well as future employment opportunities.

Michael asked me to explain the differences in journalism and technical communications. I stopped to think for a minute and realized that journalism is a form of technical communications. Journalistic writing, has to follow a certain guidelines related to content, tone, and format. The articles that are written are geared towards a specific audience as is technical writing.

Journalism is more appealing to some writers because it allows the author to write freely adding both facts and opinion to the story. Technical writing is all about "how-to" documentation which is very calculated, detailed and needs to be concise.

Because I am a true writer at heart, I love both forms. I plan to be a technical writer in my career but a freelance magazine writer as a hobby. :-)

Until next week...
Stacy