In this ePortfolio you will find my best revised communication artifacts with reflections describing the growth of my communication abilities. Over the course of this semester, both my communication process and development has greatly improved.
Communication process
When this course began, I felt below average in my written communication skills and about average in my oral, visual, and electronic communication skills. Before this course, I lacked a concrete composing process and consequently my ideas lacked focus and purpose. As the course progressed, I learned how take these ideas and compose them in a more structured process. I learned to consider a few questions before writing. Who is my audience? How can I communicate my message in the most effective way? Are my ideas clear and concise? With these questions, my ideas become more coherent and accommodated to the audience. Audience consideration has also made me consider what mode of communication to use. I ask myself, what mode will best communicate my idea to my audience? For example, I decided to use a visual of a diagram to explain blockchain technology instead of a written description because I thought the audience would better understand through this mode of communication. This course also improved the way I generate initial ideas. Before this course, it would take me a long time to complete writing assignments because I would try to think and write fully polished ideas first. This course thought a more efficient method, called a “shitty first draft”, of writing out all your ideas first then trying to polish and cut out unnecessary information. This course has also improved my revision process and taught me the usefulness of editing and feedback. Before this course, I underestimated the value of peer review; I would prefer to proof read my own work. I learned peer review can better find mistakes, correct grammar, and provide suggestions to improve your work.
Communication development
The two biggest strengths I possessed in writing were in the style and substance area. The biggest improvement in the style area was my ability to hook the reader. Before this course, I didn’t think too much about writing an introduction. I learned the importance of writing an introduction that hooks and engages the reader to continue reading your work. For example, I started my rhetorical analysis with a statistic stating over 100 million dollars are spent on campaign ads each election year. I think the use of this statistic engages the audience by showing the significance of these campaign ads. My improvement in the substance area was my ability to use claim-evidence-analysis. This made my writing more structured and effective. Some visual strengths I possessed over this course include PowerPoint design. I learned how to design a slide that attracts and informs an audience. My old design had too many words and was not very engaging. I changed to more concise points by using bullet points and adding effective visuals. Some electrotonic strengths I gained from this course include the ethical use of images on the internet. I learned how and the purpose of using creative commons to use images ethically in my presentation. The oral category has been the most challenging for me because I had the least practice with presentations. We did two oral presentations so this gave me more practice, the most useful strength of public speaking. By the second presentation, Improved the clarity of the presentation and my eye contact. I did this by adding bullet points to my slides this made it easier for the audience to follow and improve my eye contact.
In conclusion, I am proud of my improvement in these WOVE communication skills. My goal is to use what I learned from this course as a base to continue improving my communication development and process.