Throughout the semester in English 250 with each assignment we wrote posts to plan and illustrate the communication process. These planning and reflection posts can be found here in my ePortfolio under the ENG 250 tab in the menu.
Communication in all its forms in necessary to any career, but especially vital for public relations. Since there is no one correct way to communicate and society is constantly changing, I have to constantly be changing as a communicator to succeed in my field. Throughout the duration of this course I certainly feel like I have changed as a communicator for the better. I hope to continue to advance my communication skills throughout my time in college and future jobs.
My communication process in particular has changed a lot from the beginning of the semester. I have changed the way I think of ways to write by letting it come naturally rather than forcing it. One way I have done this is to make sure to not procrastinate, so I don’t have to try and force the communication process in a short time period, and I believe my work reflects this. The process of forming ideas and support that I found works best for me is to essentially work backwards. By looking at sources that could potentially be used for support and then crafting a thesis based on this allows me to ensure that my support is relevant and effective in backing up my thesis. When it comes to visual communication accommodating different audiences can be difficult, but is a skill that I value highly. It is almost guaranteed that working in public relations that I will have do write press releases for all different kinds of platforms including social media as well as in person. Although I do have some ability to change my voice based on how formal or casual the writing is, such as the difference between my annotated bibliography and determining criteria posts, I do still believe that I need to work on this for the future. Oral communication is something that I used to struggle with quite a bit, especially in front of a large audience, but I have been making major progress in the last few years. Whether I like it or not oral communication will be a part of every job I have both inside and outside of the company. In a casual setting my oral communication is strong, but in a more academic or professional setting such as the visual analysis I tend to fall into a monotone voice, which I plan to work on. Visual communication is a strong interest of mine, although is something that I haven’t had much opportunity to work with. In the future I hope to be able to gain some knowledge regarding Photoshop or some other editing software. One of my favorite small assignments we did this semester was creating an infographic to serve as the featured picture as one of our posts. Electronic communication has become a rather vague term since we are constantly surrounded by technology and communicating through it whether it be texts, emails, websites, etc. Formal electronic communication is rather unknown to me and is something that I hope to improve with time. I think this portfolio is a good example of work that will improve these electronic communication skills.
Communication is important in any field, but is something that will be especially necessary in the public relations realm. All aspects of WOVE will most likely be apart of my everyday work experience, and it is important to me that I feel confident in my abilities in each of these areas before I go into the work force. This class and more specifically this ePortfolio has aided in me in getting closer to reaching that goal.