English 250 has provided me the opportunity to build a website to showcase my work. My first concern was picking an appealing design. I decided to go with a minimalistic theme to better showcase my work. It is easier on the eyes and easier to maintain. I not only had to think about the appearance of my website but also the structure. I believe my ePortfolio to be fairly user friendly. The left side of the menu has direct links to important information such as About Me and my Resume. This helps ensure the user does not get lost trying to locate the more professional elements. The right side of the menu is organized by category: Electronic, Oral, Planning, Reflections, Responses, Visual, Written, and Uncategorized. I am not entirely sure I like this layout but struggled with finding an alternative organization. I chose to leave it like this because it was the structure provided in class. An alternative method I considered was splitting it up with the labels being ‘Assignments’ and ‘In Class Work’. However, this did not seem adequate because ‘Assignments’ does not provide enough context concerning what is filed within. The quantity of menu components also provides visual balance, further encouraging my decision to maintain the provided categories.

Aside from menu layout, web composing enabled me to communicate with my audience through hyperlinks. We live in a fast paced world and maintaining a user’s attention becomes more and more difficult as technology improves. By hyperlinking my sources for my documented essay Daylight Saving Time I was able to maintain a steady flow. Without the need for in-text parenthetical citations, the reader is able to skim my content at their desired pace. Hyperlinks also make it easier for the reader to locate my sources. Instead of having to scroll down to my works cited, they can click the link and the source opens in a new tab. This is more efficient than print communication. If I were reading an entry from an encyclopedia and wanted to check the sources listed, I would need to find that book.

Producing digital content is also a quicker, cheaper, and more efficient way of reaching the desired audience. People typically use the internet to access news and other related content. This might change now that the FCC has decided to repeal net neutrality but until then social media provides most people’s news.