Dear Ms. Guskaroska,
During the course of this class, I have truly grown as a writer. Through different types of essays, various presentations, and working electronically during the quarantine, I have learned many new skills. However, there is always room for me to improve in all four aspects of communication we built upon in class.
In regards to the written mode of communication, I believe I can improve on presenting my ideas in a concise manner and providing smooth transitions from one paragraph to the next. In both my rhetorical analysis essays, the feedback I received said that I could improve on my transitions. The way in which I will do this is through consistent practice. I am planning to take writing courses online this summer in order to be able to convey my ideas more easily.
While I will access courses and prompts to improve my writing, practicing my oral communication skills will be addressed differently. I have found that I can easily give a presentation in the comfort of my own room. For example, in the A5 Presentation, I was able to hit each key point and say everything I wanted to say while speaking clearly and with expression. It is when I am up in front of multiple people that I tend to lose confidence in my speaking ability. As a result, I speak more softly and leave out key points because I worry that the audience will find them boring. This loss in confidence compromises my presentation and leaves the audience less engaged than if I were to put those thoughts aside. I will practice presentations beforehand in front of my friends and family. Furthermore, I will work on focusing completely on my presentation and not if the audience will find key points boring.
Although my speaking during the presentation has great room for improvement, the visuals I provide are often engaging. I would like to make them even more interesting to the audience and learn more about what else I can do on PowerPoint to get everyone involved with the presentation and perhaps even do some sort of activity to better impart a point. I recently was hired in three positions where the majority of the work will revolve around visual marketing. These jobs begin in the summer, so I will have plenty of opportunities to refine my designing skills and actually get to see how audiences react to my work through analytics.
I can also improve my electronic mode of communication through these jobs, as all my work will be virtual. Currently, I believe that my work on this ePortfolio has been thorough, but there were some hiccups along the way. I would like to become well-versed in putting together websites that are easy to read and comprehensive. I am developing my skills in this by building a website to offer tutoring services to students online, where I will enable potential clients to book appointments and pay through the website. This work, in addition to promoting my photography freelance work online, will allow me to apply electronic communication in real-world situations and get feedback from the general audience on whether my communication is effective or not. Based on this feedback, I can reach my goal of being able to use electronic communication to build two businesses and communicate more effectively with people online.
In my future endeavors, especially those that are coming up this summer, I will consider what makes an individual interested. In today’s day and age, people are exposed to new information constantly. Simply scrolling through Instagram is a combination of bright colors, captivating images, and various marketing techniques designed to entice consumers. In order to stand out in this conglomeration of items designed to stand out themselves, I will have to think about what can capture the attention of an individual in a split-second. This can be applied to all four communication categories. Simply pulling someone in can be the most difficult part at times, and this is what I hope to hone my skills in.
I have developed my communication abilities greatly in this class. These will be extremely useful throughout the rest of my life: as a student, in my career, and in my day-to-day life. Thank you for all your feedback and consistent support. I have learned more in this English class than any other, and I am looking forward to refining these skills even further.
Sincerely,
Rupsa Raychaudhuri