Over the past month, ENGL-210 has been an interesting walkthrough of what technical communication is, can be, and why we should even be learning about it. Starting with an article and supplementing it with two videos, I've become significantly more knowledgable on my future career path and how I can plan to achieve it, in regard to both the sector I want to work in (industry vs. academia) and how communication can facilitate this objective. More specifically, I've realised that I'm much more interested in hands-on experiences, that written and oral communication can quite literally make or break my career, and this is where technical communication comes in. While technical communication is defined as 'written and oral communication for business and industry', its scope extends far beyond that. I came to learn about the benefits efficient technical communication provides for me and my workplace, along with the repercussions of neglecting such a skill. Some points of interest that stood out to me were:
I was happy to finally put a name to some repeating experiences I've encountered in most groups I've worked with in the past. These three points summarise my priorities when working collaboratively (though not in this order, necessarily), and it was enlightening to see them recognised outside my own personal perception. In class, we then followed up by discussing the differences and similarities between emails and memos, and then followed up by actually applying what we learned in an email to Dr. Naqaa complaining about a a fake scenario concerning a bad grade. This task was honestly fun, as I got to brainstorm excuses with my partner to make our story seem as convincing as possible. Finding an excuse that didn't result in either our demises or permanent multination was challenging in the best of ways, and I am glad to say that I now pay much more attention to the emails I'm sending than ever before. I've event started paying attention to my subject lines, something I considered a waste of time before. The last week, we also had Ms.Betsy from the Division Writing Center (DWC) to give us a crash course on e-portfolios and how to make them as professional as possible. A good guideline to follow would be the CRAP principles. Considering that we've already started working on our e-portfolios (theoretically), they've been very useful with helping me organise the required elements on any given page, serving as a checklist to make sure I haven't neglected anything, and helping me figure out what is uncomfortable to the eye on any given page. For my website, I've decided to go with a minimalist style for easier working and a more professional image, maintaining a neutral colour scheme with calm accent colours. I considered using my ENGL-104 site, but in hindsight it was probably way too colourful to actually work in a more professional context. Nevertheless, I plan to continue developing this site for the duration of my study at TAMUQ, and hopefully it works out!
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