UNM Technical Writing

Memorandum
Date: December 6, 2019

To: Misty Thomas

From: Carolyn Giron

Subject: Final Reflection

Throughout the semester our assignments worked towards teaching us nine different student learning outcomes.
The reason for these students learning outcomes is to help build our writing skills and prepare us for our future
writing assignments either in other classes or in the work force. This memorandum will talk about which
student learning outcomes we covered this semester and how they helped with each project we turned in. All
SLO’s have helped me improve my writing and my knowledge for my future and can be used no matter I decide
to do.

Project One Reflection

I imagined this project to be a little difficult since we had to read from two different perspectives. My topic was
about the remakes of the classics that Disney is doing. My imaged audience would be the Disney lovers who
prefer the original movies and don’t think the movies should be made in to a live action movie. I chose a
website to share my content because It is easier to upload and share with others. It also helps because I am
compiling all my work into one spot which will come in handy when I need to turn in my portfolio. The way I
worked towards outcome 2 was by adjusting to my readers. On one hand, I had to write from the side of the
consumer and on the other I had to write as a company. I used SLO 6 by uploading it to my website where I was
able to make it easier for people to find by adding a direct tab to the page it was located on. I also worked
towards to adding graphics even though I thought my content was strong. I think by putting pictures it helps
keep the reader into the story since the pictures break up the wording. Outcome 9 helped teach me it’s great
when a writer can adapt to their surroundings and be able to deliver their work in many different formats which
I tried to do with this project. This can be a great tool to have so you can get more readers and be culturally
evolved.

Project Two Reflection

Working on project two I used outcome 4 organization design. Using this SLO during project 2 helped me by
making sure I sectioned off all the parts the that needed to be separated. By doing this I was able to see what I
still needed and how much more I needed to add to make sure I supply enough information but not too much to
where the reader would get lost. When it came to the finishing touches, I wanted my paper to look clean, eye
catching, and not to long were I would lose my reader. Another outcome I learned by doing this project was
SLO 5 Written communication. I did this by showing my peers the rough draft so they could give me their
feedback. Once I got their feedback, I looked over my paper and was able to correct my errors. From there I was
able to develop my final project for my future packet. The last outcome I learned about was SLO 8 content
management and working with different forms of media. One example of this from project 2, was when I was
building my resume I first had to much content and to fix this I combined a few sentences and picked words that
meant very similar things. So by using this outcome and with the feedback I got from my peers I was able to
make my project 2 better. I also learned how to manage my content for my digital website this. I was able to
make my website look more presentable, readable and organized. In the end after becoming more organized and
aware of my writing I know I can apply this to my future assignments.

Project Three Reflection

For this assignment, I knew I needed to make a plan on how I was going to start this project so I could finish it
on time. My goal was to come up with a topic which wasn’t too hard because I wanted something that would be
easy to find a lot of information on. I also planned to section my writing off in blocks so I wouldn’t get burnt
out it also made it easier for me to mark the page for my rough draft. I wanted to make sure I had all of my
report done when it came to my rough draft so I could see what needed to be changed or adjusted. I thought
Outcome 7 was very helpful not only in my third project but for all the projects I did this year. By having my
peers edit my paper it helped me to see where I could improve and with taking criticism since that is something
I struggle with. Having the OLA also helped because the assistant not only found miss spellings, but he also
gave me good suggestion on how to fix my paper. Overall this will help me in my future classes because drafts
and editing always has to be done. I find that to me this is the most important and helpful SLO's that I learned.
The other SLO used for this assignment was the Organization Design. By making sure I sectioned off all the
parts f my paper off and staying organized I was able to see what I still needed to make sure I supplied enough
information. When it came to the finishing touches, I wanted my paper to have some color, so I added red
borders to catch the reader’s attention. I chose red because red represented the color of awareness of drunk
driving.

Semester Reflection
With all three projects, I fell that all the student learning outcomes fit in their own way. For example, outcome
one which is project planning helped me in all three because I always made a plan. I wanted to make sure when
it came to the feedback week I wanted to have a completed rough draft so I could get the most out of the review
week. Another outcome that I used a lot throughout the semester was outcome 4 organizational design. I had to
learn a lot of different organization skills for each new writing project since we had different formatting styles.
Even though I picked these two main SLO’s, all nine have helped me in all sorts of ways in each project.

Conclusion
All nine of the SLOs have helped me expand my writing skills and has helped me create better reports. By
having SLO’s as a type of template to follow they helped me create these projects and helped me making sure I
hit the key points of every project. Overall, I believe having these writing standards as tools in my learning tool
belt will help me in my future classes and jobs because they can be used in almost all scenarios that I will be
faced with in the future.