11 11th Ave. N.

Fargo, ND 58102

17 December 2010

Department of English
North Dakota State University
NDSU, Dept. 2320
P.O. Box 6050
Fargo, ND 58108-6050

Portfolio Assessment Readers,

I am very pleased and excited to present you with my completed projects from English 320, Business
and Professional Writing. I have put a lot of work into these documents and have learned a lot about my
strengths and weaknesses in business communication. In the following reflection letter, I will describe
the purpose of all of my completed projects, look back on significant learning moments, and most
importantly, describe what I have learned about exploiting my strengths and minimizing my weaknesses
as a professional writer for future business writing projects.

Unit 1 consisted of four main parts including: a cover letter, designer resume, scannable resume, and
simple-text resume. As a senior in Management Information Systems, this unit was especially interesting
to me because I will be applying for jobs very soon. As I writer, one of my strengths is using powerful
and effective language to portray a message correctly. Powerful words are increasingly important when
you only have a few paragraphs to sell yourself to a company. One effective strategy to apply to
resumes, is to use present tense verbs to sound more active. Subtle changes like that can be the
difference between a job offer and rejection.

Effective communication is of the utmost importance in the business world and this project helped me
to improve the effectiveness of my writing. More generally, business communication of all genres and
forms needs to be direct and concise. People in the business world are very busy and communication
needs to be straight to the point. Whether it’s in the form of a transmittal letter, memo, or email,
effective communication is especially important. This directly correlates to Gen Ed Outcome 1. In the
next paragraph I will discuss my work in Unit 2.

In the employment recommendation report, we were paired with one of our peers to evaluate three
potential employment opportunities. We were required to research the job listings, evaluate career
goals and values of our peer, and write a recommendation report evaluating each of the three job
listings. Also in Unit 2, we completed a transmittal letter as a prelude to the report.

This section was full of significant learning moments. I am looking to pursue a career in the dynamic field
of IT where the ability to write a persuasive and effective recommendation report is essential. Because
the field of IT is so dynamic and changing, writing feasibility and recommendation reports is a skill that
will benefit me greatly in the future. I enjoyed researching the jobs and getting to know my peer better,
as well as learning the general structure and layout of recommendation reports. Working with my peers
was also a large part of Unit 3, which I will discuss next.

For my group’s Unit 3 project, we chose to create a pamphlet with instructions on how to cook a
traditional Thanksgiving dinner. More specifically, a Thanksgiving dinner for college students with
limited access to cooking utensils in their dorm room. We worked very hard to create this very
entertaining pamphlet. It includes everything from cooking turkey in a microwave, to creating a dinner
table with your closet door.

There are many dynamics to group interaction, and our group synergy was the best I’ve had in my
collegiate career. I made a supreme effort to always act professionally and be a positive group member.
Everyone stepped up and became a leader when they needed to and that is an important aspect of
Departmental Outcome 7.

The ability to be a leader is a large part of professionalism. Leaders are able to rise above adversity and
keep the group coordinated on a common goal. Having the mindset of a hard-working leader was a large
factor in the success of my next, and favorite project, Unit 4.

For my individual project I selected to create a pamphlet describing the experience of studying abroad.
More specifically, studying abroad at Hanze International Business School in Groningen, Netherlands. I
attended Hanze in the Spring of 2010 and had been receiving numerous emails from NDSU students
asking about my experience. I noticed that many of the questions were quite similar and this was a great
opportunity to create and share a pamphlet about something I care so deeply about. I am very pleased
with the final result and have even submitted my pamphlet to the NDSU Study Abroad Office to
distribute to potential students. Gen Ed Outcome 6 and Departmental Outcome 4, were extremely large
factors considered in this individual project.

This project gave us an opportunity to develop our strengths in project management. My main weakness
in project management is my desire to work too quickly. I would want to move right on to the next step
of the process without being fully satisfied with the work I had done on the previous step. I learned that
patience when working hard to fully complete each step will allow you to be much more satisfied with
the final product because you know you did your best on each section.

My strength in project management is my ability to work on small tasks to achieve a large goal. This
aggregate management was achieved by sticking to the schedule I provided in the project proposal
memo. Completing each small task individual helped me to not become overwhelmed and ultimately led
me to be very satisfied with my final product.

In future projects, the best way for me to emphasize my strengths and minimize my weakness is to have
patience and work hard. Taking time and working hard on each individual step will maximize your
satisfaction once the project is completed. I can minimize my weaknesses by continually reminding
myself to slow down and focus on each individual step. This was a very important lesson to learn when
working on future projects.
I appreciate the opportunity to present all of my projects from ENG 320. I hope that you enjoyed reading
them (especially the Study Abroad Pamphlet) and that I have fully demonstrated that I have developed
competencies in synthesis and evaluation.

Sincerely,

Charles A. Rostad