Reflection Essay

Writing Development
It has been said that practice makes perfect. I am not the best perfect writer, however, I
do enjoy writing. As a student, it is my goal to always strive to improve and strengthen my skills
through classes and experience as much as possible. This class has pushed me to become a better
writer through assignments and weekly Discussion Boards. In the beginning, I was nervous
about this class due to most of the projects being based on design and presentation through the
use of, which I did not have much experience in. During Introduction, I noticed that the majority
of my peers were Computer Science majors, which made me more nervous because I was afraid
that I would not do too well compared to my classmates since they would have more technical
experience. As a Nursing major, the most I have had to do is write standard essays, without
working with designing and prose. This class has helped me tremendously when it comes to
which design, font, colors, and spacing to pick for it to be presented better and clearer. Through
this class, I was able to indicate how important writing and development skills are outside of
standard essays.
Through Peer Review and Editing assignments, I have seen improvements in my writing
throughout the semester. I have strengthened my designing and grammar skills through
suggestions that I received from my peers through assigned groups. I do not have much idea
when it comes to technology, therefore through Peer Editing and looking over other peoples'
discussions on the Discussion Board has pushed me to become a better writer. Looking over
someone else’s work allows me to get a sense of the expectations and ideas, which pushes me to
do better and results in an improvement in writing also. The instruction and Usability Packet
helped me greatly by explaining in depth. I never had to explain in-depth and this was the first
class I was required to do, which made it a challenge because many times I did not know if I was
explaining too much or not enough. The challenge pushed me to become a better writer when it
comes to explaining. Explaining in detail is an important skill to have because in assignments
such as informative reports or healthcare fields requires detailed reports, and without detailed
information, the information may be misleading. Through the lecture videos and Peer Reviews, I
was able to indicate which information should be presented to the audience.

Course Goals
At the beginning of the semester, I stated that my goals for this class is to improve my
grammar and writing skills, so my message can be presented strongly and clearly. I believe that I
met the goal that I had set for this class through several writing assignments such as the White
Page assignment. Through feedback from my peers, I was able to learn from the errors I made
and understand how to reword certain sentences to make it sound more clear and direct. I loved
how we were assigned in groups to give each other feedback because that has helped me greatly
in becoming a better writer. During feedback, I was also able to compare my work to my peers to
see ways in how I may be able to improve my work. There are not many ways I can think of to
revise the class, because throughout the class I was provided through great feedback from peers,
given positive examples for each assignment, and was able to have my questions answered in a
reasonable amount of time.

Assignments
The instruction and Usability packet was one of the assignments I completed being most
proud and confident of. I have never had an assignment like the packet or close to it, so it was
very new and exciting to me. When I finished it, I was proud because I did much better than I
thought I would. I do not have many assignments that have to do with designing, so when I was
reading the instructions and rubric it was stressful until I was able to see my peers work and
realize it wasn't complicated as it may seem.
If I could edit any assignment to improve on it would be the Formal Report packet. I tried
my best, however, I did not feel confident when I turned it in. I did what the rubric asked for
however, I was short in time due to the situations I was in that week, so that would be the
assignment I would want to edit in this course. If it was editing the assignment itself, I think I
would edit the Formal Report and the Memo assignment. They both contained problems and
solutions as the main topic, which seemed repetitive and would be the reason I would edit that
assignment.
An assignment I would add to this course is an assignment that requires skills of technical
communication when it comes to different age groups. Communication and representation of
certain things are very important and depending on what group you are talking to, it makes it
even more important. For example, the age group of children under ten would not be interested
in the same type of speech, or the way information is presented as a group of adults between
thirty to forty would be in. We have always been taught to speak professionally, therefore
sometimes we forget that we need to learn to communicate without always being too
professional too. For example, when I was doing the Instructions and Usability Assignment, with
the topic of Oreo Balls, I enjoyed it very much felt as if it needed vibrate colors, however, the
knowledge that I have gained in the past made me think it should be a professional like color
such as brown or dull blue.