Writing Development

I have definitely noticed some improvement in my writing throughout the course. When I first
started this course, I had trouble adjusting the tone of my writing according to the assignment. In
the first assignment, the instructions usability report, the tone I used was a bit too formal and did
not suit the instruction manual. After receiving feedback, I learned to use less wordy sentences
and compact sentences to get my point across. When it came to the second assignment, the
white paper, I had a better understanding of how to control the tone of my writing so there is a
balance between plain language and important information.

Throughout this course my understanding of design flow also improved. I started to understand
how to break down information in a visually appealing way so it doesn’t feel like a boring read
but keeps the reader engaged. I was also able to learn to effectively use color in documents and
when not to. I also learned that breaking a paragraph down into sub-paragraph helps to not only
provide a visual break, but helps to organize the document in a meaningful way.

Course Goals

My goals for this course was to strengthen my writing skills, as well as improve my reading and
researching techniques. I feel like I accomplished my goals, because I have gained skills like
using good design flow in a document, using plain yet powerful language to address an
audience that isn’t specialized in the topic discussed, writing a good email and memo, and so
on.

I was also able to improve my reading and researching techniques while doing the white paper
assignment. I did not have a lot of time to read the Reaktion book and digest the information
and all the processes, so I had to pick and choose what parts of the book might be helpful to me
and what parts I can expand upon with further research. The assignment also exposed me to
getting familiar with a topic in a relatively short period of time and writing a report that is not only
easy to understand, but informative.

Assignments

The assignment that I am most proud of is the White paper assignment, because I was nervous
and unsure if I will be able to write a decent paper without having it sound too complicated or
too vague. Once I started writing the paper, I felt more and more confident and in the end I was
really happy with the grade I got.

If I were to add an assignment to this course, I would probably add on to writing an email
assignment. In this assignment, along with writing an email, responding to a professional with
proper technique might be useful to learn. If I were to edit an assignment, I would probably edit
the memo. I felt like the instructions were a bit vague, especially the recommendation portion of
the assignment. Maybe go into more detail on the different parts of the memo and what its
purpose is.