Alexis Smoak

Reflection

Technical Writing was a major change of pace for me in the way that all my essay skills
were basically re-written. After finishing my first assignment and understanding the difference in
English writing and technical writing, I was able to form a goal for myself. My goal for the
semester was to learn to create concise and clear sentences. I tend to create long sentences with
too much detail in each point. After completing my final assignment, I can see that I met my
goal. Reading my peer’s assignments and comments left by Professor Sindelar was a great aid in
understanding my problems with sentence structure. I took all the advice I was given and used it
to better my final drafts within the portfolio. I fully believe that the peer reviews and descriptive
comments on each of my assignments is the reason that my writing improved throughout the
semester.
Other than focusing on shortening my sentences to get to the point, I also improved in
word choice. I observed myself choosing words that have a low technical appeal at the beginning
of this course. I now try to use more concise wording. An example of this would be the phrase
“in order to” and changing it to just “to”. I also developed my sense of professional writing. The
workplace correspondence assignment helped me with the professional development by forcing
me to be in the perspective of an employee being concerned over a problem. In my opinion, the
course did an excellent job of introducing new writing skills to practice with.
Out of all the assignments I have done for this course, I am proud of my white paper. The
white paper was a new challenge for me in the way that I was able to use design and colors, but
also my skills from previous reports I have completed before. I was able to explore the idea of
main headers and sub headers while also making sure they are differentiated by specific colors. It
pushed my limits of writing a report. The comments I received from my first and second draft
taught me a lot of writing the abstract of a document. I am proud of my final draft as it looks as I
had planned and imagined it. Everything flows correctly, it is color coded, and the images/table
make sense in their usage.
If I could add an assignment, I would add a presentation. I feel as though it could help for
future business careers where a product or service presentation is important. A way it could work
is presenting professional wording by promoting an item or a service that the student chooses. If
I could edit an assignment, I would edit the engagement project. Although I like the project as is,
there could be a fun possibility of adding a different visual engagement. Rather than focusing on
only story spheres, there could be the possibility of a storyboard or free video apps to create your
own story.