Throughout the duration of Professional Communications, I noticed several changes to

my writing style and capabilities. At the beginning of the semester my writing was too

complex. I tried to fit too much information into my sentences which made my work

crowded and difficult to understand. This course helped me achieve a level of plainer

language and communicate more successfully. I also learned that I sometimes have to cut

out interesting information that might clutter the main idea or contain “jargon.”

A major issue I face with writing is choosing a topic or an approach to a prompt. I have

difficulty picking between various themes that I enjoy learning about, but this course helped

me keep things simple and straight forward. This course also allowed me to use my

interests and passions to explore methods of research, professional communications, and

writing. In doing so, I deepened my knowledge subjects I truly care about such as marine life

and skateboarding. Additionally, I realize that the information and content from this class

can be applied to other fields of study as well; understanding communications can benefit

situations and interactions that are not necessarily professional.

My main goal for the course was to learn how to communicate more effectively to

various audiences. While this is a skill that requires experience and wisdom, I do believe this

course gave me very beneficial insight into reaching target audiences. In a professional

setting, I now know about primary and secondary audiences as well as watch dogs, etc.

These groups can simultaneously yet independently influence the outcome of a product or

service because they each contribute differently to development based on various

demographics and relations. Knowing this, I can proceed carefully in professional settings
and make sure I am aware of all the factors and parties in the equation of a company,

organization, product, or service.

The only drawback to creating scenarios with pretend companies and fake target

audiences is that everything is in my control, which in reality is quite often never the case.

In professional settings, there are groups and factors that must be accounted for that are

not always predictable. Furthermore, sometimes a primary audience turns out to not be as

successful with a product or service as a secondary audience. When the scenario is

imaginary it is harder for me to understand this; I think with professional examples it

becomes easier to manage these concepts.

I was initially very proud of the work I completed for the White Paper Packet. I did a lot

of reading, research, and editing to perfect the assignment. However, my confidence

dropped as a result of the grade I received. I did still enjoy the White Paper packet because I

was passionate about the chosen topic; I wish I understood the layout/structure for the

packet better, because that was where most of my point deduction originated. I believe I

should have followed the PowerPoint structure instead of the format that the textbook

provides. I would have loved to do some form of video or photo editing for the class, even

though I know that is not the focus of the class content. Anytime a project allows for

creative freedom it is much more engaging in my experience.