English 2116: Final Reflection/Letter to Instructor

Date: December 4, 2017

TO: Julia Intawiwat

FROM: Alexandra Celender

SUBJECT: End of Semester Letter to Instructor

Introduction
Throughout the semester I have been challenged and have learned and developed immensely as a
technical writer as a result of this. While I have reflected throughout the portfolio on each pages
reflection, I will utilize this letter as my final reflection on my individual projects, group projects,
textbook assignments, wildcard assignment and overall engagement with the course as well as
what Ive taken away from this class.

Individual Projects
On my individual projects page, I showcased four assignments that I believe illustrate how I have
developed as a writer. I also chose to include assignments that show multiple the genres that Ive
become comfortable writing in as a result of this course. My email assignment and complaint
letter serve as evidence of how Ive expanded my knowledge of the conventions of writing
professional correspondence, as well as how Ive grown comfortable in adopting an affirmative
tone to my technical writing voice. My incident report and procedure assignment further expand
on this as I demonstrate an extensive understanding of the genres covered in these assignments -
procedures and incident reports. I chose to include these four assignments together because I
believe it proves an enhanced understanding of how I can create and write in genres that I was
completely inexperienced in prior to this class.

I also believe that these assignments demonstrate how I was able to integrate my critical thinking
and research skills that Ive gained this semester. For each of the assignments, I had to utilize
critical thinking to decide what I would be writing about in the assignment as they all revolved
around prompts that were open ended and required me to utilize a level of creativity and logic
when deciding what I would be writing about that would work for the topic. However, out of all
the assignments included, I think that the incident report reflects an enhancement in my critical
thinking and research skills the most. While developing my incident report, I had to think of a
realistic incident that my fictional business would have, as well as multiple solutions and cost
analysis about these. During this process was when I really utilized critical thinking in going
through the process of how I would complete this assignment by asking myself important
questions: How should this report be organized in a way that is accurate and concise? What
would my company, Dunder Mifflin, have an incident with? What logical solutions could I
provide - and what would cost analysis be on these? Answering these questions was when I
demonstrated how my critical thinking allowed me to complete exemplary work on these
assignments, as well as what I would be performing research on when gathering information for
the cost analysis and logistics behind developing the report.

While each assignment shows how Ive become more confident in my skills as a technical writer,
I think that the overall body of work Ive demonstrated by compiling them on my individual
projects page illustrates how my writing and decision making has grown. Comparing my email
assignment to my complaint letter, you can see the evidence of how Ive grown more self-
assured in my command over technical writing and keeping a consistently professional tone. I
also think that the nature of the openness of our assignment prompts really challenged me to
become confident in my technical writing and choices for topics. However, this challenge
strengthened me and by the end of the semester I felt confident in making the choices I did in my
individual assignments, and in commanding a professional tone while utilizing different genres
in my writing.

Finally, I think that my individual assignments demonstrate the most growth and utilization of
my knowledge of conventions and rhetorical knowledge. As I discussed previously, each
assignment displays a different genre that Ive become comfortable writing in over the semester.
I think that the complaint and email assignments demonstrate how Ive been able to understand
the informal and formal guidelines for writing professional correspondence, as well as
developing an affirmative voice when utilizing these genres. My incident report and procedure
assignment were also two genres that I was unfamiliar with prior to this course and as a result of
completing this assignments Ive grown a greater set of skills with dealing with different genres
and made myself familiar with the conventions of these genres. I also believe that my rhetorical
knowledge comes into play here as you can see that after completing assignments over the
semester that made me develop new strategies when composing technical reports and
memorandums, I was able to apply them to my later assignments and revision. I organized my
information differently and changed minor formatting errors. I also applied the greater
confidence I have in my professional voice and command over technical writing and its many
genres in creating work that I felt demonstrated my understanding of technical writing as a
whole.

Group Projects
Throughout completing each of my group projects I enhanced my research skills, but I think the
project that showcases this the most in my ePortfolio is my progress report. For the progress
report, I had to research active listings for office spaces that my fictional company could
potentially utilize. I also think that my critical reading skills came into play a lot here. As a
young college student, researching office listings isnt something I have a lot of familiarity with
and because of this I had to interpret and analyze a lot of the text in the listing to help apply it to
the assignment and what I would write about the actual listings. The listings described the office
spaces in a way that would be familiar to someone who is involved with scouting spaces or
works in that field, however I utilized my critical reading to interpret the information so that I
could compare the listing in my assignment, as well as research some of the jargon contained in
the listings to make sense of it myself. In this way, I think the progress report was the assignment
that both challenged me the most, but also engaged me and really enhanced both my research
and critical reading skills.

Two other skills that I developed and utilized while working on the group projects was my
knowledge of conventions and rhetorical knowledge. Each project included on my group projects
page features a separate genre of technical writing, and in completing these assignments I gained
a wider familiarity with conventions associated with and expected when writing in these
different genres. I would say that overall every assignment shows a different genre and different
conventions and requirements that I learned from writing these assignments, and that each
assignment completed demonstrates evidence of my better understanding of the organization and
entailments of writing professional reports in a way that is both appropriate and concise. I also
believe that my rhetorical knowledge was enhanced and utilized when working on all of these
assignments. In the feasibility report, you can see me becoming comfortable with the
organization and application of technical writing when working in the technical report genre as a
whole. By learning strategies to writing technical reports here, I was able to apply them in my
progress and proposal reports and displayed superior integration of organization, critical
thinking, research, and technical writing skills.

Finally, I believe that the challenge of working in a group made me a more engaged student,
well-rounded collaborator, and writer as a whole. As an introvert, Ive become comfortable with
the idea that I can work things out in my own head, translate them into text, and organize them
myself. Articulating what I want to say in writing is second nature for me however, completing
writing assignments as a group really challenged me to articulate my ideas, how I intended to
organize and write them, and why to other people. I think as a result of this challenge Ive gained
a much better understanding of critical reflection, and explaining my writing processes and
choices in a collaborative way that can translate my skills into working successfully with others.
I truly surprised myself with how I was able to take a leadership role in being the group member
that would consistently come up with the topic we were going to write about and designate parts
that needed to be done. Ive always been a bit of an introvert throughout my life so groupwork
has been something that challenges me to step out of my comfort zone. However, this class has
definitely made me grow out of that fear more in order to collaborate as a group. It also made me
grow as a writer when being able to translate my ideas to other group members, a skill that I
think will continue to serve me throughout my life and career.

Group Evaluation Form

VALUES: 5 = Superior 4 = Above Average 3 = Average 2 = Below Average 1 = Weak

ATTRIBUTE MYSELF Cameron Ger Vang Joe n/a

Blout Krukowski
Partcipated in 5 5 4 5 -
group
discussions.

Helped keep 5 5 5 5 -
the
group on task.

Contributed 5 5 5 5 -
useful
ideas.

Quality of 5 5 5 5 -
completed
work

Contributed 5 5 5 5 -
equally

TOTALS 25 25 24 25 -

Textbook Assignments
*Wildcard assignment included in this section
When completing the assigned textbook exercises over the semester, I felt they were useful,
challenging, informative, and instrumental in making me engage with the texts material and
ideas to obtain a better understanding of how to be a better technical writer. While completing
the first exercise I included (exercise 2 page 13), I gathered the basic principles of good technical
writing that I would continue to integrate in my work throughout the semester - frequently going
back to this chapter to remind myself to write concisely, clearly, accurately, and formally. The
second exercise I included (exercise 4 page 35), I utilized my knowledge of the conventions of
writing memos and transmitting professional correspondence to adapt the information from the
original memo addressed to the general public to my fictional office. I also think that this
exercise incorporated my critical reading when analyzing and developing the information in a
way that would be organized and communicated accurately for the different audience. My fourth
exercise (exercise 3 page 109), also demonstrates similar use of my knowledge of conventions
and critical reading. There, I used my knowledge of the conventions of instructions to re-
organize the information that I analyzed and interpreted to decide how to organize it and what to
include, using my critical reading skills.

Finally, I think that my third exercise (exercise 2 page 273) and wildcard assignment was where
I demonstrated the most revision and growth of my composing processes and critical reading
skills. When originally completing exercise 2 page 273, I had to read through an extensive
amount of information about the Request for Proposal (RFP) and figure out what they were
looking for, what they expected of proposals, how these proposals should be formatted, and
answering the other questions included in the exercise. During this process, I was able to utilize
and enhance my critical reading skills when analyzing and interpreting the information into my
exercise. I had never looked over RFPs before, or had much knowledge concerning grants so this
was an area completely alien to me that I think made me rely on my analyzing and interpretation
skills - ultimately making me a better critical thinker and reader. While completing my wildcard
assignment I demonstrated similar skills, utilizing critical reading and research skills when trying
to find information about my chosen business, and then reading through massive amounts of
information about said business to find out who they were as an organization and why they were
ethical. Both exercises also show the most revision and development of my writing as I
integrated the superior organizational skills I learned over the semester in these assignments -
choosing to reanalyze the information, designing tables, including more diversely styled lists and
formating, and editing for conciseness. I chose to format my information in the way that would
make it less repetitive and frame the information in an interesting way for readers. I also think
this revision shows a growth in my composing processes as I had to conceptualize the
information and how it could be framed in a more interesting way, as well as developing new
organization and designs to frame this, and finalizing the revisions for my ePortfolio.

Final Thoughts
While completing my ePortfolio I think I utilized all of the student learning objectives, but the
one that I utilized and developed the most was my critical reflection. While compiling my
portfolio and reflecting on the work I included, I had to really think about my pieces in
rhetorically new ways. I couldnt just reflect and write about what I learned over the semester, I
would have to really analyze my work and think about exactly how I learned these things by
completing specific assignments, and how I would convey that in my reflections. I also think that
I had to reflect over how I came to make the revisions I did throughout my piece, and how my
gained understanding of the student learning objectives played a role in these when revising and
originally completing pieces. In this way, I think that compiling and reflecting over my
ePortfolio was when I truly understood critical reflection in a new way.

I believe this class has made a better technical writer, student, and worker in general. I would say
that the evidence of me becoming a better student and technical writer can be seen in two things:
my participation in the class, and my improved technical writing throughout the semester
alongside my grades from our assignments. I believe I stayed wholeheartedly engaged during
class, dedicating that time to completing my work, and making sure to be present and
participating in finalizing my individual and group work throughout the semester. I think this is
reflected in my assignments, the improvement of my technical writing and the quality of my
work throughout the semester - where I obtained full marks on each assignment I turned in. I
attribute this to my desire to leave this class with a greater understanding of what it means to be a
good technical writer, as well as a more comfortable and proficient command of professional
correspondence and the relevant genres of technical writing. I think that desire provoked a
motivation in me to not just complete work to receive a good grade - but to complete work that I
would feel proud of and comfortable showing as an example of my writing in the future when
applying to jobs. In conclusion, I believe that this my dedication to this class not only served in
allowing my to obtain an extensive understanding of the material learned, but a deepened
appreciation for technical writing as a whole and an improved skillset that will aid me in future
endeavors.