Post-Write: Web Design Project

For this project, we were instructed to create an original and professional digital portfolio website including projects we have completed so far this semester. The audience for the website was a future employer, so it was also important to add some information about ourselves and a copy of our resume.

The first step in creating my website was choosing a design theme. I chose to use the website creator, Weebly.com, to create my website because I knew that it offered many customizable options, as well as optional HTML use. The template design that I chose for my website included watercolor pictures of a tree and a navigation bar and page border accented with watercolor bush strokes. This image makes sense with the page because I believe it reflects my personality and still looks professional. I made sure to choose a template with plenty of white space so that readers would not have to spend excessive time one each page. I tried to use minimal text on each page not to overwhelm the reader. My theme was consistent throughout the website pages, and it is simple enough not to detract from the message of the website.

On my home page, I introduce the reader to myself in an “About Me” section. In this paragraph, I include some information about myself, what I would like to do in the future, and what I am doing now to move toward my goals. I also include a link to my blog for this class because it describes even more about the projects I have done in the class, as well as additional skills and knowledge I have acquired thus far in the course. I also include a button that links to a PDF copy of my current resume so that readers can see more of my skills and experience.

On the other pages of my website, I gave examples of course assignments for the reader to view. I began with a brief paragraph explaining what the project consisted of, as well as skills used to complete the project, giving the reader a clear understanding of what I accomplished. I included buttons, which linked to a PDF copy of the different documents my project consisted of. I chose to use PDF copies so that viewers could not alter them in any way and additionally viewers would not have to download all of the files in order to view them. I chose to remove my address and phone number from the documents that originally included them for safety reasons. I only included essential items on each page, and I created a different page for each project, rather than grouping them all together on one page.

My website can be found at ellencampbelldigitalportfolio.weebly.com.

Workplace Culture

Recently in class we read an article by Jim Henry entitled "Writing Workplace Cultures." In this article, Henry describes the reality of workplace cultures today. He says that in today’s world, hiring and firing occur constantly, and it is very easy to be surpassed by others in your field. His arguments go along with the idea of fast capitalism, which we talked about in class. All around us, we can see just how rapidly technology is advancing, and it seems that new ideas and products can never come out fast enough. This is similar with the workplace culture that Henry is defining. Companies want to showcase newer and newer ideas, and so workers get overturned more rapidly to fulfill new demands. This means that we, as prospective employees, must take on an educating role. We must show employers why we are important and why they need us. We also need to show them that we have a diverse and flexible skill set which we can adapt to a broad range of workplace scenarios. What are the skills we need to do this? A digital portfolio is surely a good start, and that is my next project.

ATTW 3

(A note of explanation: The Association for Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) is an emailing list that I subscribe to to better my understanding of what professional writers do. The posts titled ATTW are about the emails I receive.)

One message regarded a survey on errors in grammar and mechanics. It was being used to see which types of errors were more openly accepted by professors and academics, and which errors were most easily spotted. I found this very interesting because we all know there are certain things that are just obviously wrong, but other errors, people can't seem to agree upon. I am sure the results would point to what a common trend is in what counts as an error and what is overall regarded as something that is okay to let slip by. As a professional writer, we may be faced with many of these "potential errors" and we might have to confer with our supervisor or coworkers what their opinions are on these errors in order to produce work that will be accepted by all. We also might have to relax our own opinions on certain errors, and be open to the suggestions of others of why it might not be and error.

There was a very interesting discussion following a call for editors for an article on Fat Studies in the journal Rhetoric Society Quarterly. So what exactly does "fat" mean? When can a person be considered fat, and is it a negative or neutral term? Is this something to be celebrated? The discussion pointed out the fact that terms such as "overweight" and "obese" are medical terms, they have widely accepted definitions. So, again, what is fat, and how does it fit in with these terms? While most may see the term "fat" as an insult, this discussion is about "taking the word back" and using it simply as any other adjective that describes a person in a neutral way; the term would lose its power to hurt. Fat studies, therefore, is studying how body size does not communicate body behaviors. Being fat is not the same as being unhealthy. One quote that I found exceptionally interesting was, "We can all hope, I guess, that Fat Studies does more for the acceptance of normal bodies than Rhetorical studies has done for the concept/term of 'rhetoric.'" Rhetoric has been a term we have focused on in the course of this class, and it is still clear as mud to me. The discussion brought up how society skews our view of what this actually means, making it even more confusing.  After reading all of the messages, I concluded that "fat" and the topic of "fat studies" is a form of rhetoric (gasp!) with several different ways of perception. Fat is a controversial term that we socially construct (look at that Intro to Soc knowledge coming into play!); it does not have to be an insult!

Midterm Class Reflection

Through this course so far, I have begun to understand writing as a creative process rather than something structured. At the beginning of the course when the idea of portfolios was introduced, I was quite skeptical as to why something like that would be necessary and how I would be able to provide drafts for different revisions or steps in my writing process. Now, I am beginning to realize that it is important to be able to save your different drafts of a project in order to see what you have really learned. The portfolio project will be an illuminating look into how I will grow as a writer this semester.

There are a few things I believe will definitely stick with me after this class is over. So far, the thing I have enjoyed reading about and listening to is the design principles. Out of what we have learned so far, this topic makes the most sense to me, and the discussions from class seem very logical. Who would not want to make their writing look more intriguing? I have really enjoyed reading the Williams book, so I think the ideas from it will continue to influence my writing projects after this class is complete. What has been the least interesting so far has been the Kolin book and many of the articles we have read. The Kolin book just seems so dry and repetitive, and much of the information is not new. Many of the articles have been so far over my head in discussion that I have had a very hard time just trying to summarize their main points. I will probably not remember things from the articles very well for this reason.

The lessons learned from class discussions have helped with assignments for this class and others. One thing that has been a very good lesson is the process of revision. I have learned that restructuring your entire paper is good – and probably is to be expected. This has been useful in papers I have recently written for other classes. For our projects so far in this class, the design elements have been helpful in creating professional looking documents. As we get into further assignments, I expect to use more of the lessons we have learned.

In the next eight weeks, I hope to get a deeper understanding of writing, including rhetoric, and also to learn more about what it means to be a professional writer; for example, what are some more things I may be doing at a future job in this field? I hope to learn more about putting together a portfolio – what to include and what to leave out, how to organize it, design it, and how to add personal touches to it. Our syllabus says we will be making websites soon also, which I think will be a wonderful skill to have. I have never done something like that before, and so I hope by the end of the semester I am able to gain this knowledge and feel confident and comfortable in designing a large project of my own. I want to feel like I can effectively use a Mac computer to create and design artful writing.

Post Write: Text Redesign Project

My group chose to redesign a baklava recipe for our project. The original recipe was a huge block of text that was difficult to read and unorganized. My group listed out the ingredients and equipment, numbered the instructions, added a picture of the product, and added a colorful border. I definitely think that our end project looked much better than the original.

The difficult thing about this project was that we had to fit all of it on one page. My instinct told me to put much more space in between each ingredient listed and make the text bigger, so that it would be easy to glance at while in the kitchen. This was not possible with this recipe, which was rather complex, while maintaining the one sheet of paper standard. We had to play around quite a bit with condensing the instructions, adding columns for the ingredients, and making the borders more narrow. I am sure we still could have been more creative with the limited space we had, and if there is something we receive criticism on, I would assume it to be that.

Our group work was very productive, which made the work for this project run smoothly. We met together twice outside of class, and worked together for part of a class period. During these times, we worked quickly and effectively to end up with a professional looking document.

Personality Type

I recently took the Myers Briggs Personality Test and learned that my personality type is "The Caregiver". When I had first read through all of the sixteen personality types, I was not able to choose one that I thought described me. There were several that I thought might relate to my personality, so I was very curious. Before taking the test, I was very uncertain as to whether I was an introvert or extrovert. While we were discussing both of these personality types in class, I was thinking to myself that I possessed traits in both categories. While I enjoy being by myself at times and enjoying quiet and peaceful relaxation, I also enjoy being around people and I feel comfortable in crowds and talking in front of people. The test revealed that I most often lean toward an extrovert personality, but my preference for it was only one percent! So I think my observation was correct; I seem to have attributes to both personalities.

My personality type is ESFJ: extroverted, sensing, feeling, judging, or as the description points out, extroverted feeling with introverted sensing.The personality description definitely fits my character traits, especially the part about being good at reading other people's thoughts and emotions without them saying anything to me. Another interesting part of the description was that ESFJ's prefer order and structure to their environment rather than abstract and theoretical ideas. This is very true of me, as evidenced by the fact that I do not enjoy or understand poetry that is not to be taken in the literal sense.

The word "judging" in my personality trait seems quite harsh, especially since I have a 78% preference for it, but as we discussed in class, judging does not have to be a bad thing. Judging may be along the lines of being able to look at a problem and judge the ways in which the best decision can be made. The character description explains it as being able to judge others to get information about them, but then turn it into supportive judgments.

My favorite phrase in the character description was that ESFJ's "have a strong focus on the details of life." This is extremely descriptive of me. I have heard countless times how surprised people are when I remember tiny details of an instance that happened months ago. I am very in tune with my surroundings. This test gave me a greater understanding of why my personality is the way it is, and what my strengths and weaknesses are. 

Writing Is an Art

For the past week we have been heavily discussing writing and rhetoric to better understand the deeper meaning of it. After a week of discussion, it has become clear to me that writing can no longer be thought of as a structured process, but as an art form.

The idea of rhetoric began long long ago and brought into play things such as the three appeals (logos, ethos, and pathos) from Aristotle, and the five cannons (invention, arrangement, style, memory, and delivery) from Cicero. Writing went through time periods such as the classics, medieval, renaissance, enlightenment, and modern. For me anyhow, it is easy to think of these time periods relating to the writing and art that came out of them.

As for the definition of rhetoric, it has gone through several different phases, meaning different things at different time periods. Basically, rhetoric is something we can never get away from - it is surrounding us in all of our knowledge, speaking, and writing.

Over time, people have tried to put a model to writing (inverted pyramid), but we have learned that successful writing does not have to be done in this way! It can be molded and shaped to the writers preferences and to what the perceived audience will enjoy. Therefore, writing is not static, but abstract. Writing is art.

Literacy and Work

Glynda Hull talks in her article, "Hearing Other Voices: A Critical Assessment of Popular Views on Literacy and Work" about American workers not having proper literacy skills. While this article is surely outdated (1997) many of its points are relevant today. Literacy is not something you just "get," but something that has to be learned over time. Literacy is not only one skill, but many skills combining and working together. This is similar to writing which is not just one process, but many processes. I thought it was very interesting that Hull pointed out how many other skills there are that go into working at any job, even at an assembly line. It's not just knowing how to read and write, but having adaptability and communication skills. So even back 15 years ago, workers were not necessarily being taught or expected to have all of the important skills for jobs.

In our world today, the situation is somewhat different. While illiteracy in reading and writing is still a problem I am sure, especially with the number of immigrants in our country, there is a new type of illiteracy. Computer illiteracy. With rapidly advancing technology, this is a major problem for the generations before us since they did not grow up with computers. As time goes on, there are becoming more technical skills a person must have in order to get a job, increasing the relevancy of this article.

Summaries/ "What Is Writing?"

Chapter nine of our Kolin book discussed summaries. This concept was quite new to me. So far in my English courses, I have heard the phrase over and over and over, "Do not summarize," so much so that I have an instant disliking to the word. While writing papers about articles, short stories, or novels, we are told to choose one specific topic of the passage to focus on, key word: specific. And then we are told, "Do not summarize. Not even for just a paragraph." At first this was extremely annoying, "How will my audience be able to follow my paper if I don't give them any background?" However, last semester I was given a helpful tip: think of your audience as only those who are interested and have knowledge of your topic. I learned how to write papers like this quite well.

But now we are told to do what?? Summarize! My question from the previous paragraph now applies; your audience will not know what you are talking about unless you give them the basics of your material. The most difficult thing for me when it comes to summarizing is to avoid inserting my own opinion or explanation of the ideas. By summarizing, I feel like I am writing down someone else's thoughts only and nothing is actually coming from my own brain. I suppose it is something a writer must get used to and learn how to do for the professional job market.

The communication triangle was introduced to us in the reading titled "What Is Writing?" The article brought out the point that writing is not just simple steps you need to follow and then KABOOM! You have writing. There are guidelines and rules regarding grammar and mechanics, but writing overall is a process, and there is not just one way to do it. The combination of logos (the subject/appeal to reason), ethos (the writer/appeal to character), and pathos (the reader/appeal to emotion) creates the message your writing will give. There are many more parts to writing that work together to create a written work. So don't be fooled! Not just anyone can do this.

ATTW 2

(A note of explanation: The Association for Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) is an emailing list that I subscribe to to better my understanding of what professional writers do. The posts titled ATTW are about the emails I receive.)

Several messages included job advertisements for professors of professional and technical writing at various universities. As a student, I tend to view professors at the top of the professional job spectrum, but it was interesting to note that just like someone fresh out of college, they too have to apply for jobs, create a resume and cover letter, go through interviews, and have references. That being said, no matter how high up we get in the professional job market, we will always have to rely on things such as these that we are learning about in class.

Another message talked about dreaded accreditation, a difficult but rewarding process. Through accreditation, schools can make improvements to learning and the writing process among students. I had never heard of this process before, but if it can help with the learning process across campuses, I hope my professors are implementing this technique.

Another message discussed how design might be helpful in understanding complex information. This is very interesting to me since we are going to be learning a lot about design (something I am not too familiar with) in this class. If what they are saying is true, by designing something  a different way, your audience can learn in an easier way from the material you are presenting. This is something all writers should make note of and consider throughout their writing process because by making something easier for readers, you are enhancing that line of communication and contact between reader and writer, as discussed in the Lindemann article.

Post Write: Resume/Cover Letter Assignment

This assignment was the first time I had written a professional resume and cover letter applying for a job. I feel like my resume looked quite professional. It was very well organized and had a clean, structured look to it, which I think is very important for trying to impress a potential future employer. I believe I described the experience I have had with impressive and convincing descriptions of what I learned and acquired from the work I did there. I feel like I concluded the right material for my resume, but since this is the first time I have really worked on something like this, I am sure there are things I should revise and reconsider about my wording and information included.

My cover letter was something I struggled with a little more.While my cover letter was quite short, I think it hit all the main points that needed to be brought up. Since my job ad did not have many qualifications besides having experience in writing and news and was quite short to begin with, I was not all the way sure what to include to convince the employer that I had everything it would take to do this job. However, I think I did pretty good for my first try at it. After writing an original draft, I revised it to sound more professional and used a thesaurus to omit some repeated words and replace them with more interesting ones.

It was difficult to decide how much to write about my work and volunteer experience in my cover letter. Of course I wanted to include my experience with The Northern Iowan (which was completely fictional), but what else was appropriate? My other jobs (realistically) did not have anything to do with writing or news, but they did teach me valuable work place skills, which I included in the third paragraph. If there is something I am expecting comments and suggestions about, I would definitely point to that aspect.

Association for Teachers of Technical Writing 1

(A note of explanation: The Association for Teachers of Technical Writing (ATTW) is an emailing list that I subscribe to to better my understanding of what professional writers do. The posts titled ATTW are about the emails I receive.)


The first message talked about looking for an editor for a quarterly journal. I realized how much work is involved in doing something so major as editing a journal. You must have a team working with you - in this case, the institution you are working for- and also you need to have people to support you, an “editorial team” as the article suggests. I have often wanted to become an editor of something someday and this opened my eyes a little more to all the work that must be put forth to get to such a position. Not only must you have abundant experience and professional writing skills, but also you must have a team working for you to make something like this possible.

The second message discussed writing about and for gaming industries. This is probably something I have never thought through before...someone, somewhere has to write video games? Clearly, I have never spent much time at the sport, but from what I have seen, they are very complex! Professional writing really is in so many different places. Whatever your interests may be, you could probably find a job writing about them.

The third message talked about the Association for Business Communication. It is something similar to the Association of Teachers of Technical Writing and they are encouraged to join it. Since we have recently been working on cover letters and resumes in class, I noticed that this email was similar in ways; it was trying to convince the readers that this association and membership was worth the cost and time to read.

Good Ol' Pat Brown

In class we looked at our resumes for Pat Brown (fictional neutral gender individual who cannot, for the life of him/her, write a thing) and began to write a fictional cover letter for a job Pat is applying to. While I do not have much experience, I think I am pretty good at creating a professional looking resume. I like things lined up and coordinated just so, and I think that will pay off in my own resume. Cover letters on the other hand...I have never attempted to write before. However, I do not think it was too awful! After some thought and following the book instructions, I started what I thought was a pretty good cover letter. Writing my own, however, may take a little more time.

Resumes

Today in class we discussed resumes and possible jobs we might have relating to professional writing. So far, the job that has appealed to me most is an editor. I am definitely a stickler for grammar and spelling when it comes to school/professional documents, so I think I would be pretty good at it. That being said, when it comes time for me to work on this resume/cover letter/application project, I will be trying to find a job that relates to editing.

With my dad being the president of a company, I have heard endless tales of applicants with unprofessional and downright awful skills when it comes to creating a resume and cover letter. Therefore, I think I understand pretty well that this is a very important skill to have and something that needs to be practiced. I am still a sophomore, so it will be about 3 years until I am looking for a professional job out there, but I think this is something that would be great for me to work on now.

What Is Rhetoric?

We have been talking in class a lot about rhetoric and what that means. I will admit, I am still a bit confused about this word, so I took the liberty of asking the dictionary:

1:  the art of speaking or writing effectively: as

a : the study of principles and rules of composition formulated by critics of ancient times

b : the study of writing or speaking as a means of communication or persuasion

2:

a : skill in the effective use of speech

b : a type or mode of language or speech; also : insincere or grandiloquent language

3

: verbal communication : discourse

Still a little lost, but I think a really good point brought up in class is that there are many different ways of looking at things, writing included. Different ways of writing about a topic can give you different results. That makes sense, so for now, that is rhetoric.

What is a professional writer? This question has been looming over our class for a week now. From what I can see, a professional writer is a writer who can put technical terms into something that can be understood by everyone else. That may be too specific, but it’s a start. A professional writer must know different types of writing inside and out. They must be flexible to shift between one style of writing and another as they are given different projects to work on. As a professional writer you will need to ask questions, probably lots of questions, so you need to be assertive and not be afraid to admit that you don’t know something.