In my final reflections post for this course (but not my final reflections blog post), I’m looking back and evaluating what I learned by answering some prompts from my professor.
Reflect on the type of work you want to do in the future and how your work this semester will fit your portfolio as a scholar and/or practitioner.
When I started working on my BA in Technical Communication last fall, I thought a technical writer was someone who wrote procedure documents and instruction manuals. This course (and others) taught me that a technical writer has many more opportunities. For example, companies need well-written websites that clearly communicate who they are and what they want their audience to know about them. Being aware of work like that has left me wondering exactly what type of work I want to focus on when I graduate next summer. This is a great thing. It’s encouraged me to want to develop a diverse portfolio of work to see the types of writing I prefer and my strengths. The work I’ve created for this class has greatly helped that goal. I developed video content, a FAQ page for a website, and a more comprehensive manual that can be downloaded and used as a PDF or printed if the user would like.
What have you learned this semester?
This semester I’ve learned a lot, not just about designing for the web but also how to implement these designs into my website. I may not be building a website from scratch and coding it, but even a platform like WordPress has a learning curve and multiple ways of doing the same thing. For example, with my FAQ page, I learned how to add a search bar and create collapsible text work on a page. I’ve also started to learn about making sure websites are accessible to various users. For example, I’d not heard of screen readers till this class, and I knew very little about how certain design choices (such as color contrast and font size) can impact how easy a website is to use/read. Going forward with my education, I plan to learn more about writing and designing web pages (and other documents) that are accessible to the largest possible audience.
What was this class experience like for you?
This class was fascinating and very challenging. In addition to the textbook* readings, our professor provided a variety of additional articles, podcasts, websites, and videos** that furthered our knowledge of a subject. It was challenging to keep up with the reading and the assignments, but I’ve saved a number of these resources for future reference or blogs and podcasts to continue reading/listening. I also enjoyed an aspect of the class called “Showcase,” where every student posted a link to an assignment we’d done for the course, and then we all gave feedback to two other students. This was helpful in two ways. One, it made me look at the document/video/page and articulate what was done well and why or what could be improved, with references to our book or other resources. This helped reinforce the concepts we’ve learned in class. Two, it gave me valuable feedback on some of my assignments from different points of view.
How has your work in this course helped to move you closer to your goals?
This course has been very informative. I’ve learned that writing and designing for the web or another digital format can be very different from writing for printed documents. Some basic design elements are the same, but the web has additional challenges in designing for the multiple ways people view it (desktop or mobile, for example) and how they search for information. It’s given me a more diverse portfolio and a new area of work to learn more about.
I’ve delighted I was able to take this course. I learned a lot of new information, added some good examples of work to my portfolio, and was given tools and resources to continue to learn about writing in a digital format.
*The textbook was very well written, with a lot of helpful information. It has earned a valuable space on my overflowing bookshelf for future reference. Here’s the info in case you’d like to read it for yourself:
Letting Go of the Words: Writing Web Content that Works (Second Edition) by Ginny Redish: ISBN 978-0-12-385930-3
**Here’s a list of some of those resources for anyone interested.
- 10-Minute Tech Comm (podcast)
- Paletton (online color scheme generator)
- Harvard University’s Digital Accessibility Resources (website)
- Smashing Magazine (website/online magazine)
- Kostya Stepanov (blogger)
- Content Strategy in a Zombie Apocalypse, Karen McGrane at USI (YouTube video)
- Where Creativity Meets Strategy: The Principles of Design Applied to Websites (online article)
- The 11 Golden Rules of Writing Content for Your Website (online article)
- What Makes a Good Tutorial Video? Here are 7 Essentials You Need to Include (online article)
Thx