ENGLISH 2311Unit 6: Final ReflectionLorena OvalleSection 14December 5, 2016

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Looking back at this semester, I’ve come to realize how much I’ve learned. Through these learning outcomes: rhetoric, writing, design, collaboration, ethics, cultural considerations, and applied technologies, I’ve discovered new strategies and key points that I can focus on in order to make my work more presentable and efficient.

INTRODUCTION

These photos display a few of my accomplished assignments throughout the semester.

Rhetoric01

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Writing02Design03Collaboration 04

Ethics05Cultural Considerations06

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Applied Technologies

Conclusion

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RHETORICRhetoric has played a very crucial role throughout this semester. When it came to setting up my resume and cover letter, I noticed a change in my writing in comparison to my normal essay format. I learned that when using rhetoric you are obliged to accommodate your writing to your audience. Who is reading/receiving your work has a major impact on how your document should be presented.

In this course, I learned that in documents such as a resume should be more precise and to the point. A greater focus towards key words in job listings and requirements should be projected in both a resume and a cover letter.

When working on the mobile app project proposal, my group and I made sure to lean our focus towards potential consumers. Due to the fact that we were creating an app for a car manual, we knew that when it came to the app’s content our audience would consist of Nissan Altima car owners. We aimed to make the app’s instructional content short, simple, and understandable by ordinary car owners. The audience would shift when it came to our actual proposal because we would be attempting to persuade the Nissan Motors Board of Executives. In this case, we definitely had to step up our rhetoric in order to persuade our audience to pick up our ideas.

Learning Outcomes

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WRITINGAs a writing-intensive course, this semester obtained several opportunities for me to improve my writing skills.

Different types of writing skills were used throughout the semester, but I always wanted to progress my skills specifically in my grammar.

Dr. Rauch was a very hands-on professor and I appreciated her direct and concise feedback when it came to my writing.

It’s very easy to type up a document, but proper use of grammar, spelling, and even tone can be very crucial in documents such as resumes and proposals.

In a cover letter, one must be very careful to not make themselves entitled or completely desperate. I learned that a strategy must be taken prior to actually writing, because, once again, the audience must be taken into consideration before submission. It would be very unprofessional to submit an application that creates an unfortunate image of myself to future employers.

I was very grateful to have our classmates proofread our final proposals before submitting them for a final grade, simply because it’s so easy to let simple mistakes slip through.

Learning Outcomes

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DESIGNEach assignment had it’s own unique form of design. Just like I mentioned in rhetoric, the design of a project is influenced by the audience. Design also depends on the type of document you are working on.

On my resume, I kept it simple and to the point. I made sure my tabs were all correctly aligned and all the points as well as the fonts matched.

In my visual resume, I used a more colorful and appealing approach in order to catch my audience’s (future employers) attention. I also used plenty of images due to the fact that the assignment was a visual resume.

Working on the design on the instructional mobile app was tricky at first, but by using the Marvel website and with the help of my group, we came to create a simple yet appealing design in order to please the users.

We used an example provided by Dr. Rauch as inspiration for our video presentation. We focused on presenting a clear picture for demonstrating how to use the app and displaying all of its’ features.

When it came to our final proposal, we followed the standard format in order to meet the needs of our professor’s expectations.

Learning Outcomes

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COLLABORATIONI experienced a great deal of collaboration throughout this semester in ENG 2311. I worked with classmates when it came to distinguishing which resumes and cover letters were more presentable and appropriate compared to others.

With the instructional mobile app, collaboration was a major key to my group’s success. Each week we would equally distribute different roles and tasks to complete. My group was great at helping one another out when one of us was confused or needed help. We also applied this work ethic throughout our usability testing/report, the video presentation, and the final project proposal.

My partners Reece and Rachel were well aware of how important it was to contribute their parts to the project, as did I. I enjoyed having two other people to collaborate ideas with and I loved having the opportunity of receiving direct feedback from my fellow classmates.

Learning Outcomes

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ETHICSEthics can greatly affect someone’s work. I learned that you must take plagiarism, research, truthful representation of data , and audience analysis into great consideration.

I am always very careful to correctly cite my sources, due to the fact that others observing my work can take offense or find my work unreliable to due my poor effort to properly provide credit to my sources.

I’ve learned very crucial points in applying good ethics towards my work through the Ball readings as well as in class with Dr. Rauch’s lectures.

Learning Outcomes

“In all rhetorical situations, authors need to consider how best to build their credibility so

that audiences trust their knowledge and character.”-Ball Chapter 4:

EthicsBall. "Working with

Multimodal Sources." Blackboard. N.p., n.d. Web.

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CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONSOne very important learning outcome that impacted my writing and presentations was definitely cultural considerations.

In my resume/visual resume, I needed to consider who my audience could be very carefully. There may be people out there who are colorblind and cannot see or understand the variety of colors within one’s work.

This also came into play with our mobile application project. We provided a brightness button and a letter size adjustment button into our app, because we wanted to take into consideration users who may have disabilities with their vision.

Learning Outcomes

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APPLIED TECHNOLOGIESI’ve always enjoyed using technology, so the fact that our main project involved using various forms of technology to create something new and innovative was very amusing.

I am familiar with how several technology tools work, but I did learn some new tricks this semester.

I learned how to use tables and other design concepts on Microsoft Word for my resume. This really helped me maintain proper alignment throughout my resume.

I used Duarte’s template for my visual resume, which was new to me. I also had the chance to use SlideDoc and LinkedIn, so my visual resume could be uploaded and presented formally. These were two websites I had never even heard of, but after this course I feel more prepared and educated to put their services to use.

When my group and I had to create and design a new mobile app, we used Marvel. This website was brand new to me, but over the course I learned a lot about its’ functions and features. This website helped my group and I create a decent prototype for usability testing and later, a great complete mobile application.

For our usability testing, another website called Lookback, helped us record our test participants and accurately record their feedback and results. Lookback was also completely new to me, so I’m very glad I had the opportunity to use and learn about a tool like this.

I’m very familiar with Microsoft PowerPoints' functions and tools, so I felt confident using this for both my visual resume, usability report, and this final reflection project.

Another new program I used for our group’s video presentation was iMovie. I was confused at first, but following some tips from our guest lecture, Mr. Rauch I was able to get the hang of the different tools in the program and help my group submit a presentable video presentation.

Learning Outcomes

I’m very grateful for the various learning opportunities I was given and experienced throughout ENG 2311. Looking back, I can see how each learning outcome applied in its own unique way with each assignment/project this semester.

Inconclusion…

Thank youDr. Rauch it has been a pleasure being your student.