Welcome to my professional writing portfolio! My name is Colleen Weber and I am a senior at Longwood University, majoring in Communications Sciences and Disorders (CSDS) and minoring in special education. I’ve always been passionate about working with children with special needs, particularly autism. From the fifth through tenth grade, I volunteered with my mom, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), in the special needs room at our church. Taking what I learned from her, I have been working as a care provider for children with autism since the beginning of my senior year of high school in 2013. I now have my own classroom that I run at church, as well as being in charge of the student volunteers in our 0-4 years environment. Being in leadership roles over pre-k, elementary school, and middle school age students, I have become well versed in communicating professionally, teaching, teamwork, and time management.
Taking ENGL 470 has taught me how to analyze and produce professional documents in ways that line up with the course learning outcomes (listed below). In the last semester, I have written a bad news letter, a persuasive letter, a brochure, a press release, and a formal report. The press release and the formal report were a group effort, which encouraged mutual cooperation similarly to what one would expect in the workforce. Additionally, there were many class activities which broke down the process of creating such documents, and towards the end of class, we would collaborate with a neighbor to receive feedback. These projects and assignments have taught me how to think outside of myself and address an audience and have helped me to feel more confident in producing professional documents.
Course Learning Outcomes (to address in your reflective essay)
- Analyze and produce writing genres commonly found in the professional world (e.g., business, gov., media);
- Create professional documents that use plain English (clear, concise, and grammatically correct);
- Conduct research to create content for a variety of professional documents (memos, letters, reports, etc.);
- Create professional documents that uses design—standard formats, layout, use of graphics, etc.
- Practice oral communication skills to present content effectively (enhanced with multimedia tools);
- Participate productively in collaborative projects