Introduction
It is important to note that the class provided valuable experience and knowledge. The challenges were essential for my growth, which changed my thought process to become more analytical and creative. I also acquired new and critical skills during the class since there was always some form of suggestion and recommendations. The course is of paramount relevance and fits in my life-long journey because of its vitality in my future business and academic endeavors.
Challenges
The challenges I faced as a writer were significant because I usually typed my papers how I would normally speak without any structure or tone to my writing. After taking this class, I would ask myself certain questions to stay on topic and formulate a structure to keep me on track. The challenges I have with writing always have to do with condensing my writing and not allowing myself to get off track. It was really difficult for me not to get off track and go towards where I am excited rather than developing the best way to express an idea. However, the course taught invaluable knowledge as well as how to apply the latter.
Thought Process
My thought process is one area where I experience the most significant change—writing and thinking continuously enabled a more structured approach to my thought pattern. I no longer have a chaotic ‘cocktail’ of thoughts since I am able to filter, organize, and prioritize them as I write or type them down. Therefore, my thought process became more structured and systematic due to the class’s content, instructions, and challenges.
New Skills
The new skills I have acquired are resume writing and putting together a long-term business proposal. The biggest skill I have added to my repertoire from this class is the learning to collaborate on writing projects. It is something I have never had to do before, and every piece of writing I have ever done has been done solo, so learning how to work as a team to complete one written work has been a very valuable skill to learn. Designating a leader or “quarterback” is the most important thing when working with a larger team on these types of projects.
Growth as a Writer
My growth as a writer is manifested in a valuable summative lesson, where I realized that in order to write effectively, one must follow the four essentials. These include identifying the audience, establishing the purpose, formulating a message, and determining a suitable style and tone. In those four keys, I am challenged by putting myself in the audience’s position. What do they know, and how do we best convey what we know to them? The growth reflected in conveying information clearly and concisely can be an incredibly difficult one, especially when topics are sensitive or particularly intricate.
Academic and Business Future
As a clothing company business owner, this class has provided me the tools to perform better business with my manufacturers by simply writing better business emails. The job portfolio portion of the course helped with locating my awards from the military and correlating them to see certain jobs I qualify for. I found this course to be incredibly helpful. I began taking writing workshops here at Golden Gate University, followed by expository writing, research writing, and now business writing. The skills I gained along the way helped me improve my writing by making it more descriptive but also more professional and well directed at the target audience. This course definitely helped me even improve on focusing on my audience.
The Course and Life-Long Learning
Writing and communicating are important to my current career and where I want to go. Being able to write effectively will not only make me a more valuable employee, but it will help me develop skills beyond writing. Developing writing skills also develops other communication skills, and that is what this whole class has been about—being a better communicator. Much of what we learned could be applied to speaking, project planning, etc.
Conclusion
In conclusion, our main project for English 120 has been a long business report. In preparation for the long business report, we’ve had many challenges which have helped us grow as writers, including learning new skills, changing my thought processes, and trying to determine how my writing plays a role in our lives academically and professionally in the future. One of the first and most important things we address in this course is that to be an effective employee, and you need to be an effective writer. The skills writers use directly correlate to all other skills at work, such as assessing situations, conducting research, conveying information, working together, and displaying sensitivity to others.