Introduction:
Dear Professor Beth Godbee:
Contained in this portfolio are my accumulated works from the first half of the semester in the Writing for the Professions class. Individually, each work explores different aspects of myself and the materials covered in class. Overall, however, these texts work to express my own views of professionalism and professional writing.
I begin with my current résumés and a cover letter under Job Search. This section includes includes a Master Résumé which contains all of my notable accomplishments and skills to date, as well as my Targeted Résumé, which is designed to respond to an internship listing at JP Morgan Chase. Job Search also includes a cover letter written to respond to a Social Media Writing position at Agape community center. Additionally, created a professional profile and short biography within this section, that not only outlines how I see professional writing, but also helps to define myself as a professional writer.
Furthermore, I include a description of our class' collaborative newsletter project under Newsletter, as I know that professional writing is often collaborative in nature. Here, you will find my group's FAME and Student Profile articles. I describe my own work on these articles, as well as how my group collaboratively worked on these projects.
Additionally, in Work and Writing you will find, my Annotations, as well as my Statement on Work and Writing. The Annotations are annotated bibliography of readings, lectures and handouts that I found to fit my definition of both professionalism and professional writing. Each annotation specifically addresses one or more aspects of professional writing that I find relevant and informative. These annotations were used to create an infographic, that I used as a Statement on Work and Writing. Here, I outlined three questions that I found to help define professionalism in writing.
Finally, there is an Additional Materials section, in which I included a copy of a business letter addressing my expectations and desires for this class. In this letter, I address tone and the importance of the audience, two things I see as of utmost importance for professional writing. This section also includes a Writing Test that I took for a job interview at Uline. Here, Uline tested its applicants on their ability to take large amounts of information and reduce them to succinct outlines. This task emphasizes the idea that professional writing should be concise and clear.
This class and the work that I have included in this portfolio have helped me to develop this definition in several ways. First, by my own work, but also through lectures and readings by professional writers. I have found that these lectures to be highly valuable, and are by far my favorite part of this class. Hearing the stories of different writers in different career paths has helped me to form a better idea of what professionalism in writing really means. These lectures also helped me to better understand professionalism as a whole, and what is expected of me in the working world. Bringing in outside resources has been immensely productive, and I imagine it will continue to be for the rest of the semester.
I am also very excited to begin work on the department newsletter. This project is both collaborative and has implications outside the classroom, which is something I find very appealing in a project. I feel that the addition of this project to the classes’ curriculum is extremely positive, and hopefully as the semester continues it will fulfill its purpose of teaching collaborative writing methods. These skills, along with those that come from learning the software to design the website, will most likely help in our job searches and careers.
In class I feel my participation has helped me to better understand our course material. During discussions, both speaking when relevant, and listening to the comments of others has been very helpful. As our discussions range from traditional classroom discussions about readings and homework, to more constructive ones about our class schedule or collaborative projects, my personal participation in class has allowed me to work more effectively on my own. I particularly have enjoyed the time spent collaboratively discussing the newsletter project in class, as it is very difficult to organize work and ideas outside of the classroom.
This class has been a very positive experience, and I hope it continues to be one. So far this semester I do not feel that have not achieved my goals to better myself as a professional writer. Unfortunately, I have been unable to fully devote my time to this class and its assignments, which has significantly stunted my development in this area. However, I feel that I am a strong writer who has the potential to fully absorb the information presented in this class given the time and the effort. The creation of this portfolio has allowed me to reevaluate my views of professionalism, both in the workplace and in the classroom, and hopefully will help me to reevaluate my performance and participation in class.
Furthermore, I intend to achieve my goals for the second half of the semester by setting personal deadlines for myself, attending more one on one meetings with you, and by actively communicating with my group members for the newsletter project. By increasing my levels of communication with both you and the rest of the class, I will most likely feel more connected and thus more beholden to the responsibilities required of me in the classroom. Additionally, the use of personal deadlines will ensure that I have ample time to finish all assignments.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this class. The lectures and the discussion based classroom make for a very positive environment in which I can become adjusted to professional writing. Likewise, the assignments are helpful and the feedback has been very useful.
My goal for the second half of this semester is to adhere more closely to the values and themes I have found in this document: devotion, passion, and presentation. Thank you for the opportunity to both explore these values, and the chance to use them in you classroom.
Sincerely,
Katie Murphy :)
Contained in this portfolio are my accumulated works from the first half of the semester in the Writing for the Professions class. Individually, each work explores different aspects of myself and the materials covered in class. Overall, however, these texts work to express my own views of professionalism and professional writing.
I begin with my current résumés and a cover letter under Job Search. This section includes includes a Master Résumé which contains all of my notable accomplishments and skills to date, as well as my Targeted Résumé, which is designed to respond to an internship listing at JP Morgan Chase. Job Search also includes a cover letter written to respond to a Social Media Writing position at Agape community center. Additionally, created a professional profile and short biography within this section, that not only outlines how I see professional writing, but also helps to define myself as a professional writer.
Furthermore, I include a description of our class' collaborative newsletter project under Newsletter, as I know that professional writing is often collaborative in nature. Here, you will find my group's FAME and Student Profile articles. I describe my own work on these articles, as well as how my group collaboratively worked on these projects.
Additionally, in Work and Writing you will find, my Annotations, as well as my Statement on Work and Writing. The Annotations are annotated bibliography of readings, lectures and handouts that I found to fit my definition of both professionalism and professional writing. Each annotation specifically addresses one or more aspects of professional writing that I find relevant and informative. These annotations were used to create an infographic, that I used as a Statement on Work and Writing. Here, I outlined three questions that I found to help define professionalism in writing.
Finally, there is an Additional Materials section, in which I included a copy of a business letter addressing my expectations and desires for this class. In this letter, I address tone and the importance of the audience, two things I see as of utmost importance for professional writing. This section also includes a Writing Test that I took for a job interview at Uline. Here, Uline tested its applicants on their ability to take large amounts of information and reduce them to succinct outlines. This task emphasizes the idea that professional writing should be concise and clear.
This class and the work that I have included in this portfolio have helped me to develop this definition in several ways. First, by my own work, but also through lectures and readings by professional writers. I have found that these lectures to be highly valuable, and are by far my favorite part of this class. Hearing the stories of different writers in different career paths has helped me to form a better idea of what professionalism in writing really means. These lectures also helped me to better understand professionalism as a whole, and what is expected of me in the working world. Bringing in outside resources has been immensely productive, and I imagine it will continue to be for the rest of the semester.
I am also very excited to begin work on the department newsletter. This project is both collaborative and has implications outside the classroom, which is something I find very appealing in a project. I feel that the addition of this project to the classes’ curriculum is extremely positive, and hopefully as the semester continues it will fulfill its purpose of teaching collaborative writing methods. These skills, along with those that come from learning the software to design the website, will most likely help in our job searches and careers.
In class I feel my participation has helped me to better understand our course material. During discussions, both speaking when relevant, and listening to the comments of others has been very helpful. As our discussions range from traditional classroom discussions about readings and homework, to more constructive ones about our class schedule or collaborative projects, my personal participation in class has allowed me to work more effectively on my own. I particularly have enjoyed the time spent collaboratively discussing the newsletter project in class, as it is very difficult to organize work and ideas outside of the classroom.
This class has been a very positive experience, and I hope it continues to be one. So far this semester I do not feel that have not achieved my goals to better myself as a professional writer. Unfortunately, I have been unable to fully devote my time to this class and its assignments, which has significantly stunted my development in this area. However, I feel that I am a strong writer who has the potential to fully absorb the information presented in this class given the time and the effort. The creation of this portfolio has allowed me to reevaluate my views of professionalism, both in the workplace and in the classroom, and hopefully will help me to reevaluate my performance and participation in class.
Furthermore, I intend to achieve my goals for the second half of the semester by setting personal deadlines for myself, attending more one on one meetings with you, and by actively communicating with my group members for the newsletter project. By increasing my levels of communication with both you and the rest of the class, I will most likely feel more connected and thus more beholden to the responsibilities required of me in the classroom. Additionally, the use of personal deadlines will ensure that I have ample time to finish all assignments.
Overall, I have really enjoyed this class. The lectures and the discussion based classroom make for a very positive environment in which I can become adjusted to professional writing. Likewise, the assignments are helpful and the feedback has been very useful.
My goal for the second half of this semester is to adhere more closely to the values and themes I have found in this document: devotion, passion, and presentation. Thank you for the opportunity to both explore these values, and the chance to use them in you classroom.
Sincerely,
Katie Murphy :)