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Projects worked on

Writing for ITEC Majors Reflection

As a strong believer that soft skills are equally as important as having technical skills, a

course like writing for ITEC majors has been an integral part in my growth. There were several projects to work on that have contributing to build my soft skills for communication. Some projects, however, stick out such as the ifixit project, a problem memo, and a proposal that required approval from an external company. To complete these projects, I used my real-life experience as a technical support analyst, sales advisor, and education. A long term goal of mine is to help businesses understand the application of technology and communicate technologies applications to upper management as it benefits their business.

The Ifixit assignment is a project that has contributed to my ability to explain a process in written text. In my time at Blackberry, a lot of the job was communicating processes, and information through emails and knowledge-based articles. With my experience in writing KB articles, one important skill I found in the technical world was the ability to communicate solutions to customers. This project incorporated applying feedback from an organization to create the guide. The project proposal has helped in building my communication skill as I was able to explain the repair to the Ifixit team for approval without any artefacts. Finally, the problem memo helped in understanding how to communicate within an organization at different levels. This problem memo shows my ability to research an issue from valid sources and summarize that information for the user.

While resumes are a good start to summarize one’s skills, it ends at just that, a summary. An E-portfolio allows for in-depth background of skills gained and the ability to show real projects that worked on. While choosing electives I took courses that would build my technical knowledge. In my third year, I took a course in user interface design which taught me design principles in applications, and I was able to apply that knowledge with a project. Moreover, in my second year, I took a course about data algorithm that gave me the knowledge to understand and create data algorithm, building my skill in programming.

Writing for information technology majors has provided me knowledge to communicate in various forms and account for tone and genre. An example of this is the problem memo that was taught in class. In class, we were told memos should be formal and structured to give background information to the problem. During my time at Blackberry, I spent a lot of time trying to understand how to structure my email when communicating. This course has given me context as to how to set my tone according to the audience and structure emails when communicating with upper management in the future.

While I have experience communicating with customers through email and through oral methods, one skill that I struggle with is getting my thoughts on paper. This writing course has taught me questions to ask myself when working through a project such as the proposal project. In the proposal project, structuring the proposal to effectively communicate my rational was confusing. By applying the skills learned in class and asking the right questions, I was able to structure the proposal and provide justification for the guide.

While working on this e-portfolio, I have been able to research artifacts worked on in other courses to showcase my skills. In addition, show the technical skills that I have been able earn in my undergrad. An example of this is a user interface that was created for a course that showed my ability to implement design principles learned. This portfolio has also given me the opportunity to show the application of my skills in the real world. Finally, I added the courses I have taken in the past that are relevant. These courses have contributed to my skills which I have been able to apply at my co-op experience.

This portfolio will hopefully give more context into the relevant skills and the application of them in the real world. Therefore, looking at system analyst jobs, I will be able to add those skills and show them on the E-portfolio.

This project’s goal is to show my experiences in the real world and what I have earned in my undergrad. These courses and experiences have contributed to my knowledge and allowed for the application of that knowledge in the real world. Finally, the assignments in writing for information technology have provided me artefacts to build on my communication skills in different forms.