Reflection

Creating an e-portfolio has granted me the opportunity to examine my interests and values as a writer. By stepping back and looking at my works as a collective, I identified that my passion in writing lies in motivating social change. For this reason, I want my portfolio to appeal to non-profit organizations within the Tallahassee community. One of my unique strengths as a writer is that I have writing experience both within creative media and academic writing. Being able to shift genres in this way makes me more versatile, opening up my professional sphere to a greater number of opportunities. The type of writing I can contribute can lean more technical, more creative, or some combination of the two of these. I wanted to reflect this in the design of my portfolio – sleek and professional, yet still full of personality.​

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To appeal equally to the different types of internships I will be applying for, I've separated the various projects I've completed into the Creative Works and Academic Works sections based on their intended audience. Each piece represents the work that I'm most proud of as a writer. As I only just started majoring in Editing, Writing and Media this semester, my creative projects are limited to the assignments I've completed within the past few months. However, I'm still able to demonstrate my adaptability as a writer through the diverse styles I've included. My work includes creative nonfiction content in both I Will Be Your Modern Prophet and When Vires Meets Violet, in addition to analytical pieces in the form of Unity and Distance Through the Female Lens. While these texts differ in rhetorical effect, they equally illustrate my personal identity as it relates to my writing. The magazine article especially represents a significant departure from my academic writing, in which I have little subjective voice as an author.​

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Notably though, I made a point to draw an equal amount of emphasis to my academic works. Out of all of my writing assignments within the discipline of psychology, my research project Investigating Attachment and Rejection Sensitivity stands out as my grandest achievement yet. My research group and I developed this paper over the course of an entire semester, using a combination of literature review, scholastic writing conventions, and statistical analyses to define the relationship between attachment theory and adult rejection sensitivity. This work in particular demonstrates my nonfiction capabilities as a writer. I learned to condense a significant amount of data and theoretical knowledge into a comprehensive summary, all while avoiding both complicated jargon and personal bias in reporting the results. My experience in this genre of writing grants me a unique advantage in applying to internship/job positions oriented around technical writing.

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​This portfolio challenged me to use an unfamiliar platform to create a site that efficiently implements POUR design principles while still letting my personality as a writer shine though. I've managed to balance these rhetorical functions through my visual choices. The muted greens and oranges of the site's color palette, for example, portray both my down-to-earth attitude and my confidence in going against the grain (as many website color palettes stick to more neutral tones). However, I made sure my site was still perceivable by ensuring adequate contrast between text and background colors. I edited my site's layout to accommodate for phone users, creating a robust resource that is accessible through multiple technological mediums. Perhaps my biggest improvement between drafts was the Contact page. During my draft #2 presentation, I received many comments stating that the contact information listed in the home page's footer gave the impression that the site ended there. To improve both understandability and operability on the user's end, I created a separate page in which visitors can contact me via email, LinkedIn, or via Wix's innate message box feature.

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Overall, creating my ePortfolio has been an incredibly rewarding experience. While I'm still learning the ins and outs of the platform, I'm proud to add Wix to my digital tool belt. The constructive criticism I received in class for this project and throughout all of WEPO has introduced me to many new perspectives and built my confidence in my creative capabilities. Thanks to Mrs. Ramsay and my peers, I've gained valuable design and analysis skills that  apply to a great number of academic and professional endeavors. I'm certain these skills will take me places as I continue to hone them through my practice as a writer!