Welcome to My Senior Portfolio

I became a Professional Technical Writing (PTW) major in 2009, over fourteen years ago. I took a break from school for a few years and returned in 2023 to complete my degree. I chose this major for many reasons, but one of the most important is I love writing, creating, telling a story that draws people away, if only for a moment. As a child with a tumultuous childhood, writing was my escape. I believe it is an escape for many today. Thus my pursuit of PTW.

Before entering the program most of my writing experience was in writing for school assignments, journaling, and the occasional poetry pieces I wrote as therapy for my soul. I found I had quite an imagination and a unique perspective of this thing called life. I would write poems for friends, send odes of love to lovers. Whatever I wrote I wrote from the heart.

Some of the most important things I’ve learned in the program is though there are many styles of writing, I do my best work, when I am true to my style and when I truly focus on my target audience. I also find being flexible and teachable is key in this program.

I remember once taking a class on poetry and I was so excited because I felt I was really good at “speaking from the heart”. I was soon hit with a dose of reality upon submitting a poem I had been told by those around me, was amazing, however, my professor thought it had no depth, and made me dig deeper and rewrite the poem. Writing was indeed much more than speaking from the heart. It was a compilation of strategic and intentional steps used to speak to a specific audience.

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Since the beginning of the course my technology skills have grown greatly. As well as my design and formatting skills. I have written two books and published them both. Though this is quite an accomplishment I still have so much more to go. I know I must continue to grow with this ever-advancing technological age. I will forever remain teachable and expand on the knowledge and skills learned through my PTW major.