Self-Review Essay: Course in Communication

Working in Dr. Bracewells ENGL 1102 class provided me with great opportunity to improve my
communication skills. The class focused on the WOVEN approach that utilizes written, oral, visual,
electronic, and nonverbal means of relaying information. In my portfolio for this class, I focused on four
assignments: the podcast, labor poster, essay-speech, and Wiki game design. Within these four
assignments, I learned new technology and experimented with different forms of communication. I
enjoyed the unique aspects of this course; I had never carved a poster out of linoleum until I
encountered this class. Dr. Bracewell provided me an outlet to design new projects that I never would
have had the ability to work on if I was not enrolled in her course. I may never have visited the Georgia
Tech archives nor created a page on Wikipedia if it were not for ENGL 1102 and the WOVEN model.
These four projects in my portfolio helped me to advance intellectually and to work using new methods.
The syllabus for this English course outlined specific goals for achieving stronger communication
skills. The most obvious goal was to polish my drafting, revising, and editing process in all projects. I
achieved this goal using the timelines and numerous drafting assignments that Dr. Bracewell assigned;
each project required an outline and at least one draft in addition to the final copy. This format helped
me to organize my ideas in a better fashion, and the occasional peer feedback incorporated outside
perspectives into my projects. A large chunk of the course was dedicated to group work and accepting
others feedback. Over the semester, I worked on expanding my critical thinking skills by thinking
outside of the box to create an impactful labor poster and also by designing a role-playing game from
scratch. Another crucial goal of the course was to cite all sources properly; the numerous annotated
bibliographies facilitated the betterment of my citing abilities. For my essay-speech, I had to find
credible evidence not only in support of my stance but also in rebuttal to potential counterarguments.
Perhaps the biggest goal of the course was to incorporate numerous modes of communication, such as
combining oral and written media in the essay-speech, into each project.
Many of the projects in this course involved group work. I have worked in groups numerous
times before, whether it be for club activities or school projects. I came in to this English class with
adequate knowledge on how to succeed in group work. I worked with a partner for the podcast and a
group of four for the Wiki game design. I possessed strong communication and organization skills
previous to the start of this course, and these skills helped me to sketch a timeline of progress for the
podcast. Working with a friend as my partner was very productive because we were not fearful of
stepping on each others toes, as I sometimes feel with random partners. Since we were so comfortable
sharing our thoughts, we were able to edit the podcast effectively. I tend to take charge of groups as the
project manager, assuring that we will make due dates and have every piece of information we need to
complete our work. My group for the Wiki game design was able to come up with a game concept fairly
quickly because we all had interesting ideas to add. However, I almost preferred not working in the
group for the Wiki project due to the stress in attempting to seamlessly tie in four different opinions into
one project. I am weak at merging multiple voices and writing styles together, yet part of my role in the
group was to merge all four writing styles together to make a fluid paper. To do this, I revised a few
sentences to create transitions, and I edited for grammar and other conventions. This responsibility

helped me to improve how I transition paragraphs. The group work for the Wiki required a lot of
communication skills and patience to finalize the Wiki website.
One of my personal goals in ENGL 1102 was to expose my strengths and improve my
weaknesses using the portfolio projects. I utilized my strength of persuasion in many of the projects. The
podcast in particular required persuasion. It was interesting to work on because I had never written a
podcast script before; I was weak in my ability to write a script meant to be read aloud. Over the course
of the project, I improved my speech writing skills by reading aloud what I had written on paper, and
adjusting what sounded inappropriate to the ear. I had to remove numerous complex and compound
sentences to reduce the sentences to a pleasant-sounding length. For the labor poster, I enjoyed
sketching design options because I am strong at creating basic yet impactful phrases and photos. I got a
lot of inspiration from online pictures related to labor strikes. The words for the artists statement easily
flowed because every element of my poster had a significant purpose. In the Paterson Strike
reenactment, I had a lot of trouble acting out my role; I am not comfortable with acting, and I also was
very unsure of which faction would be most beneficial for my role. My weakness of indecisiveness was
exposed while drafting the essay-speech. I changed to a different side in almost every draft. Interestingly
enough, my specific roles position was, in essence, to be persuaded. With that said, it is arguable that
my weakness of indecisiveness worked in this project because it allowed me to be persuaded. I kept an
open-mind to choose the best course of action for my role. Writing the essay-speech forced me to learn
how to use the advantages and disadvantages of each side to come to a consensus in a timely manner.
The projects in this class helped me to improve my weaknesses and acknowledge my strengths so that I
am more aware of these skills for future communication purposes.
I used various rhetorical situations for each of the projects in my portfolio. In the podcast, I had
to create rhetoric pertaining to my relationship with the audience; my goal as a podcast host was to
influence my audience. My partner and I fabricated our podcast listeners to be people from the
nineteenth century hearing about current events in their town. I used persuasive techniques such as
rhetorical questions and a passionate tone of voice to expose the atrocities of mistreatment of women
both domestically and in the work force in the nineteenth century. I used similar rhetorical strategies in
my essay-speech during our class reenactment of the Paterson Strike. However, in the creation of the
labor poster, I had to implement persuasion through visual forms. I utilized red color for the writing on
the poster in contrast to the rest of the poster that was covered in blue ink. I tailored the poster design
to call on nineteenth century workers. I appealed to this audience by reaching to their inner desires with
the phrase Voice your concerns on the poster, with your being oversized. This rhetoric implied voice
and power to the workforce. For the majority of my class projects, I included persuasive rhetorical
situations as most of the projects had intentions of influencing the audience.
I improved most on my intellectual process in terms of the drafting process. With every single
project we worked on in class, I revised numerous drafts to create strong final products. Part of this was
due to the format of our classs schedule; Dr. Bracewell incorporated numerous draft assignments to
each project. While this added more work, overall it helped me intellectually by teaching me how to
draft, revise, and edit on a higher thinking level. The class also helped me solidify my skills; I was able to
brush up on my grammar skills by peer reviewing others, and I learned how to write more cohesive

essays by forming paragraphs to flow into each other. Even though ENGL 1102 is over, I plan to continue
seeking improvement in my speaking skills. Throughout my time at Georgia Tech, I will use my
leadership positions as opportunities to alter my public speaking habits. I also am considering
participating in Toastmasters, a leader in communication development. ENGL 1102 with Dr. Bracewell
opened my eyes to my strengths and weaknesses as a communicator. I enjoyed the unique
opportunities I was given in this course, and I hope to take what I have learned to continue improving
my communication skills.