WordPress Blog 5: in 300 words or less, discuss how you worked toward some or all of the following learning objectives, indicating what coursework was involved (reading, assigned videos, discussion, class activities, assignments, or other). Close by pointing to how this coursework will build toward work you anticipate in your academic/professional career. 

By the end of the semester students will:

• be able to identify and apply basic design principles
• know how to evaluate the effectiveness of a document’s overall design for a particular rhetorical situation
• develop strategies for integrating visual and written communication in ways that are attentive to the needs of a given audience and purpose
• become familiar with research on design, usability, and visual communication
• become comfortable designing and producing a variety of document types according to conventions of the relevant genre
• become familiar with the design process from beginning to end.

When I first joined Editing and Document Design, I had no prior history of working with anything related to InDesign, Document design on Microsoft Word, etc. When working through big assignments such as the user manual, Infographic, and Client Service Project, the assigned videos really helped me so much because of the in depth step by step instructions they provided in order to help me work towards creating content for my work. Something I also find that helped me was working with classmates and testing usability on certain projects. I received a lot of feedback throughout my work and it was also nice to be able to see other classmates work and gain inspiration through a wide variety of creativity. One of my biggest struggles thus far has been usability and finding ways to make my work effective and easy for others to view and understand. One of the learning objectives that helped me work towards bigger assignments was the creation of my word press website. I enjoyed the freedom of being able to analyze similar project examples online and discussing what I liked or didn’t like about the design. Often the assignment’s would ask for us students to find something online related to the given project we were working on and discuss why we found it aesthetically pleasing and examples as to why. This really helped me because given the fact that this was all new territory for me and I had no idea how to create document designs, I felt that this helped me understand what a good document looks like while relating it to the DD textbook that we used for reference in our responses. Often times, I read the assigned book on my free time to learn more about what really goes into creating and editing documents. I feel that this class really served its purpose in the aspect of challenging me to break out of my shell and take on tricky tasks that involve reading, making mistakes, understanding the important of messing up and trying again. I had so many drafts that I created during the duration of this class because each lecture, class and discussion helped me work towards new goals and really want to learn how to get better. A lot of times I felt stumped and found myself saying, “I have no idea what I am doing” however, this negative mindset somehow pushed me to find a new perspective. I often compare my work to others and I had to remember that everyone learns differently and works at different paces. Because I am an English major with a Concentration in journalism, I feel that this class will help me after I graduate this Fall in my professional career because opportunities are endless and document design can be very important in my field. I believe it will be beneficial for employers to know that I am familiar with design platforms such as Adobe Indesign and Microsoft Word through creating content on these platforms in class. I initially took this class as an elective that I thought would be fun but the biggest takeaway now as I approach the end of my college career is that this course was also very enlightening and helpful. I was able to open myself up to something I never thought I would do before and I am appreciative of that.