CORE SKILLS
WRITTEN COMMUNICATION
"The learner will exchange ideas and information with others using written text in a manner effective and appropriate for the intended audience."
My artifact for written communication is my proposal paper "Security in Schools" from ENG-112. I chose this topic because, during the proposal unit, we had to find a problem within our school and then propose a solution. This assignment challenged my class to think of certain things we would change about our school system if given the opportunity. I chose security because, at the time, security in my school wasn't perfect, and I felt unsafe. I knew that I wasn't the only student feeling this way and wanted to convey my important message through my essay. The research that went into this took a while because I had to search many sources to find information to back up my solutions. I struggled to put together my essay during the writing process because this was my first experience with writing a proposal paper, and before this, I hadn't used other writing styles. With help from my English professor and classmates, I overcame this and finished the essay on time. Going back through my work now and seeing it is a huge accomplishment because now I can see how much I've currently improved from when I wrote this essay. Writing is an essential part of my future adult life because I will still need it when I go to University and apply to medical school. It is something that I will always strive to improve and become better at!
Goals:
My first goal was to write a full APA proposal paper with an abstract. Before coming to ENG-112, I was unfamiliar with an abstract, and when we had to format one, I had no idea what I was doing. With help from my English professor and many peer critiques, I accomplished this and completed the paper.
Another goal of mine was to convey my idea to the reader. In ENG-111, I was all over the place when it came to writing about my topics. Writing the proposal produced me thinking about what information I would be required to piece together to allow my essay to flow smoothly. For the proposal, I had to utilize other sources instead of regular websites. This factor allowed me to uncover specific facts to support my topic in my essay.
Overall, I accomplished my goals, and I am glad because it has allowed me to set more goals for myself in the future. Every time I go back to look through paragraphs I have formulated, it makes me happy to see a grammatical mistake because that means I know more now to see the errors popping out.
ORAL COMMUNICATION
"The learner will exchange ideas and information with others using the spoken word in a manner effective and appropriate for the intended audience."
I have chosen to use my oral speech on "The ban of animal testing" for my communication artifact. The reasoning behind that was this topic was critical to me. I was able to talk about something that I was passionate about, which is a crucial factor in giving speeches. Throughout this speech, I used emotion with my words to create a perfect picture of where animal testing does not exist. Compared to my other oral assignments, this one had more power and influence over my audience. During the drafting part of the speech, I realized that verbal communication involves way more than just speaking. It needs to have body language, emotion, and visuals. Before this speech, I had thought that communication didn't take much, but I was wrong.
The purpose of this speech was to persuade the audience to choose a side when it comes to animal testing/cruelty. From my standpoint, I was obviously against it, so I went from a place of trying to convince my audience what needed to be done to fix a problem in our world. Having direct quotes and research from other professionals made my speech credible and accurate. During the research portion of the outline process, I used many resources from the library database. The resources involved journals, interviews, surveys, and direct quotes from several professionals. All of this aided in presenting my case and giving my audience the solution to a growing problem.
Throughout the speech, I stated the problem, gave the solution, and how it affected me and the audience. I used credible information to support my claims to the audience and provided the solution supporting evidence. This speech showcased my communication skills as a student.
Goals:
My first goal was to be able to speak for the required amount of time during the speech. I had struggled with previous lectures and would either talk too long or talk too little. With this speech, I fit the time limit perfectly. Although easier said than done, it took many days of memorization and practicing over zoom calls with friends to capture the speech time down. I made sure during my speech to attempt to talk slower instead of sounding nervous and talking fast. I also had to make sure I wasn't skipping any information, so there would be enough information to discuss.
My second goal for this speech was to use more eye contact with the audience. This goal was tough for me because usually, it's easier to focus on the wall due to nervousness. I struggled with this greatly during my speeches, and for this speech, you could see my eyes trailing off-camera many times. Although I almost met my goal, I cannot say I did it with 100% accuracy. This goal is something that I will need to work on and harden as a skill in public speaking.
Overall I almost met both goals, but this shows I am not perfect and am willing to become better. This subject matter was very personal to me because I own several animals, and it pains me to know that their others are being hurt somewhere out. This topic encouraged me to start eating more plant-based foods and cut red meat out of my diet. I was able to persuade people to choose cruelty-free items and provide them with knowledge about animal testing.
INTERCULTURAL COMPETENCE
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"The learner will demonstrate cultural awareness and objectivity through critical reflection."
For intercultural competence, I chose my artifact to be my Thanksgiving project from HIS-131. I chose this artifact partly because it was one of my only projects from this class that was more detailed in its work. I had a lot of fun working on this project because the research portion gave me many interesting historical facts. I went down several rabbit holes due to similar topics for my project. It was fun learning about all the different Thanksgiving foods and how different it was back then. For example, we typically think Thanksgiving involves pumpkin pie and roasted turkey, but the pilgrims had foods such as shellfish and stewed pumpkin on their tables. I used to believe that pilgrims had similar food on Thanksgiving as we do today, and I was wrong about that. In my project, I also included a recipe for making the stewed pumpkin that the pilgrims ate. Of course, now my knowledge of pilgrims and other cultures has increased, but at the time of this project, I was able to learn new things about these topics. I'm glad I got the opportunity to do a fun project that led me to research the issue. Cultural awareness is a critical topic because America is a melting pot of many different cultures. Learning about how other cultures live and practice in their lives allows us to understand our peers better and enable us to have a deeper connection. This is a topic that I will be using in my future because, as a first-generation college student from immigrants, I know how important it is to understand and respect other people's roots and practices.
Goals:
For my first goal, I wanted to be more aware of what people ate in earlier periods. There was a vast difference in what I thought I knew versus the facts. It was nice to learn more about the pilgrims and what their diet consisted of.
For my second goal, I wanted to learn more about the pilgrims and see if I could find different information to showcase to my classmates. I had wanted them to learn something new and enjoy it.
Overall, I met the goals that I set for myself on this topic. I thought I knew everything already about the pilgrims, but through my research, I was able to learn more about the foods and new information I hadn't learned in school. Through this project, I was glad I was able to show such a known topic to students but have further information they weren't aware of before.
INFORMATION LITERACY
"The learner will locate, identify, evaluate, use, and disseminate information ethically and responsibly."
For information literacy, I chose my artifact to be my persuasive speech bibliography from COM-231. The reasoning behind this was because it's one of the best works from my time in COM-231. We had to find five credible sources for the bibliography and then summarize one hundred words or more. I ended up with seven sources from the library database, ranging from interviews with scientists to graphs of people's opinions. I worked pretty hard in drafting together my bibliography and looking for credible information. Before the persuasive one, my bibliography from my speech hadn't gone great, so I wanted to surpass that and earn one hundred percent. I was able to accomplish an A for both my speech and bibliography. It wasn't easy because I put a lot of time into making sure my bibliography was to my professor's standards. I used my speech book to help myself correct previous mistakes, and I had my other bibliography out for comparison on what not to do. I'm glad all my efforts were rewarded in the end! Information literacy is another important topic I will apply to my future. It's essential to be able to use and evaluate the information for any subject. This will be something that I will need for my future career as a doctor.
Goals:
For my first goal, I wanted only to include credible and reliable sources. I was able to accomplish this by using the database and having several books/journals as resources.
For my second goal, I needed to have enough information to support my speech. I reached my goal by having several sources and more than enough information to speak about.
Overall I met my goals within this topic. I learned from my past experiences in writing bibliographies, and I'm glad I got better at it. I hope that it will continue pushing me to become better and better because I will need the skills for college and my future career!