1. In what ways do you think you improved your professional presence after completing the ePortfolio?
I think the best way that I improved my professional presence through my ePortfolio was by finally curating an editorial section on my website. Since I am hoping to start a career in editing, I found it important to have a section in my ePortfolio for that kind of work. My course projects are excellent writing samples, but they don't do much to show my competency in editing. Now, I can at least direct viewers to my editing examples efficiently to demonstrate the professional experience I have in copyediting.
2. Identify and explain what you like most about your ePortfolio.
I love that my ePortfolio leans more towards maximalism than minimalism at times in its design concept. While I made sure to keep my ePorfolio looking clean and easy to navigate, I wanted its aesthetics to match my personality. I don't like the idea that professional must equal plain or boring. I think the fact that my ePortfolio reflects my likes and interests through its color palette, pictures, and themed pages is a wonderful representation of myself for employers. It shows them that I know how to balance the fun-loving, exciting, and bright parts of me with the more restrained, professional side of me to create something that is both practical and engaging.
3. Identify the most challenging aspect of the ePortfolio.
I think the biggest challenge of the ePortfolio this semester was deciding what to revise. I was really content with the layout of my ePortfolio before starting this class, and struggled to find places in my portfolio where I wanted to apply big changes. However, I think the choices I did make elevated my ePortfolio to new heights. The biggest change I made was adding moving images to a majority of my website's pages. While it was a long process to decide which images fit my theme but weren't too overwhelming, it was worth the struggle in the end. I'm glad this class pushed me to think outside of the box of how I could revise my website because now I have a product that I'm abundantly more proud to show off to others.
4. What advice would you give future students about the ePortfolio?
The best advice I can give to future students about the ePortfolio is to take your time curating the look of your portfolio. It's a lot of work to build a website from scratch, but a large part of your online engagement and success will be determined by how well you present yourself in this digital space. Think of it as self-branding. What do you want people to think about you and your skills when they see your portfolio's design? What does your color palette say about you? How does an easily navigable website reflect your skills as a worker in the digital age?
Every document design choice you make says something about you as a professional, so make sure your choices are intentional and reflect who you really are.
Plus, if you create a website that you genuinely like and feel happy looking at, the processing of updating it with new work will be something you look forward to, not something you dread for a grade. The more personalized it is, the more fun it is to update and work on.
5. What component of this course was most interesting to you?
I found the module on "Space and Territoriality" to be most intriguing. Specifically, I liked learning the categorizations for the ways that we establish territory in our daily lives and how much control we have over establishing territory based on our environment. I also liked learning the names of the ways we indicate whether we want or do not want others to encroach on our space and how we compensate for negative encroachments. It was interesting to see how all of these aspects correlated with environment, gender, individual personality, and more.
6. What did you learn from the Popular Press Analysis?
My Popular Press Analysis reinforced in me the ways that women have to work harder in the workplace to assert themselves but also conform to office norms. It made me aware that even the smallest of nonverbal decisions can have an impact on my influence and respect level in a workplace. While I do not believe that certain biased assumptions of nonverbal behavior should continue, it is important to be aware that the professional world has high demands on behavior, and it's generally best to conform to those demands in order to succeed.
7. How do you think this course could benefit you in your chosen career?
I think as I gain more experience in diverse professional atmospheres through new work opportunities, the skills I've learned in this class will really shine through. Nonverbal communication plays a major role in making sure that communication of any kind is being conveyed clearly and effectively. Not having, not understanding, and not recognizing nonverbal cues can lead to a lot of miscommunication, or even tension, which can have adverse effects in the workplace. While my intended career field, copyediting, will most likely not have me interacting with many people directly, being aware of nonverbal communication in online spaces is also important.
Whether in person or online, I need to be able to pick up if someone working with or under me is struggling, under pressure, or frustrated before proceeding with my corrections for them.
Being aware of others' nonverbal cues and my own nonverbal behavior can help me to facilitate a comfortable work atmosphere and strong relationships with my coworkers and subordinates. If I'm being conscious of their nonverbal needs, they will be conscious of mine and most likely feel more comfortable to voice their needs to be directly, limiting the amount of miscommunication or passive-aggressiveness that occurs between us.
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