I believe that through this course I have gained valuable insight into thoughtful communication throughout this course. I used to believe that writing was a medium in which information could pass. Its main purpose was to facilitate information, albeit in a variety of ways depending on genre, audience, and form. Writing was mostly used as an end. I saw the act of writing as a delivery of ideas. Its goal was to deliver my stream of consciousness to the audience. It was simply a way to move abstract thoughts into a physical manifestation.  Whereas today I see writing as a powerful tool that I may employ for a variety of different purposes. I see that it can have many different purposes for many different uses. Writing can be used to develop ideas, forcing you to think deeply and ponder the reasons why you hold such ideas. Writing can be used to reach others and communicate nuances that are hard to achieve in other mediums. In the Podcast artifact I learned that writing can be fluid and depend on the circumstance; The script of the episode would change in response to the queries of my teammates. In my video essay I learned how to give implicit definitions to the feelings I had when watching a scene. I learned to react and think deeper about the visuals presented before me, and that process showed me the beauty of screenwriting and analyzing the subtext of different mediums. The experience I've gained in this class changed my perception of writing. 

    For artifact one I produced a video essay. This work greatly changed my ideas about writing. As I was developing my script and storyboard, I realized how many different forms writing can take. The video had many different components that needed to be communicated through a variety of different mediums. Aurally I needed to direct the listeners ears with music and sound queues. I spoke clearly and evenly. The speaking on the video essay helped me hone my oral communication skills by giving me the opportunity to practice tone, pace, and mood in my voice. As far as the visual communication goes, I learned the importance of varying media in capturing an audience. I made sure to use images, videos, and animations in my video essay to grab the attention of my audience and to effectively communicate through the visual medium. I believe that these skills were strong in my artifact, however I think I had not developed my written skills enough. At times my rhetoric was supported weakly. The video essay suffers from being too broad. It doesn't develop ideas and support then to the fullest extent. After this project I took time to develop my writing skills in artifact 2 by elaborating on my ideas more thoroughly. 

    Through the video essay I experience the course goal of multimodality. I think the video essay allowed me to show my understanding of how the different mediums of communication can come together to make a work that is more engaging than the sum of its parts. The artifact also helped me understand the importance of multimodality in a video medium. The video essay would be worse off without the synthesis of each mode of communication. The video essay made me grow as a communicator through helping me understand the importance and omnipresence of writing and communication in modern works.

    The main product from artifact two was the writing describing my fictional utopia. This artifact helped me develop my written communication skills. The project forced me to consider the ramifications of each sentence and think how it affects the next and the previous. This gave me time to develop my ideas fully and in turn develop my arguments to support these ideas. This turned my prior weakness in written communication into a strength. I think artifact two greatly improved my written communication skills and allowed me to become a better writer. In order to keep developing my written communication I need to take my time to develop ideas. I think my visual communication suffered in this artifact. The creation of my technology did not help me improve my visual communication skills. It was a weakness, but luckily I don't think it was too detrimental. 

    This perfectly reflects the process learning objective. Proper drafting and creating processes allow the communicator time to flesh out underdeveloped parts of their rhetoric, and it can even help them improve their communication skills in other mediums. I think the process documents for artifact two illustrate proper process. I slowly draft my paper until I have clearly solidified the arguments supporting the thesis. Looking back, the visual component of this assignment suffered from my lack of use of the process concept. While I drafted the initial design, I unfortunately had to deviate from plans. I also did not plan enough time into my schedule to accommodate this problem. Had I followed proper drafting processes I think I could've improved the visual aspect of my project. The new futures project helped me develop my skills in written communication by giving me the proper foundation to develop my ideas of writing fully. 

    Through the podcast artifact I was able to hone my oral communication skills. The podcast allowed me to focus on communication through voice alone. It helped me develop control over my cadence and tone. Because a podcast is only consumed through listening, effective oral communication skills are far more necessary than in other mediums. I think I learned a lot about control over my voice from the podcast. Additionally I think the unique tone of my group's podcast helped me practice both my formal speaking skills and my more conversational attributes. One weakness of the podcast genre is the lack of nonverbal communication. I often found myself gesticulating when recording the audio. This helps me put emphasis on different parts of my speaking when presenting face to face, however during the podcast it would be impossible to notice.

    The podcast was the only group project I participated in this year. And that's what makes it a perfect idealization of the collaboration course outcome. My teammates heavily contributed to my communication during the podcast. We revised as a group to achieve tonal consistency. We helped each other link different segments together. We also needed to collaborate to make the important editing choices. This editing is the main source of style for the podcast; it gives the podcast a specific mood and helps us cater to our audience. Although at times I do think we could have used collaboration more. Initially all our separate parts where written individually. This led to slight differences in tone, subject matter, and diction. After group revision most of these inconsistencies went away, but I think it could have been valuable to write the whole podcast as a cohesive group.

    The course has provided me with many tools to improve my communication skills and become a better communicator. Dr. Rose has provided useful feedback so that I am always learning from past mistakes and constantly improving my skills as a writer and a reader. The work done in the class allowed me to get a better understanding of how I communicate, not just through writing but through many means of delivery. The artifacts allowed me to gain a better understanding of the complexities of communication and how to use different strategies to employ them.