The Value of a Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communications Employee

My WRTC Experience

Any university student can major in English or Digital Media, but not every student can major in WRTC (Writing, Rhetoric, and Technical Communications). WRTC is the best of both, and more. I acquired skills in interviewing, research, design, website building, prototyping, writing, editing, collaboration, and digital media. Based on my experiences from the following WRTC projects, my WRTC background would be a great asset to your company as a UX Writer or Content Designer.

Autoethnograhic Paper

My first WRTC project was an auto-ethnographic paper based on my experiences with a family member diagnosed with cancer during the pandemic. For the project, I learned qualitative research methods. I recorded observations of my family’s experiences and my emotional reactions. Also, I interviewed three of my relatives: my mom, grandmother, and great-aunt. After my interviews, I replayed them and transcribed intriguing quotes. During the writing process, I pulled on my creative writing toolset to incorporate engaging scenes and spice up information to entice my audience. 

Future of Learning Prototype

For my practicum class, I worked with a multidisciplinary team of students with diverse backgrounds and majors. Our professors tasked us with researching experiential learning at the college level. First, we brainstormed concepts about experiential learning we could ask employers and then composed a list of protentional interview candidates. Then, we divided the candidates between a pair of interviewers: a questioner and a recorder; we switched roles for each interview. We also read research articles on our topic. Afterwards, we constructed possible scenarios for how JMU could incorporate experiential learning in the future. When we finalized our best scenario, we uploaded our content to our class’s WordPress site and presented it to JMU’s Board of Directors.

UX & Content Design Website

For my independent studies class, I created a website about user experience (UX) and content design. I read four books from O’Reilly and wrote notes in the One Note app. Afterward, I wrote mini essays on my top five take away from the books. I drew wireframes on my website ideas and then created them using the Divi builder on WordPress. Besides written content, I added Divi icons, and interactive buttons, photos from creative commons. The project expanded my knowledge about user experience and content strategy. Also, I improved my WordPress skills.

Business Community Project

This project challenged me to search my community for a local business with a need my skillsets could deliver. A small, family-owned business called Scotty’s Homemade Italian Ice desperately required assistance with its website. The project taught me how to communicate with a client on a live product. I researched how to fix the technical bugs their website experienced. Also, I updated their website to appear more professional.

UX/ UI Internship

As a major requirement, I worked as a UI/UX intern at ASM Research this past summer. The internship taught me how a UI/UX team functions in a business. I worked on several projects, including writing an instruction manual, generating AI audio, updating documents in InDesign, updating prototypes in Adobe XD, editing tutorial videos, and storyboarding video ideas. Additionally, I learned Agile work principles, and how to run a scrum and sprint meeting. The internship provided me with work experience as a UX/UI Designer.