Digital Writing made me a stronger writer in ways that I did not expect going into the class. I was not entirely sure what the class would entail, but I surely did not expect it to be so technical based. When we began the class discussing digital literacy and created the infographic, the class was on par with that I thought it would be. We were using digital tools to communicate with the audience in a way that is different than simply writing a paper. This assignment was interesting and creative. It was not until assignment 2 that I was completely thrown outside of my comfort zone.

Project 2, the technical document, was very difficult because we were forced to use a completely unfamiliar site that required a lot of technical markup language. This was initially very frustrating. However, with time and a great deal of help from Mr. Davis, we were able to learn the basics of GitHub. Discovering that there are so many free learning programs available online was interesting.

Finally, for project 3 we produced an entire report on usability. Before this project I had not thought much about the design of everyday objects such as doors. In addition, I did not realize how much planning goes into the layout of a website. For example, we learned that people tend to read over website pages in the shape of an “F” starting at the top and reading all the way over and progressively reading all the away across less as they go down the page. Now whenever I look at a website I will think more about its usability than I did before. From learning about usability I then turned that knowledge into recommendations as for Snapchat to redesign they layout in order to be more visually appealing.

Our semester long self-paced project was to complete a course on the Code Academy website. This assignment was very difficult at first, but taught me that coding is not as difficult as I thought. However, I do not think I will be pursuing a career in web design anytime soon. Learning some of the basics of coding made me realize how much goes into building a website.

All three projects this semester were very different, and taught us many different things. We learned just how much effort goes into making websites and applications that we use everyday. The coding and layout are designed to make the site more usable and thus more appealing to everyday people browsing the web. Digital Writing has taught me to be more mindful in layout and appreciate all of the factors that go into the making of a website or application. The Professional Writing minor has many different courses designed make students more well rounded writers. With only one semester left  in the Department of Writing and Rhetoric, I am confident that I will soon be a versatile writer equipped with tools necessary for the professional world.