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At the start of this year, I took a technical writing class that completely changed my skill set. I thought I could never code, never work with these things, or even learn them. Through hard work and Ms Johnson’s class, I could not only do the basics but excel beyond that.
Through the course, I learned many elaborate methods and ways to use the markdown coding language. As a writer myself, I find the language very intuitive and powerful. It was written by writers and for writers, it feels like, and thanks to it, I can bring my documents to web pages in a much more presentable format than just offering people Word documents and the like. I now have tangible means to present documents to people without the need for documents at all, aside from myself for the means of storage… for now.
The class itself was a little rough as I went from zero coding knowledge to realizing that I already knew some aspects of Markdown. I use applications like Discord and other online means of communication and Markdown uses various versions of those applications in its own language. So I was shocked to find that using stars to enclose text would actually do something markdown! It wasn’t exactly the same as Discord but it was a starting point. Once I understood that, I would only go on from there.
Even so, while many things were very helpful in the class, I feel there were a lot of things that could have been said that weren’t. There were many moments where I would spend a long period of time trying to figure something out or even wonder if something was outright possible. In the end, I would get those answers and I’m glad I was able to find them. At the moment, however, they were frustrating. Tests of character, for sure.
Thanks to this course, my life goals have skyrocketed. Markdown and Github Pages allow you to essentially create free websites. In today’s day and age, that’s a game changer. Finally, without a massive issue or free, in the future, I can and will make my own website to make me stand out amongst the crowd. Moreover, I can now highlight direct projects as work for people to look at and see what I’ve done in my time as a writer rather than just have things as documents. I can shock and awe like the intent was, for example, with my large scale manual project in the course.
The idea behind my manual was a simple, perfect opportunity. Shadow Corridor 2 is a video game I enjoy. However, whenever I look up information on it, none can be found or exists. That’s because most of its audience is Japanese. By creating an English website for users to use in the future, I could change the entire landscape for this game’s community going forward. I will do so, in fact. Or at least be a noted part of its history.
With that, I can use it forever as an example of “what I’m capable of.” Showing potential employers what I can achieve in a mere two weeks. If people need a “manual”/guide-making guy, I’m that guy. For any technical documents, in fact, I can and will be that guy. All of it, in large part, is due to this class.
Rather than a traditional essay format, frame this as an “about me” or “self-evaluation” page on your digital portfolio website, focusing, of course, on your most recent graduate course and what you learned in it. Be sure to thoroughly and honestly address the three bulleted questions above. Actually posting this to your digital portfolio site is optional.
Grammarly was used to assist in the spelling and grammar of this assignment.