Skills that are developed through writing and communication help us to understand and effectively share our thoughts with those around us. The School of Interdisciplinary Arts & Sciences has provided students with the opportunity to articulate their ideas and works to colleagues as a way to build these skills through different contexts. Without these skills of writing clearly and communicating adequately, we would not be able to collaborate our ideas with others.   

 

The first artifact chosen for the goals and development of this portfolio is “Presentation: Women in Rap” from the course BIS 235: Critical Media Literacy. This artifact is a collaborative project that speaks to issues in media studies that revolve around the portrayal of women within rap culutre. For this project, I had to collaboratively share my thoughts and ideas with three other group members in front of an audience who had little to no previous knowledge of this subject matter. For this presentation to be received efficiently, we had to create content that was clear and concise, as to keep the audience engaged. In order to do this, we created slides that contained background information and also included visual aids in order to highlight the most important aspects of the presentation as a whole. I was able to synthesize the research with my own thoughts and ideas in order to effectively communicate these messages with my audience. This project also helped me to develop skills of communication in a way that was different than a written paper because I had to relay information in real time, which is a vital skill to have for real world experiences.

​

The second artifact chosen for this portfolio is “Public Service Announcement: I Suck”, from the course BISMCS 240: Working with Video. This is a video-based project that aims to bring awareness to the issues of plastic waste and climate justice around the globe. Within the requirements, we had to to accurately and insightfully urge the viewers to take interest in the video content in less than a few minutes. I wanted to spark a sense of empathy from the audience so that my own thoughts and ideas surrounding these issues of climate and environmental change would be understood and even adapted. In attempt to do so, I incorporated the element of humor as an attention grabber, then proceeded to insight emotion by using images and quotes from climate organizations as evidence to support my ideas. Since this project was very challenging and time consuming, I felt a sense of reward during the final presentation. I gained a new perspective of how to share my thoughts and ideas through a new and different medium of communication.  

  

Both artifacts effectively show the different ways I was able to develop the skills of writing and communication within the School of IAS. Although the two artifacts display ways of communicating that are different from one another, they both cohesively portray how we are able to articulate with one another in ways that go beyond pen and paper, which is a very important skill to obtain in all areas of life.  

​