Core Skills
Written Communication
The artifact I chose for written communication is something I wrote for my world religion class. The document is a good example of my writing skills and communication. The document is on my personal beliefs and that motivated me to really write my heart out and do my very best. My professor gave this assignment to get students to think about their own views. The assignment was to write about your religious personal views and brought attention to the fact that other people may have totally different views than you and it is important to respect that.
Writing can be a daunting task, especially when it comes to college-level essays. As a student at South Piedmont Community College, I have had the opportunity to hone my writing skills and develop my own skills through the assignments I was given.
This artifact is a small piece of my time at SPCC but pushes me forward in a big way. This assignment helped me learn about myself and put things in perspective. One thing I learned about myself is that I can type for hours on that sort of subject because it is such a big part of my life. This artifact pushed me closer to my goals by getting me closer to completing my associates degree.
Oral Communication
The artifact I chose for this topic is an informative speech I conducted in public speaking class last semester. In this speech, students were allowed to inform the class about anything with the teacher's approval of course. The topic I chose for this assignment was missing 411 cases. Missing 411 is the title of a book by David Paulides. The book talks about mysterious cases involving people going missing in U.S. national parks. I found the subject so interesting that I included 3 short stories in my speech having a time of 9 minutes and 58 seconds.
I chose this artifact because I think it was my best speech in that class and I had a lot of fun making it. I learned about a few things in this assignment. I learned how to improve my speech when in front of an audience. For example, I need to have a high enough speech volume for everyone to hear and be clear on what I am talking about so that no one is confused. In my future, I will eventually need these skills in my future goals when getting a job or getting married, this artifact will prove valuable to me. No matter what I have in store for my future or career, public speaking is incredibly important.
Writing speeches has been a valuable learning experience for me. Through my writing process, I have developed strategies to stay organized, find reliable sources, and create effective speeches. I am confident that these skills will help me succeed in my future academic and career goals.
Intercultural Competence
For this artifact, I chose an assignment I completed for my social diversity class this semester. The class had to choose a minority group in society and write about them and how we should respect them and recognize their different values. For me, I chose the Amish people because I have always had interest in them but this assignment put things in perspective because it motivated me to want to learn about this group of people that I do not know much about.
I chose this particular assignment because I feel like it is my best work in this subject and it was a lot of fun learning about this group and their traditions. In this artifact I learned a few things about the Amish. One thing that stuck out to me was the way the Amish dressed. When in public, they wear all black with the men and women having certain dress codes and similar hairstyles. This artifact takes me closer to my goal of graduation because it shows me other peoples traditions and beliefs to help me respect anyone who may have different values than I.
When we become aware of other cultures and values, we gain a better understanding of the perspectives of those around us. This can lead to more effective communication and collaboration, as we are better able to understand and respect the views of others. Additionally, by learning about other cultures, we can gain a greater appreciation for the diversity of the world and develop more empathy for those who may have different experiences than our own. Being aware of other cultures and values can lead to stronger relationships with those around us, as we are better able to understand and appreciate their perspectives.
Information literacy
I chose a very recent assignment for this artifact that I wrote for my history class this semester. I chose this artifact because I felt like it represented my skills in this subject well and I have a lot of information in this artifact. This assignment was a mid-term writing assignment for the middle of the semester. I was asked to chose two out of about 10 prompts and write one 4 page essay on each of the two prompts I chose. This assignment posed a few challenges. I have had difficulty finding reliable sources for my research. To overcome this challenge, I have learned to be more selective in my sources and to double-check the accuracy of the information I use.
I learned a ton from theses essays. I compared and contrasted the religious policies of the Ottoman and Mughal empires. I examined how the religious policies treated women and was actually surprised at how well women were treated especially when I consider how other people treated women in those days. I also learned about the succession to the throne, missionary activity, and treatment of non-Muslim minorities.
On the second prompt, I wrote about Napoleon and the arrival of the French revolution. Writing this had me doing a ton of research and one of the things I researched was how world changed in 1815 compared to 1789. There is a lot of information in this essay like how Napoleon influenced the French revolution and various other things in Europe.
Critical Thinking
I felt like this informative speech outline represents my critical thinking well. In class we had many many peer reviews of each other's outline so we could critique each other in order to improve our outlines until they were perfect. I felt like this represents my critical thinking skills well because a ton of thinking went into this speech along with lots of research and reading stories in order to memorize them for the speech.
There were many rules for making this outline and I think it showcases my listening skills and direction following skills as well. This assignment gave me great learning experiences like interacting with others to constructively criticize their work to help them improve.
I learned skills to create speeches in the future and I think that would be an awesome skill to have for future goals. This artifact represents one of the hardest classes at SPCC in my opinion because speaking in front of people is hard and intimidating but learning how to make outlines like these have made it a much easier pill to swallow.