Professional Writing
Cincinnati Children's Drug and Poison Information Center, DPICtions Summer 2022
Volunteer Editing Position
Summary: The majority of my volunteer work with Cincinnati Children's Drug and Poison Information Center (DPIC) consisted of working on their quarterly newsletter, DPICtions. I have written and edited articles for the newsletter since October 2020. For the Summer 2022 DPICtions issue, I authored the entire newsletter myself. I also copyedited the newsletter and got feedback from poison control specialists to ensure I was displaying the information accurately. For this project, I was given previous blog posts, articles, infographics, and other resources that the poison center wanted to include in this issue. Using these materials, I synthesized the information into digestible articles for public consumption. I created the newsletter using Google Slides and Microsoft Publisher. I chose to include this document in my ePortfolio because it shows my experience in creating accessible public content and gives a sample of my writing, editing, and design style.
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Reflection: I have found my experience working with DPIC on their newsletters to be incredibly valuable. I was excited that I could author and organize the entire Summer 2022 newsletter on my own. By building trust with the organization, I was able to have more agency over my work on the newsletter, which helped me to gain experience in thinking critically about what would best serve the center's target audience. It was also helpful to have additional experience working with subject matter experts to ensure all information displayed was accurate. This project also allowed me to gain valuable experience in project management and hitting deadlines.
Click on the button to view a downloadable version of the DPICtions 2022 Issue or view the PDF file to the right.
How to Blur the Background of an Image in Adobe Photoshop
Technical and Scientific Writing Coursework
Summary: I created this set of instructions as a part of my Technical and Scientific Writing course. For this assignment, I created a clear and concise set of instructions for a task related to my field of study; I chose to write about how the blur the background of a photo in Adobe Photoshop. The purpose of this assignment was to gain experience in writing useful instructions and to strengthen my technical writing skills. This assignment also included a transmittal memo and a basic usability survey, which helped expose me to even more aspects of technical writing. For the transmittal memo, I was tasked with writing a short message that would have likely been sent via email to accompany the set of instructions. After creating the first draft of my instructions, I conducted a basic usability survey where I had a peer use my instructions and give feedback on areas of growth and areas of success. I chose to include this document in my ePortfolio because it gives an example of my technical writing skills and shows how I can take user-feedback into consideration to create a useable document.
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Reflection: Through this assignment, I gained additional experience of writing user-centered documents. My previous experience with technical and professional writing pertained to longer documents such as rhetoric analyses or newsletters, so this assignment was something entirely new to me. I found the process of writing these instructions to be valuable both in my understanding of the skill I was writing about and in thinking critically about offering the reader the best and most concise document possible. In addition, this experience will be beneficial for future career prospects because documents such as instructions, processes, or manuals, are very relevant to the current technical writing landscape and are valuable in nearly every position and industry.
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Click on the button to view a downloadable version of my Photoshop Instructions or view the PDF file to the right.
Fairtrade Coffee Proposal
Technical and Scientific Writing Coursework
Summary: I wrote this proposal for the University of Cincinnati's transition to selling only Fairtrade coffee as a part of my Technical and Scientific Writing course. For this assignment, I was tasked with thinking of a new initiative for UC Sustainability and creating a formal unsolicited proposal to explain and convince the committee of the importance of this initiative. I chose to propose that UC transition all campus coffee to Fairtrade coffee through a phased introduction of Fairtrade products with community involvement as the central pillar of the initiative. The purpose of the assignment was to gain experience writing technically and persuasively, and to gain additional exposure to a new type of technical writing. I chose to include this document in my ePortfolio because it highlights my persuasive and professional writing skills. The assignment also shows my proficiency in research and synthesis of information as well as my mastery of memo formatting and organization.
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Reflection: I enjoyed writing and researching this assignment as it gave me the opportunity to dive deeply into an environmental initiative. As someone who is interested in working in environmental writing and nonprofits, this assignment was incredibly valuable in my growth of understanding the logistics of creating a campaign to propel sustainability initiatives. This assignment was initially intimidating as I had never taken on a project like this before, but, through conducting this assignment in stages of research, planning, organizing, and writing, I feel proud of the proposal I created.
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Click on the button to view a downloadable version of my Fairtrade Coffee Proposal or view the PDF file to the right.
UC Center for Field Studies Welcome Sign
Marketing and Communications Internship
Summary: In my Marketing and Communications Internship with the UC Center for Field Studies, I was in charge of creating both digital and print materials for the center. This included updating the welcome sign at the center to better reflect the center’s mission and increase focus on student and community involvement. This project was exciting because I had not had much experience being able to create print materials for an organization. For this project, I used Canva to design the sign, which was then printed and hung at the center’s entrance. I used the center’s updated website as a guide for the content and design of the sign to create a cohesive image between print and digital materials. I chose to include this document in my ePortfolio as it showcases my professional writing skills as well as my ability to write for parks and educational institutions.
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Reflection: Since I primarily worked on digital materials in my capstone project for the center, I was excited to be able to contribute to their physical space by creating a new welcome sign for them. At first this project was slightly daunting because I was tasked with concisely summing up what the center is in one sign that would be seen by anyone who visits, but after breaking down the sign into the sections of “Who We Are” and “What We Do,” I was able to gain a distinct focus for what I wanted the sign to contain. I found this experience to be incredibly valuable in expanding my professional writing skillset and I am proud to be able to have my content be seen by so many who visit the center. This project allowed me to gain additional experience in writing succinctly for a wide audience and in designing aesthetically pleasing and easy-to-understand documents.
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Click on the button to view a downloadable version of the UC Center for Field Studies Welcome Sign or view the PDF file to the right.