According to the Collaborative Health and Human Services learning outcomes when I learn full competence of Professional Communication I will be able to :
“Demonstrate the ability to develop and maintain a flow of information between sender(s) and receiver(s) through use of critical listening skills and oral and written communication; ability to communicate both basic and complex ideas to a variety of groups; demonstrates an appreciation of the organizational and cultural context within which the communication will occur; and can conduct professional quality oral and electronic presentations”.(CSUMB Department of Health and Human Services and Public Policy, 2010)
In Fall 2013, I took a CHHS 302: Professional Communication. In this course I was taught how to polish my writing skills for the Human Services field. I created an executive summary based off an advocacy report and a letter of appeal also relating to the advocacy report. I learned about audiences and appeals that might help get my point across. This I found useful many times throughout my academic career. I was constantly asking myself “Other than my professor who might be able to read this? Am I missing details that would help inform my readers?” This applies to my career field, because I might be asked to create documents that are not only going to be read by my supervisor. I might be creating documents that involve grant writing or court reports that need to be clear and precise. Information needs to be discussed more than one way in order to get a message across. This class taught me the effectiveness of visual rhetoric and how a reader might be swayed to a certain perspective with the right combination of ethos, pathos and logos. Attached are documents of the written portion of the class, and the following link shows the visual rhetoric for the project. http://beatrizpenilla.wordpress.com/
Some documents show graphic depictions of Female Genital Mutilation in Africa.
These samples of work taught me that the power of the word can make a large effect of the cause it is trying to champion for. Many agencies will have different types of forms to fill out or reports to submit. The editing and drafting process is now more natural to me than it was prior to this class.
Beatriz Penilla's Professional Portfolio 