What have I learned?

The semester is coming to a close. This is a time that I usually take for reflection on the past semester. What have I learned? How have I grown? What do I still need to continue to work on?

These are questions that we should not only ask ourselves about life in general, but they are questions that I should ask myself about my classes. What have I learned in Strategic Message Design? What have I learned about blogging that I can apply to the rest of my life as an individual and as a professional communicator? What other things have I learned about message design that I can use in the future?

I’ve learned a lot about what not to do, and what to do, especially in regards to social media and fashion.

I’ve looked into several different aspects of advertising, such as humor and visuals. I dug into the ways these factors can help, and sometimes hinder, and advertisement’s effectiveness and persuasiveness.

From traditional channels, to new media, I’ve learned how to interact with the public, write for others within a corporation, and speak as the voice of another person.

Coming into the class, I had very little interest in public relations. I thought this class was going to be about how to write advertisement messages. Now I can say that I am pleasantly surprised. I can definitely see myself pursuing some type of public relations career in my future, and now I know that if that is what I do, I have the skill set to allow me to do so.

So as I go on from this class, and continue to use this blog as a platform for discussing issues and ideas related to the field of communications, I first take a look back and acknowledge all of the new tools and skills that I have picked up throughout the course of this semester.

And I can now add “writing a reflection blog post” to my list of skills.