Artifact Reflection-Pillar 1 Pillar one that demonstrates a learning outcome for the Carroll University Communications major is a piece

that must show an understanding of the theories and principles of human communication that will facilitate their professional and personal effectiveness. After much reflection, I chose an essay I wrote for COM370 to represent this learning outcome. COM370 is Communication Technology and Society and was one of my favorite classes that I took in the department. Due to the essays content and writing style, I feel that my 1984 Reflective Essay best showcases my learning and achievement at understanding communication for the first pillar. COM370 was offered in the spring of 2013, my junior year of college. I decided to take it because I have a passion for learning how todays technologies influence the communication style. In the internship I held over the course of my junior year, I learned that technology is everything when it comes to the area of Public Relations (the field I would like to enter after I earn my degree). I was curious to see how this idea that technology controls communication was studied from an academic perspective. The course covered many topics on how technology affects communication in the world we live in today. Over the semester we read the novel 1984 by George Orwell. Our assignment was to compose an essay tying in the novel with class concepts. After re-reading this essay, I realize it is the perfect example of the first learning outcome in the Communication department. A main principle of communication is that it is a two-way process that can be transmitted or received through a variety of channels. COM370 applied many recent channels (cell phones, social media, internet, etc.) to study how it affects the two-way process between individuals. In regards to technology, I learned that it has the power to deceive people communicatively.

Modern communication practices make it easier for people to miscommunicate their identity and persuade them to see things as they really arent. I used deception as my theme in the essay. It compared the 1984 novel with the deception that can be encountered in online dating. I also included a real life event in which I had been deceived in a communication context. COM370 taught me that learning how to use todays technology is essential in the professional world of communications. The reflection I wrote for the class ties in an academic reading along with my personal views, allowing myself to better my professional and personal effectiveness. The topic of deception in the essay also allowed me to realize that it is always important to communicate honestly, so that no deception occurs. This is something I will carry with me in my professional and personal phases of life. If I wrote this paper now, I would try to add in more examples from the book and from my in-class learning. I would avoid adding in as much personal detail because looking back it may have deterred from my original intent of the essay. Since I first completed this essay, I have grown in understanding the balance between personalizing your thoughts and backing them up with academic research. Ive realized that ideas are great, but research adds credibility and proof, only strengthening your argument and ideas. This will help me a great deal in the future, as I continue to now look for textual evidence when thinking of points to argue. Understanding technology is also a concept I will take with me, as being aware of how technology works is crucial in the area that interests me most. Finally, I will know to not deceive people when communicating, because it could lead to consequences that you never knew existed in the first place.