Reflection

I included two projects from our class in this portfolio. Both of these pieces are still undergoing revision. I chose these two projects because they were the ones I am most proud of.   I would like to bring attention to Project 2: The Magazine Profile titled The Feline Community’s Heroes. For this project, I revised the "References" page, per the professor's recommendation,  and added in a missing citation for two interviews I conducted in October 2025.  I chose to revise this project to fit into my portfolio because part of my job responsibilities during the internship I applied to for next summer is to create a magazine. I will be working on Nomadic Noles, FSU’s magazine for Editing, Writing, and Media students studying in Valencia during the summer. In this magazine, students write about their experiences abroad, focusing specifically on a particular community. While studying abroad next summer, I would like to write about a similar topic as that of my ENC3416 magazine profile project. 

For The Feline Community’s Heroes, I interviewed the staff of local animal shelters. I had to record, transcribe, and edit these interviews into the magazine. I see myself utilizing these skills during my summer internship as well. I am currently satisfied with the work samples I have chosen for this EPortfolio, because they illustrate my writing and design capabilities. It is a fitting representation of the skills I need for my internship with the Editing, Writing, and Media team in Valencia. If I were to use this portfolio for an internship in a less creative field, such as for a policy analysis internship, I would include more International Affairs policy memo writing samples to better match what the recruiters are looking for in a candidate. I would also use more neutral shades to match the more formal and monotone visual style preferred in the field.

In addition to the magazine project for Writing and Editing in Print and Online, I included another magazine I created for my Rhetoric class. This helps show my versatility in magazine design and my ability to work with different styles and topics. This second magazine is a reimagined version of Sabrina Carpenter’s album Man’s Best Friend. I created The Feline Community’s Heroes in Adobe InDesign and the reimagined album magazine in Canva to show that I can work in both platforms, even though I preferred Adobe InDesign.

Although I am happy with the samples I have included, I would like to add more editorial work in the future to better align with the internship I plan to complete this summer. Many of my creative works are still in progress because I recently joined the EWM major. However, I am proud of the analytical strengths shown in my policy memo on globalization for INS3003, which adds range to this collection.

As for the design process of this portfolio, I made sure to follow the CARP principles of design. When I first created the site, it had an all-pink background with white text. After receiving feedback from my peers, I realized that the contrast between the font and the background was too low, which made the body text harder to read. For this reason, I revised the design and switched to a white background with black text, along with a sans serif font for the body text to improve readability.

I also redesigned the “My Works” page to better follow the alignment principle. I arranged the projects into two evenly spaced columns so the layout feels cleaner and more organized. For accessibility, I tried to make navigation as simple as possible by including large wax seal buttons at the bottom of each page. Their size makes them easy to click. I also added short captions for each work on the “My Work” page to help viewers understand what each project is about at a glance.

Looking back at this portfolio as a whole, the only thing I would have done differently is pay closer attention to the CARP and POUR principles from the very beginning of the design process. Applying these concepts earlier would have saved time and allowed me to build a more accessible and organized layout from the start. Moving forward, I plan to keep both sets of principles in mind for future projects so that my work is both visually effective and accessible to a wider audience.