OBJECTIVE: IAS students develop their writing and communication abilities by articulating significant purposes for their work, and gaining an awareness of its audiences and contexts.  They learn to communicate those purposes effectively to audiences through writing, presentations, and other media, and to use a range of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative, to support their arguments.  As part of this process, they develop the ability to identify and refer to other work clearly.  As part of the development of reflective practice, students learn how to improve their writing and communication by collecting and reflecting on evidence of its reception by others. have three artifacts from my undergraduate that exemplify the writing & communication skills I've learned here under IAS. What it means to write and communicate effectively is to properly engage in the subject and the targeted audience. One should be able to provide evidence to support their claims for argumentation, persuasion, or to be informative. Or one should be well versed in what they are discussing and grab the attention of the reader/audience if that's in the form of an essay, presentation, or digital media. I in particular have been working with communicating my thoughts and experiences centering on my interests of social politics and poetry. 

 

        In my blog titled, “Fashion and Social Justice”, I use my writing and communication skills to talk about a very specific issue in the fashion industry. Talking about fashion requires one to study design elements and concepts about the clothing/show. But I wanted to elevate the discussion by focusing on how certain visuals from these prestigious brands are not always beautiful and can be problematic. For my blog, I decided to pick out controversial moments in high fashion that have been accused of cultural appropriation, racist imagery, and stereotypes. I wanted to articulate why certain visuals are offensive to a particular culture or group of people, so that marginalized voices are centered. I wanted to communicate a learning lesson for many readers to see that high fashion play a huge role in popular culture and as viewers we should call them out in the name of social justice because it’s not appropriate for brands to exploit communities for the sake of fashion.    

 

        My collaborative chapbook, Unravel: My Asian American Identity, is a collection of poems written by myself and my partner. By the title, we wanted to center our voices and experiences as Asian Americans. This chapbook discusses the negative parts of our journey such as racism and cultural difference we’ve had to endure as children and students. We wanted to communicate our story to the many Asians that may have similar feelings as us and also to bring awareness to the issues we’ve collectively had to deal with. In this chapbook, it was important that we were both specific and vague enough for people to align themselves with us but also making sure we told our own experiences as individuals. This was an opportunity for us to connect with one another through poetry. 

 

        In my chapbook, MATTER, I felt it was important to write about myself as my undergraduate comes to an end. This was an opportunity to stray away from academic writing and subjects. My goal was to focus on being personal with my audience and allow them to identify with my emotions. I had the theme of internal struggle and anxiety but moving towards growth and healing. It was a challenge because my writing style engages in specific imagery but still having the scene be open enough for people to relate. My writing caters to tangents and abstract visions for readers to be engulfed by the experience but also getting to pick out moments that they see themselves in or enjoy. I learned how to be vulnerable through words and to write in an effective way that didn’t rely on clichés but to actually delve into the subject matter in an authentic way.