METACOGNITIVE STATEMENT

Hello, my name is Lonnie R Begaye, and I am a student completing the MSTC Program at Arizona State University in May of 2024. I’ve been part of the program since August of 2022, and have learned a great deal of skills and information in becoming an efficient technical communicator in my field as a Film Producer/Director, Project manager, Content creator, and as an Audio/Visual Production Specialist. Many of the skills I’ve learned in the program were regarding my career in working with local organizations, small businesses, federal entities in need of visual communicative documents. Valuable skills that I’ve attained knowledge for are methods of visualizing data & information for a target audience, strategizing content for an intended audience with the ability to convert user experiences regarding to a website and applying those methods upon websites I work with. I intend on using these skills and tools into my field as a content creator and audio/visual production specialist soon!

Before learning of these skills and tools to apply to my current profession, what I’ve noticed as I progressed through the program was a few of the courses served as a great reminder of a few skills learned in the film and media industry. I do have my own production company in the form of an LLC, and what struck my interest to begin my journey in the MSTC program were areas of content strategy, data & visualizing information, grant proposals, and learning the fundamentals of web authoring. Though these courses were the focus of my interest in the program, other courses such as learning visual communication, project management, copyright & intellectual property, and learning the fundamentals of technical communication provided a clear understanding of how a professional technical communicator helps in social workplace environments. In learning the four goals of the technical communication program, I grew to understand the areas of:

-          Rhetorical Knowledge

-          Critical thinking, analysis, and research

-          Practices and Processes

-          Technology

These four areas of becoming efficient as a professional technical communicator in my field of work allowed my growth in implementing new perspective, techniques, and methods of conducting research for real world communication. What I found most valuable in learning these four key areas of the program was the ability to apply these practices into projects most sincere and passionate to my community.

By learning methods of research, whether qualitative or quantitative, the program allowed the practice and efforts to make each project worth critiquing and analyzing. In my case, I wanted to implement data & information close to home with the purpose of designing information beyond my current workspace. Which is also a great outcome in the program’s goal to demonstrate effective methods of receiving peer reviews to enhance project outcomes in the case these projects move beyond the program.

In the time of my presence in the program, a lot of practice, writing, and adapting information to be visually and technically informational was well placed into my current practices as a technical communicator.