Writing and communicating clearly and effectively for specific audiences are essential in school, workplace and daily life. Besides academic performance, writing and communication abilities are about being professional, productive and building relationships. As an IAS student, one of my major learning objectives is to develop advanced writing and communication abilities by learning to communicate and express my purposes effectively to diverse audiences, using a wide range of evidence, both qualitative and quantitative. Being a Community Psychology student, I was given many valuable chances of writing and presentation to integrate knowledge across disciplines and contexts to address the significance of my research topic and communicate efficiently with the target audiences. Out of all my academic artifacts during my journey at UW Bothell, there are three examples that I believe would perfectly demonstrate my accomplishments in terms of writing and communication in academics.

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      The first piece is the Big Questions Reflection from my BIS270 Abnormal Psychology class instructed by Professor William E. Hartmann, in which after a group discussion session, I was tasked to provide my own understanding and interpretation of certain fundamental questions in the topic of abnormal psychology such as the nature of mental illness, the causes of mental illness (or where it comes from), and how can/should we respond to mental illness. I chose this piece for this section because it demonstrates my ability to understand, apply, and analyze an idea in the form of writing, and involves primarily my engagement with ways to use the ideas to think about examples, to analyze my own experiences, and to build my own thoughts and arguments. By completing this assignment, it states my attitude and belief towards mental illness, that is, mental illness is nothing to be scared and/or ashamed of, we need to keep in mind that mental illness is common and treatable. Just like other "physical diseases" such as cancer or COVID-19, mental illness affect everyone despite individuals' racial, social, and religious status. With proper intervention and treatment, professionals can help individual successfully manage their mental health conditions, perform daily functions, and achieve their personal goals.

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         The second one is the Critical Reflection Journal from my BIS255 Critical Diversity Studies class instructed by Professor Jason H. Morse, in which I was tasked to keep a critical reflection journal that involves reflections on the course readings that interest me the most by answering reflective questions throughout the quarter. I have mentioned this artifact for the Critical and Creative Thinking section; however, I believe it also demonstrates my abilities in Writing and Communication. I can’t really express enough the importance of reflection is to my learning process, in fact, I would argue there is no learning without reflection. This “Reflective practices” not only frames my engagement with the conceptual essays and graphic texts we read in the class in some way, but also it is an important way to come to an understating of new ideas and my own “take away” on them in order to develop resiliency, confidence, self-efficacy, self-worth, persistence and growth mindset through the process of writing. By completing this journal, I have had the valuable experience of reflecting in writing on my own intellectual journey as I made my way through the overdetermined stress and excitement of engaging social issues critically. I chose this piece in this section because it also shows the development and consistency, in the form of writing, in a long learning process and demonstrates the importance of reflection in such process.

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      The third artifact is the Persuasive Essay from my BIS364 Realities and Representations of Adolescent Development class instructed by Professor Wadiya A. Udell, in which I was tasked to write a persuasive essay in the form of letter explaining why a local school board who is considering changing their sexual health curriculum should consider watching the film "The Education of Shelby Knox" to help inform their decision. In this letter, I have explained what the board could learn about adolescent sexuality from reading up on adolescent sexuality. To avoid the idea that people should automatically believe that personal opinions are enough to drive policy, I have also integrated research findings to support aspects of the film and my assertions in the letter. I chose this piece for my Writing and Communication section because it shows my abilities in writing not only to send information but also to practice my critical thinking with the purpose of communication. By completing this letter, I have gained deeper insight into the question of why the abstinent sex education did a poor job in achieving the purpose of protecting our children than comprehensive sex education. Not only adolescents are still naturally developed into sexually active phase and engaged in sexual activities, but also the sexual transmitted diseases are inevitably spreading, and unintended pregnancy are continuedly happening because adolescents never had a chance to learn about them.