Weblog and Reflection on English 2311- Technical Communications

Hi guys! If you are viewing this web log you either : are enrolled in English 2311, are considering taking English 2311 OR you did a Google Search for something that is on this webpage and stumbled upon it.

Whichever way you have landed here this weblog is a reflection on projects I completed for English 2311 Technical Communications. Overall, I really enjoyed the class and learned a lot! I hope that this website will help you either complete projects for the class or better understand what the class is like.

This post will always be the first post on this weblog. The rest of the posts are organized by the date the large assignments from the class were due.

The weblog as a whole was really easy to make. I have some experience with weblogs, BUT even if you don’t, the weblog is a breeze if you follow these helpful tips:

1. START EARLY: The weblog could be two things. It could be a really easy project you finish early OR it could be a nightmare that you are struggling to complete. This project is a large chunk of your grade and getting outside help would be a great idea. Kinda hard to do that though when you are finishing it the night before ; ) My advice- do the posts as you get the assignments back. I have been working that way and I was able to enjoy finals week- blog free.

2. GET ORGANIZED: Decide right off the bat how you are going to organize your weblog. This means determining your AUDIENCE. Who is the weblog for? I found directing the weblog to students very easy. I was able to worry less about tone and I found that I had plenty to talk about. How are your posts going to be organized? I organized mine by the date the assignment was due.

3. HAVE FUN: Assignments, especially large ones like this, are much easier when you have fun completing them. I enjoyed making my header for the site. I have included a page so that you will be able to make your weblog all your own as well.

As I said I had a wonderful time in this class. I enjoyed writing outside of a literary context and found the class to be practically useful. If there was one element that I had trouble with it would be the quizzes. Dr. Fricke likes to walk around with a sign that says: “This will be on the next quiz” when he is talking about an issue that will be covered in the next quiz. The only problem is that I found he often uses that sign when I am taking notes. Don’t worry to much though, Dr. Fricke always posts a summary of what will be on a quiz right before it.

The rest of the weblog will hopefully inspire you with my helpful tips and hints. If you haven’t registered for the class and are contemplating it I would definitely recommend English 2311 if writing doesn’t scare you, or even if it does, you have decided you want to vastly improve your writing.

 

GO TEXAS TECH

Proposal Presentation w/ Progress Memos

The Proposal Presentation was a great experience. After writing such a long document on our own for weeks it was nice to see what everyone had been working on as well as presenting our own work.

My group decided to do a PowerPoint presentation for two reasons. One, it was the only way we felt comfortable with presenting the information. Two, the room that the class is taught in, and that we would be presenting in, is pretty much set up for only PowerPoint. PowerPoint would also be playing our strengths because I just so happen to be a big fan of PowerPoint.

For me, tips on PowerPoint could be a completely different weblog! So, I thought it might be more useful instead to go over some of the comments my group received. That way you’ll see what others might say about your presentation. And even better, how I think my group could have changed our presentation so as not to get those comments.

#1 Add a little more information.

Depending on what your class is going to be doing, try and stick a long the same lines. My group presented far less statistical information. We hoped that by talking about something else the classroom would stay interested. Instead, this backfired. Everyone was expecting loads of information and when we didn’t give it- they noticed.

#2 Complete sentences in a PowerPoint.

Looking back on making the PowerPoint I hoped that putting a whole statistical quote would show them the little information we wanted to focus on. If a statistic is spoken that’s far different, in my perception, then it being heard. Unfortunately, this was perceived by my classmates as reading off the PowerPoint. So you might want to avoid it : )

#3 Speak slower

I think the reason that my group seemed to speak so fast was because out presentation was much shorter than the other groups. My group also went first so subconsciously we were most likely thinking, “we better go fast there are six other groups that have to go”. My advice- take your time and slow down, what might seem like an eternities long pause to you wont to the audience.

Overall, the class seemed to enjoy our presentation. I have posted the Slide Show that my group presented to the class as well as the handouts that we gave to the class. The first handout was the Parent Letter and the second was a Sample Calendar.

Also included in this post are the progress memos I and the rest of my group wrote

Katie’s Presentation Progress Memo

Lisa’s Presentation Progress Memo

Amanda’s Presentation Progress Memo

Formal Group Proposal Report

So it’s finally here, the Formal Group Proposal Report! Hopefully the tips that i gave you for planning and writing the rough draft paied off and the final 12-15 page final draft doesn’t seem quite so daunting a task.

One of the difficult parts of writing the final Formal Group Proposal Report for my group was deciding which sections to include in the paper. I thought it might be helpful to go over the sections that my group decided to include and why.

Letter of Transmissal: This was addressed to the hypothetical recipient of the proposal document. I think it made the proposal more realistic. Of course, if you were sending a proposal to someone you’d have to let them know why and what to do with it. We also included how to get in contact with us as a group (name, address, phone number).

Executive Summary: This was a very useful first page. It was supposed to be used by the recipient as a handout. This way others could find out about the proposal without necessarily having to read an entire 12-15 page document!

Title Page: The title page included the title of the proposal, the names of each other members of the group, and the date the document was written ( or last revised). We also decided to include on the title page underneath our names that we were Texas Tech Students and residents of Lubbock, TX. This gave the proposal focus right from the start as well as credibility ( we are educated and we live here).

Table of Contents: USE A TABLE OF CONTENTS Large 12-15 page documents will be an endless maze if there is not a table of contents. The table of contents is also useful to use as a writer, it help keep you focused. If you know what’s supposed to be on which page then writing and organization will be much easier. Dr. Fricke has a great example table of contents already set up, and he assured my class that he was more than willing to show you how to make your own on Microsoft Word. Take him up on it if you need help : )

After the table of contents, my group decided to include a Background and Solution sections. These sections are more generic so I won’t explain them past the notes that Dr. Fricke will provide you with.

Public Relations: A large problem with our proposal was the approval of the concept with the public. We included a public relations section because we thought it would show our foresight of these problems to the district we were proposing to. We included websites that frightened or curious parents might find useful. We also included a link to a website we found that had activity books and charts for children about the flu vaccine.

Appendix w/ Calendar and Parent Handout: This worked great as a handout! A lot of the groups in my class used a print out of their slide show presentation. This worked in some cases, but in most it was pretty boring. The calendar and handout took time to make ( my group mate Amanda did a great job on them) but were worth the extra effort.

I have included links to the final document that my group turned in. Although it isn’t perfect we put a lot of thought into each section so I hope that it helps give you ideas : )

Letter of Transmissal

Final Draft of Formal Group Proposal Report

Proposal Rough Draft w/ Progress Memos

Alrighty, the rough draft!

This assignment can be made really easy if you did a thorough job on the outline assignment that was previously due. My group made a great decision writing as much as we could before the rough draft was due.

First Step: Writing. I know it is a huge task but you just have to sit down and do it. Whether your group has decided to write it as a whole or you are working on an individual section, the sooner you get that done the better off you are.

My group decided to write the rough draft as a whole. This saved us a lot of time on editing because the style was consistent throughout the entire document. The burden is also not quite as large because you don’t feel that the responsibility of a whole section is on your shoulders.

Second step: Editing. DO NOT LEAVE THIS UNTIL THE LAST MINUTE!!! This is the most important part of a technical class, editing the document. You won’t get the rough draft back until after the final draft is due so be sure that you get editing done now. That way if a group member does not agree with certain changes you will have time in and out of class to discuss the paper as a group.

*Hint: My group went at talked to Dr. Fricke during his office hours. If you don’t go and see Dr. Fricke there is no way that you will know how your paper is going until it is already to late. Take advantage of the extra help that is available.

The group meeting for the writing of the rough draft is also a great time to work on the presentation! You already have everyone there you might as well get as much done as possible.

The hardest part of writing the rough draft for my group was determining the citation style. Make sure you have a set formula that you do not change. We also had a lot of internet websites, so an MLA work cited arrangement would have been very difficult to keep consistent. The group chose instead to use the footnote style of citations.

A lot of the formatting, even with citations, depends on your audience. My group decided to include as much information as possible because we wanted to impress our audience with how much information we had gathered. We hoped that this would build the audience’s trust and that the proposal would go over more smoothly.

This is the Rough Draft that we turned into Dr. Fricke.

Here are the progress memos that we turned in to Dr. Fricke:

Katie’s Progress Memo for Rough Draft

Amanda’s Progress Memo for Rough Draft

Lisa’s Progress Memo for Rough Draft

Proposal Plan Memo w/ Progress Memos

This memo marks the beginning of quite a journey in this technical communications class.

THE GROUP PROPOSAL (dah nah na nahhh…)

Don’t worry though, Dr. Fricke has broken it down so that this assignment becomes one of those ” the sum is greater than its parts” assignments.

This particular assignment will require you to create a plan for approaching the rest of the assignment by:

• Analyzing due dates
• Recognizing group members strengths and weaknesses
• Establishing a plan for gathering your work

My group did a great job coming up with a plan and I would love to share with you all the great tips I have for this assignment and what my group did that worked so well : )

I recommend that you use a wordpress.com account to keep track of the assignments and posts. That is what my group did and we found that it worked great! You can view the site here: http://fluvacproposal.wordpress.com/

Tip#1 : Sit down and decide EXACTLY what your proposal will be- who your audience is, what your goal is, and what you are proposing, that will make the writing and planning MUCH easier.

My group decided that we would be proposing our plan to the head of the LISD ( Lubbock Independent School District) school board- Gordon Wilkerson. Our proposal was for the LISD to institute a mandatory flu vaccine policy for all students and employees. The proposal also asked that Mr. Wilkerson consider presenting this idea to the rest of the school board.

Tip #2: Work backwards from the last due date for the assignment to create a calender for when work is due, when your group will work on it, and most importantly when the work will be edited. This includes scheduling when your group will meet as a whole. I recommend that your group meet as a whole at least once before each assignment is due.

A simple calender is easy to create in Microsoft Word. A copy of the calender my group created is posted on our wordpress site.

*Hint: Split up the work according to strengths! It’s a lot easier and more efficient if you choose the person who is good at writing to go ahead and start the writing.

Tip #3: RESEARCH. Whether that is primary or secondary research get on it! This is where the wordpress.com site comes in REALLY handy.

My group posted a Research post and each comment was research done by a group member. We decided that the following format: Topic/Link/Date/Description, would keep the research organized and easy to reference.

*Hint: Don’t set your goals to high. Not only will you end up frustrated and disappointed by unrealistic goals, it will be even harder to complete the things that you do need to have finished.

Here is the Proposal Plan Memo that my group turned in: Proposal Plan Memo. I hope it helps you get ideas for how to organize your own proposal.

Here are the memos that we gave to Dr. Fricke:

Katie’s Proposal Plan Progress Memo 

Amanda’s Proposal Plan Progress Memo

Lisa’s Proposal Plan Progress Memo

 

Instructions Analysis

This assignment is a continuation of the “Instructions Selection” memo. For this assignment you will be expected to take the audience and goal information you obtained for that assignment and:

• Usability test the instructions ( with the intended audience)
• Complete a usablity testing worksheet with this information.
• Write a 2-3 page memo analyzing the instructions you chose and the user testing that you completed.

Step One: The first thing I did for this memo was the usability testing of my audience, college students. I chose my boyfriend and roommate because I knew that they would be honest and helpful. I also knew that they would also be available and near by if I needed to ask them another question etc. It kept the assignment light and fun, and as an added bonus I got to enjoy soup with friends! : )

I asked them to imagine that they were in a hurry to get to class but wanted a quick bite before hand. I told them this because I think that this is the typical scenario in which “Soup At Hand” would be prepared.

I gathered my results by measuring how long it took each student to complete a step and also how accurately they followed the step instructions. Dr.Fricke’s usability testing sheet had two questions on it. I added another question: Do you think the quality of the soup was affected by not following the directions? I asked them this because I had an inkling that microwave soup is pretty hard to mess up and that maybe the instructions aren’t very important at all.

*Hint: Dr. Fricke gave us time in class to work on the “user testing” portion. Although I already knew who I wanted to test for the “fun factor”, helping others do their user testing actually helped me out a lot. Always say yes if someone asks you to user test their instructions and think about the questions they ask you. Should you use that question? Were you thinking of using that question but when you were asked found that question was not very helpful? Anything to help you get a better grade : )

Step Two: Writing that memo. The best way to write the memo is to look at the questions Dr. Fricke has posted. Since he is the one grading the assignment these are the questions he is looking for to be answered.

So what did I find?

Campbell’s Soup At Hand is a yummy and easy product to prepare. My usability testing proved that the instructions on the back though are not as god as the product within!

My suspicion that I voiced earlier: that the product instructions might not have been for quality, was confirmed. Both of the users did not follow the instructions correctly but the quality of the soup did not fall.

From these results I concluded that the instructions may be written for safety more than anything else. The instructions have large warnings for the sharp edges and how to store leftovers, the rest of the directions might just be for those who have never preparedsoup before, or really like exactly following directions : )

Here is the draft that i turned in to Dr. Fricke: Instructions Analysis

*Hint: If you get a chance, talk to Dr. Fricke outside of class and get some extra help. In a class full of students it can be hard to give your full attention to a paper. I went to Dr. Fricke’s office and went through my rough draft with him and I think my grade was a little better for it. Our class also got a chance to edit this assignment again after turning it in. I’d definitely recommend paying attention to all of Dr. Fricke’s comments and coming that day for sure!

Instructions Selection Memo

For this assignment you will be expected to:

• Find a set of instructions
• Analyze the audience of these instructions
• Analyze the goal of the instructions

Then you will need to step back and analyze the instructions as a whole. Did the instructions effectively complete their goal? Are the instructions written to the right audience?

*Hint: While at first glance this assignment might seem like an errand it doesn’t have to be! Use something that you already have lying around your dorm/apartment/house. not only is it free BUT chances are you have already used this product which will make analyzing it that much easier!

Step One: Find instructions. I choose the instructions found on the back of the Campbell’s Soup At Hand. This was a very low risk strategy for me because as ashamed as I might be to admit it- I eat this everyday! I am very familiar with the instructions and I already had an idea what flaws were hidden in that white text.

Here is an image of the instructions that I chose——>

Step Two : Complete the selection memo exactly as Dr. Fricke has described. This means answering ALL of the questions.

For the product I selected I decided ( after some deep thought and reflection with a warm cup of soup) that the audience for Soup At Hand was people who “eat on the go”. I reasoned this because of: the marketing scheme I’ve seen on TV and that there are about a million different kinds of micorwaveable soup that could be eaten without a spoon, as long as you were careful. SO this soup must also be for people who like new inventive products, and are willing to pay a little extra for that ingenuity.

So who could I test that were: on the go, trendy, and might not be stingy enough yet to mind paying extra for the “cool” factor? ———-> COLLEGE STUDENTS

In every class each semester you always find at least one assignment that is a breeze but also fun to do. For me, in this class, the instructions analysis assignment was that. I had a blast, and I hope you will also.

Here is the draft that i turned into Dr. Fricke: Instructions Selection Memo

Hopefully it will help you with your memo : )

Formal Memo

This exercise engages you to work on your ability to create a memo specific to an audience. The goal of this exercise is to write a relatively long memo where you address a topic and:

• inform your chosen audience
• analyze the topic ( in relation to the audience)
• make a recommendation to the audience regarding the topic.

For the assignment we were allowed to choose any of these options, I chose to write a recommendation memo.

Step One: Formulating the memo, the most important part of this assignment is having a clear and specific audience and goal. A quick way to make sure that your audience is specific enough is pick one person who fits your audience and write the memo to that person. Dr. Fricke provided us with a worksheet to help us to define our audience and define our issue in relation to that audience. I chose to address the head of Housing & Residence Life about the current conditions of the Wall/Gates showers.

* Hint: Choose something that interests you! It is always easier to write about something you don’t mind reading about : )

Step Two was to collect research on my topic in order to support my argument. I wanted to show to the head of Housing and Residence Life that the restrooms have a negative impact on the student body. I found an article from a news station about the dangers of showers: Shared showers are perfect breeding ground for bacteria. I also found another article to support my argument in a paper written by another student: Dormitory Bathrooms.

*Hint: Be certain that all the research you do relates to your audience and topic. It will make your argument a lot stronger.

I modeled my memo after the example memo that Dr. Fricke provided us with. I also used the step by step method which he showed us in the class Powerpoints. I have attached the memo that I turned in to Dr. Fricke to this post. Hopefully this will help give you some ideas.
One thing I learned :If I could resubmit this assignment I would change the focus of the memo. The memo was to lengthy to be directed to a head of a large department. Instead I could direct it to a student organization who would be willing to take the time to read the memo. A student organization would also be able to start a plan to correct the conditions.

What I Learned: This assignment taught me the importance of editing and rereading an assignment before turning it in. For this assignment the class was given another chance to submit the assignment. The minor changes I made during the editing session really improved my overall grade.

Below are the files that I turned in to Dr. Fricke:

Formal Memo

Resume & Job Letter

This exercise will involve creating a resume and job letter specific to a career and company. The goal of this exercise is to practice defining an audience and communicating your qualifications to that audience.

*Hint: This exercise is incredibly practical! Use it to your advantage! Do you have a job that you want to apply for already? Realistically speaking, you will have to do this eventually! Might as well do it with help!

Step One: This assignment starts with finding a job ad. I selected an ad from Monster.com for a Science Staff Editor position at World Book Inc. Although I did not meet all the requirements I knew that I could find ways to make what I did have fit their job. Here is a link to the job ad: World Book Inc. Job Ad. I then found a resume that fit the job I was applying for. Since I was applying for the job as a technical editor I found an example resume for a technical editor. That resume can be found here: Sample Resume.

*Hint: Monster.com is a great search engine! I definitely recommend it!

Step Two: You have to write your resume to your audience. The best way to determine your audience is to research the company you are applying to. Through Yahoo! Finance and Wikipedia I become more informed on what World Book Inc. would be looking for in a potential job applicant. I was then able to include this information in my job letter and resume.

*Hint: Not only will research improve your grade on the assignment, in the future it will show the companies that you apply to that you have ‘ done your homework’.

I modeled my resume after the example resume for a technical editor. I also used to the example Dr. Fricke provided for both the job letter as well as the follow-up thank you letter. I have attached both of my drafts to the post. Hopefully this will help you write your own draft : )
One thing I learned: If I could resubmit this assignment I would change several things. First, I would have made it more clear in the job letter which qualifications I did and did not meet. I know now that I did not make that very clear in my job letter. Second, I would have paid closer attention to formatting my memo consistently. Consistent formatting would make my resume easier to understand resulting in a more professional looking resume. Third, my job letter was filled with useless information that I should have edited out. My job letter would have been much stronger if I had properly focused the content.

What I Learned: This first assignment taught me a lot about communicating in a job letter. I learned the importance of focusing my thoughts and writing to an audience. This would become useful in future assignments. Although, as I began to see, some bad habits are hard to break.

Below are the files that I turned in to Dr. Fricke:

Resume : This link contains my resume.

Job Letter : This letter would be attached with my resume.

Mock Follow up Letter : This letter would be sent after my interview.