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