WHAT MATTERS MOST, my last blog

There are times in our lives that we stop to reflect on what is most important to us. This evening is one of those moments for me. I got a call from my father yesterday telling me that my grandfather was back in the hospital. It is very likely that he won't be coming home. You may be wondering if I am sad or depressed. Most definitely I am sad. My grandfather and I had much in common. One of the things he loved to do was hunt. I too am an avid hunter and I have shared hunting experiences with him. The times I enjoyed the most were sitting around the camp fire listening to him tell stories of when he was a young man. Those were some great times. My grandfather was good at showing us what matters most by how he lived his life. He often reminded me that family is what matters most. Many things in this life will come and go but throught it all it is your family that makes life worth while. My grandfather will soon be going to a better place and I will surely miss him, but I will always remember the good times and his example to me.

Response to Jeff Schafer's what I learned post

I liked what Jeff had to say about being able to take away something practical from this class. It's not often that we get the opportunity to use what we've learned right away. As an engineering student I have struggled to write in an active voice. I agree with Jeff, the memos and other writing have enhanced my ability to communicate. The one thing that I have most appreciated is the ability to apply what I am learning immediately.

What I have learned

I have learned that the quality of any communication is determined by its usability and persuasiveness. Every communication makes an attempt to persuade the reader/listener to take some action. When writing the writer must constantly strive to keep the reader in mind. They must consider such things as who are the stake holders, what are they looking for, how will they use this information, are there any ethical considerations and is there anyone else that will see this communication. In addition the writer must consider the cultural background of their reader.

The format may vary between types of communication such as emails, memorandums, formal reports and speeches. Again, the common thread is that they all should be usable and persuasive. If a writer chooses to ignore the needs of the reader then the communication has little value.

I have noticed that my communication at work has improved greatly. Prior to this class I hadn't spent much time considering the needs of the reader. My writing was primarily focused on the information that I wanted to convey. I have really noticed this in my email communication. I have to spend less time explaining the purpose of my writing through multiple emails. This means my communication has become more efficient. This class has helped me more than I had initially thought possible.

Response to Holley Schmecks Chptr 17 & 18 blog

Holley mentioned that she always gets nervous before giving a presentation. I too get nervous before giving presentations. I thought the book had an excellent idea to help you deal with being nervous. The book suggested that you take the time before the presentation to talk to your listeners informally. This is great because it gives you a chance to talk to them in a relaxed atmosphere. Then when you get up to do your presentation it will seem less likely that you are speaking to strangers. This also aides in using a conversational tone.

She also talked about wanting to get information from a website quickly. If she cannot find the information quickly she will just go to another site. I've heard that you should design the site so that people can get to what they need within three clicks. This seems reasonable for most sites. I think this can be achieved by using links on the home page that make it easy to navigate the site.

Chapter 17 & 18 blog

Chapter 17 creating and delivering listener-centered oral presentations

This chapter describes how to create and deliver effective listener-centered oral presentations.
Creating oral presentations is very similar to creating reader-centered written communications. The main difference being that an oral presentation has the advantage of direct listener feedback. This allows you to adjust your speech to the reactions of the audience.

As in any communication you should first define your objectives. With your objectives in mind you can then work on the verbal and visual parts of your presentation. Your presentation will be more usable and persuasive if the verbal and visual components work well together. The visual components should be large enough so that your audience can understand their meaning without difficulty. Further, when using a program such as Microsoft PowerPoint try not to use long sentences or paragraphs. You want your listeners to focus on what you are saying and the visual aid should be just that, a visual aid. If the text you use is difficult to follow your listeners will be distracted.

When you are speaking you should make eye contact with your audience. This allows you to use a more conversational style of speech. This should help keep the interest of your audience. Also, while making eye contact you can often determine if your listeners are understanding you.

Chapter 18 creating reader-centered web pages and websites

I found this chapter very interesting. The book indicates that one of the most important features of a website should be the ability to get to the desired information quickly. I find it amazing that even with this information there are an untold number of websites that are nearly impossible to navigate. The book also states that you can accomplish this by creating a well organized website with navigational aides to help readers get what they need quickly. After creating the website you should test it before activating it. In the process of testing the site you should be willing to make any necessary revisions to make the site the best that it can be.

Response to Chris Marshel's chptr 2, 9 & 10 post

I liked what Chris said about not wasting peoples time. When we begin a communication we should get right to the point. However, what if the communication is sensitive or about bad news. Could there possibly be a better way to deliver bad news than by being blunt. I would think that if you are delivering bad news they may tend to focus on the first thing you say and not much else. In a general sense though I tend to agree with Chris.

In my professional career I generally tell people to contact me if they need any further information. I think that I may be able to help my readers by pointing them to other potential sources of information. It may also free me up to do other work.

Chapter 2, 9 & 10 post

Chapter 2 A reader centered approach to writing your resume

This chapter describes four activities for the reader centered resume writing process.

1. Defining objectives
2. Planning
3. Drafting
4. Revising

As I read this chapter I was amazed at the amount of planning you should consider when preparing to write your resume. I have written and rewritten my resume on several occasions. I have to admit that it is not a process that I enjoy. However, I never went through an extensive planning process. I think that if I went through this process it would improve the quality of my resume. I cannot decide if I should be writing an experiential or skills resume. I think that I have somewhat blended the two approaches. I am excited about taking a fresh look at my resume with the reader centered approach.

Chapter 9 Beginning a communication

I have always struggled with the beginning of written communication. How long should I make it? Is it complete? This chapter gave me some good guidelines to follow. As long as the readers know why they should read the communication, its main point, its organization and scope and any necessary background information then I know that I have done my job.

Guideline nine on ethics spoke of situations in which you might be asked to write something that violates your sense of what is ethical. I have personally experienced this. Fortunately I have a boss who very quickly realized that he was asking me to do something that I was uncomfortable with. I liked the options the book gave for remedying this situation. You can plant seeds of change, use reason and not accusation, and also try to remain open to others points of view.

Chapter 10 Ending a communication

The ending of your communication is an excellent opportunity to get your readers to transition from reading to taking action. You can stress the main point of your communication one more time. Often times its the last thing read that people remember the best. At work it is important to list any action items and who is responsible for them. This is a great way to sum up your communication.

Response to Melissa Bonneville's chptr 14 & 15 post

Its interesting that Melissa mentioned the performance test. This test and others are used by many companies when developing manufacturing and assembly process instructions for a new product. Employers do not want to head into full production of a brand new assembly without testing these instructions first. If they did it could cost them a lot of money in set up time that could be wasted. Instead they perform what is called a pilot run. The pilot run is a way to test all of the manufacturing and assembly process instructions for accuracy and completeness. For the pilot run the manufacturing plant sets up to build the assembly for a limited run. The quantity of assemblies built is somewhere between 10 and 20 units. This will give them enough information to determine the majority of required changes to the process control documents. An integral part of writing successful instructions is for the writer to be present during the pilot run. The writer then has opportunity to observe any difficulty in the manufacturing process. Testing your drafts is essential when writing process and assembly type instructions.

Chapters 14 & 15

Chapter 14 (Revising Your Draft)
Chapter 14 begins by describing 3 activities for revising your draft.

• Identify improvements
• Decide which improvements to make
• Make the selected changes

Reviewing your draft yourself and having others review your draft are two possible ways of identifying the desired improvements for your draft. The more difficult yet very productive method is having someone else review your work. I have had coworkers review emails and memos prior to completing the final draft. This had saved me a lot of extra effort. In addition the boss is very pleased when your writing is complete with little or no input from him.

Another important thing to remember is how you give and receive criticism. You must develop a good working relationship with your coworkers so that when you review their work criticism will be well received. Further, when giving suggestions try to phrase them from the point of view of the intended readers. When receiving criticism try to be open and focus on listening to the reviewers point of view.

Many of the strategies in this chapter are employed at my place of work.

Chapter 15 (Testing Drafts for Usability and Persuasiveness)

Testing your drafts for usability and persuasiveness is essential when creating work instructions or similar documents. The objectives of testing are generally to determine how to improve the draft and to determine if the communication is adequate. When seeking test readers try to get individuals that represent your target readers. This will help ensure accurate results.

As a product designer I have had opportunity to write several installation instructions. It was always interesting to see people use them for the first time. Often times I found that the test readers had very good questions that led to some key revisions that added clarity to the instructions.

Response to Vic's TV blog

I too assumed that the media aired what ever they wanted without much thought about ethics. It was good to hear from Mr. Day that they do consider the ethical consequences prior to airing the stories. Vic mentioned in his blog that there is a gray area when it comes to making a decision on whether or not to run a particular story. For many people there is no gray area, but for the media there is because they are considering all of the stake holders. Very well put Vic.

I am glad Vic mentioned the freedom of press that we enjoy in America. Often times we take that right for granted. Some people are responsible while others abuse this right.

TV Journalism Post

Of all the writing styles I have been exposed to TV journalism seems to be the most chaotic. Maybe chaotic isn't exactly the right word to describe it, but it is certainly fast paced. The ethical decisions that each journalist must face on a daily basis would be very stressful. When Jesse Day visited our class he noted that there are ethical decisions you will make that affect you the rest of your life. I think it takes a special person to handle this stress, especially since your choices often have a lasting impact on people's lives. Even with the high stress level there is something to be said about "being in the know" as Jesse stated.

Another aspect I found interesting is that of attribution. The use of attribution by the media seems to have created a bit of a sour taste in the public mouth. I know many people that believe the media hides behind attribution just to get the scoop. However, it was interesting to get the perspective of someone actually working in TV journalism. Although there likely are individuals out there that make a bad name for the media it would not be fair to place them all in the same pot together. As a result of Jesse's guest appearance in our class my perspective toward the media has definitely been influenced in a positive way.

Response to Melissa Bonneville's TV news post

Like Melissa I noticed that the news about the weather was spread throughout the forecast. I am amazed at how they are able to convey just a little bit more information each time and yet keep you hooked for the whole broadcast.

We often talk about how we want to hear more good news, but in reality we want to know that we have it better than others. Dirty laundry sells. However, in light of today's economy it might be better to hear some good news. Maybe this would help us feel secure as well.

I think the rhetoric they use is logos to build up their ethos so that we will watch their broadcast instead of others. This seems to be the most likely since its all about the ratings, right?

TV News

Television writing looks to me to be very difficult. There is only so much time they have for each story. This means that the writing must be boiled down to just the essentials. The choice of words needs to be specific to the target audience which I imagine changes from story to story. This creates quite a challenge.

I was wondering how the writers write so as to portray the voice of the individual news cast. Do they write as a single voice for the station as a whole?

I also find it interesting that they are often times able to get in all of the news stories and interject their personal character. Some do this better than others. Those that are good at it tend to grab my attention more easily.

Freelance writing

Freelance writing at a glance appears to be a lot of fun. After hearing the lecture on this subject I realized that there is a lot of work involved. Before you can write on the subject of choice you must do plenty of research. Then after you've carefully crafted your written work you have to market it. The prospect of writing pitch letters and soliciting businesses only to be turned down could be quite depressing. I suppose if you love to write you could see it as a challenge. Overcoming this challenge must be a pretty good feeling, especially if it's your first time being published.

Response to Tayler Black's Chptr 8 post

I liked what Tayler had to say about the role that voice creates for your readers. In my workplace their are managers that use a condescending tone in their writing. When I get email from them I am not motivated to do anything for them quickly. I often wonder if they think that I am the only person who will view their email. My direct boss does not use this tone in his communication. I am more willing to go the extra mile for him, because I feel that he appreciates me.

Response to Melissa Boneville's Chpt 8 & 19 post

I liked what Melissa said about using chapter 8's guidelines while proofreading a paper. I had similar thoughts about chapter 8 when I read it. Simplifying a sentence and adding emphasis in the right location will make your writing more persuasive and usable.

Melissa talked about writing a proposal and getting a written approval from your client. This approval can act as a contract and in my experience usually does. We should also remember to be careful not to promise more than we can provide. Try not to leave anything up to an assumption by either yourself or your client. As Melissa said communication is the key. This is great advice.

Chapter 8 & 19 Blog

Chapter 8
This chapter is about developing an effective style. Your readers will pick up on the voice you use in your communications. The voice you project can either help or hinder you in persuading your readers. I was especially interested in the section on constructing sentences. I appreciate the examples in each section that show an original and a revised version of a sentence. This is very helpful when writing my own communications. I like the unique way of adding emphasis to a sentence by placing the key information at the end of the sentence. This chapter gives us many ways to construct sentences to enhance our persuasiveness and usability in our writing. I really liked this chapter.

Chapter 19
This chapter is about managing client and service-learning projects. The chapter begins by describing an overall project management strategy. This strategy employs 7 guidelines.

• 1. Determine exactly what your client wants and why
• 2. Develop your own assessment of the situation
• 3. Create a project management plan
• 4. Submit a written proposal to your client and ask for a written agreement
• 5. Communicate with your client often - especially at all major decisions
• 6. Advocate and educate, but defer to your client
• 7. Hand off the project in a helpful way

The guideline I found most interesting was number 6. In my work history I have had opportunity to work with a couple of technical writers. Each of them employed this strategy quite effectively. In fact I came to trust their insight into writing reader centered communications. They were good at being direct and at the same time respecting my wishes when it came to the final publication.

The other guideline that is really important is creating a project management plan. This is something I personally must work on. I usually tend to plow straight into my project without a written plan. A written plan is a must especially with tight deadlines. Also, your client will appreciate your attention to their deadline.

Response to Chris Marshel's Chptr. 6 & 7 post

I too have the same difficulty when doing research. I often find myself getting interested in the product or process that I am researching. When I start my search I am generally interested in a specific piece of information. Then during my research I find some interesting fact about the product or even another product. I agree that it is extremely important to have a game plan in place prior to doing research. A written list of your objectives will help keep you on task.

The bold headings is also a great idea. I tend to create these bold headings before I generate all of the content under these headings. This gives my paper structure and helps me locate topics easily during the writing process. I think that this will be a natural progression from the research process as well.

Chapter 6 & 7 blog

Chapter 6 is about conducting reader centered research. One of the more interesting guidelines from this chapter is the need to create an efficient and productive research plan. I must admit that I fall into the group of people that generally do research in an unorganized fashion. I can see from this chapter that I am likely missing some important resources. Further, it is probable that my research is taking longer than it should and it is less effective. Before doing additional research on my personal project I intend to make a plan so that I can consult the sources that will yield the best results. I would also like to get better at following guideline #6. This guideline directs you to take careful notes when doing research. Specifically recording the information about my resources for the bibliography would be most beneficial. I tend to do this at the end and it is usually difficult to do after the fact.

Chapter 7 is about using five reader centered research methods. When writing I have never really done brainstorming or freewriting. I was especially intrigued about the free writing. I can definitely see the advantage of letting my brain produce complete thoughts and worrying about organizing them later. It usually takes me a long time to write because I am trying to produce the best sentence structure with proper wording to convey my thoughts without freewriting. This I can see is something that has caused me to take longer writing my papers than maybe it should have.

I also do plenty of Internet research for either school or work. I was totally unaware of different organizations being assigned to specific domains. I must have wasted lots of time looking at websites that contained information that had questionable credibility. I would like to get better at using some of the search options such as the Boolean operators. In addition, I would like to get better at finding the necessary source information from a specific website for my bibliography. For me, this has been especially difficult. If anyone has some pointers on getting Internet resource information I would appretiate their input.

Chapter 4, 5, 16 & 23 Blog

Chapter 4 describes 10 guidelines when planning to write for usability. These guidelines help you to write usable communication that is complete, task-oriented and accessible.

They are:
1.Identify the information your readers need
2. Organize around your readers task
3. Identify ways to help readers quickly find what they want
4. For a complex audience, plan a modular communication
5. Look for a technical writing superstructure you can adapt
6. Plan your graphics
7. Global guideline: Determine your readers' cultural expectations about what makes a communication usable
8. Outline, if this would be helpful
9. Check your plans with your readers
10. Ethics guideline: Investigate stakeholder impacts

What I found interesting about this chapter was in guideline #7. Some cultures have different criteria when determining if a communication is usable or not. For instance, the Chinese meet their readers' expectations by explaining the outcomes of the major steps but not each individual action required to complete the task. This is considered knowledge that the reader already possesses. I know that in the United States we tend to desire all of the individual steps when describing a certain task. I wonder if this stems from protecting yourself/company from possible lawsuits? I have seen often times details in written instructions that seem to be common sense (ie. let the vehicle engine cool down prior to changing the oil).

Chapter 5 describes 9 guidelines to use when planning your persuasive strategies.

They are:
1. Listen - and respond flexibly to what you hear
2. Focus on your readers' goals and values
3. Address - and learn from - your readers' concerns and counterarguments
4. Reason soundly
5. Organize to create a favorable response
6. Build an effective relationship with your readers
7. Determine whether to appeal to your readers' emotions
8. Global guideline: Adapt your persuasive strategies to your readers' cultural background
9. Ethics guideline: Employ ethical persuasive techniques

What stuck out to me in this chapter was guideline #4. This section describes what is involved when using sound reasoning. In addition to your claim and evidence you need to have a line of reasoning that links the evidence to your claim. I think that this link is often times what is missing in an otherwise good communication.

Chapter 16 talks about creating communications with a team. This chapter uses 8 guidelines for this purpose.

They are:
1. Develop a shared understanding of the communications objectives
2. Make and share detailed plans
3. Make a project schedule
4. Share leadership responsibilities
5. Make meeting efficient
6. Encourage discussion, debate and diversity of ideas
7. Use computer tools for collaboration
8. Global guideline: Be sensitive to possible cultural and gender differences in team interaction

I was impressed with guideline #6. Encouraging discussion and debate can sometimes be a bit tricky. With engineers there almost always seems to be one individual who wants to argue their point not matter what the cost. Keeping a debate over ideas from turning into a heated conflict is often times difficult. I enjoy having an intelligent debate with coworkers even if it means agreeing to disagree as long as each person can remain calm and not become too defensive.

Chapter 23 describes a superstructure to use when writing reader-centered instructions. This superstructure will help you when creating instructions that are both usable an persuasive. the superstructure for instructions has the following topics:

1. Introduction
2. description of equipment
3. List of materials and equipment needed
4. Directions
5. Troubleshooting

In this chapter there are several things to keep in mind when writing instructions such as:
1. Write clearly and succinctly
2. Use plenty of graphics
3. Design usable and attractive pages and screens
4. Test your instructions

Of these things I was most interested in testing your instructions. I have found that when writing instructions for a product your company produces it is easy to convince yourself and others that the instructions are clear and easy to follow. Often times we are too close to the product to consider that there are things that can seem obvious to us but to your intended reader is extremely confusing. I think that having someone test the instructions is a very good idea. I wonder how you could accomplish this on a new product prior to releasing it to market? Maybe you could have some test sites for this product and include the prototype instructions.

In conclusion, I found a lot of useful information in these four chapters. I am looking forward to using the group techniques in our upcoming project.

Rhetoric definition & examples

As I understand it a Greek philosopher Aristotle identified three types of persuasive speech he called rhetoric. The three types of rhetoric are pathos, ethos and logos. Each type of rhetoric is used by writers in an attempt to persuade their reader(s). The definition of each type is listed below along with an example.

Pathos: this type of persuasion is an appeal to the readers emotions.

Example: If you don't sign this petition then my children will go hungry.

Ethos: this type of persuasion places emphasis on the writers credibility.

Example: Our company has over twenty years of experience performing this service. This is why you can trust our experts at company xyz.

Logos: this type of persuasion uses logic in an attempt to persuade the reader.

Example: As part of the periodic maintenance for your machine the bearings should be lubricated annually. If the bearings do not receive this lubrication they will wear out prematurely costing your company xyz a lot of money. Lubricating the bearings annually will ensure that they last a long time at a minimal cost.

Response to Sam Pruitt's Chapter 3 blog

I can relate to Sam's blog on chapter three. I too generally write from my perspective supporting my ideas with factual evidence. The idea of writing from a "you" perspective will definitely be challenging. Sam asked if anyone had some advice on how to practice/improve the skills of writing to achieve a certain outcome. Other than practice, the best advice I can give is to get to know your readers. This comes from guideline #7 in the text. You don't always have an opportunity to do this, but you can talk with your fellow employees. I call this networking and it has proven to be a very valuable technique. Your coworkers often know bits and pieces of information about people that you will be writing to. This has helped me to write effectively. You can also take the opportunity to write to your coworkers with a "you" perspective and look for their responses. Still, sometimes you will not get an opportunity to know your readers very well. This happens to me often when I am writing to a customer whom I have never met. Which brings me to my question. In the business world sometimes you do not have time to get to know your reader and you are still responsible for writing effectively. What can you do when there isn't sufficient time to research your readers? Do you just draw on past experience and hope for the best?

Chapter 3 Blog

This chapter's reading was about the importance of defining your objectives. One of the guidelines that stuck in my mind was #2," Define Your Usability Goal: Analyze Your Readers' Reading Tasks". According to the text we should design our communication in ways that allow our readers to easily find the information that they need for their purposes. This can easily be done with a table of contents or bold face titles to specific sections in your communication.

Another guideline that I thought interesting was #4," Learn Your Readers Personal Characteristics". In my career I have had several bosses with extremely different personal preferences. One boss never really wanted any of the details. He trusted my work and just wanted to know if a particular task was completed. Another wanted to be updated daily on all of the individual details. Once I learned what each preferred I was able to adjust my communications with them to get the most favorable results.

The last guideline that really stuck out was #7," Ask Others To Help You Understand Your Readers And Their Context". One boss of mine stated." I don't know how you do it but you are able to work well with other departments to get our tasks done". What he didn't know was that I spent time building relationships with coworkers in these other departments. These relationships allowed me to know the best way to write to achieve my objectives.

Writing Shmiting

Writing.....up until about two years ago I loathed having to write any kind of report for school. You see, I am your typical engineering student. I could crunch numbers for hours on end, but then when it came time to do a report I always waited for the right kind of inspiration. That inspiration of course was last second panic. Gradually this pain lessened and I have come to enjoy the writing process much more. This is likely due to gaining confidence in my writing ability through having to write often at school and work. Oh don't get me wrong, I still struggle with it and its not my favorite pastime. Hopefully after this semester is over I will have gained a greater appreciation for the written word.

Remember your readers

As I read this weeks assignment I was amazed at how easily the reading went. The author definitely follows his own advice of constantly thinking about ones readers. I see this as a great way of staying on topic. If you are constantly determining how your readers will use your information it helps ensure that you give them exactly what they need/want. In addition, you may find that it helps keep you on task and the writing goes much quicker.

Another interesting topic was how communications are shaped by social and political factors. Currently I work in an office environment where I have communications with coworkers, managers, customers etc. On almost a daily basis I see email from coworkers and managers who are often times more concerned with climbing the corporate ladder than the companies needs. At the beginning of an email communication they will use cutting remarks about someone. Then they will continue their email requesting or giving appropriate information. The problem with the initial cutting remark is that it tends to set the tone for the rest of the communication. This may cause people to believe something that is not necessarily true. Also, the cutting remark has not lasting value and is a waste of time.

I found the templates/examples for memos and proposals to be very helpful. It is my intention to become a better communicator at work without having to constantly revise my communications. Each day at work I am giving and receiving information in written form. I have had my boss ask me to revise something in a report simply to give it better clarity to my reader. Hopefully I can avoid having to revise reports and instill some confidence in my writing ability to my boss. I am definitely looking forward to this semester.