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.