A Summary
The purpose of this blog is to share my work and experiences from English 2311. This site contains posts in which I reflect on previous assignments and discuss what I have learned from each. I will attach a link to view each assignment on the corresponding blog entry. You may also skip to a specific entry by clicking the title listed under the “Categories” list to the right.
At first, I was aggravated that I had to take another English class. I was even more aggravated when I learned I had to make this blog site. However, as the semester progressed, I found myself enjoying coming to this class. Many required classes are full of useless information, but this technical writing class was actually filled with things I wanted and needed to know.
At first, I had trouble switching from a literary kind of writing. The technical writing style we learned to use in this class is very different than everything I have been taught in the past. Transitioning from trying to come up with long sentences with ‘50 cent’ words to short, to the point sentences was tough. Now that I have had practice, I feel confident in my technical writing skills.
Now, I see how much I have learned. I can accurately analyze documents to find the intended audience and goal. By learning how professional documents are created, I now have the knowledge to create my own. I also learned how to control the tone of a document by learning to target a specific audience.
Also, I now know how to professionally write e-mails and memos. E-mail correspondence has always been my preferred means of communication when it comes to business and school. Looking back on how I used to write e-mails, I almost feel embarrassed. No matter who I e-mail now, I will always include an appropriate subject line (just one of the many helpful things stressed by Dr. Fricke).
Finally, I learned the importance of teamwork. In the past, I usually liked to work alone. From my experience some group members often rely on others to meet deadlines and complete assignments. So I have usually completed projects on my own. However, the group assignment we did in this class showed me group projects can work out well. We took Dr. Fricke’s advice and divided up responsibility of certain sections of the project. By doing this, we ensured everyone was actively participating in the project and no one felt left out.
Overall, I feel that this class was very beneficial. I am certain that I will use the information I learned in this class in the future. As a landscape architect, I will have to write many proposals and correspond via e-mail often. Without this class, I would not know how to accurately perform these tasks.
Weblog Portfolio
The goal of this blog site is to provide Dr. Fricke with reflections and thoughts on assignments and on the overall class, at the same time creating an easily accessible portfolio of our work. I decided to provide the reader with a link to each assignment that was part of the post. I think incorporating the link into the discussion is more convenient than having a link tucked away at the end of the post.
At first I was very perturbed with having to go back through all of the assignments from this semester and write about them again. But now that I am writing my last post, I realize the importance of this assignment. It has made me mentally recap everything I have learned in ENGL2311. It also showed me that if I put my mind to it, and take the time, I can create a well crafted technical document. There were a few bad grades at the beginning of this class, but as I look through my work I can see a big change in my technical writing abilities that I might not have seen without this assignment.
Proposal Presentations Memo and Handout
The goal of the “Proposal Presentation Memos“ was to “Reflect on [our] overall group proposal effort. Demonstrate an understanding of how to manage complex group tasks. Show that [we] can produce a tactful, professional summary critique of colleagues”.
This assignment also gave us a chance to reflect on our performances and the performances of our group members as well as the overall outcome of the project.
Not meaning to sound like a broken record, I have to restate the fact that I could not be happier with the overall performance of my group members. I think that, together, we created an excellent presentation.
This was probably my favorite part because I got to use my creativity and public speaking skills. I was responsible for overseeing the presentation part of the group project. I created the PowerPoint presentation and handout formats. Before our meeting I put together several slides for the presentation. During our last meeting, we went through the PowerPoint and edited and added slides. At the last meeting we also decided what information to put on the handouts and what each of us was going to talk about during the class presentation.
The presentation went very well, in my opinion. We got very positive feedback from the class. I felt like we were very familiar with the information that was being presented. Therefore, we were able to talk to the class confidently, without having to stare at the board. I noticed a lot of people in the class, excluding my group, seemed to stutter or needed to read off the projection screen. I was very proud of my group and their public speaking abilities.
There is only one thing I would change about our presentation, and consequently the project. I would ad an explanation of what the Red and Black Game actually is. That was the only real question that was asked at the end of the presentation.
Formal Group Proposal Report
The goal of the “Formal Group Proposal Report” was to show our comprehension of everything we learned throughout the semester. We had to demonstrate our ability to accurately analyze our audience, present “a clear and concise problem statement, offering a persuasive solution, and providing focused supporting information” and finally create a professional document that presents a clear, well thought out solution.
For our proposal, we chose to promote student activities during the spring semester. We decided to specifically promote the Red and Black Game. This idea was not any of our ideas from the “Proposal Idea Memos”. After listening to Dr. Fricke’s lecture on “do-ability” and reading his feedback on our memos, we decided none of our initial ideas were practical for this assignment.
Our audience for this report was Mason Moses, President of the Student Government Association. Because this report would be presented to SGA, we wrote in a formal, positive, yet easy to understand tone. We presented two recommendations. One recommendation required planning, money and effort but would, in our opinion, be most effective. Therefore we presented actual statistics proving our point.
This assignment was fairly easy to complete after doing the rough draft assignment. Since we had originally planned on turning in this assignment for early grading, our rough draft was very nearly complete. We decided against early grading because Dr. Fricke was available during his office hours to go over our rough draft with us. One of our group members, Mike, volunteered to take in the document to have Dr. Fricke review it. Dr. Fricke gave us several suggestions on to to make our report better. I think our decision to not submit this assignment for early grading was a good move.
I think this project helped change the way I feel about group projects. When I have worked in groups in the past, I have always had to basically do the project on my own. Now that I look back on those bad experiences and compare them to this project, I must have just had bad luck with group members. I feel that the group I was assigned for this project was instrumental in creating a good report for this class. As I have stated before, I am not strong in the English department but, my group members Rachel and Mike are good at writing and editing. They were able to take my (and their) thoughts and turn them into a very effective document. Since I am more of a creative person, I was able to create an attractive and effective PowerPoint presentaion (according to the presentation feedback). So, I have learned that when organized and delegated properly,
Proposal Rough Draft and Progress Memo
The “Proposal Rough Draft” was the first major graded group assignment. We also handed in individually completed progress memos with this assignment.
The goal of the “Proposal Rough Draft” was to “clearly show the type of proposal [we were] working on, [our] topic or issue, [our] audience, [our] goal, and the strategies [we used] to achieve this goal”. This assignment was also used to show Dr. Fricke that we were actually working on this project and not waiting until the last minute to complete it. The purpose of the progress memos was to allow us to tell Dr. Fricke about our individual progress and any issues we might have been experiencing with our group members or the project itself.
The only real issues our group had was communication and finding time when everyone could meet. Several times e-mails or text messages were sent out but were not received by everyone. I am not aware of the reasons for this problem. Communication did not give us very much trouble though because if one person did not receive a message they would find out shortly after from a friend in the group. Finding times to meet however, was a slightly larger issue. Everyone in our group is active in extracurricular activities and therefore have very busy schedules. Once we talked through our availability, we were able to find a time that suited everyone. So, availability was only an issue for the first meeting.
This assignment probably took the most time to do. It required a lot of planning and collaboration. Initially, we wanted to turn in our project early, so our rough draft was almost entirely complete. We decided against turning the final in early, however, since Dr. Fricke was available during his office hours to go over the rough draft before the final product was due. Gathering our research took a lot of time, but I think it was an important aspect of our project.
During the time it took us to gather all the information we needed and to write the rough draft, our group became pretty close. We became more comfortable around each other and sometimes even got a little sassy with each other. One of our meetings was held at my house. I ordered pizza and the group stayed after we were done working and just watched TV and hung out.
Overall, this assignment was enjoyable. I think this was becaues our topic was fun to research and talk about. I also attribute our getting along to the speedy completion of this assignment.
Proposal Plan Memo
This “Proposal Plan Memo” assignment was the first of six group assignments in this class. Dr. Fricke divided the class into five groups. We had some input as to who we would work with. As I knew one of the girls in the class (Rachel Lambert)and had worked with her before on class projects, we decided to work together again. We did not know the other two guys in our group (Kurt Wood and Mike Rockne), but we quickly got to know each other and became comfortable working together.
As a group we had to come up with an idea for a proposal using a hypothetical or real issue. Previously, Dr. Fricke had the class write “Proposal Idea” memos. We did not use any of our original ideas because they were not “do-able” according to Dr. Fricke. Rachel had the idea of our final proposal issue which was to promote student activity during the spring semester. I think we all really liked her idea and were excited to do this project.
We also had to come up with a way to keep on track and keep our project organized. Often group projects can become unorganized because so many people are working toward the same goal. We decided to have regular meetings to work on the project together so we could keep editing time to a minimum. Projects can have lengthy editing times if they are written by several people separately because everyone has their own tone and style of writing.
We also came up with a system of delegating tasks. The project was already broken down into stages, so we assigned each person in the group to a specific stage. The person assigned to a certain stage would be in charge of the completion of that part of the project, collecting all individual work, and organizing the meetings during their part of the assignment. Overall, I think this method worked out very well. It ensured that everyone participated in the project and that no one person was stuck doing all the work.
The “Proposal Plan Memo” was not very exciting or particularly fun only because it was preparatory work. It did, however, give our group a chance to throw around idea and get to know each other. I think in some circumstances group members might feel shy about giving their input, but our group was able to give their opinions without feeling judged which I think really helped in this project.
Instructions Analysis
The main goal of the ”Instructions Analysis” assignment was to test our comprehension of how to analyze a document and how to test the effectiveness of that document.
The first step of the assignment was to select a set of instructions. It was recommended that we chose instructions that pertained to our major or future career. As a landscape architecture major, there are no real instructions on how to be a designer. So, I chose a set of instructions that I was very familiar with. A pumpkin pie recipe. I have made this recipe several times and I bake very often. As I bake often, I have used several different kinds of recipes. Some recipes are geared towards children and some toward experienced bakers. Having this knowledge I felt like this would be an easy assignment.
The second step of this assignment was to test the set of instructions using either the “usability testing handout” that was given out during class or to create our own method of user testing. I chose to test two people: an experienced baker and an inexperienced baker (test results can been viewed by clicking the appropriate link). By using the two extremes, I would be able to see which end of the spectrum the recipe was written for.
Finally, we wrote a 2-3 page memo. This memo described our test results, defined the specific audience, addressed any problems found with the instructions and suggested ways to improve the instructions.
Despite this assignment taking a little more time to complete it was one of my favorite assignments. Even though the specifics of the assignment were left up to us, I feel that it was structured enough to be easier than the “formal memo” assignment (which I had trouble with because the topic was left up to us). I enjoyed being able to incorporate one of my favorite hobbies into an assignment. The usability tests even turned out to be a fun way to spend time with my roommate and get my mom involved in what I do at school.
Formal Memo
For the ”Formal Memo“ assignment the goal was to “Practice writing relatively long, complex memos that are clear, efficient, well organized and grammatically correct”. In order to write an effective formal memo, the specific audience must be identified so that the tone and format of the document is appropriate.
For this assignment we had to write a 2-3 page memo to a specific audience of our choice. We were to chose one of the three memo types: informational, analytical or recommendation. We also had to design the memo format and tone to match our audience.
Before I began writing the memo, I used the “memo worksheet” that was handed out during class. This worksheet helped define the topic, audience and goal of the memo.
I chose to write a memo to my father. I have resorted to e-mails/ memos in the past when persuading him to do or let me do something. Therefore, I thought this would be an easy assignment. I chose to write an informative memo because they are the easiest to write.
I did not particularly enjoy this assignment. I did not enjoy having to make up something to write about. Because English is not my strong suit, it is easier for me to be assigned something specific to write about. Personally, I would have enjoyed and had an easier time with this assignment if the topic was given to me. I feel the assignment would still be effective because the audience would still have to be defined and the format designed.
I also found it hard to meet the minimum word requirement. Because in technical writing you use short, to the point sentences, I felt I had said everything I needed to say within the first page.
Resume And Job Letter
The “Resume and Job Letter” assignment was a very useful and practical project. Everyone needs to know how to make a professional resume at one point in their life. I will definitely use Dr. Fricke’s feedback from this assignment to make a better resume to use in the future.
For this project we were supposed to find a job ad in the field of our choice. Our job letter and resume would be a hypothetical practice exercise using the found job listing. However, with the permission of Dr. Fricke, I chose to create a resume and essay that I would send to Cornell as part of my transfer application.
In hindsight, this was a bad choice. Any essay I would send as part of my application would not be a technical document. Essays written are supposed to show personality and tell a story of who we are. This was a bad decision on my behalf. If I could repeat this project, I would chose to use a job ad like what was suggested.
Overall, both my resume and job letter/essay were poorly organized. I think this is because I was unaccustomed to the new writing style. I also think this is because as my first big project in this class I did not allow myself enough time to work on it. In normal English classes, I could wirte a paper fairly quickly. Technical writing is fast as well but, I find the editing process very time consuming. As for the resume, I just did not put forth as much effort as I should have.
