Final Post

I didn't want to think about something to write about, rather, I wanted to write about what I was thinking. It seems that lately all that's been on my mind is schoolwork. Things are coming down to the wire, and I'm trying my best to manage everything I have left to do. After next week, I will be home free and ready for a needed break. I've found that over the course of my higher education studies, I've learned to manage my stress a little better. It's weird, I can recall in the past freaking out over what seems like nothing now. And now, I have even more to freak out about, but I'm not. I think that what calms me is knowing that no matter what happens, it's not the end of the world. And things always seem to work out somehow.

I'm nearing the end of my time here at WSU and can see the light at the end of the tunnel. If all goes well, I should finish with a bachelor's degree in Digital Technology this coming Summer. My college career has been a long process and I'm ready to move on with my life. What that entails, I'm not quite sure, but does anyone really ever know for sure?

Response to Sergiy's "What I've learned..."

Sergiy and I seem to agree on a couple of the main things we've learned from English 402. It sounds like he and others have retained some practical skills from this class. A class always seems worth your time when you can take something useful away from it. One thing that Sergiy mentioned was rhetoric, which is something I dealt with more in depth in a previous class. Even still, it was nice to visit it again, and I enjoyed dissecting the videos we watched for the different forms of rhetoric.

What I learned in English 402

I would say that the main thing that I learned in this class is to be more concise and maintain an active voice in my writing. I've enjoyed practicing these things in my memos each week, as well as finding my own style of organizing information. What I liked most about this class was that I learned real-life uses for writing in a job setting. I feel like I can take something away from this class and use it in my current or future job.

It was interesting to learn about people with careers that involve different areas of writing. People have these job titles that one can sort of get an idea of what they do, but, as we learned, there can be many more aspects to a job that we never considered.

One thing that came up a lot in the reading for this class was making your writing reader-centered. I learned that you can't just jump into a piece of writing and target it to a general audience. Before you even start writing, you have to think about the people you're writing for, and even for those that may come in contact with your writing indirectly.

Response to Chapters 17 & 18

While chapter 17 felt mostly like a reiteration of previously learned tips on presenting, I did gain some new insight on audience recognition and interaction. It seems that most people would like to imagine that the audience wasn't even there, rather than interact with the people in it. However, if you don't pay attention to your audience, why should they pay attention to you? I try to make eye contact with people in the audience, but sometimes I will skim over their faces. When it comes to making a plan for where to look during the presentation and targeting particular facial features, I think that all of that would go out the window as soon as I started talking. The book suggests looking at people in the audience in 4 to 5 second intervals, which seems a bit long to be staring at someone. Having this happen to me as an audience member in the past, I recall it being somewhat odd. I think closer to 2 seconds would suffice.

One of the key points that stood out to me in chapter 18 was constructing a site that readers with disabilities can use. It's all too easy to forget about this aspect of building a site. I never thought about how the commonly used "click here" link could be so useless for the visually impaired. Websites are in a place where anyone can access them, greatly increasing the range of people that may visit a given site. The more adapted your site is to those with disabilities, the greater target your site will reach. People will not hesitate to leave a site that is unaccommodating to their special needs when they can find one that does.

Response to "The Persuaders"

It was fascinating to see the amount of effort that goes into advertising a product. Whether it's molding your product to represent an overall ideal or finding the "code" that seeks to sell the product. When I think about products and brands, I feel that many people are attracted to brands. I think that when people find a product that they like, in its cost and effectiveness, they tend to stick with that product. It may not even be the name brand, but it's still a brand. If you only go with the cheapest product, you might feel good about how much you spent, but does the product do what it should, does it last, does it taste good? This is where some level of disappointment can arise, when there's no satisfaction in what is purchased. People don't like to feel dissatisfied with the things they buy. When they find that product that gives them the results they're looking for, it's easier to stay loyal to it than to take the risk with something unfamiliar.

After watching "The Persuaders", I saw the pollster from the movie, Frank Luntz, on some political news show. He was talking about the real-time polls of people's reactions during presidential candidate speeches. It's amazing to me how the use of certain words can change someone's reaction negatively or positively, even when the topic is the same or the same message is being presented. People cling to these words that leave a lasting or "resonating" effect, as Luntz states. Many times these speeches rely less on the details of the issue and more on the verbal delivery and word usage surrounding the general idea of the issue.

Response to Chapters 2, 9 & 10

As I approach the end of my education at WSU Vancouver, I realize that the looming task of writing a resume is upon me. I couldn't help but try to absorb as much information from chapter 2 as I could. I'm almost certain I will be referring back to it soon. I believe the most important aspect of writing a resume, found in chapter 2, is finding out exactly what your potential employer is looking for in applicants of a certain position. Having many experiences and skills doesn't mean as much when it doesn't pertain to the job. As mentioned in the book, a little research in this area can make a big difference to employers who are narrowing down applicants. On a side note, one thing that I liked in this chapter was its encouragement for individuality through creativity in the overall design of resumes.

Chapter 9 provided information on what to include in the introduction of a communication. This section covers 9 guidelines in total. As I came to guideline 5, I started to question the high level of information that was being suggested for an introduction up to this point. However, as guideline 7 states, while the introduction can be brief or take up to several pages, there are a few things readers should know. What readers should know in the introduction of a communication are as follows:

• The reason they should read
• The main point
• The organization and scope
• The background information needed to understand

After these areas are covered, writers can tailor additional introduction information to their reader's needs.

Response to Todd Anderson

Todd makes a good point about choosing which areas of a draft to revise, without trying to fix everything. Also, he mentions to revise for the reader, not yourself. This made me think about a website that I am currently building. I keep getting hung up on every small detail, instead of focusing on the major parts of information that I want to get across to my viewers. It's not just a matter of having the information, but more about how it's presented, how accessible it is, and how reader/viewer-centered it is. I think that sometimes it's easy to try to make things to be the way you want them, while losing sight of making things the way readers/viewers want them. If you stick with the core issues and present them clearly, you can go back to all the small details later.

Response to chapters 14 & 15

Something that I have found to be quite helpful when revising my drafts, mentioned in guideline 3 of chapter 14, is reading my draft aloud. Often when I don't read aloud, my mind will try to fill in the blanks if a word is missing, or certain sentences will sound better in my head than read out loud. Another helpful tool during revision mentioned in the reading is have someone review your draft. This is something I don't do enough of due to time constraints. In the last writing class I took, we completed peer reviews on many of our drafts. Sometimes this process can be less than helpful, as I experienced early in the class. Other times, peer reviews can provide positive feedback, as I later discovered with different classmates. I think that it's a matter of finding people that don't try to say how great things are in your paper, but rather, make changes that would make the paper even better.

Chapter 15 will be something that I will refer to for my group project of designing a software task. One thing that will be interesting when trying to conduct a test of the task, is not intervening to help my audience when the test is being conducted. I think that it will be hard to refrain from helping those that require assistance, but I know that that is the purpose of the test, to find the areas that people have trouble with. One useful suggestion found in this chapter is to remain unobtrusive during observation. Many people don't like to be closely watched when they are trying to concentrate on doing something, it's often distracting.

Reponse to Melisa Dawson

Melisa, like many others in the class, focused on the ethical issue in journalism. I felt like the group ethics activity in class was a good way to think about and experience making ethical decisions. Melisa mentions how journalists have to decide between releasing a big story and protecting those that could be affected negatively by such a release. This is a constant dilemma, but I think journalists try hard to get the big story as best as they can. If there is an ethical issue, is seems like there is enough room to try and get around it, whether it's through attribution or obtaining appropriate consent from those closely involved. And as Melisa also mentions, people are attracted to disturbing and other controversial news, they want the big stories just as much as the journalists do. On the other hand, some people will have something negative to say about any kind of news that is put out there. The important thing for journalist is to do their best to prevent further harm to people associated with the particular story.

Broadcast Journalism

It was interesting to hear about what goes into producing a television news segment. I guess I didn't realize that so much of the content was dependent on one person to produce. It seems kind of crazy that an entire news segment starts with a meeting earlier in the day to cover material, followed by a seemingly frantic struggle to pull it all together by airing time. I was wondering if since much of the writing of a segment is produced by one person, does this ever result in repetitiveness from one particular broadcast to the next?

I think that news broadcasters are put in a difficult situation when they are constantly having to make tough decisions on what or what not to cover. They deal with ethical situations on a daily basis, and appear to have little time to weigh their options. On the other hand, they are able to avoid some of the repercussions of questionable stories through attribution. Even still, I think that it's important not to rely so much on attribution for protection when making these tough decisions.

Response to Traci Johnson

I can relate to what Traci mentions about watching or not watching a news station based on the anchors. I think that people focus on the anchors in how they present the news and this definitely has an influence on what station one will watch. I think that it's easier to focus on the negative aspects of news anchors and it can turn someone away from a particular channel. I can recall watching one news channel where one of the anchors said her words kind of funny and drawn out, and I couldn't help but focus on this every time I watched. I would say that it was somewhat distracting, and I could see how people could be bothered enough with an anchor to change the channel.

A good point that Traci makes is that today many people can get their news online and news stations have to compete with this. This makes me think about how news channels will hold out on presenting the forecast to get people to stay tuned, while I can simply get online and the information is right there. Part of the news station's competition with internet news involves promoting their own websites to their audience. If the station has a good website, they can potentially retain some of their audience in the online format.

TV News

When thinking about news in general, I can't help but notice how there has been this movement towards flashy entertainment. Some news channels seem to play-up everything to be bigger than it really is, attempting to catch the attention of viewers. I suppose if news is more entertaining, there is a greater likelihood of attracting more viewers. However, I think some stations lose sight of the importance of presenting good news and try too hard to be showy. Some news commercials seem to be over the top, and have cheesy special effects.

I don't really watch the news that often on my own. The only time I see it is when someone else has it on or when flipping through channels. I think that if these various news stations offered better quality information in a less dramatic way, I'd be more likely to watch. When I feel like when the news is reaching too far for stories that don't mean much or add too much hype to stories, it simply turns me away.

Response to Freelance Writing Posts

What I've noticed in several of the posts on freelance writing is that many of us, including myself, have realized that this form of writing is something that we could potential do right now if we wanted. After hearing the talk last week, and after completing the query letter assignment, I felt like I could actually follow through with a real-life freelance writing experience. I've never considered myself to be a writer, nor could I have seen myself writing for any publication until now. Dedicated writer or not, I still think it's nice to know that there are opportunities out there in the realm of freelance writing in which many of us could take on.

Freelance Writing

Being a freelance writer seems to me like a job that would be very freeing. If you like to work for yourself as a writer, this is the route to follow. You can work at your own pace, set your own schedule, and write about what interests you. Freelance writing is sort of like embarking upon a research project each time you find something to write about. The writers in this field really have to do their homework when it comes to presenting articles that publications are looking for. Before freelance writers can start collecting information on the topic for their article, they must first research what has been written about in the past.

Although there are many benefits to freelance writing, it still seems like a career that would be hard to commit to full-time. This line of work somewhat lacks security in that writers never know for certain when and if their articles will be accepted for publication. On top of that, the pay rate is often presented in a range, making it unclear as to the exact allowance for an accepted article.

I believe that freelance writing will give back what you put into it. If you spend a lot of time and effort producing what publications want, and go after the high-paying opportunities, this can be a very lucrative career. It can also be something that people do on the side, in addition to another job. A way to earn some extra money or write about interesting topics as they come along, but on your own time.

Response to Amela Colakovic's Chap. 8 & 19 Post

Amela brings up a couple of good thoughts on the chapter readings. She points out the fact that it is difficult to present one's own style in technical writing. Technical writing seems to strip everything down to get to the bare bones of the writing by cutting out all the fluff, avoiding fancy words, and really focusing on the readers. When it comes to establishing style in various forms of writing, writers must first be able to adapt to the conventions of the writing form itself, then focus on the appropriate style techniques.

Amela raises the question of how one can be creative and still please the client in a given project. She goes on to say that creativity seems like something that would have to be sacrificed in order to please the client. This is a good point because many times the client will request that things be done a certain way, and this may not be the direction that the project leader would have gone. Nevertheless, the client's satisfaction with the end product should be the ultimate goal of the project leader. On the other hand, however, I feel that in many cases clients will seek creativity in the people they choose to head their projects. I think that it is just a matter of trying to find a balance between creativity and what the client wants.

Chapter 8 & 19 Response

The first thing that really stuck out to me in chapter 8 was guideline 5 in the "Constructing Sentences" section. This guideline suggests varying sentence length and structure. This is something that I'm interested in because within the past couple years, I've tried to use more variety in my writing. This guideline focuses on using variety, but in a very specific way in order to add emphasis to a particular point. Longer sentences show the relationship between ideas, and shorter sentences emphasize the longer ones. This seems like an effective technique that I can use in my own writing.

Another interesting part of the chapter was guideline 4 in the "Selecting Words" section. This guideline recommends that plain words are used over fancy ones. At first, I was somewhat taken back by this because I figured that fancy words would sound more professional. As I read further, I found out that plain words are easier and quicker to comprehend, and fancy words can lead to irritation in the reader or even the belief that the writer is showing off. This made me think of the group revision exercise we did in class where one of the words in an example had to be looked up in order to understand what it meant. That is too much work for someone to go through just to comprehend what the writer is saying, and I now see how fancy words can be annoying to readers.

One of the most important parts of chapter 19, in my mind, was guideline 5. Ample communication with clients is the focus of this guideline. This section notes that problems, scheduling issues, and expansions of the project are common occurrence when working with clients on a project. When working with clients, meetings with them regularly will greatly increase the chances of the project working to their liking. Also, this will save the person doing the work a lot of time because they can address issues, concerns, or changes right away. This will avoid more work by not having to go back later to fix something that has already been started on prior to consulting the client.

Response to Son Ngo's "Rhetoric Digression"

Son makes a good point when he mentions that rhetoric is used all the time in everyday situations, whether people are sarcastic to convey a message or purposefully persuading others to get what they want. I had never even heard of rhetoric until last year in one of my writing classes. Now that I know what it is and how it is used, I find myself paying much more attention to rhetoric in everyday life. For instance, I was over at my mom's house and she was trying to get my younger sister to do something, and when my sister asked why she had to do it, my mom responded, "Because I'm your mom and I said so." This is a perfect example of ethos, where my mom is building up her credentials to express why my sister should listen to her. Children are expected to listen to their parents, and my mom is simply reiterating this through her statement.

A question Son asks in his post is if all the elements of rhetoric; ethos, logos, and pathos, were used together in one sentence, would that increase the effectiveness of persuasion. I believe that one could easily put together an effective sentence using the three elements of rhetoric. However, I feel that it is up to the writer to decide which element, or combination of the three, will work the best with the topic and the audience being persuaded. Sometimes writers may want to use ethos and logos to build up credentials and present a good line of reasoning, while finding it inappropriate to play on the emotional side of things, given the situation.

Chapter 6 & 7 Response

In chapter 6, guideline 2 provides some noteworthy advice when beginning a research project. This guideline suggests making a research plan by determining the various sources that will be used, and the preparation needed to evaluate each of them. The main point in this guideline is making sure that the information is not only appropriate to what it is being researched, but, even more importantly, that it is reader-centered enough to persuade readers. When conducting research, the goal for the researcher should be to find the best information possible. To help meet this goal, one should consider starting with a general search, scheduling enough time to complete research, and examining multiple research methods, as mentioned in the book.

Another helpful suggestion within chapter 6, guideline 6, is to take careful notes during research. The book recommends keeping track of sources by making bibliographic notes that include things like the author, title, year of publication, and so on. One thing that I've found to be useful when researching is to use an annotated bibliography. This is basically a bibliography that has a written evaluation following the citation where the researcher provides a summary of the main points and the relevancy of the source. This is very helpful for going back to review sources at a later time. It eliminates having to read sources over and over in order to remember what they are about.

I found the section within chapter 7 on revealing organization in writing to be informative, especially the headings and visual arrangement of text categories. Some tips within the headings category included:

• Whether to use parallel headings or a mix of headings
• Ways of designing headings (color, boldness, size, hierarchal levels)
  
• The different kinds of headings (questions, key words, and main ideas)

The visual arrangement section touches on using lists, indenting subordinate information, and starting new chapters or major sections on a new page in long communications.

Rhetoric

I guess I would say that I've had a fair amount of contact with rhetoric prior to taking this class. I took a class last year that explored various rhetorical conventions and how they worked to persuade others. While one will always see either ethos, pathos, logos, or some combination within the three in any form of writing, many times one will see rhetorical fallacies as well. Fallacies often occur within arguments that are made in writing. So, a fallacy would be when a writer makes an argument about something and there is an error in the reasoning of that argument. For example, ad hominem is the name of a common fallacy, although there are many others. This fallacy occurs when person A has a claim, person B attacks person A, therefore person A's claim is false.

The 3 Elements of Rhetoric

Ethos: We learned that this is the self or the I in writing. I think of the word ethics. In writing, I believe it to be how you present yourself and your credentials. If you present some information or make a claim, the reader will want to know your experience in presenting such information in order to determine whether or not to trust what it is you're saying.

Logos: Logos is logic. It is the structure in writing. Whether or not one's writing is clear and follows a good line of reasoning.

Pathos: This is all about emotion. How a writer creates emotional feelings in readers. A good use of pathos is to try to find a commonality between the writer and the reader. For example, one might say, "This is our right as human beings," in order to make an emotional feeling of togetherness or equality.

Response to Chapters 4, 5, 16, and 23

What I found most interesting in chapters 4 and 5, was the idea of direct pattern and indirect pattern of organization. In other words, whether your writing should present the main point right off the bat, or wait to reveal it towards the end of the proposal. The book mentions that direct pattern is the most common way to go and is best used with conveying good news or presenting something your readers will respond to favorably or objectively. Indirect is said to be better suited for situations where a reader may be receiving bad or alarming news and a direct method would only create defensiveness in readers, or irritate readers that just want the main point. Obviously proposal writers must understand which method to use, and the book suggests thinking about the reader's moment-to-moment reaction to each format in order to decide which method will be more effective.

In chapter 16, guideline two suggests a useful team project planning tool, storyboards. I've used storyboards in the past and they can be very useful for getting your points and ideas lined up in sequential order, while including the visuals to go along with them. The book provides a layout on page 444 that may be useful for the group project in this class. This layout allows for main points and their subpoints on one side of the paper, and the other side is used for jotting notes or sketching possible graphics that will coincide with what is being communicated.

Chapter 23 will undoubtedly be a beneficial resource for those in the technical writing groups. This chapter provides good insight on what is needed for an efficient instructional guide. I found that there were many useful tips, especially in the "directions" segment of the chapter. Tips such as being succinct and using an active voice, highlighting keywords, numbering and separating steps for quick identification, using many graphics, and distinguishing actions apart from supporting info. I considered that last tip to be the most useful because it makes the actions more noticeable from other material, which is what readers want to get to quickly without having to read so carefully around other, less immediate information.

Response to Sergiy Kondrenko

One of the main things that Sergiy focused on in his chapter 3 post was in issue of cross-cultural communication. This was a major part of the chapter, and Sergiy did a good job of emphasizing the importance of it, even quoting the chapter on the amount of money that goes into international trades. I liked how Sergiy was able to identify with this issue by showing how it related to a class that he took. This actually made me think of my last writing class, and how our main book's focus was on globalization. So, I can really see how important communication with other cultures can be, given that it is a topic that comes up quite regularly in schools, and is something many of us may come in contact with in our careers.

Chapter 3 Response

This chapter demonstrates the importance of the way in which one communicates to readers in their writing. Readers may differ in their organizational roles, levels of superiority, or cultural backgrounds, and it's up to the writer to identify exactly who those readers are. It's interesting to see just how many people may come across something that you write at work, when, in many cases, the people you intend your writing for don't always include all of your readers.

While reading this chapter, it seemed near impossible to predict every potential reader, and even harder to address each of their needs or concerns. There were so many different variables associated with each possible reader. As mentioned in the chapter, one really has to be an expert in order to understand fully those who will come in contact with their proposals, and how they will respond to them.

I think that overall this chapter does a good job of showing all the different kinds of readers, and emphasizing the importance of knowing them and focusing on how each of them will read your message. With this in mind, I like how it's not expected for a writer to be able to meet every single reader's needs, but rather to keep the "stakeholders" of your proposal in mind throughout your writing process. I think page 84 says it best when it mentions that audiences can be complex, and that sometimes a writer may have to focus only on the needs of the most influential members of that audience. And even if that is the case, the writer can only be effective by first identifying each member or group in the audience.

Response to chapters 1, 20, and 22 of "Technical Communication"

After readings these chapters, I get a much better understanding of what technical writing is. It is highly centered around work-related writing, which I feel is a good thing to know how to do. I like the comparisons between work and school writing and how they differ greatly. On the other hand, I also noticed some similarities as well. Chapters one and twenty made me think about my current job, and I was able to relate some of what the book was talking about to what I experience at work, while chapter twenty-two reminded me somewhat of writing I've done in school.

Chapter one mentions the importance of a personal dimension in work writing, where one should be able to communicate effectively. This made sense because in many work-related writings, the message or information being conveyed is often directed to a number of people at all levels of positions, and one must communicate well in order to display the information in the best possible way. One thing I related to in this chapter was the idea that one should only say what is needed and nothing more in order to make things brief so that people can locate information quickly. I often have to read instructions for certain tasks at my job from time to time, and it is always nice to read something that is short and to the point instead of something that is long and wastes my time, without specifically giving me the answers I need.

I found the email portion of chapter twenty interesting and relevant to my current job as well. Emails are said to be effective if they are short and to the point, without including entire messages that have been continually forwarded along. When I get emails that are the opposite of this, I often will not have, nor take, the time to read every last word, and it's a pain to have to search around for what the real purpose is. One thing mentioned in the book that I never really thought about was the fact that emails can be looked over and retrieved by the employer anytime they wish. That makes you think about what you put in your emails.

Chapter twenty-two made me think about my experience writing a proposal paper last semester in school. There were a lot of similarities between each proposal paper, but the biggest difference is that in work-related proposals, one is basically selling his/herself instead of just an idea and a possible solution. One not only has to list objectives and possible solutions, he/she also has to demonstrate how they are going to do what they say they're going to do along with a list of resources, a detailed schedule, his/her qualifications, how the project will be managed, and a good idea of what all of it will cost. It is much easier to write proposals in school when you are not the one that actually has to solve the problem that you are proposing.