The first course goal was to analyze communication contexts rhetorically by understanding audiences, purposes, and situations.  This course goal was met by all of the assignments for this class.  In every document you write, you must analyze your audience, purpose, and situation in order to tailor your document appropriately.  For example, when writing my job letter and resume, I had to write it keeping in mind that a potential employer was going to read it.  I had to think like my audience in order to write the paper effectively.  Also, when writing my multicultural redesign, it was very important to remember that I was writing for someone in
Thailand.  My redesign had to fit the different culture norms and beliefs, such as individualism vs. collectivism and feminine vs. masculine.  It is very important to keep in mind your audience, situation, and purpose in order to write effective communication.

The second course goal was to create technical documents that solve problems and improve situations through communication.  This course goal was met through the correspondence package assignment.  For example, the purpose of writing my claim letter was to come to a resolution with the Dell Corporation.  This document would potentially solve my problem with my defective printer.  My using the appropriate document, I was able to effectively communicate with Dell in order to receive a new printer.  This goal was also met through the bad news memo.  The memo is effective in delivering bad news to employees while still remaining mostly positive.  By encasing the bad news in between two sections of good will, I solved a problem and improved communication with others in the company.

A third course goal was to write effective technical prose.  This course goal was met by every assignment given in this class.  For every assignment, I had to be able to write effectively in order to solve my problem, or meet the needs of the situation.  For example, while writing my job letter, I had to use clear and effective prose in order to convince the reader, a potential employer, that I had the necessary writing skills to perform whatever job it is that I am applying for.  Being able to write effective technical prose is a skill that is necessary in every document that you write.

The fourth course goal was to design convincing and usable documents.  This goal was met by all of the assignments.  Using design techniques in your writing helps a reader analyze the document in an easy and effective way.  For example, using appropriate spacing, graphs and charts, pictures, bold fonts, and different size fonts will help the reader to better follow your document in a more effective and less confusing way.  Making your documents visually appealing is an easy way to get your reader interested in your document.  In the instructions set, for example, using design was very important to the user-friendliness of the document.  Using design elements such as bold fonts and pictures made my instructions easier to follow.  Design was also an important element in the oral presentation.  Using design in the power point slides made the presentation go more smoothly and presented the information more effectively to the audience than with talking alone.

The fifth course goal was to analyze the ethical responsibilities involved in technical communication.  Ethics should play a part in everything a person does in their life, including their communication, both written and oral.  Ethics is simply doing what is right.  One of the assignments that has a huge focus on ethics is the resume.  The sole purpose of a resume is to make yourself look appealing to a potential employer in order to get an interview with that company.  Because of the nature of the resume, it is a document that makes it very tempting for a person to pad or even lie on in order for them to make themselves more appealing to an employer.  However, one must realize that doing the ethical thing is always a better idea.  Employers can always find out if you lied on your resume by doing some research, and in the end it is better to portray yourself as you are instead of as you are not.  Ethical responsibilities in technical communication are very important and played a part in every assignment we did in this class.

The sixth course goal was to communicate effectively with diverse audiences.  Communicating with diverse audiences is an important skill to use in many different forms of communication.  When writing the instruction set, it was important to write the instructions to where people from diverse groups could understand and follow them.  With a document like an instruction set or a process description, you never know exactly who will be reading it.  In order to reach as many people as possible with your writing, you must make it applicable to many different types of people.  One way to do this is through plain English.  Plain English is when you tailor your communication style to fit people from diverse backgrounds.  You must avoid using slang and technical jargon that most people could not follow.

The seventh and last course goal was to collaborate on communication projects.  In today’s workplace, working with others on different projects is more the norm than the exception.  It is very important to learn how to work with others and how to find everyone’s strengths and weaknesses in order to find out what their greatest contribution to the group will be.  This goal was mainly met through the proposal and the oral presentation of the proposal.  By working in groups, we were better able to fully explore the topic of our proposal and able to determine what topic fit best for our group and our assignment.  Working in groups can be both beneficial and frustrating.  The saying that the group is only as good as its worst member is unfortunately true on group projects.  It is essential on group projects that the people on the team work together and that each member contributes equally.  Being aware that others are depending on you is a strong motivator in group projects.

Throughout the semester, we completed many different assignments and learned many new skills.  When I first enrolled in technical writing, I was expecting a class filled with boring assignments and was simply hoping to get out of the semester a little more educated then when I started.  I have been pleasantly surprised throughout the semester by how much I have learned and how many new skills I have acquired.  For example, I am now more aware of the use of design in my documents and how design affects my readers.  I am also more skilled at analyzing my audience and tailoring my documents to my readers.  These skills will be useful throughout my career and in every day life.

There were many documents assigned for the semester, but the one that I am most proud of is my resume.  I had prepared resumes before, and thought at first that this would be an easy assignment for me.  However, when we started going through the process of putting a resume together, I realized how involved a resume can be.  The resumes I had written before were not tailored to any type of specific audience.  Through the resume assignment, I learned that you must change your resume for every job that you apply for.  Tailoring your resume for different opportunities only betters your chances of being offered an interview.  After looking back on a resume I turned in for a previous class, I realized how much this class has improved my resume writing skills and how much that will help me in the future.  After a lot of hard work, I finally got my resume to where I am proud to show it anyone.

The documents that we were assigned that I am the least proud of are the reader responses.  I feel that I did not give enough attention to the assignments and should have focused more time on them.  Because they were not worth as many points as some other assignments, I did not feel that they merited much attention.  However, I feel as if I could have done a much better job expressing my opinion and my knowledge of the things we had discussed.

The most challenging assignment for me was the instruction set.  I did not have as much trouble writing the document as I did in coming up with an idea for the assignment.  I had the hardest time developing any ideas on what to write about for the assignment.  My career will most likely be in social work or counseling, so I could not think of any instruction sets that would apply in these situations.  I am sure that there are many, but none would come to mind while I was trying to complete my assignment.  Therefore, I chose to write an instruction set over how to pick corn and prepare it for freezing.  I will not do this in my future profession, but I have done it many times on my grandfather’s farm.  I am sure that I could have come up with a better topic, but writer’s block was severe at the time of this assignment.

Another assignment that was difficult for me was the solicitation e-mail.  I personally do not like to receive these e-mails and had a difficult time coming up with one that others would want to read.  I am not involved in any organizations and had a difficult time coming up with an idea for the e-mail.  I finally decided to write about the Ronald McDonald House Charities because I had done an internship there this past summer and felt that it was for a good cause.  I decided that it is much easier to try to get people to do what you want them to do when it is for a good cause.  It is also much easier to try to convince people to do something when you have actually done it yourself.  Although I did have first hand knowledge of the organization, it was still difficult for me to conform my writing to the solicitation e-mail genre and come up with a way to convince a reader to join my organization.

The assignment that was the easiest for me was the bad news memo.  I sometimes am assigned to write memos such as this at my job, so I had a little bit of prior experience with this topic.  Additionally, for an assignment like this, I just asked myself how I would like to be approached with bad news at my job.  Presenting good will at the beginning and end of the memo with the bad news in the middle just seemed like the most logical way to present the negative information and not offend anyone or step on anyone’s toes. 

One of the things that I accomplished in this portfolio that surprised me is the portfolio itself.  I am not all that skilled on a computer and have never set up a blog before.  I am very proud of myself for learning the skills necessary to design my blog.  I am also very glad that I learned these skills with today’s workplace being as wired as it is.  I believe that this skill will benefit me greatly in the future.

Throughout this semester, I have acquired many skills that I had not had before.  I have learned to better analyze my audience before writing my document and have learned that the true purpose of a job letter is not to just make my resume look more professional.  I had never thought about tailoring my writing to a global audience and am glad that I was made aware of this concept before going out into the workplace.  I realize that it is a fairly simple concept in this day and age, but I have never had to use this skill in my experiences.

In conclusion, through this class I have improved my writing skills and am better prepared for my future career.  My perception of technical writing has changed for the better and I have further developed as a writer.  I believe that this class had been very beneficial for me and I have definitely come away from it with more knowledge and skills than I started out with.

We believe that our proposal is feasible because of the amount of money the church spends on outsourcing for banners and other printed materials each year.  By purchasing a plotter, the church will be saving money and time in the long run, which are the two most important points of most proposals.

I think that the collaboration of the group helped our project.  Each of us brought a new perspective to the paper and each had skills that only improved the overall quality of our proposal.

I think that this project met a few different course goals.  The first goal met was to analyze communication contexts rhetorically by analyzing audiences, purposes and situations, while a second goal met was collaborating on communication projects.  With this project, we worked together in groups to write a report, which met the collaboration goal.  In order to effectively write this report, we had to analyze our audience to determine what style of writing would be the most effective, which met the first course goal.

I think that I will be using many of the types of writing styles that we discussed in class in my future jobs.  I am already using my resume and cover letter writing skills in my search for a job and design techniques in all of my documents.  I will use memo writing in my future job to communicate with my boss and colleagues.  Also, as a counselor or social worker, I will probably use some type of report writing to write up case summaries and the like.  My audiences for my writing will be varied.  At times I will be writing for my boss, for myself, and for others.  I will use my knowledge of multicultural writing in my job because I will most likely have to communicate with people from other cultures.  For example, I may have to tailor some of my writing to the Hispanic population because of the large Hispanic population in this area.

Overall, I have been pleasantly surprised by how different this class was from my initial expectations.  I have learned many valuable skills that I will continue to use not only in other classes, but in future jobs and daily activities.  I feel that this class has been a valuable learning experience for me.

I think that there are various strengths and weaknesses in the proposal for the feasibility study on a pedestrian tunnel. One strength is that the tasks are well thought out and very detailed. They tell the reader exactly what they plan to do in order to get their information. Also, their plan is well researched. However, I think that some of their methods are flawed. One weakness is that they only plan to survey 100 students on their opinion about the need for a pedestrian tunnel. They claim that the enrollment at Texas Tech is about 29,000, so I believe that more students should be surveyed. Additionally, surveying only those students at the University and Broadway crossing may skew the survey results. These students are actually crossing University, so they may be more inclined to say that a tunnel in necessary as opposed to students who may park on campus or cross the street to get to campus at a different location. Also, students may not take the time to fill out a survey if they are hurrying to get to class. I think that a better method would be to survey students at the student union when students will have more time, or survey students during class if a professor approves.

The second proposal is a proposal on improving food inspections of Lubbock restaurants. This proposal also has strengths and weaknesses. A strength of the proposal is that it gives a clear timeline for the tasks. However, I find this proposal confusing overall. First of all, the proposal is for improving food inspections of Lubbock restaurants. What exactly does that mean? In both the survey and the questionnaire, people are asked if the quality of their eating experience has improved in the past year. I do not see how asking someone about the quality of their dining experience relates to improving food inspections. People may say that their experience has improved but that does not necessarily mean that the food inspection has improved. I also think that giving the questionnaires about only low-performing restaurants is a weakness. A person’s impression of a restaurant has more to do with timeliness and service than with different health codes. Someone from the general public would probably not know just by eating at a place that a code is being violated. It may be a better tactic to have inspectors inspect these restaurants once before the new regulations are put into place and then maybe every three months to track the progress.

The third proposal is a proposal for the renovation of the intramural fields. I think that this proposal is fairly well though out and well organized. The steps of the proposal and the timeline are easy to follow. However, I think that there are some weaknesses to this proposal. First of all, I think that the timeline for this proposal is too strict. Most of the proposal steps are only given one to two weeks to be completed. Since this proposed project is being done outdoors, the team needs to account for things such as weather delays and give more time on their schedule for these things. Also, this plan never mentions why these renovations need to be done. There should be some type of research into whether these renovations are economically feasible and if they are needed at all. It seems like this is more like a process description than a proposal plan.

The first Gestalt design principle is balance.  Balance in a document creates a sense of stability.  Balance is created when the top and bottom of a document and the left and right sides of a document are weighted the same.  In my opinion, I do not feel like the IT bulletin uses balance very effectively.  The top of the document is very graphic-heavy, while the rest of the document is very text-heavy.  The bulletin does use a three column grid design, which is helpful.  However, the placement of graphics seems random and not balanced.  The different graphics are not aligned and lead the reader’s eye away from the text.

The second Gestalt principle is alignment.  Alignment is achieved by aligning information either horizontally or vertically on a page.  This helps a reader identify information either as a unit or as different levels of information.  The bulletin uses vertical alignment.

The third Gestalt principle of design is grouping.  Grouping means that items on a page that are near each other are seen as a unit.  Grouping is useful to break up information into smaller blocks that are easier to read.  Grouping is used in the IT bulletin by dividing the information into columns, using white space, and using headings. 

The fourth Gestalt principle is consistency.  Consistency is when the design features are consistent throughout a document.  Typefaces and sizes should be the same for headlines of similar importance.  Also, lists should be numbered is they are sequential and bulletted if they are non-sequential.  The IT bulletin uses both numbers and bullets for its lists.  However, the list that is numbered in not sequential, therefore, it should not be numbered.  It should be bulletted instead.

The fifth and last Gestalt design principle is contrast.  Contrast is used to make items in a document look different.  Contrast is used in the IT bulletin by using different colors for different items.  For example, the headings are in green, while the other items are written in black.  Also, the top part of the document has a green background, helping the white lettering stand out.

Overall, I think that the IT department did a good job of using the five Gestalt principles of design: balance, alignment, grouping, consistency, and contrast.  However, there is always room for improvement in document design, and some improvements could be made to this document.  

There are many similarities and differences in an instruction set and a process description. One of the most basic similarities is that both the instruction set and the process description are telling a person how something is done. The difference is that with a process description, the audience is not actually going to be doing what is being described. With an instruction set, however, the audience is using the instruction set because they are actually performing the steps being written. An instruction set uses direct actions while a process description uses passive language. An instruction set may say such things as “go to www.blah.com and click on the log-in icon.” A process description would say “after going to the website, the user logs in.” The directions are more direct on an instruction set because the reader is actually going to be doing the steps.

While doing this assigment I encountered several of the course objectives. I communicated effectively with diverse audiences by making my document clear and easily understood by a diverse reader population. I also designed convincing and usable documents by including different styles of design in my document, including bold type, differing size type, and graphics. Also, I analyzed communication contexts by understanding my audience, purpose, and situation.

           
Thailand is my country for the multicultural revision of my claim letter.  Thailand is located in Southeast Asia in a region that has been populated for the last four thousand years.  The Thai are a very collectivistic society, putting the needs of the group ahead of the needs of the individual.  The Thai are also a country with a high power distance score.  This can be seen through the different ways in which it is customary to greet friends as opposed to greeting elders and religious leaders.  For example, Buddhist monks do not return wai, or greeting, because there is a great social distance between monks and non-monks.  On the masculinity scale, Thailand ranks low.  They are a highly feminine society.  One way that this is seen is through the custom of the youngest daughter receiving the parents’ home.  In more masculine societies, the first-born son usually inherits such things.

            Because of Thailand’s high power distance and uncertainty avoidance scores and its low individuality and masculinity scores, I changed some aspects of my claim letter.  The first change in my claim letter came in the greeting.  Instead of saying “Dear Customer Service Manager”, I changed the greeting to “Dear Dell Corporation” to accommodate the Thai’s high power distance and low individuality.  The second change came in the introductory paragraph.  I used the first paragraph to talk about how my family and I use the Dell products and about the company’s great reputation.  I did this because of the country’s collectivistic nature.  The Thai put the needs of the company before the needs of the individual; therefore, I talked about the company as a whole.  I also used “my family and I” instead of just “I” to appeal to the femininity of the Thai.  Because Thailand has high uncertainty avoidance, I tried to appeal to this by stating twice in the letter exactly what action I wanted the company to take.  It might make the company feel uneasy if I gave them different options to choose from, so narrowing it down to only one should make it easier for the company.

Plain English Revision       

         Original Paragraph

I am disappointed because the printer does not function at all when hooked up to the computer.  The power button lights up, but the printer does not produce any prints.  I have read through the online trouble shooting guide and contacted the technical support technicians.  The technicians and I ran through different scenarios but cannot seem to remedy the problem.

          Plain English Sample

The printer does not function when connected to the computer.  The printer does not produce any prints.  I read the online guide and contacted technical support.  Technical support applied different scenarios but did not remedy the problem. 

In my plain English sample, I left out the “I am disappointed” because it adds unnecessary words to the sentence.  It is not necessary to know that I am disappointed to know that the printer is not working.  I also changed “hooked up” to “connected” because it is harder to misinterpret the work “connected”.  I took out the words “at all” because they are extra padding that are not necessary.  I revised the second sentence by changing “technical support technicians” to “technicians” because the first way is redundant.  I changed “ran through” to “applied” in the last sentence because “applied” is easier to understand.

Works Cited

CultureGrams, World Edition, 2005.  Kingdom of
Thailand.