Jason W. Ellis – Page 3 – ENG2575 OL88 Technical Writing, Spring 2021

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 6

To begin your thinking for the Instruction Manual Project, use this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment to brainstorm three possible topics relating to your studies and future career for your instruction manual.

For this assignment, create a memo addressed to Prof. Ellis with the subject line of Instruction Manual Options. In the body of the memo, briefly discuss the pros and cons of each of your three options for the instruction manual. The pros would be the things that would support your success on the project (e.g., knowing a lot about the topic, having access to what your instructions would be about, etc.) and the cons would be the things that would make the project difficult (e.g., having to learn more about the topic, not having access, etc.). After weighing the pros and cons for each of your three options, state in the last sentence which topic you have selected for your instruction manual.

Write your memo in your word processor of choice, and then copy-and-paste it into a comment added to this post.

For your additional homework this week, engage in peer review on the Expanded Definition Project after Prof. Ellis sends emails to each team, and create a Google Doc using the Instruction Project outline below and begin writing the directions portion of your document. The lecture next week will go over more details for the other sections. And, your own review of instruction manuals will help you think through what information you should include in these sections.

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Intended Audience
1.3 Scope
1.4 Organization Description
1.5 Conventions (abbreviations, left/right)
1.6 Motivation (answers the “so what” question)
1.7 Safety and Disclaimers
2.0 Description of the Equipment
2.1 Illustration of the Equipment
2.2 Description of the Equipment’s Parts
3.0 List of Materials and Equipment Needed
3.1 Illustration of the Parts Needed to Carry Out the Instructions
3.2 Tools needed
3.3 Table of the parts with description of each
4.0 Directions
4.1 The Task These Directions Are Designed to Show
4.1.1 Step 1 (don’t write Step 1--write a brief statement on what the first step is)
4.1.2 Step 2
4.1.n …Step n being some number (write as many steps--briefly--as you can think of--you can fill this list out later)
5.0 Troubleshooting
6.0 Glossary
7.0 Reference List

Lecture, Week 5

In this week’s lecture, I continue discussing the Expanded Definition project, set out the goals for the project over the coming weeks, mention the Job Search Advice OpenLab site, and go over the Weekly Writing Assignment.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 5

This Weekly Writing Assignment is meant to help you vet or evaluate where some of your research comes from and report back what you find. Watch this week’s lecture before performing this assignment so that you learn more about the process that I suggest for discovering the information requested below.

For this assignment, refer to two journal articles from different journals that you came across in your research (or, search for your Expanded Definition term again in IEEExplore and/or Academic Search Complete to find two examples for this assignment).

Using the built-in tools in the databases where you found the article and search sites like Google, DuckDuckgo, or Bing, learn more about the specialization of the journal and the kinds of research that it publishes and find out the name of the editor-in-chief and their professional background (degrees, affiliation, and research specializations).

Then, type a short paragraph in your word process of choice that identifies the name of the two journals that you investigated for this assignment and describe in your own words what each journal specializes in. And, identify each journal’s editor-in-chief and describe their professional details, such as degrees and where they were earned, their affiliation (where they work/teach), and their research specializations (if possible to find).

Finally, copy-and-paste your paragraph into a comment added to this post.

This assignment should not take very long. Focus most of your time this week on completing a draft of your Expanded Definition essay.

Job Search Advice, Week 5

As discussed in this week’s lecture, I built an OpenLab Site called Job Search Advice. It offers help with preparing your resume, cover letter, and other materials for your job search. It includes a video lecture, sample documents, and useful links. It’s meant to be a useful resource for you all. If you know other City Tech students not in our class who might want to check it out, please feel free to share!

Lecture, Week 4

Remember to watch this week’s lecture and take notes on it before proceeding with the work described in the posts below, which cover the Expanded Definition project, the Weekly Writing Assignment, and submitting your 500-Word Summary project.

Stop by my office hours on Wednesday from 3:00-5:00pm with your questions, or email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.

Outline for Expanded Definition Project, Week 4

During this week’s lecture, I discussed the following outline as a good model for you to follow while creating your own Expanded Definition essay. A good rule of thumb for your quoted material would be at least 2 cited definitions and 3 cited contextual sentences, but you might find having more definitions and more contextual sentences strengthen your essay. Remember to discuss, explain, and compare/contrast the quotes that you find to help your reader understand how these all relate to one another before endeavoring to write your working definition at the end of your essay.

Your Name's Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM

TO: Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM: Your Name
DATE: Due Date
SUBJECT: Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Quote several definitions of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and parenthetical citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Quote several sentences from a variety of sources that use the term in context. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal or two, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should be in quotes, have a parenthetical citation, and a bibliographic entry in your references at the end of your document.

Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your APA-formatted bibliographic references by the author's last name, alphabetically. In your posted version, they do not need a hanging indent. And, they should not be in a bulleted list.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 4

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, compose a short memo (remember the memo header of TO, FROM, DATE, and SUBJECT) to Prof. Ellis with the subject, “Expanded Definition Research.” In the body of your memo, write and reflect on how and where you are finding sources for your Expanded Definition project. What databases and research websites are you using? Are you using The New York Times (signup for a free pass here) and Archive.org? No more than 250 words are needed. The main thing is to communicate to me that you are performing your due diligence to find useful definitions and contextual quotes of the term that you selected. Write your memo in your preferred word processor and then copy-and-paste your memo into a comment added to this post.

How to Submit Your 500-Word Summary, Week 4

Refer to this week’s lecture for more details on how to post your 500-Word Summary project to our OpenLab Course Site.

Below, I am including some screenshots to guide you through the process of creating a post for your 500-Word Summary.

To begin your own Post, login to OpenLab, navigate to our Course Site, mouseover the “+” icon, and click “Post.”

Before typing anything, look under Categories on the right and add a check next to “500-Word Summary.”

Click in the “Add Title” section to enter your title (e.g., Summary of Lin’s “3D Layering of Integrated Circuits”). Then, click in the “Start Writing” area and copy-and-paste your 500-Word Summary memo from your word processor into this area.

After copyediting your work to ensure everything is as you want it to be, click on “Publish” and then click “Publish” on the next screen. Verify that your post is live on the site by clicking on “ENG2575 Technical Writing” at the top center to return to our Course Site and then click on the down arrow next to Student Projects in the left menu and 500-Word Summary beneath it to see your project posted.

Lecture, Week 3

In Week 3’s lecture, we cover: Announcements/Housekeeping, Peer Review for the 500-Word Summary, the 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project, and this week’s homework (peer review) and Weekly Writing Assignment (beginning research for the Expanded Definition Project). Remember to watch the entire lecture and make notes before responding to Peer Review or the Weekly Writing Assignment. Also, office hours on Wednesday from 3:00-5:00pm via the link on the syllabus, or you can email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu with your questions.

Weekly Writing Assignment, Week 3

After watching this week’s lecture above, use this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment to begin your initial research on the next project: 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project. This is the second individually-based project in the class. The goal is to write 750-1000 words that provide an extended definition of a term relevant to your field of studies and/or future career. Below is the synopsis of the assignment from the syllabus:

Individual: 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition, 15%

Individually, you will write a 750-1000 word expanded definition of a technical or scientific term, with cover memo, which demonstrates: 1. correct memorandum format. 2. knowledge of the etymology and historical development of the term. 3. examples of the term’s use in various written contexts. 4. ability to compare and contrast various uses of the term. 5. use and citation of sources with proper attribution. 6. awareness of audience. At least three library-sourced citations are required and should be cited following APA format.

As detailed and explained in this week’s lecture, your Weekly Writing Assignment this week is an opportunity to begin your research, settle on a term to focus on, and find three quotes that you might use in your project. With that in mind, add a comment to this post with the following before next week:

Begin with a short paragraph that begins with a statement about three possible terms that you considered and performed cursory research on for your project and concludes with the one term out of the three candidates that you ultimately decided to focus your expanded definition project on.
After using the library’s databases and reference guide shown in this week’s lecture, perform more focused research on the single term that you selected and copy-and-paste three quotes–each quote must come from a different source (e.g., one from a dictionary, one from an encyclopedia, and one from an ebook, or all three from different dictionaries, or all three from three different encyclopedias, or all three from journal articles, etc. All combinations will yield quotes that you might use in your expanded definition essay).
After each quote, write an APA bibliographic reference for your selection.
As always, write your Weekly Writing Assignment in a word processor, save your work, and then copy-and-paste it into a comment added to this post.
Remember to rely on the Purdue Owl APA Guide (and its sections listed on the left menu), and the APA Style Guide’s Dictionary References Guide.

Author: Jason W. Ellis