During the first ten minutes of class today, write a summary of your reading from Paul Anderson’s Technical Communication: Chapter 17, Revising Your Drafts. You have already been using some of his suggestions in your work on Project 1. In addition to your summary, consider these questions: How might you put revision practices into action in your other classes at City Tech? How might you put revision practices into action in the workplace?
During the first ten minutes of today’s class, write a summary of Anderson’s TC Chapter 8: Drafting Reader-Centered Paragraphs, Sections, and Chapters. Think about how these things relate to the usefulness-focus of workplace communication. As with your previous writings, you should format this as a memo. One thing that I have noticed few people doing is that your memo should begin with the word “Memo” or “Memorandum” at the top of the page (normally this is centered  but in a comment box you cannot add that kind of formatting, which is okay). Then, you give your from, to, subject, date block followed by your summary.
During the first ten minutes of class today, write a summary memo (don’t forget the full memo format–title MEMO, from/to/subject/date block, and content) of Anderson’s Technical Communication Chapter 5: Planning Your Persuasive Strategies.
During the first ten minutes of class, write your summary of chapter four from Paul Anderson’s Technical Communication: “Planning for Usefulness.” This is one of the most important thing to consider when you are writing documents and other communications in the workplace: how do you make your communications useful for its audience? What strategies does Anderson give us to plan for the usefulness our communications need?
Like in your previous peer review session, I would like you to write a memo summarizing the feedback that you received and your plan for revision.
Before our next class, write a comment on this blog post in memo format (address it to me and your teammates–using full names) that summarizes the feedback that you received (giving credit to your teammates who made the suggestions) and describes what changes you will make to your resume draft for the final draft. You do not have to do everything that your team has recommended, but you should make reasoned choices based on their feedback and your own ideas as you improve this resume draft.
During the first ten minutes of class, write a summary of your reading in Anderson’s Technical Communication, Chapter 3: Defining Your Communication’s Goals. Remember to format your response as a memo.
Top of comment: MEMO or Memorandum
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE: (Create your own meaningful subject)
(Your summary)
During today’s class, you will get into teams of approximately 4 people.
Exchange copies of your resume with one another.
When you read other people’s resumes, makes notes on their resume about how YOU would make it better. Are there typos? How would you organize the information better? Are all of the verbs in the same tense? Are there more action verbs than descriptive adjectives and adverbs? Are there specifics that would make their experiences more interesting, engaging, and useful?
After you complete reviewing all resumes as a team, take turns asking for oral feedback from your teammates that you will take notes on. From reading one another’s resumes and talking about what recommendations you make, you should take this as an opportunity to learn from one another’s resumes, too.
Before our next class, write a comment on this blog post in memo format (address it to me and your teammates–using full names) that summarizes the feedback that you received (giving credit to your teammates who made the suggestions) and describes what changes you will make to your resume draft for the final draft. You do not have to do everything that your team has recommended, but you should make reasoned choices based on their feedback and your own ideas as you improve this resume draft.
Also, before our next class, create a skills-based resume and bring three copies to Monday’s class. There will be a lot of overlap between the two resumes, but as you will see, the way information is presented will be different. This raises issues of usability and audience needs. It also is a useful tool for thinking through your abilities and how to communicate those abilities to a potential employer. I would not be surprised if by making a skills-based resume that you get ideas about how to improve your experience-based resume.
For today’s class, you read Chapter 23, Writing Reader-Centered Letters, Memos, E-mails, and Digital Exchanges in Anderson’s Technical Communication. Spend the first ten minutes of class writing a summary of the chapter. Some questions that might help you write your summary include: what is the difference between letters, memos, emails, and digital exchanges? How are these things similar? What purpose might each of these communications serve?
For today’s class, you read Chapter 2, Overview of the Reader-Centered Communication Process: Obtaining a Job from Anderson’s Technical Communication. Take the first ten minutes of class to summarize your reading in a comment on this blog post. Remember to use the memo header for these beginning of class writing assignments:
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE: (Create your own meaningful subject)
(Your summary)
Use the entire ten minutes for writing to improve your writing ability over time. Think of this as a writing workout. You’re doing repetitions that will pay off over time.
For today’s class, you read Chapter 20: Creating and Delivering Listener-Centered Oral Presentations from Anderson’s Technical Communication. Take the first ten minutes of class to summarize your reading in a comment on this blog post. Remember to use the memo header for these beginning of class writing assignments:
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
RE: (Create your own meaningful subject)
(Your summary)
Use the entire ten minutes for writing to improve your writing ability over time. Think of this as a writing workout. You’re doing repetitions that will pay off over time.
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