This blog will showcase writings prompted from my “Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing” – Eng 2700 class. Read and Enjoy!
Moving Forward While Looking Back
To my mother it was strange when I explained my choice of career. An effective communicator is someone who can speak proficiently and eloquently and not only on paper. I could get my thoughts across on paper quite well so when I told my mom what the career field entailed, she looked at me with a worried face and asked me if I was sure that this field was right for me. The troubling look on her face got me to ask myself, why did she have this thought in the first place? I begin to think and I shortly realized that it was in fact strange for me to chose this career part. I grew up in a male dominated, British colonized country, with a “speak when you are spoken to” society.
Girls in the community are never expected to speak their mind or communicate their thoughts or feelings. West Indian girls learn from young to be submissive to their fathers and then to their husbands. It was not only my community and ethnicity that stifled the way I learned to communicate, but also my religion. I am a Muslim woman and in that way, the men lead and women follow. The last strike against me was my family. When family gathered there would always be discussions and in no way, shape or form could you ever speak unless spoken to at these occasions. This was a trait you did want to have or be remembered for.
Communicating when being disciplined or not spoken to in a conversation was taboo. Being a good communicator means you wait and speak in a quite and passive tone in any given situation. It was not until I moved to New York that I learned how to be more assertive in my speech, and how to use non-verbal communication to be even more effective when speaking. However, I still realized that although I had learned to be more assertive, I never took that home with me. In my home I remained to be a submissive speaker to my parents and family. As the years have gone by I have been able to speak more to my family and participate more in discussions. I suppose I am lucky in the sense that I know how to communicate both assertively and submissively, and I suppose I now understand why my mother questioned my career choice.
Audience: How Relevant Are They?
From the moment we enter Kindergarten we are taught various fundamentals in various subjects. For instance in spelling the golden rule or the letter “I” comes before the letter “E” except after the letter “C”. After we learn to spell words we go on to learn how to read and write them. Our vocabulary grows and we continue to grow as readers and writers. However, it has occurred to me that throughout learning these various methods , we as students are rarely taught the concept of audience yet we somehow still have an innate understanding of how to address those we are writing to.
For the past weekend I have been reading various documents ranging from Valentine’s Day cards to academic reports and with each I noticed the obvious. The word usage and language changed. Along with the presentation of the document. We all as students know we would not turn in an essay in red colored font with hearts and informal language, but this way appropriate for such Valentine’s Day card due to the fact that they were addressing loving spouses and loved ones. On the other hand, for the assignment I analyzed a websites ( link attached below) instructional guide to achieving one of 2013’s biggest fashion trends; The Ombre hair. When reading this document it brought to my realization that with every published document there is a thought behind it. The thought of who will read these documents and what they absolutely must know. The article on Stylelist.com provided information in coherent and succinct manner. The author clearly understood that it was imperative to present her findings in a manner in which anyone who wanted to understand or try the process of bleaching ones hair to various gradient shades could easily achieve it in few steps. I also discovered that there is a rule of thumb which is that information should be provided in a way that even a person with little or no understanding of the concept would still be able to grasp the idea.
An audience gives a writing its purpose. When writing an author should take the time to clearly understand who they are writing for and what that specific audience can understand from their writings. It should not be understood that an audience knows what one knows or that they have had the same experiences. When writing one should strive to achieve connections to their audience with using words suitable in the situation and clear enough that their communication is understood and not misconstrued. It should be understood that an audience is the biggest component of every speech, essay, or report. They provide the frame for which us as authors must address and gives our work direction. Our communication methods and research are all based on the audience and how they will interpret our words.
My Statement of Ethics
From the moment we begin to understand the world our parents share their views of what they know is right and wrong. As we get older we learn ourselves to differentiate from what is right and wrong based on our own opinion and in time we learn that this ability is called being ethically responsible. Ethics are defined as a moral principle that governs ones behavior. For some of us its the act of honesty, for others it is being courageous and speaking up for what is right. For me it is exactly that. Since I have been conscious of my own self I know that I have a hard time remaining quite in when I know something is not right. I never hesitate to stand up for what is right even if I know I could possibly face serious consequences. I see it as my own personal obligation to support the truth and the rights of others and never let buy my silence.
I grew up in the third world country of Guyana in South America and for most of it I was either surrounded by immensely rich people or the poorest of the poor. I did not grow up in complete poverty, neither did I have a lot. My parents were and still are hard working people. My father was an orphan and my mother lost her father at a very young age. They both grew up struggling and in a country such as where I am from, children without parents are often the ones who are spoken ill of. They have been condemned by the rich bashed by the poor but although these things have happened to them they have refused to stand back to not stand up for those very people who have done wrong by them. I suppose that is where I get my ambition to advocate on behave of the truth and others.
I spent a few of the years of my life living in the Caribbean country of Barbados. There I attended Elementary school from the age of about 6 until I was about 8 years old. Those few short years there would change the way I saw myself and others for a very long time. I was severely bullied for reasons I still cannot understand but children will be children I suppose. When I moved to New York at the age of 11 the problem however did not stop. I continued to be the subject of bullying day after day. This time on the other hand I began to speak up for myself. When I found the power to speak up for myself I saw how important it was to speak up for others who were also subjected to the same treatment I was or worse. I have seen people give into peer pressure and hurt and mock the very people they call friends, and co-workers and for me being a victim myself I could not allow that.
I have grown up in various countries, circumstances and standards. I have seen myself crumble due to the words of others and have seen myself soar because of them. I know the effect of condemnation and how it takes a toll on a person. I also know that there is always a nicer way of being critical even if the person needs to hear the words to improve themselves. Personally, I believe it is my ethically obligation to stand up for what is right at home or at work no matter the circumstances. We tend to forget how words affect others and how we each have the responsibility to protect each other even if we disagree with one another. Our lives are all opinions of our personalities and for me it is my duty to be brave enough to speak for the truth of others even if I do not agree myself. This is my statement of ethics.
The Evolution of My Writing Process in 5 Short Weeks.
A lot of college students know it to be true that when we sleep and wake at home time goes from 11:30 PM to 9:00 AM in the blink of an eye, but a when nap in college is taken, time goes from 1:30 PM to 1:29 PM. It’s amazing how fast the time at school passes and yet seems to stand still at the same time or even go backwards. It has been about five weeks since I have returned back to school however this time I was a little more eager than usual. For the first time since I started my college career I was finally a part of an actual major. A major I wanted to be a part of. It has been a semester of a lot of “firsts”. For example, It has been the first time I have become so fully aware of how big of a part my culture has played in the development of my writing, and it has also been the first that I have felt this passionate about writing again.
I moved from my native country of Guyana to New York about 10 years now. And over the time that I have been in public school here in New York my writing has become so structure and so ritualized that I have forgotten how to be creative in my writing. I forgot how to use my voice even more so than before. As mentioned in an earlier post I made, I briefly spoke of how my misogynistic and “speak unless spoken to” culture made barriers against my voice which made it hard for my mother to understand my career choice of becoming a Professional communicator. I have not noticed until not how the New York public school system also added to my already limited communication ability whether it being written or spoken. The public school system here in New York gives it’s students rubrics to follow and those rubrics become an automated way by which we learn to develop any type of document. We look to our professors or teachers to completely breakdown every sentence, and paragraph. Step by Step we become depend on them to help us develop our thinking process and even our writing process.
Since starting this introductory Professional and Technical Writing course I have noticed a huge difference in myself, and how I approach writing. I can faithfully say I am no longer the writer I was a month ago. This class has opened a door to discover writing and the way in which I think of it in a very different way. I no longer think of writing before hand. I put my hand to my laptop and let my ideas flow. I have learned to think of my audience more and be aware that I should make my language as clean, clear and concise in order for them to be able to understand my point of view in the best light possible. I have become more aware of my cultures involvement in my writing and how to use that as an advantage and not a barrier. I have learned that writing is indeed a process but the process has no straight path. There are bends, turns, tunnels, and crossroads. I have learned that writing takes a lot of failure and re-envisioning which are two things those rubrics never seem to teach.
A Quicker and Dirtier Path that Led Me to Confusion
Michael Lipsey said, “Gaining control of your thoughts is as easy as sitting by the ocean and controlling the waves.” It is IMPOSSIBLE! Gaining control of my thought process for this assignment was a form of torture. For this assignment I had a very difficult time converting my ideas onto paper. I could not control myself. I had the hardest time telling myself that I could not thinking about writing. I had to force myself to create text. As a writer who thinks A LOT before I write, forcing myself to write without the thought of what my document would exactly entail drove me absolutely insane.
I plan my entire document in my head before it actually becomes reality. This writing process had me write my ideas from the inside out, in no particular order . I was placing ideas and erasing ideas. I felt as though I was a blind man trying to differentiate colors. I could not grasp this concept. It was as though i was writing without a clear direction but yet it had direction. I found myself confused a lot because as a student molded by the New York public school system, I have been trained to formulate a thesis and write accordingly building that idea that I generated in every other paragraph that followed and conclude the document with wrapping up what I stated in my thesis.
This quicker and dirtier report for me was a mish-mosh of ideas. I generated so much text from trying to over-compensate for my confusion that when editing I could not really decide what helped my idea or what broke its dexterity. Writing from a position of induction also added much more confusion. I am so used to being told of what to write about and how to write about a topic that I found myself lost when it came time to formulate a topic that I could gather information and present it in a way that was persuasive.
Although, a valuable exercise I found the entire process to an over-whelming process. Retraining myself to write is a daunting task. After so many years of being conditioned to write in a way where my ideas are so limited now that the chance has arrived for me to engaged in a creative process I cannot seem to preform. I second guess every idea I write and every idea I generate into text. And even though I have managed to generate a document I am not certain how I will manage to do this again.
PTW: The New English Class Experience.
Of all my years in school, all my years taking English classes I have never found a more revitalizing experience as the one I am encountering in The Introduction to Professional and Technical Writing course. Although, I must admit it does give me massive headaches and since the class has made slam my computer down quite a few times the frustration and confusion is of a new sort. Before in my other classes I was frustrated due to the same bricked in, repetitive, boring tasks. Writing an essay in such a traditional way which eliminated creativity yet having to hear professors and teachers say, ” be creative” like that was possible.
This class challenges me, rips me raw, and in the process is creating a new writer. I am learning more about myself as a writer and not just seeing myself as a student who can spit a five paragraph essay. I am learning to put myself back into my writing and learning how to revision my work to make it better than it was. I am learning that my story is a big part of my writing and by recognizing that it enables me to be a better writer.
The unconventional methods of this class has brought me back from a long long zombie like mode. I am interested, and thoughtful, and even do I dare say a little bit more confident in my ideas. I am finally getting that “college will be the best years of your life experience”. I am growing not only as a writer but as an individual who has the courage to place herself in front of failure and take it by the horns with little to no fear.
I think I Won the Battle but Lost the War.
This first major project easily has made me see that I am not looking forward to the final project. Learning to write in an entirely new way over the course of 8 weeks has broken my mentally and physically. As someone who thought that she knew how to write well, boy was I proven wrong. I mean, I can write but I cannot write without a structure or some premade format. I have always been a strong advocate for creativity but when given this project and given the opportunity to choose the topic I would write about, the layout and format of my document and even the style, I have to say I was completely stuck.
I found it even harder to re-work the idea that I had found after years of just writing about an idea and leaving it as that. Very rarely have I ever returned to a piece of my writing and completely re-worked the idea that pretty much had me start from scratch. This process in a whole has made me more aware of how I am rather well in getting my ideas across in a clear way and I feel I present those ideas in a way that captures my reader’s attention. I still believe I have to work on my writing as all of us writers feel. I have to improve upon my designing skills as in this project I have come to see that design can help you add more to your project and give you a sort of template that allowed me to be as clear as possible to maintain a stylistic look.
In this project I was rather proud of the fact that I could make a timeline due to the fact that I am rather dense when it comes to computers and programs. As I have had high points of great achievement in this project so have I had low points. My lowest I would have to say was in the re-working process when I completely fell apart even though I knew what my actual idea was I had a hard time trying to separate past ideas and connect new ones to this new idea. All in all this project was a battle between high moments of achievement and low moments of wanting to rip my hair out. I have learned the beginning of being a new writer here and I hope to continue this in the final project.
Hurdles to recognize before the final stretch.
The midterm project was a task that almost broke me both mentally and physically. However, after I completed it I was rather proud of myself for not caving and falling completely apart. With that said I also came to see a few things that I have to change in order to achieve a higher quality of work.
My midterm project was very technical and in that aspect I fell short in providing sources that more than just adequate. I have to learn to set time aside for conducting proper research. I also have to create a schedule so as to stay on top of every aspect of the course and not fall behind (not that I think I have), but to be able to also have the chance revise my work more thoroughly.
With the final project having been assigned I feel as though I have a better understanding of it now. I know that creating text is essential and with that done it gives me more to work with. If I stay on top of creating text, a strict schedule, and research adequately I have the confidence that I will be able to higher level of work in the final project.
From Hear to America?
From Hear to There, is an interest show to say the least. It embarks upon a genre not many people are familiar with or could possibly categorize and I believe that is where an American Audience would encounter the first problem. Americans love things to be self-explanatory and direct. In order for this show to be even considered here as television show I believe the presentation needs to be clean cut and precise. The type of show needs to be formally addressed and categorized because that will lead to knowing what broadcasting stations to pitch this idea to and how to sell it.
I also believe that in order to be accepted the show needs to be expanded in order to picked up by an American audience. Do not get me wrong the idea they have right now is great because an audience gets to experience more sounds that sight over television and I believe that is a remarkable idea but I do believe there needs to be more. What I mean by more is that the show needs to travel more, or have different individuals on each reoccurring show that will have different activities and draw in a different crowd.
The essence of this show is simply to offer something new on television. Let’s face it by now we have pretty much seen everything on TV so much so that it is becoming obsolete. This show offers the possibility to share the world through sounds and the way someone who cannot see perceives the world. This show has the possibility to be educational and and influential and open the eyes to of so many people who are not blind.
whoVersa?
When I first heard of this tool and all that it was composed of, the first question I asked myself was, “what makes this so different from an online messaging board?”. After playing around with it for a while I realized that it held some capabilities that other sides do not. For one, it is professional website that young professionals could use as proof for work done on a project.
miVersa is much like an online meeting place, and a cloud drive in one. As we all know it New Yorkers live a busier life than the average human being and spend more time online than in face to face meetings. miVersa is perfect for busy college students because it enables students to meet in one place, share files, make schedules, and engage in a meeting that in our time could possibly be considered professional.
miVersa can be connected through ones text messages, emails, the mobile app, and the website itself, so what else would young professionals want or need miVersa to communicate with? I think the answer to this question would probably have to be with other cloud drives. Being able to link other work spaces to ensure that every aspect of work is seen and shared is a great addition to any group project. Also this helps to ensure that all work is saved on one drive as well as other drives, yet having all of them linked together. With this done and having other drives linked to this meeting space it would allow people to work as individuals but also share their work at the same time with those they are working with without the hassle of constantly having to upload to a separate drive.
The Final Blog Post.
This class has been without a doubt the biggest headache I have ever encountered in college. I have had to battle inner demons, go into the 5 stages of denial, along with contemplate dropping the class, flipping desks, walking out, burning books, among other things that I probably should not mention. But despite all the headaches, heartaches, and meltdowns this class has been one of the most motivational and awakening classes in my college experience. I have found my passion again in myself and in writing as well.
As I move forward and onto bigger and better things, I will always take what I learned in this class to heart in every other English course I encounter: “**Patrick Corbett’s voice** create text, write, do not just think of the words, actually write”. I will always remember that it is most important to write and not think of writing. This was in fact my biggest challenge of the class. I could not get over the concept about writing without thought until I actually started creating text. I found that in this process I had so much to choose from. I had ideas that were brilliant and others that were not. From this I had variety, I had the chance to choose and reinvent my ideas over and over again that made my content stronger and my vision clearer.
With the other skills that I have learned in rhetoric, I hope not only to just adapt but to continue to use them. I hope that my effective communicating skills that I have picked up will come across in my writing as presenting the argument first then following it with details where as in the past I did the opposite. I know for sure I will continue to use all the technical aspects that I have learned but also I will continue to build my narrative and expose myself to new and interesting concepts in writing and language in order to make myself the best that I can possibly be.
