Writing, Revising, Redoing
abstract
Whenever a professor tells you that they rarely give out 100's, you can assume you won't be able to slack off in this class; but what is a grade? Grades are relative; the value denotes how much you've learned, but is that truly accurate these days? Students can get through several classes, making straight A's, and still not understand the importance of the course, or what they were truly suppose to learn. Personally, I took an online Logics & Algorithms class where I learned nothing, but made an A somehow. I hated this Logics & Algorithms class, and found the assignments to being confusing, and time-consuming. It wasn't because the material was actually hard, it was because I didn't have a proper instructor. What did that "A" teach me? It taught me that I shouldn't ever take online courses again, because no matter how easy the work was I didn't like the fact that I didn't learn effectively. Now here I am in English 2216, putting much more effort that my Logics & Algorithms class and not necessarily earning A's on most assignments, and it's alright because whenever I see my grade it shows me how much progress i've made to almost being perfect, or from a pessimistic view, it shows how flawed my writing still is. In brief, what I've learned this semester is that there really isn't a "final" draft, it's always your first draft, then your second, then the next one until you're finally content with your writing. With this being said, the contents in the portfolio exhibit my skill as a writer, as well as show the progress that I've made throughout this semester.
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The reason why I added this image is because even though the teacher gave the student a B+, the student believes he deserves an A, while the teacher actually thought the student deserved a C-. A few questions to think about are, Do you agree with the grade the teacher gave? What grade would you have given the student? Why?
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reflection
What makes someone a Technical Writer? A Technical Writer is straightforward, what they write is concise; their explanations or instructions regarding a particular subject are understood in a clear and efficient way. Does that make me a Technical Writer? For now let’s say I wrote some technical works this semester, such as an Instruction Manual, Project Proposal, Cover Letter, and Resume.
When I was writing my first project, the Instruction manual, my greatest strength was probably writing it orderly, explaining all the individual components that make a tennis serve; however, it wasn’t until I received my paper back graded and commented that I realized my explanation was confusing and a little complicated. My problem in project 1 is redundancy; I wasn’t being concise, which could lead to many things such as not giving your readers an efficient explanation, or losing your audience’s attention, and possibly more. How could I have made my paper more effective? With clarity, conciseness, and cohesion.
For instance, throughout the manual I consistently forget that I need to “teach” my audience how to serve, instead I gave them tips in long paragraphs, which didn’t clearly convey the message, and efficiently explain to the user what to do.
For example, in the section about “Bending your knees” Instead of me going into complex detail, I could have just said, “Bend your knees to a 90 degree angle before you push off to make contact.” Then had an illustration of a player bending their knees at a 90-degree angle. Instead I digressed off the subject and informed the reader about tips that would only be efficient if the user already had a general knowledge of tennis.
It is ironic when comparing my first project to my second because my partner Dylan and I wrote had a consistent problem in being vague. We had several simple formatting errors, as well as we lacked a Table of Contents, which makes navigation easier for the audience. We didn’t elaborate several locations in the paper and left many things unclear. For example, in the section “Trojan and Viruses” Dylan and I begin explaining, “Malware, like Trojans and Viruses are common causes of stolen password.” We should have included things that cover questions like “What makes Malware different from Trojans and Viruses?” Also, leading into our tables, we didn’t provide enough information for our audience. An analysis regarding the information of our tables helps the read immediately understand the purpose of the table, as well as helps your reader avoid misinterpreting information.
The third project was a Cover Letter and Resume directed towards a job posting by Duke Energy. What I learned from this experience is not to just have one universal resume, but for your resume(s) to match the criteria of the job, and their job posting(s). Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have all the qualifications Duke Energy required for their Summer 2015 Internship; however, since I will have all the requirements fulfilled by the end of the Summer I decided to write a Cover Letter to Duke Energy. In this Cover Letter I used the knowledge that I gained from the first Cover Letter we wrote in WTE 1 to write more technical to Duke Energy.
The third project is imperative because without understanding how to write a good Resume and Cover Letter, your chances of getting that job are less probable. If I wanted to be a software developer and create applications, I definitely want to include my experience or skills that are relative to software developing first on the top of my resume because I have no software developing job experience. However, don’t be misguiding; be truthful with what you write, it may come up in an interview and cost you the job. Let’s say I get this job, and my project group is trying to develop this application. If you’re working with a company who is has adopted SCRUM, and you were their project manager, writing project proposals would be second nature for you, seeing how you do several projects a week, and speeds up the process for your group. When writing about new software you’ve developed, having knowledge or experience with writing an instruction manual will greatly benefit your user(s) and help them not misunderstand your applications.
When I was writing my first project, the Instruction manual, my greatest strength was probably writing it orderly, explaining all the individual components that make a tennis serve; however, it wasn’t until I received my paper back graded and commented that I realized my explanation was confusing and a little complicated. My problem in project 1 is redundancy; I wasn’t being concise, which could lead to many things such as not giving your readers an efficient explanation, or losing your audience’s attention, and possibly more. How could I have made my paper more effective? With clarity, conciseness, and cohesion.
For instance, throughout the manual I consistently forget that I need to “teach” my audience how to serve, instead I gave them tips in long paragraphs, which didn’t clearly convey the message, and efficiently explain to the user what to do.
For example, in the section about “Bending your knees” Instead of me going into complex detail, I could have just said, “Bend your knees to a 90 degree angle before you push off to make contact.” Then had an illustration of a player bending their knees at a 90-degree angle. Instead I digressed off the subject and informed the reader about tips that would only be efficient if the user already had a general knowledge of tennis.
It is ironic when comparing my first project to my second because my partner Dylan and I wrote had a consistent problem in being vague. We had several simple formatting errors, as well as we lacked a Table of Contents, which makes navigation easier for the audience. We didn’t elaborate several locations in the paper and left many things unclear. For example, in the section “Trojan and Viruses” Dylan and I begin explaining, “Malware, like Trojans and Viruses are common causes of stolen password.” We should have included things that cover questions like “What makes Malware different from Trojans and Viruses?” Also, leading into our tables, we didn’t provide enough information for our audience. An analysis regarding the information of our tables helps the read immediately understand the purpose of the table, as well as helps your reader avoid misinterpreting information.
The third project was a Cover Letter and Resume directed towards a job posting by Duke Energy. What I learned from this experience is not to just have one universal resume, but for your resume(s) to match the criteria of the job, and their job posting(s). Unfortunately for me, I didn’t have all the qualifications Duke Energy required for their Summer 2015 Internship; however, since I will have all the requirements fulfilled by the end of the Summer I decided to write a Cover Letter to Duke Energy. In this Cover Letter I used the knowledge that I gained from the first Cover Letter we wrote in WTE 1 to write more technical to Duke Energy.
The third project is imperative because without understanding how to write a good Resume and Cover Letter, your chances of getting that job are less probable. If I wanted to be a software developer and create applications, I definitely want to include my experience or skills that are relative to software developing first on the top of my resume because I have no software developing job experience. However, don’t be misguiding; be truthful with what you write, it may come up in an interview and cost you the job. Let’s say I get this job, and my project group is trying to develop this application. If you’re working with a company who is has adopted SCRUM, and you were their project manager, writing project proposals would be second nature for you, seeing how you do several projects a week, and speeds up the process for your group. When writing about new software you’ve developed, having knowledge or experience with writing an instruction manual will greatly benefit your user(s) and help them not misunderstand your applications.