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I wasn't expecting a response to our critiques so quickly. It was cool to know that some of our suggestions may be used to make the web site better.

It is understandable that you can only do so much with what resources you have. It seems like most of our ideas were valid and that many of them could be taken into consideration. On suggestions that wouldn't work there was a valid reason for why not or why that approach was chosen.

What have I learned from 402??

I have actually learned a lot in this class. I too, was not the happiest when I realized I had to take another writing class, but am glad that I did. Most of my writing classes have been really boring and hard for me to get into. This writing class has always kept me interested. I focus more now on using an active voice in my writing and if I review it carefully I can notice parts that are more passive. Remembering to keep the reader in mind has been drilled long enough that I find myself asking who are the readers, what do they want to know, how will this benefit them. Advertising was fun. Realizing that more and more people are not watching commercials as much, they are doing more Internet ads and ads in the TV shows. Ill be watching TV and see everyone drinking sierra mist or Starbucks coffee and think to myself "advertising." It is awesome that I notice this now, before it never even struck me differently. It makes perfect sense though. The journalism project was really fun and I learned a lot. It also helped getting some feedback from Jesse Day. One thing I can say that I cant say for every writing class I have been in is that I will take what I have learned from this class and be able to use it in the real world.

Peer Response

It seems like many of us in this class have fears of presenting. As I mentioned in my blog, I always get really nervous, however, once it is done I always feel like it went better than I thought it would or it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.
I think the most important thing is being prepared and to know what you are talking about. Rhiannon and Peter both make good comments in their blogs. I have often felt that looking at the audience makes me more nervous but it is important. It also makes you look like you know your material and are better prepared. I really like how Peter points out the energy of the classroom. Although I am not one that normally speaks out, I agree with Peter on how Kat does present our work to the class for critique and praise. I think that it has helped me provide a better end product. In doing this, Kat does it in a way that makes the class feel comfortable. I do think that because of the structure of this class will make it easier for us to get more out of it. I know I have.

Chapter 17 and 18 readings

Chapter 17
I have three presentations to give in the next couple weeks, it was a good time to read this chapter. Mainly because I got a lot out of it. A couple things that I think were helpful were focusing on main a few main points, looking at the audience, ways to overcome nervousness.
The book mentions that it is harder for listeners to concentrate for extended periods of time. This is important because in a presentation your listeners have nothing to look back on like when reading a paper. It is important to focus on a few main points, describe them clearly and talk at a steady pace so they can stay with you.
I have a lot of trouble focusing on my audience. The book provides a good strategies to help with this. Looking at the audience before starting the presentation, targeting a feature of your listeners face,establishing a rhythm when going from looking at your notes and your audience are examples of how to keep your eyes on the audience.
I always get nervous before a presentation. Every time. the book says to accept it. Its true though, I probably always will get nervous before a presentation and my goal is to just always try to improve each time. Guideline 11 is about what not to do. My biggest problem with guideline 11 is the fidgeting or moving around part.

Chapter 18
When designing a web site one of the most important things to do is to define its objectives. Who aer the readers? What do they want? How are you going to give that to them? When I am searching for something on the Web I want to find it easily and be able to get the information I am looking for quickly. If I end up on a site that I do not get that information quickly and it is hard to navigate I go somewhere else. This means you have to know a lot about your readers in order to keep people going to your sites rather than somewhere else. Similarly you have to also design web pages that look good but are also easy to use. This chapter gives a good list of tips on how to make it easier for your readers to navigate around your site.

Response to Melissa Bonneville's chapter 2 blog

I haven't made a resume either since high school and have to admit when I did write it I was more interested in what I had to offer then thinking about how to layout my resume with the reader (employer) in mind. I also did believe we were supposed to offer our references upon request as well. It makes sense to include them though because your references should re-enforce the ethos you are presenting to them about yourself. I also always thought that the reason your resume should be one paged is because when showing your work history it is better to see how long a person was with a company rather then how many jobs you have had. My parents always said it didn't look as good to have seven different jobs with little time spent with each company. Employers want to know that you are going to be dedicated and not jump around all the time. Melissa makes a good point and book did as well. At one point our resumes will be scanned depending on the company, and it will be extremely important to know what your key words should and will be. If you don't your application will be passed over.

Chapter 2, 9, 10 readings

Chapter 2 discusses the four main activities that should be considered when making a resumes. It also ties in the principles for writing in a reader centered format. Like Chris said in his response to my post last week. This point really is being drilled into us. It is a good thing because it is not just something I read and forgot about because it was never mentioned again. So I guess I am thankful that it is always revisited because it stays in my head and when I am writing I am thinking of the reader more often. The four activities in resume writing are defining objectives, planning, drafting, and revising. The first step is deciding what to say and how to say it. Know who your potential employers are and what qualifications they are looking for. By knowing this you will be able to show your ethos and hopefully it will fit with the qualifications of the job. Planning is when you decide what you should include in the resume. The book describes the drafting stage to be the most difficult. Figuring out the best way to design your resume is important. You want the employer to be able to find all key information quick and easy. And lastly, always revise your draft for usability, and grammatical errors. It also helps to have other people like professors or students in same career path to look over your resume before submitting it.

Chapter 9
This chapter is about how to effectively create a beginning to a communication. For example, email, research paper, or proposal. One of the guidelines provided is to give your readers a reason to pay attention. Make it something they want to know or have to know. I liked this guideline because it sounds relevant to increased amount of communication through email. The book talks about people get so many emails everyday and don't understand why they should read all of these. My email for example gets so much mail everyday that when i open them typically I am looking at the subject and if it isn't something I need asap I don't open it. This happens all the time i bet in the business world. This chapter gives some good tips on how to get "your" email opened. It says to grab the readers attention you must do 2 things. Announce your topic and tell your readers what they will benefit from after reading your communication. Opening sentences are of stressed importance but in emails more importantly your subject is of extreme importance. You want your reader to look at the subject line and immediately open the email. Making a strong subject sentence will help this happen.

Chapter 10
Like chapter 9 talked about the beginning of a communication, chapter 10 discusses how to end a communication. Most intersting to me is different types of communication have different types of endings. Some require conclusions and some do not. For example, most research papers require a conclusion of some sort in which your are restating your main claim and also mentioning again the most important points made throughout the paper. However, proposals or instructions normally end after the last point or step is made. No conclusion is necessary.

Response to Inna's blog

I agree that using these revising tools from the chapter will be useful for our individual papers. I also never really thought about reading the paper from the audiences perspective. I typically tend to focus on getting my point across as well, however, maybe not always in the most concise way. I now can see how letting time pass before revising again is important. After reading and re-reading you tend to miss errors. I was writing a reading analysis for my history class this past week and when I was revising it I kept getting hung up on certain sentences. I immediately remembered from the readings that if you can't read the paper, you audience probably wont be able to either. So I took some time to make it flow easier and I think that because of that my paper will have a better outcome.

Chapter 15 reading

Chapter 15 discusses ways to test your draft to recognize problems that your paper has that you may not have identified as being problematic. In doing this it will help produce the best outcome in your final paper. Testing your draft is similar to having someone review your draft except you are having multiple people read your draft in the eyes of the audience expected to actually read your paper. Once you know the feedback from what the book refers to as the "test readers" you will have some idea of how your audience will react to the paper. You will be able to notice what works and what does not work for your reading audience.

In order to make this practice work the best you must make sure that when choosing your testers they are actually people that "represent your target readers." Some ways that I can improve in this area is usually I only have one person review my draft and not always do they represent my target readers. This is something to pay more attention to. I also see how it is important to get feedback from more then 1 person. Multiple test readers means more feedback which in the end will create for a better final paper.

The main goal in using test readers is to figure out whether or not your writing is usable. the book mentions several tests that you can perform. Some that stick out to me are location tests which require the test reader to answer certain questions. This will help determine whether or not your titles and headlines are effective. The Understandability test is when you ask the reader to read paper and then ask questions regarding the paper to see how well the reader understands the paper.

This chapter provides some good ideas on how to determine how usable your paper is before you turn it in for that final grade or to your boss. In the case you are turning it in to your boss, on how this paper will make you look. Knowing these tools will be helpful for future work in class and on the job.

Chapter 14 reading

Chapter 14 talks about drafting and revising your drafts. Once I realized what the chapter was about I thought to myself I really have trouble with my drafts as far as revising myself. Then I read the first section of the chapter and it talked just about that. Normally when I revise my draft the first thing I am looking for are grammatical errors. Although that is extremely important I now realize that the spelling is just a small part of reading your draft. One important point the book makes that I need to focus on is reading it from the readers perspective and if it is usable and easy to understand. Ways to do this are to read the paper aloud. In doing this words or sentences that you trip up on are where you should pay attention. If it is hard for you to say it most likely will be harder for the reader to understand. Another good practice is to as the book refers "let time pass." Meaning that give yourself time so that when you pick up and read you may notice errors you wouldn't have before. I normally always use spell checker but it doesn't always catch everything. Once thing I didn't know about is that you can look to see how much of your language is passive. That was cool, I will have to check it out next time I write a paper.

Once you have your draft, you revise it, then someone else revises it then you prioritize what are the most important changes to make. Knowing who your stakeholders are and how they would think are important to know. For me, the most interesting part about this chapter was the beginning talking about how to revise your own draft and how to be effective in doing it.

In response to Inna's blog on journalism

I also was surprised to find out that the majority of reporters don't write their stories. I really did think that finding the story was the main part and then taking your story and telling it on the news. However, as we found out in class, often times their are other people writing the stories and then the reporters are checking the information for credibility. That is how I understood it.

I think that the hardest part about putting on a news show is deciding what stories to air and not to air. Ethics play a huge role in making these decisions but sometimes it doesn't always have the best outcome. The tough part is that there are always many factors. Having to decide whether or not to air a murder or something and having to think and talk to the family would be hard.

Broadcast Journalism

Last week Jesse Day from Koin news. It was interesting to hear him speak on journalism. Jesse has been in journalism for over five years and does most of his work in producing the 5:30 news. It was interesting to see how much writing he actually does. When I think of the people producing the news I don't normally think there is too much writing involved. In Jesse's case he writes most of the material.

It was also interesting to hear about the ethics and attribution aspects of his business. It is important to know how to protect yourself from defamation. Also determining how and what to write and air about is also important.

There is a lot involved in producing a news show. It seems like things are very fast paced and subject to change at all times.

In response to Son Ngo's post

I agree with you to an extent Son. It is hard for me to watch sometimes because of all the negative things happening. Right when I get to the point where things are going good it really seems like shit is going down all over the world. I have never boycotted it completely but do go through phases. After watching for a period of time, it gets to be so depressive. I cant remember the last time I heard of something positive out of the news. So when it gets to that point I stop watching for a couple weeks. This normally lasts until someone is talking about a what happened on the news today and then I start watching again. I think I just feel like I am missing something. One good thing is that in some cases the news is trying to warn you. For example, the Vancouver car break in. Once lady said she lived on Mill Plain and in a nice area. She never thought her car would get broken into. Once I saw this I was glad because I live close to where all these break in's are happening. Now I know to double check my car is locked and make sure to keep valuables out. I believe I gained something from that story even though it still was a negative story.

T.V. News

I try to watch the news everyday. Normally I watch local news and the NWCN channels. I like to know what is going on where I live and where I used to live. I like to have a sense of what is going on in the world as well. The reason I like the news is because I can catch up on things I haven't heard about. I don't normally get the time to read the newspaper. I normally watch news in the mornings because i can multitask. I wasn't able to catch a KOIN 6 news program on the T.V however I did go to the website and watched some top stories. I noticed that most all topics are about 2-3 minutes long. I would have thought it was longer because they can literally get so much information in that 2-3 minute period. I noticed that they give you a brief recap of what happened, normally ask questions to either sheriff's, witnesses, or people who have been affected due to the topic. Typically they then give you an update at the end with promise for updates when information is released. I watched three top stories. The mount hood rescue, Vancouver car break ins and the deputy who resigned due to sexual misconduct. In all of these stories I was trying to look at how they were talking to their audience. Most felt like they were speaking to you, using factual information. There is lots of Logos used to convince. In the deputy story they actually had records and reports showing viewers sexual remarks were made and whether or not the deputy agreed to those allegations. I was trying to pay attention to passive vs. active voice. It was hard to tell but I know in the Vancouver car break in story it was all about how you can do something to help prevent getting your car broke into. They also used statistics to show this is a increasing problem. I also noticed how fast they are talking which makes sense because they are trying to get a lot out there in a little amount of time.

Response to Gideon on Freelance writing

I liked reading Gideon's blog. It sort of related to me in someways. I never ever thought about myself as a writer either. Writing is probably one of the hardest things for me to do in school. However, after the class, it had me thinking about all the different things a freelancer can write about. If it were something I enjoyed or was interested in it would be fun to write about. But when thinking about writing about topics that are required then it gets more boring. It opens a lot of opportunity on what you can write on. Pretty much whatever you are into and write about, someone, somewhere may want to see your work. It would be cool to write about stuff you love and be able to make some money doing it.

Freelance Writing

The freelancing lecture was pretty interesting. I think that writing your own material and then selling it to someone else is an awesome way to write. If I were a writer, I would be all over it. I was also surprised to see how common freelance writing is. A lot of magazines use freelancers. It was also cool to see all the work done by our professor. Pretty impressive! I think this is a cool way to get your work out there and your pretty much in business for yourself. Just like any other business it takes a lot of hard work and self motivation. I didn't pick out a publication for class that day but I was at work this weekend reading the monthly newsletter, the Supplement, and at the end there was a section asking for people to send in new ideas or things they would like to see in upcoming issues. All the contact information was there so I thought I would look into it. I talked to my boss and she thought it would be cool. We talked of some cool ideas and I think I might actually try to submit it.

Respone to Marshel 08's Rhetoric post

I agree, before actually learning about Rhetoric I never really noticed it being used. I find myself listening more and trying to figure out what form is being used against me when I am being persuaded. I am sure now that you have recognized how YOU use it you will notice it much more and will be able to make your persuasion even better.

chapter 6 and 7 readings

Chapter 6
I like how most of the chapters stress the importance of being able to distinguish the differences between academic writing and technical writing. In chapter 6 they start with discussing that academic vs. technical writing serve different purposes. Academic writing is more generalized and hopefully will be used in the future at some point. Technical writing is for "right now" and provides what type of action is required to make those changes. It is also about helping others like co-workers, mangers etc. It discusses five research methods that are helpful for on the job writing. Sometimes I don't use the best methods to find research so the plan provided in the chapter on how to conduct research and how to evaluate a good source will be helpful in my individual and group project this term. One of the most helpful things from this chapter is to remember to only choose information that relates to the objectives trying to be laid out.

Chapter 7
One major struggle I have in writing is keeping the paragraphs organized. Using the guidelines in chapter seven help with that exact issue. The most helpful information for me in this chapter is being able to use topic sentences correctly. Another is how to order the information. It suggests going from the most important to the least important. This makes sense because typically your readers are going to want to be able to point out the most important points first and the rest later. If it is hard to find the key points then most likely you will not get the outcome your looking for.

Rhetoric

Rhetoric is a way of speaking or writing that is used to convince people. Rhetoric is a persuasion tool used on the audience. There are three parts ethos, logos and pathos.
Ethos comes from the self or I form. Logos deals with the logic of the argument. It is more factual and structured. And Pathos is the emotion part. The speaker or writer is trying to convince you through emotion. It is hard to pinpoint rhetoric mainly because I never really thought when talking to people "what type of rhetoric are they using?" Its interesting now learning about it, and will be even more interesting because I am doing my research project on it. It is interesting to look at writing and see words stick out at you that are rhetoric. Then figuring out why that word strikes you. After some practice this term I am sure I will be able to notice it more often.

Chapter 4, 5, 16 and 23 readings

Chapter 4's main objective is creating communication that is beneficial to the reader. The book describes that there are 3 main points to make your communication usable. The communication is complete, task oriented and accessible. Figure 4.4 is helpful in setting up an outline for a proposal which is also helpful for our next assignment.
Chapter 5 was easy to relate to because it reinforces most of the other writing I have done and why that writing was useful to me. It was hard for me to understand how doing a 15 page research paper and being stressed to the max would ever benefit me. Now, I can see. Although technical writing is a different type of writing, with different audiences, it still requires credible thought and analysis. Chapter five discusses how to reason soundly. This is extremely important, which is why we were taught how to research valuable evidence to support claims in previous papers. When you are persuading the reader you want them to know how your solution or form of action will benefit them personally and you also want them to know that your conclusions are based on actual facts rather then "what your opinion on solving the matter is." I like the statement the book uses.... "you must not only use sound reasoning, but also convince your readers that your reasoning is sound." If you can prove this then your writing should make sense vs. being flawed. There would be nothing worse then to pitch an idea and be called out that your facts making no sense.
Another important piece in chapter 5 is listening. Whether in a group setting or business setting listening is so imperative. Without listening how do you know what your readers are wanting from you? Listening can be a very valuable tool. For example, when wondering about what your readers are expecting, you can talk to people. People who know your readers or even the readers themselves. By listening you will be able to collect usable information.

Response to Lindsay Sterling's Ch. 3 post

Well I am glad to know that I am not the only one that felt overwhelmed after learning about the writing guidlines in ch. 3. However, I also did realize how important they are in the success of certain business writings. For me, I see how helpful this is but to actually implement all of this in my writing seems very hard. It would take forever for me to make sure all these guidlines were met. Maybe it is just practice make perfect for something like this. So I agree that for an experienced writer this may not seem to complex, but for a new writer it does. Having something like the example in figure 3.5 would be extremely helpful because it is one page of questions to consider when determining your objectives. Having something like this, for me, would increase the chance of me trying to keep focused on these points. Its crazy, once you sit down and think about what you are actually writing, there are so many questions to consider when writing to certain readers. To know that you will get certain outcomes depending on just how you write the memo, or email makes it just that much more important to be aware of.

Chapter 3 reading

Chapter three focuses on the way you communicate with your reader, and how important knowing what your reader wants to hear and how to say it to them is important. Ideas on how to effect the reader are really helpful.

Normally, it is hard for me to focus on all these aspects, but after reading this chapter I see just how important is actually is, if you want the outcome to be successful. The world is very diverse. Different people need different things in order to be persuaded. Since persuasion is in almost all business writing, it would be necessary to study this chapter.

There is so much more to writing then just writing. Which sometimes is hard for me to grasp. Throughout the chapter it discusses certain questions certain readers may be thinking when reading your report or even more importantly what questions they may have and expect answers to in the report.

What stood out the most to me was guideline five. Knowing your readers cultural characteristics is imperative to good communication. Because so much business is done internationally it is good to know where your readers come from and the values that they may hold. Speaking to someone in the U.S. can be interpreted wrong if speaking with someone in Asia, or Japan for example. Knowing and paying attention to the seven characteristics the book mentions will definitely help get the outcome you are looking for.

Freestyle

Its not that I don't like writing.... Its just always been hard for me. I could never just research a paper and write it up. The whole process is stressful for me.

I do admit over the past 3 years my writing has drastically improved. I think the reason that it is so hard for me is because I didn't pay much attention in high school, it was more of a social thing. Now that I am a junior in college, I wish that I had went to school more often. Basically I missed the basics of writing and have been trying to catch up ever since.

I am a little excited about this class in particular because I don't think it will be like a typical writing class. It is more technical and I think that it will be much easier to catch on to then college research papers. I also think this class will provide good information for me in my future career in business.

Ch. 1, 20 & 22 readings

At first I didn't think I was going to like reading this text. Shockingly, it wasn't that bad. I did find some information helpful and interesting. I never thought that writing would be required for my career. In previous writing classes I remember thinking, why do I have to do this? I knew writing was important as a way to communicate but never liked the detailed research papers.

It was interesting to learn that 20% of college grads spent a minimum of one day a week, writing. Even more interesting was the fact that 3.1 billion dollars is spent every year in employee writing training. That seems extreme. That is a lot of money. Its clear now that writing, for the most part, is a requirement in any type of field. Chapter 20 had some cool stuff in it. Mainly, this weeks readings gave me a better understanding on how to reach out to the reader. I liked the You Attitude section. This was good for me because I tend to use "I" language sometime too much. Not intentionally caring about myself more then the reader but just uninformed of how it could be interpreted. I learned to focus on the reader, create a positive vibe, and to avoid negative ones. Direct patterns, which states the objective in the beginning rather then the end is good to know for things like doing memos and letters. Chapter 22 was more in depth I think because proposals are a lot more detailed. So I learned a bit about the set up structure for a proposal. Also it will be helpful to have the proposal checklist. All in all, for me, chapter 20 was the most interesting so far.