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.