ENGL 219 – Reflection Memo

Eric L. Dixon
Student ID: 101815769
When I started in this technical writing course, I did not anticipate that I would experience as

much as I did in writing and developing as many documents as I did. I simply thought that I

would obtain a basic instruction that would be an enhancement of what I have learned in the past

when it comes to writing. However, I did learn much in this course of technical writing. In this

memo, I will cover different genres/forms of documents that I wrote and how I fulfilled my

learning of the various course outcomes in developing them.

To start, one of the types of documents I wrote were the reading responses. I felt that I

reinforced my understanding of written communication as well as reviewing and editing in

writing these. Each time I wrote a response, I would always peruse it to make sure it was free of

grammatical errors and was feasible to read. I also made sure that the information that my

instructor required me to present was as accurate as possible in answering the questions she

posed for each reading response. This verification of accuracy of my information also enhanced

my ability to exercise content management.

Somewhat like what I did in the reading responses, I also expressed content management,

reviewing and editing and written communication in providing free responses during class. I felt

I was able to provide as much or as little information associated with what our instructor asked.

For instance, when I provided a free response on what topic I was deciding for my instruction

set, I was able to provide as much detail as possible on the three ideas that I had. This enable my

instructor to provide me valuable insight into which one would be most effective in creating an

instruction set. However, I will admit that I was limited in terms of reviewing and editing for my

free responses since I did not have much time most of the time to peruse my information for

accuracy and grammatical errors.

 ENGL 219 – Reflection Memo
Eric L. Dixon
Student ID: 101815769
I also exercised more of the course outcomes of reviewing and editing, content management

and written communication when sending messages on the peer review responses for the group

proposals. In developing these responses, I believe I was able to quickly tailor my responses in

as little or as much detail as possible when writing them. I also perused them to ensure

information accuracy and check for grammatical errors. For instance, when I was providing

feedback for the group whose proposal was entitled “Lobo Assistance”, I generated what I

wanted to say in a Notepad document. After I did this, I inserted the information into a reply

message for the peer review responses and checked it to make sure it reflected what I need to say.

I was able to provide much feedback about what they needed to do in securing their website as

well as other actions they needed to take on their website for their proposal. I also found it

enlightening to pose questions for other group’s proposals to be as specific as possible and as

general as possible. I believe in having such flexibility to pose such questions boosted my ability

to critique documents to where I could provide constructive criticism.

Another exercise of content management I performed was when I developed messages using a

simulated Facebook page message as well as a Twitter message. I made sure that each of these

messages reflected the content of their counterpart forms of communication: a formal letter that

had the same information as the Facebook page (it was about recommending someone for

employment at Intel, Inc.) and a Twitter message that had the same information as an e-mail

message (a message to my supervisor advising that I would not make it to work under

advisement from my doctor). This consistency of information between these different forms of

communication also reflects developing my technical writing skills in the course outcome of

production and delivery.

 ENGL 219 – Reflection Memo
Eric L. Dixon
Student ID: 101815769
As I continued further in the course, I also was assigned the task of developing an instruction

set. When creating this, I was able to put my communication skills in the form of all the course

outcomes. First, I did perform some research on what to do in developing my instruction set by

verifying what materials I would need to use in presenting how to run coaxial cable through

one’s residence. Afterwards, for the visual part, I gathered images of different items that I

needed to serve as part of the presentation so that the intended audience could have as clear of an

understanding as possible on what to do with the instructions. Next, I developed the written

portion of the instruction set and perused it to make sure it was free of grammatical errors as well

as reflective of the changes my instructor advised me to make so that it would be as easy to

follow as possible. Finally, for product and delivery, I was able to provide my instructions on a

website in the form of a video as well as documentation to guide the reader/viewer of the

instruction set on what to do in running coaxial cable so that it was simple enough for him/her to

follow. The project planning, project analysis and organizational design was all incorporated

into the research I did as well as the preliminary actions -- choosing the topic for my instruction

set as well as the outline, choice of images to use and number of steps to include in the

instructions.

For my recommendation report, I also followed all if not most of the course outcomes in its

development. One of the biggest things that stood out was the research that I did. This greatly

covered project planning, project analysis and organizational design since I put much thought

and decision making into determining the material that I would include in my report. As well, I

cited many sources and made sure that I referenced sources as needed when providing the visual

information in my recommendation report.

 ENGL 219 – Reflection Memo
Eric L. Dixon
Student ID: 101815769
However, for the group proposal, I covered all the course outcomes except content

management and production and delivery. These two were primarily covered by Elvia Cruz and

Alan Caulder when it came to developing our group proposal. However, I did perform some

research for this – such covered project planning, project analysis and organizational design. I

also contributed to the visual communication aspect of the group proposal by providing images

that were incorporated into its project plan. Such enhanced the proposal and made it more

interesting to our intended audience. This was also evident in what Elvia Cruz did when she

provided images on the webpage for our proposal.

One other document that we also practiced writing in class was our resumes. Since I already

had a resume generated as a result of retiring from the U.S. Air Force, I did not have to do much

in changing it. However, the little I did in adjusting my resume demonstrated my technical

writing skill in terms of reviewing and editing.

To conclude, much of what I did in class and on assignments covered most if not all the

course outcomes. The primary ones that I exercised in terms of developing my technical writing

skills were project planning, project analysis and organizational design. However, the ones that

were mainly new to me were content management and product and delivery. This was the case

with me since I had not worked with developing websites and am not all that savvy when it

comes to different forms of social media such as Twitter and Facebook – I have a basic

understanding of how to use Facebook, but I am not that familiar with Twitter. Nonetheless, I

consider AT LEAST exposure to these different forms of social media, to include developing a

website, for the sake of technical writing an insightful experience that can help me further down

the road in my career endeavors.