Document Development Exposition: Workplace Correspondence

Explain in detail your document’s development from planning to finish, describing your
challenges, how you overcame them, and what you learned.

Planning
Timewise, I spent less time actually making the email and memo than the white paper, but this
assignment was the hardest conceptually for me to wrap my head around. I knew I wanted my email
and memo to be similar to my white paper, but I somewhat synthesized it from how greenhouse
gases affect only the sea level to how they affect the atmosphere as a whole. Once I read it over and
over again, I felt as though I was ready to begin making the email and memo.

First Draft (for peer editing)

Drafting the first email for me was a struggle. With no example to go off of, I admittedly blindly wrote
an email that I would send to someone. It was very short and did not contain much detail. Making
the memo was a better time. Having the example, plus the design slide in the slides made it easy for
me to structure the memo. Since my memo and email were related to my white paper, I did not have
to research the topic. I spent more time on the memo trying to make it look nice, which I will later
realize was the opposite of what I was suppose to do.

Second Draft (for your packet)

For this draft, I drastically changed my email. I practically wrote a whole new one. This one contained
more detail than the first, had more structure to it, and I addressed it to an actual person. I originally
wrote this from an outside source, so I tried using more inclusive language like “we” to demonstrate
that it was from an inside source but that did not come through very clearly. I spent a lot of time
working on my memo originally so my memo did not change that much for this draft.

Final Draft (for your portfolio)

Once again, for this draft, I drastically changed my email again. The new email basically looks nothing
like the old one. This email has a subject line, has more inclusive language to make sure it looks like it
was written from an inside source, made the solution to the problem more obvious, and asked for a
meeting to discuss the problem and the next steps. I also included a signature and ways to “reach
me”. In the memo I changed all of my titles that were blue back to black and changed all the
subheadings to be italicized. I took some information from my recommendation section and moved
it to another body paragraph and expanded it further. To replace the bit that I took out of the
recommendation section I requested a meeting as a committee to discuss how we can move
forward. Once again in this document I tried to include more inclusive languages to make it look like
it was written from an inside source.
Document Development Exposition: Workplace Correspondence