Project Planning

Planning, researching, and composing technical documents

This is the first SLO reflection and it’s luckily for me it’s about planning. Something I plan on
mastering one day. Until that day comes, the The only thing in my life that consistently go to
plan are the assignments I create for this class. Although I have a plan and I intend on sticking to
it, bidding my time between the steps in the real world is the most agonizing part. I know that
making a big change takes time and effort, I;m allowing myself to have both, for the sake of this
reflection, it’s time to go back to class. Because Pplanning my assignments and my life out to the Commented [SP1]: Edit
best of my abilities out makes my life easier, so I thought I’d talk about the planning that went
into my cover letter. Despite the cover letter being a short snippet into my own life story to better
explain why I am qualified for the position, I still had to plan what I was going to say. Because
the genre limits the amount of space I am given to compose a letter, I had to make every word
count. I overanalyzed and rewrote practically every sentence twice in order to make sure I was
using it as well as possible.
I was relieved when my hard work paid off. The people who reviewed my letter both loved it. It
was a huge relief especially considering how badly I wanted the Prop Master job. It’s been a
while since I applied, and I still not have heard anything. Althought I can’t travel through time, I
know that hard work I put into my life outside the classroom will eventually pay off. Because
this a reflection on an assignment, I am still glad I applied for the job and I am fortunate to be
able to learn all I did about cover letters. Planning helps me start what I finish and prepare
myself for whatever life throws my way. In my life, I write down my plans and rewrite them
every morning when I wake up. This helps me stay focused and sure of the path I am on.

(as a lifecycle process) in teams and individually.

Project Analysis : SWA 2

Identifying a document’s readers and a document’s context relative to practices

of composing for specific global, diverse, and multicultural audiences.

In the Project Analysis SLO, I as a creator, am tasked with always considering my audience.
Whether it be my extreme or main audience, I must keep both in mind because I can’t control
who sees my document, all I can control is how well I construct the document. For SWA 2 I
realized the majority of my audience would be people my age due to their increasing popularity.
But, just in case I used a mixture visual and written aids to complete the assignment.

Understanding how technical documents occupy and respond to social justice

and community service contexts.

As my understanding of Tech Com has grown I have seen how documents can affect people in
more than one way. The way sentences are worded can have power. For example, if I were to
write instruction on how to save a life in a dangerous situation, it is my responsibility as the
creator to assume my audience knows nothing about the given situation. It is not my intention to
patronize my audience, but for their own safety and the safety of others I must be as clear as
possible. I would have to use every day lexicon and but still be as brief as possible. At their most
basic level technical documents not only aim to deliver a message in the best way possible to an
audience. However, upon closer examination these documents have the power to change minds
and the course of history. After all, and idea is just an idea until it is written down. Once it is
written down, it has the power to be spread to more people than word of mouth ever could**** Commented [SP2]: Edit the fuck out of this sentence.
Content Development: MWA 2

Understanding how genre conventions impact writing.

Genre convections impact the way something written in many ways. The audience expects
similar conventions fomr the genre, even if…

Following the rules of the genre helps the audience understand the technical communication
documents more quickly. Following these rules allows the reader to pay more attention to what
your message is because they are not distracted by your technical communications different
genre. For MWA 2 we were tasked with creating a diy video

- Genre convection impact writing because

Genre conventions impact writing because conventions determine the way the writing is
formatted. A diy video should actually be helpful and a cover letter should not be a list of
skills the person applying for the job has.

o The audience expects the same/similar things from the genre

o The audience expects the same format in a genre. Whether they realize it or not, these Formatted: Font: 12 pt
expectation still exits. As a creator I need to make my writing understandable and I have to be Formatted: No bullets or numbering
aware of my audience’s needs. Although I love writing creatively, having uniformity can help
documents, especially tech com documents, be more understandable. Formatted: Font: 12 pt, Not Bold

o This familiarity and sticking to the rules helps the audience

understand your techcom you decided to write in that particular
genre
o Genre convection helps the extreme audience understand
o Uniformity is great eg. Cover letters/resumes
o Impact the decisions I make as a writer. In order to write the best
example in the genre possible, I have to keep these rules in mind

Using contextual information to place specialized information into the Commented [SP3]: ???
appropriate genre.

-
Organizational Commented [SP4]: Reversing Roe Video

Design Practicing strong research skills with primary and secondary sources to
generate appropriate content. Generating strong research questions and
developing clear research practices.

- Strong research skill – we saw example of that today in class as we saw the importantness
of researching both sides of an issues, especially an issue like roe v wade whospolarizing
with a piece of tech com made the issue so polarizing for the first time.

Today in class, we were able to witness the power of well executed research in the documentary
genre. The amount of research that was done and the questions that were proposed and
eventually answered added to the documentary’s pace, watch ability, and overall effectiveness.
watch a how strong research can create an amazing product. WeAs a class we were able to watch
a large part of the documentary Reversing Roe on Netflix. This documentary was about the
history of Roe v. Wade and it highlighted people on all sides of the issue well. And in class it
was pointed out that the issue became as polarizing as it has become only after the Supreme
Court ruled on it. This ruling, this piece of tech com voted on by the highest court of the land,
caused everyone who hadn’t previously to form an opinion on abortion. The creators of the
documentary were obviously trying to answer questions with their creation. Questions about the
history and the beliefs of people on both sides of the Roe v. Wade

- Having more than one source makes you more unbiased and credible, especially when
dealing with a topic like abortion
- When dealing with something like RVW, or any research project, it is also important to
identify what information you don’t need. Eliminating unnecessary information makes
the paper more concise which in turn grabs your readers attention more and
- The documentary was split into different parts each analyzing a different part of the rvw
story these questions sbout rvw

Written Communication

Communication Composing clear, stylistically responsible prose that avoids

errors and pays attention audience needs.

- Error free prose is readable prose. And yes I know the forementioned statement seems Formatted: No bullets or numbering
obvious but seeing all the erros in major pieces of tech com as a consumer* is alarming. The first
example that came to my mind were the president tweets. Although people I know tend to laugh
at their rdidiculousness, his tweets have power. His audience accepts his style choices because
they reject the traditional stiffnecked responses of politicians. They view him as a man of the
people, due to the way he speaks and delivers a large percentage of his iintermost thoughts and
opinions. His tweets have a purpose and recently that purpose has been to strike fear into the
hearts of his supporters in order for the republican party to maintain the power it has in the united
states. Although you can argue his prose is not responsible, it is still stylistically responsible
because it completely satisfies the desires and needs of his audience. It pays attention to the
needs of his audience while still ensuring what he wants to receive or share is clear.