Red Ball

It was another typical day in the Air Force a couple of years ago. I was assigned to flight line maintenance. As an aircraft structural maintenance technician, my job was to respond to aircraft maintenance issues requested over a land mobile radio by crew chiefs and other maintenance personnel. Majority of the maintenance requests were routine maintenance that had low to middle priority. That day, I got a "red ball" request which meant an aircraft is scheduled to take off within the hour but needs maintenance support before it can leave the tarmac. These calls are always interesting because you never know how severe the problem is. As I approached the aircraft, cargo personnel just wrapped up loading cargo onto the aircraft. The flight crew was on site preparing their pre-flight checks. I checked in with the crew and they informed me they had a bad nut plate on a lens panel. This was an easy job. I got all my tools from my flight line truck and went to work. All eyes were on me. The pilot, the crew, the cargo and all maintenance personnel on site were waiting on me to get the job done. I was suddenly in an intimidating and stressful situation but stayed focused and completed the job safely and successfully. The aircraft was able to take off on time to complete their mission. It was a great feeling knowing that I contributed to mission accomplishment. In the Air Force, every member plays a vital role and people are the most important asset.

Response to Inna's blog

I agree with Inna that the variety of information we've learned in class was interesting and informative. Watching "The Persuaders" and pointing out all the rhetoric used was educational and displayed how we can use rhetoric get our audience to react the way we want them to. I enjoyed all our guest speakers. I always find it interesting to listen to other people talk about what they do for a living.

Things I learned in English 402

When I learned that I had to take English 402 for my degree program, I said to myself "not another English class". But after learning the applications of technical and professional writing and its importance in the real world, I am glad that I took this class especially at an early stage of my junior year. I will use the tools I've learned if necessary in my other classes and definitely in my career. So what did I learn? I've learned in order for your communication to be effective, it must be usable and persuasive. I've learned that you must always keep your readers in mind and give them the information they need. I've learned that you must take into account your reader's skills, culture, background, emotions and values when writing to them. I've learned that writing that is simple and to the point is more effective than writing with fancy words and extensive material. I've learned that organization and easy to find information is the key to structure and clarity of writing. I've learned how we use rhetoric to communicate to our readers and listeners. And I've learned that learning about writing and communication is a never ending process. In my opinion, you always learn something new every day.

In response to Melissa Dawson

Melissa,

I agree with you that public speaking is one big fear that people have. I've also heard the saying that people fear public speaking more than death. One reason I think that we fear public speaking is we don't do it often enough to overcome this fear. Take our professors for example. They speak publicly everyday as they lecture and they seem to be extremely comfortable. As we enter the workplace in the next couple of years we will most likely find ourselves conducting speeches within our organization. I'm normally a timid person and public speaking makes me nervous.

Chapter 17-18

Chapter 17 defines several guidelines on creating and delivering listener-centered oral presentations. We can use all the elements of creating reader-centered communications to prepare effective oral presentations. One important but sometimes difficult aspect of making oral presentations is to keep your audience entertained and focused on your presentation. The text states that people can read for hours at a time, but many listeners have trouble concentrating for more than twenty minutes. Some ways to prevent your audience from wandering off are to be prepared, professional, persuasive, credible, interesting and include visual aids.

Chapter 18 defines several guidelines on creating reader-centered web pages and websites. The main point of this chapter is to develop effective web pages that users can easily and quickly navigate through to find informati0n they're looking for. An example of a good web page is WSU-V's Business Department web page. When I started to develop my academic plan at the beginning of the year, I was able to refer to this web page to find everything I needed.

Pursuader's

This documentary on the world of marketing enhanced my knowledge of the marketing industry. I'll have to watch this again before I take my marketing class in the spring. To most people, marketing is simply a way for businesses to attract consumers to buy their products. But according to the Persuader's, marketing is much more than this. It's the ability to capture the emotions of individuals and figure out exactly what they need and give these needs to them in the form of products and services. As consumers, we are constantly exposed to marketing and it never ends. The persuader's accurately label marketing as "the clutter". This clutter is everywhere.

Chapter 2, 9, and 10

Chapter 2 provides valuable information on creating resume's and cover letters and accurately presents what most employers are looking for. In the beginning of the semester, we had two guest speakers from Perkins & Co., one of the largest accounting firms in Portland Or. One individual was the college recruiter and the other was the human resources manager and they both talked about what they expect when reviewing resumes and cover letters. Here are some key points they look at when hiring accountants.
Cover Letter
-Always include cover letter with resume
-Do not fax resume/cover letter. Preferred via email or mail.
-No grammatical errors
-Keep formatting consistent and easily readable
Resume
-Do not state objectives (not what the text states)
-List education at top of resume
-Include GPA and approximate graduation date
-List soft skills
-Don't be clever
-Leave off references
-Focus on the job applying for

Chapter's 9 and 10 explain the guidelines to effectively begin and end communication. The guideline "Give your readers a reason to pay attention" allows our communication to grab our audience's attention so they can continue to read our writing. This is important especially in preparing cover letter's and resume. Most employers are faced with hundreds of resume's on a daily basis and you must be able to stand out among others and present to the employers that you are the best person for the job. To accomplish this, you must catch their attention so they will remember you.

Response to readings

Son,

I agree on what you said on time management in regards to writing. This was mentioned in the text and we've all heard it before from our teachers in the past. Ideas come and go and it's important to take a break from our writing and set it aside for some time to clear our thoughts, start fresh and get re-energized to draft and re-write. Often times I find myself procrastinating when writing but this is not only a bad habit, it's inefficient because it ignores the rule of taking a break. I recently took the timed write for WSU's writing portfolio. In this situation, you have to gather your thoughts and draft your writing under the pressure of time which can be a distracter for some.

Ch 14-15

Chapter 14

Chapter 14 presents guidelines for revising and reviewing drafts and ends by explaining time management guidelines during the revision process. One guideline that I recognized to be familiar is "check from your employer's point of view". This is one of the key elements that we must take into consideration when producing technical and professional documents in the workplace. When we are employed by a company, we represent that company. Therefore, we must act in their best interest, as stated in the text. Our communication objectives must take into account the consequences of our communication, decisions we are/are not authorized to make on behalf of the company and decide whether our communication complies with employer policies such as style and format.

Chapter 15

Chapter 15 provides guidelines on testing drafts for usability and persuasiveness. These guidelines can be applied to all technical documents. Testing drafts is an important step in the development stages. Testing drafts allows users to measure usability and persuasiveness which enables the writer to uncover areas that need more attention.

In my previous employment, using technical manuals to perform maintenance on aircraft was a requirement. Aircraft maintenance personnel often uncovered information that wasn't accurate or usable. To encourage ideas to improve technical manual procedures, the IDEA program was developed which provided monetary awards for suggestions and improvements. If submitted revisions were approved, you were paid $200 minimum $10,000 max. I know one person who hit the jackpot. I got $200 for one of my submissions.

Response to Inna's News Post

Technology has advanced the way news is distributed to the public. I think that people still watch the news as much as before, especially in our current situation with the elections, war, and financial crisis. Back then, people tuned in on the radio and TV for news. Today we can access the news the old fashion way or through our cell phones and laptop computers.

Journalism

Listening to Jesse Day speak on journalism was interesting. He gave us insight on the backstage operations of journalism from a broadcasting producer standpoint. Although I'm not interested in pursuing a career in journalism, I always find it interesting to learn about other professions and what they do.

The main objective of journalism is to produce stories or news for public awareness. Ethics plays a very important role in journalism. It can be difficult for journalists to decide whether or not to produce a controversial event. A good example was when Jesse and his previous employer had to decide whether or not to air the story on a child who supposedly committed suicide. The parents of the child claimed that their child did not commit suicide. The police did. The news was then aired as a suicide death, a false assumption that was overridden by the truth. Was the news agency abusing attribution in this case?

Response to Vic's News Blog

Vic, you agreed with Peter that your reason for watching the news is the weather forecast. I agree also. You need to plan ahead, weather-wise, especially if you are performing activities outdoors. The weather report is an important resource that we all need in our daily lives. Pilots use weather data to safely navigate through the skies. Ship sailors must know weather data to navigate safely through the waters, etc. On a larger scale, weather forecasting enables the government and media officials to warn residents of hurricane and tornado prone areas to evacuate early and safely before the storm hits. Imagine what it would be like not to have an early warning signal.

News Broadcast

Instead of subscribing for the local newspaper to catch up on current events, I'd rather make use of my cable and internet subscription that I pay good money for. I normally try to watch the evening news when time permits but I usually get bored after the first 5-10 minutes and by then, I'm switching back and forth between the news and other shows. I normally pay attentionto the weather forecasts, sports highlights and unfolding events happening real time, which are the most interesting to me. Unfortunately, the bad news dominates over the good news. Therefore, I wouldn't recommend watching the morning news if you want to start your day off on a positive note, and vice versa for the evening broadcast.

Response to Son Ngo on Freelance Writing

First off, your trivia was informative. Who would of thought freelance came from a knight or mercenary selling his services to a lord willing to pay? It's interesting that someone related this definition to a writer who seeks income from anyone who is willing to accept his work. It makes perfect sense. Any ways, freelance writing does have its pros and cons as you mentioned. You can relate a freelance writer to an entrepreneur who is constantly trying to market his business. As a freelance writer, you always have to market your work to publishing companies and there is no guarantee that you will succeed. If I were a freelance writer, I would only do it part-time and find a full-time job for stability.

Introduction to Freelance Writing

Learning about the nature of freelance writing on Monday's lecture was very interesting. Before class, I really didn't know much about freelance writing/writers. But know I know that any person can freely write, hence, become a freelance writer. You can choose to pursue a full-time freelance writing career or you can do it part time. Either choice will earn you some cash. I'm typically not a writer but now knowing that I can submit a pitch query to any company of my choice to publish an article, kind of sparks some ideas that I can possibly write about. I enjoy barbecuing. Maybe I can pitch a good recipe of mine in a food magazine. I'm from a tropical island in the Pacific and a visitor's guide article explaining travel plans to Guam could be a seller.

Response to Rhiannon's Post

I agree to Rhiannon's point on chapter 8. The book mentions to choose plain words over fancy ones. But in the real world, our employer recommends using these fancy verbs to strengthen our communication to sound more technical and professional. The book gives great advice on creating a reader-centered approach on communication. It's all up to our readers to decide what they want to see, and in this case of our employer, we must adapt to their communication methods. For they are our readers in most cases.

Chapter 8 & 19 Concepts

Chapter 8 provides excellent concepts on developing an effective writing style of communication. These concepts of creating an effective writing style are: voice, sentence structure, and word
choice. It is important to select a writing style that corresponds to your communication objectives. Your voice, sentence configuration, and words choice you use within your communication determines whether your or not you are successful because of the impact it has on your reader's attitudes about you and your subject. Several tips on developing effective styles of writing are: saying things in your own words, adapt your voice to your readers' cultural background, avoid stereotypes, use active voice, and use plain words over fancy ones. Employing these principles will create a positive tone and will assist you in achieving your communication goals.

Chapter 19 gives us a quick lesson on managing client and service-learning projects. In summary, this lesson provides guidelines for writers who work for clients that require communication projects such as performing research, creating reports, reference manuals, websites, training programs, etc. The seven lesson guidelines provide a framework of how to obtain information from clients for required work to be accomplished, time-management, objective of project, decision-making, and submitting proposals for approval or feedback. Some key elements to keep in mind are to maintain a positive relationship with your client, seek their approval, work carefully with them throughout the process, and hand off your deliverable in a thoughtful and helpful way.

Response to Sara Ross' Rhetoric Post

Sara provides great examples of rhetoric in action. Rhetoric or persuasion, is a powerful tool that we use to get people to do what we want them to do. We are constantly exposed to rhetoric every day, whether we persuade others or whether we act because of the persuasion of others. Whether watching the early morning news, listening to the radio while commuting to school, sitting in class listening to our professor lecture or having a casual communication with a friend or family member, we are exposed to one or more forms of rhetoric. The innate ability of using rhetoric to persuade others can have positive or negative results. One negative consequence of rhetoric is the terror threat around the world today. Terrorists groups use ethos, pathos, and logos as a tool to recruit members into their organization, to train them and to persuade them to support their destructive cause.

Chapter 6 and 7

Chapter 6 introduces us to the reader-centered research process. The seven guidelines of this chapter will assist us in conducting our research assignment for our English 402 class. By taking this approach, I will complete my research assignment more efficiently and limit my potential to waste valuable time. I've also recently been assigned a research project for my intermediate accounting class and I will certainly practice using these guidelines. Hopefully this will help me get a better grade.

Chapter 7 explains proper drafting techniques on preparing useful and persuasive communication. These techniques are: 1. Begin your segments with topic statements. 2. Present generalizations before details. 3. Organize from most important to least important. 4. Reveal your communication's organizations with headings, forecasting statements, and similar devices. 5. Consider your readers' cultural background. I will definitely use this chapter as a guide when I start drafting my research paper.

Chapter 4, 5, 16 and 23 Readings

Chapter 4

Chapter 4 builds upon chapter 3 and emphasizes the importance of taking a reader-centered approach to properly "plan" communication to make it usable and persuasive. The readings describe communication to be usable if it is complete, task-oriented and accessible. This chapter provides 10 guidelines we can employ to ensure we develop complete, task-oriented and accessible communication. One tool we commonly use to organize our communication effectively is an outline, which enables us to identify our main points and build upon these ideas in our supporting arguments.

Chapter 5

Chapter 5 presents in great detail how to use persuasion in technical and professional writing. Although this chapter provides us with persuasive guidelines to help us strengthen our communication, the most important persuasion tool is to remember the needs, concerns, values, and preferences of our readers. Something interesting and important that I've consistently seen throughout the guidelines of chapter 3-5 is the impact that ethics has on our communication. By knowing our readers will respond to our communication differently from each other based on cultural differences, position, etc., we can effectively plan our communication and persuade our readers towards our goals.

Chapter 16

Chapter 16 focuses on creating communications with a team. We are introduced to eight guidelines that we can employ to operate efficiently as a team. Employers sometimes require individuals to collaborate for several reasons such as time constraints or complexity of a project. The advantage of working in a team rather than individually enables us to exploit more ideas through our combined efforts. Although more resources are available to us as a team, we must operate in an organized fashion to limit waste and enhance productivity. Chapter 16 educates us on effective team organization to prevent wasting time and resources.

Chapter 23

This chapter focuses on writing reader-centered instructions. This section of our text is particularly important for the manufacturing industry. Let's look at Boeing Corporation as an example. Boeing manufactures and sells aircraft to both civilian and military sectors. To properly service these aircraft to keep them air worthy, civilian and military maintenance crews must clearly understand how to maintain these delicate aircraft. Boeing provides these
maintenance instructions in the form of technical publications or technical orders that consist of thousands of pages in length. To allow maintenance technicians to quickly find the instructions they need, Boeing must organize these instructions in a way that permits quick access to required information. Boeing provides reader-centered instructions by allowing quick access to maintenance instructions by providing table of contents, step-by-step instructions and visual images of the aircraft.

Rhetoric

There are three kinds of rhetoric or modes of persuasion that we were introduced to in our professional and technical writing class. These modes by definition are ethos (identity), pathos (emotion) and logos (logic). By interpreting these general definitions, ethos can be described as the identity factor of persuasion which gives our communication an identity by using such terms as “us”, “we” “them” or “I”. Pathos can be described as the emotional factor of communication which gives our communication feelings or senses which help us persuade our readers by tapping into their emotions. Logos can be described as the logical factor of communication which influences our readers by using facts, reasoning and intellect. When we communicate, we may be using either one form of rhetoric, or a combination of rhetoric to catch our reader’s attention. An example of ethos would be an automotive dealership stating “We provide the lowest auto retail cost and guarantee satisfaction on your purchase”. An example of pathos and logos would be a security alarm company that states “The security alarm system package provides your family safety and security by detecting intruders, fire and carbon monoxide and automatically alerts police or fire authorities”.

Comment on Amela Colakovic's Writing

Amela, I see we both agree that if our readers don't think our message is as important to them as it is to us, our ideas are in fact, useless and non-persuasive, which are opposite of the two critical ingredients for successful writing. The readings gave us insight on how to communicate effectively to individuals from all levels in an organization through different cultural backgrounds.

Chapter 3

This chapter sets the stage for developing effective writing skills as a professional writer. It provides a lot of information writers must take into account when writing which is described in detail under the 10 guidelines on defining your communication objectives. Things we must consider to be a successful writer is to understand the reader in terms of their attitudes, personalities, culture, experience, knowledge, title/position, preference, etc. Chapter 3 points out that in order to be effective and persuasive, you must understand how your readers will react to your message and how you want them to react. Understanding their emotions when reading your message will enable you to eliminate negative views/reactions and create more positive aspects in your communication that will help you persuade your readers to agree with your message.

In my opinion, this chapter has a lot of information to digest and I see why individuals can spend years studying the art of writing to be successful. In reflecting on past writing experiences, I sometimes found myself writing from my perspectives on how I wanted to relay information without regard to the reader's perspective on how they will react. This completely goes against the principle of developing a "You-Attitude". I'm not saying that I wasn't successful, but now I know the effective way to communicate using specific principles to guide me. Although things may seem important to me might not be as important to others unless I can convey my message effectively by persuading my readers to feel the importance of my message. One interesting point mentioned in the reading is "identifying the information your readers want from your communication." You must imagine what your readers want to hear in your message. What if your readers don't even know what they expect to hear? An example would be convincing your neighborhood to support local firefighter fundraising events. I can see the benefits of identifying information readers want to hear. Giving readers an understanding of the hazards volunteer firefighters face to protect neighborhoods from fire disaster and encouraging funds for equipment and advance training will enable the public to see the benefits of their support. This guideline enables readers who are completely unfamiliar with your subject to read detailed information that could possibly persuade them to act in your favor.

Readings for Chapters 1, 20 and 22

I found reading chapters 1, 20 and 22 interesting and educational since I have no experience in business writing procedures. One writing guideline that stuck out at me is developing a "You-Attitude", mentioned in chapter 20. I agree that individuals need to center there writing on the individual who is going to interpret the message (reader) to create a positive environment. Writers with no experience in creating professional documents tend to focus on the issue alone without regard to how the audience will react to their message. The text mentioned writing should be useful and persuasive. This supports the idea of the "You-Attitude" that writers need to be sensitive to the issue and to the audience to enable their message to be useful and persuasive. By following these guidelines, you then create an atmosphere where both the communicator and the receiver can agree to situations or solve problems professionally and efficiently. This creates a win-win situation.

Chapter 20 focuses on explaining how to generate letters, memos and emails professionally. I can relate to this chapter in part because I have experience creating official memorandums and email correspondences in the military profession. The text states that memo's and email traffic are often used as communication devises in a professional environment. This is a true statement in the military world. Present society lives in a dominant technological cyber world and electronic mail is one convenience that we use to convey information fast and reliable. On average, I've had at least 2-4 official memorandums and 50 emails per week. This amount was nothing compared to my supervisors and managers in leadership positions who received triple or quadruple the amount I would receive. In this situation, several emails are going to be unread unless reading emails is a full time job, which is not common in today's multi-tasking world. With this email convenience comes abuse also. I've seen that people could abuse the system simply because of the fact that it is convenient send information or contact individuals by a simple click on "send". Through experiences, I would receive an email from my supervisor that would be sitting 5 feet away from me. I always thought to myself, "why couldn't you just verbally instruct me to do so".

My Writing

Let me begin by saying that the last english course I took was about four years ago as a general requirement. Since then, I have not done any major writing assignments for educational purposes. However, I am a business major and technical and professional writing is necessary to succeed in the business profession.

I recently separated from the Air Force after serving almost six years as an enlisted Airman to pursue a Bachelor's degree and obtain a commission through the Air Force's Reserve Officer's Training Corps. Once graduated, I'll re-enter active duty as an AF officer. Hopefully this course on technical and professional writing will enhance my skills necessary to effectively prepare professional documents. After a brief browse through the text and comments mentioned in class, I can attest that the Air Force in general has their specific writing guidelines. In order to be proficient in preparing official AF documents, individuals must be introduced to specific document generation requirements and practice writing in these formats. Although similar in structure to business writing, official AF documents have different formats based upon the purpose of the document. There are also specific guidelines for electronic documents and email which could serve as official documents.

My goal in this class is be introduced to the writing in the private and public sectors of the business world and to further develop my writing skills.