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.