On Deck:

• A Note on the Course Application Emails
• Brief Lecture recapping Anderson Chapter One and Kramer & Bernhardt
• Start Group Work Assignment 1

Due Before Next Class:

• Readings: Anderson's Chapter Two, and Project 1 descriptions 
• Writing:  SWA 2, which is a "Reading Response" 

Brief Lecture: 

• Recapping Anderson Chapter One and Kramer & Bernhardt 

Anderson's Chapter One: Communication Your Career and This Book

In your emails it was clear that you all share common ground with Anderson's first point, that some form of technical communication expertise will be valuable to develop in college, and that some forms of technical communication will be key to your success and promotion in your work.  

Notably, Anderson points out that you will be both assigned specific projects and technical communication genres (from email correspondence and memos to larger reports) and you will discover worthwhile technical communication projects to pursue on your own, saying that "you'll generate many good ideas on your own.  Looking around you'll discover ways to make things work better of do them less expensively, overcome problems that have stumped others, or make improvements others haven't begun to dream about" (p. 2). 

As Anderson notes, smartly I think, this kind of work begins as you think about making valuable contributions while at university -- contributing to your campus, a department, the community or local organizations.

This critical dynamic of assigned and discovered work does, of course, depend on your ability to communicate effectively, and I (Jared) would add that it depends on your ability to analyze and understand the purposes and potentials of various forms of technical writing -- how these are useful and persuasive to different people with different roles. 

To begin understanding various forms of technical communication and how they work, Anderson notes that it is key to think first about several differences between (most) writing at college and (most) writing in workplaces.   He states:

"The most important difference concerns purpose."  (p. 4)

On the job, you will write for practical purposes, most often to prepare (find, analyze, interpret) usable information to different audiences so they can perform a task, or make a sound decision.  This requires close attention to the audience/readers of your writing:

"Learning what your readers need and determining the most helpful way to present this information are the most critical skills in workplace writing." (p. 4)

*Note, I disagree somewhat with the claim that this is "not relevant for most writing at school" (p.4).

Principal Characteristics of Technical Communications:

1. Must Satisfy Different Readers in a Single Communication
2. Addresses International and Multicultural Audiences
3. Uses Distinctive types of Communication
1. Genres like Memos, summaries, project proposals and reports have 'genre conventions' that include 'super structures' and 'sub-structures'.
4. Employs Graphics and Visual Design to Increase Effectiveness
5. Created Collaboratively 
6. Created in a Globally Networked Environment
1. (a.k.a. much communication is on the web, and interfaces across different organizations, or countries)
7. Shaped by Organizational Conventions and Culture
1. (running from very conservative to progressive, or quirky)
8. Shaped by Social and Political Factors
1. You may need to consider social relationships between employees, companies, or stakeholders, but also the factors that stem from competitions for funding, recognition, and power inside and outside an organization
9. Must Meet Deadlines
10. Sensitive to Legal (copyright, contracts, etc.) and Ethical issues (the effect of communications on people or society) 

Technical Writing is an Action:

• at least if...

1. it supports the readers action
2. it is USEFUL (p. 9) by helping readers perform tasks efficiently and effectively
3. it is PERSUASIVE (p. 9) by influencing readers attitudes and actions

Main Advice of This Book:

1. Think Constantly about Your Readers, especially how:
1. They Construct Meaning by actively interacting with your writing.  In other words, they bring their own expertise, expectations, reading habits, biases and ideas to reading. 
2. Their Responses are Shaped by the Situation.  In other words, how they read your work depends on the context, such as what has been happening at a company or school, the larger economic situation, or social or ecological situations that present 'exigencies' (or challenges to be resolved).
3. They React Moment by Moment.  In other words if you send an email attachment without a message explaining what is attached, or open a presentation with a slide that contains a political cartoon, you might draw undesired responses from certain readers of members of your audience, responses that shape their interpretations of further work.  

Six Reader-Centered Strategies:

1. Begin by identifying the specific task your readers will perform using your communication
2. Identify the readers' attitudes that are relevant to the communication
3. Help you readers quickly find the information needed to perform tasks
4. Use an easy-to-read writing style
5. Highlight the points your readers will find to be persuasive
6. Talk with your readers 

Design.

Get to work!

Your first Group Work Challenge is form groups of 2 or 3, apply (most of) the Six Reader Centered Strategies to designing individual wiki pages as workspaces.  This is detailed as our first challenge in: Group Work One.

Your main challenge involves (1) figuring out how to use the wiki (I will offer an initial review, then circulate and help you solve problems), and (2) applying basic design principles discussed in Kramer & Bernhardt — including:

1. seeing the page as a grid
2. "active" use of white-space
3. using text structures to guide the reader (including functional links)
4. proportional fonts and spacing
5. controlling style features (in this case, font and color) 
6. use of images and color to enhance your message and readability