The five steps in the technical writing process: planning, structuring, writing, reviewing, and publishing.
The Reflection Essay
Because this is a skills-based course, it has a final essay. We\’ve worked on a number of projects throughout the semester, and this assignment will give you an opportunity to step back and reflect on your journey as a student and writer. Specifically, I would like you to critically think back on where you succeeded, what you could have done better, and how you might continue to improve going forward. Your comments don\’t need to be limited to the coursework itself. For example, you may also talk about a number of contextual circumstances that impacted your performance (e.g., if you fell behind during a portion of the semester, overcame a major hurdle in your life, began using Tutor.com and/or the Writing Center, didn\’t put in enough effort at some point, etc.). You should start the paper by outlining your expectations, hopes, fears, etc. for the class at the start of the semester. End the paper by looking forward and considering where you\’ll go from here as a student and writer. In particular, think about how you might apply the various skills that you\’ve picked up in the class.
This should be a serious project, but also a fun assignment. It needs to have a coherent structure and use the major units from our semester as points of organization, with standalone subtitles, etc. To help on this front, I would like you to add a picture, GIF, or meme for each section. This image should help create a dominant impression for the section. In accordance with standard writing conventions, each image should have a brief caption and a link to the source image. Don\’t stress too much about the image title. If the image doesn\’t already have one, you can pretty much go with whatever strikes you in the moment. As a quick example, \”Clip From the Film Elf\” would be perfectly acceptable for the image at the top of this page. When you include the url, try to use a short url if that option is available (going to a meme\’s source, for instance, will give you a much shorter url than if you try to link to a Google image search result).
I\’ve pre-formatted placeholders all of the images in the following template, but if you lose the formatting for some reason or want to get creative, make sure that you integrate the image and caption in a way that doesn\’t disrupt the flow of the text. To do this in Word, right click and choose to wrap the text around the image using the “square” format; once you’ve done this, right click and choose to add a caption. If a caption comes untethered from an image, just delete the caption, right click, and add a new one. This link has additional information about how to add images into a project in MLA format: https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/m… (Links to an external site.)
Requirements: 400 word
Module 3 (The Technical Writing Process)
In this module, you will be introduced to the Technical Writing Process. The module explains the five steps in the technical writing process: planning, structuring, writing, reviewing, and publishing.
To create effective written communications, you must respect the writing process. In other words, there are no shortcuts to developing quality work. You must thoughtfully engage in each step of the process. For example, proper prewriting will enable you to focus your topic and main points, as well as think of examples and supporting detail. Organizing is essential for clarity and structure. Once you have completed your first draft, the revising, editing, and proofreading stages must be completed before you publish. An effective written document has never been achieved without these final steps. There is no need to be intimidated by the last three stages because you have the support of many resources. For example, you have access to the Writing Center, Tutor.com, and Grammarly. Successful students use their resources!
To become an effective communicator, respect the process.
What happens if a technical document does not communicate effectively? In some cases, this may merely cause confusion; however, in some instances, failure to communicate effectively can result in the loss of millions of dollars or cost lives. In this module, you will be reading about the cost of poor communications. You will also review a case study and analyze what went wrong.
Learning Outcome(s):
The following is a list of course learning outcome(s) that will be met in this module:
Students will demonstrate the ability to effectively analyze purpose, audience, and rhetorical situation and context of use when preparing technical documents.
Students will demonstrate the ability to analyze communications critically.
Learning Objectives
To accomplish the course learning outcomes we will focus on the following learning objectives for this module including:
1.1 Students will be able to identify the steps in the technical writing process.
2.1 Students will understand the consequences of poor communication.
3.1 Students will utilize what they have learned about effective technical communications to analyze a case study of miscommunication.
Module 7 (Do It: Defining the Problem)
This assignment addresses the following learning objectives:
1.2 Students will write a transmittal memo to accompany their technical description.
2.1 Students will research a topic and write a technical definition of a real life problem.
A very common type of technical description is the definition paper. Your first formal writing assignment is to create a document that you will use in your project proposal as well as in the final deliverable. In this document, you will be researching your topic and writing a 600-700 word document that defines the problem.
You will begin this report, with a brief overview of the problem including any definitions that the reader might need to know. In this section, include a brief history of the problem. Next you will go into some of the reasons why this problem exists. What are the factors that contribute to this problem. In the last section, you will focus on the effects of this problem. This section will use persuasion to convince the reader that the problem is real and that it must be addressed. Finally, sum up the main ideas of your paper in a conclusion.
Read the requirements listed below and make sure you follow the guidelines:
Paper should be at least 700 words.
You need to have a minimum of 4 citations from 2 different sources. Information from these resources should be incorporated into the final report by using signal phrases and in-text citations.
Click here for an overview of how to effectively employ signal phrases
Click here for an overview of how to incorporate paraphrases, summaries, and/or quotes into your writing.
Click here for an overview of how to effectively use in-text citations
You will need a Works Cited page at the end of the report listing the sources cited in MLA format.
Click here for an overview of how to create Works Cited entries
Use the template provided for your final report. It is set up correctly.
Underline the thesis statement at the end of your introduction.
Module 7 (Recommendation Report)
This assignment addresses the following learning objectives:
1.1 Students will learn how descriptions, letters, memos, emails, and reports are used in the workplace.
1.2 Students will identify common features of descriptions, letters, memos, emails, and reports are used in the workplace.
3.1 Students will research solutions to the problem described in their definition paper and will write a recommendation report on the topic.
4.1 Students will use their research to recommend logical, valid, researched solutions to the problem.
Your technical description described the problem that you will be researching. Now that you understand the problem and its effects, you are ready to begin the next section of your report. You will be researching solutions and making recommendations. Your solutions need to be supported by research. Look at what has been tried in the past and evaluate how well it worked. The number of solutions you propose is up to you. You might want to propose three solutions and then make a recommendation based on which solutions you think would work best.
Recommendation reports usually begin with a description of the problem. You have already completed this section when you wrote the technical description paper defining your problem.
This report is going to focus on the solutions to the problem you presented in the technical description. The recommendation report answers the question, \”What is the best option?\”
Your job is to do more than provide your client with a recommendation. You need to provide data to support your conclusions. The reader will check your research, your logic, and your conclusions before accepting your recommendation. This means that you must provide research to support your recommendations. You will set up your recommendation report as follows:
Introduction
Solutions
Recommendations
Your conclusion should sum up the solutions presented and once again move the reader to accept your recommendation.
Assignment Requirements:
Paper should be a minimum of 700 words.
Each solution should have a minimum of one citation from a valid source.
Overall, the paper should be 4-6 citations from 2 different sources. Information from these resources should be incorporated into the final report by using signal phrases and in-text citations.
Click here for an overview of how to effectively employ signal phrases
Click here for an overview of how to incorporate paraphrases, summaries, and/or quotes into your writing.
Click here for an overview of how to effectively use in-text citations
Paper must be double spaced and use MLA properly for all in text citations as well as the works cited page.
Click here for an overview of how to create Works Cited entries
These would be the three modules in which you are going to develop
Module 3 (The Technical Writing Process)
Module 7 (Do It: Defining the Problem)
Module 7 (Recommendation Report)
Those are the modules you are going to talk about and I sent you the information and the learning that each module taught me
Answer preview to the five steps in the technical writing process: planning, structuring, writing, reviewing, and publishing.
APA
450 words
