To: Esteban Margaron
From: Eva Ruiz
Date: June 9th, 2020
Purpose of Communication: To review sentence, parenthetical, and expanded definition of cache.
First Impressions:
After reading the various definitions of a cache I felt that I had a good basic understanding of its purpose as well as its function. As someone with very limited experience in this area I felt that the definitions were very adequate at addressing the inexperienced audience. For the basic purpose of having the reader understand the concept and components of a cache you excelled. However, as a person inexperienced with technology I have a couple questions. Is a cache written as a piece of code? If it is a form of data storage it is stored and sold by companies to other people/companies making websites/products? Possibly, NetApp? These questions may not need to be addressed as they may not be relevant to the definition of a cache, however it is something I wondered about. I would suggest minor revisions before submitting the final definitions.
Purpose:
The introduction to the definitions very clearly stated the intended purpose, which was to explain the concept in the context of his field, computer science, to a technically inexperienced audience. The purpose stayed clear and was consistent throughout the document. I would like to state here that even though I have asked questions for clarification this would most likely not need to be addressed when writing for a technically inexperienced audience (implying that he stayed true to his purpose).
Audience:
Being an inexperienced audience, in terms of a computer science definition, I found that the definitions were sufficient to meet my need of understanding the concept. To help me even better understand I would suggest giving basic definitions for data storage, software, and hardware, as these can be somewhat abstract concepts to someone unfamiliar with technology. These words can be found in the parenthetical, sentence, and throughout the expanded definition. The example of a disk drive was very helpful in my understanding of a cache because it explained exactly what it did and how it could do it (found in how they are used). The visual was also very helpful in terms of understanding its cost and why it might be used for some parts of data storage but not others because of its cost and other products availability.
Organization:
The first section used the expansion technique of the operating principle to help expand the definition. The example of a disk drive in this section was crucial for my understanding of how a cache operates; however I would expand on this section by explaining how it can be implemented into a system. This expansion can help make a cache a tangible concept/thing to the audience, which would greatly improve the definitions comprehension. The visual chosen to illustrate where a cache stands as a form of data storage for computer scientists excelled at highlighting the other forms as well as their cost and speed. All of these elements were clearly and concisely labeled within the visual, which made for a more complete understanding of the world of data storage. Of note, the visual is missing a figure caption that is necessary when adding a visual to a document (see page 402 of the textbook for example). The section labeled Common cache components, used the required conditions of a cache to help clarify/expand on what each cache is required to have as well as how it may possibly differ in how it eliminates the least favoured data to store new information. The final paragraph of the definition, labeled Notable Applications, used the example form of expansion to show how a cache can be visualized in everyday lives when loading webpages. While the first example resonated with me, I had trouble again when trying to understand hardware and software for the second definition. This highlights how the technically inexperienced audience may need more explanation to understand fully.
Concluding Comments:
Overall, I felt that the definitions were done well and will be ready for final submissions after a few corrections/additions are made. To be clear I will add a bulleted list below:
- Add a title to the expanded definition section
- Define data storage, software, and hardware (for the inexperience audience this may be abstract concepts)
- In How Are They Used? Possibly add how to implement into your product/code/website to help the audience understand it in a more tangible form if possible
- Add a figure caption to the visual
- Cite where you got the visual form
- * Add more credible sources. This may not need to be done in the field of computer science, but it is common in psychology to cite journal articles/credible sources in the eyes of academia. I am aware that this may not be the case for this field/definition/assignment, so feel free to disregard.*
The most effective piece of this document was the visual as it highlighted the various other forms of data storage that come at a different cost and with different speeds of retrieval. I hope that my comments will be helpful in completing the editing phase of this assignment. Please reach out to me if you have any questions.
(Esteban’s Technical Definition: https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl301-98a-2020sa/2020/06/01/technical-definitions/
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