In Unit One, I was introduced to the course material, our ENGL 301 instructor, Dr. Erika Paterson, and classmates online via Canvas and the English 301 99A Technical Writing blog. Through the assignments, I practiced writing application letter, email memorandum, email correspondence, definition of a term, peer review and revision of the definition based on peer’s feedback.
Unit One Assignments:
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- For the first assignment, I set up my blog, summarized the course in the Home page and wrote a short introduction in the About Me page. I do not have a blog prior to this, so this is new to me. It took me a while to think about what I should include in my introduction so that it is concise and easy to understand.
- For the second assignment, I wrote an application letter hoping to be accepted into a professional writing team. Having to write an application letter with a confident tone while outlining strengths in terms of my writing skills was not easy, especially when writing is not my forte. I asked a friend of mine to proofread my draft and she suggested a few word changes to put a positive spin on the part that mentioned about weaknesses in terms of my writing skills. I also composed an email memorandum to the instructor and three emails to perspective writing team partners. I am grateful to be in Team Typephoon with Brenda, Usman and Andrienne.
- For the third assignment, I chose to define the term “scope creep”. I will go more in depth on my thoughts on the definition assignment, peer review and self-editing exercises in the following paragraphs.
Definition assignment – process and choices I made while writing:
Most business analysis terms are relatively simple and, in most cases, self-explanatory, so it took me some time before I decided on the term “scope creep”. Those who are not involved in an IT project may have guessed the meaning of scope creep simply by breaking the term into individual words: scope and creep. To convey the significance of scope creep and to grab the audience’s attention, I stressed that this phenomenon is project manager’s worst nightmare and it commonly occurs in projects.
When defining the term using parenthetical definition, the audience I had in mind was someone who is involved in a project but may need a refresher of the term. When defining the term using sentence definition, I was targeting audiences who are involved indirectly in a project and needed more details than just the parenthetical definition. I used four methods for expanding definitions: etymology, comparison, example, and visualization. When defining the term using expanded definition, I was targeting those who are studying or are interested in business analysis and project management.
Peer review:
I paired up with Brenda for the peer review exercise. Brenda’s definition of tonsilloliths was clear and presented in a logical order, so I really had to examine her writing under the microscope to nitpick areas for improvement. When I was reviewing Brenda’s definition of tonsilloliths, I realized my definition of scope creep was missing a personal touch to it. I learned from her writing that it is possible to have a professional and caring tone by including ourselves in the writing while keeping the focus on the audience.
Self-editing:
The suggestions and feedback I received from Brenda were very helpful. I have edited my definition of scope creep based on her recommendations. It was not as easy as I thought to edit my own writing. Incorporating descriptive style to my writing was not intuitive because I am so used to writing in an expository style at work. The self-editing exercise makes me more aware of reading from audience’s point of view.
Links:
The following are links to my draft, Brenda’s review, and my revised definition of scope creep.
My draft definition: Assignment 1.3: Definition of Scope Creep
Brenda’s review: ENG 301-Assignment 1:3 Peer Review 1
My revised definition: Definition of Scope Creep – Revised