Unit 2: Reflection Blog

Professional Social Media

Prior to this assignment I had previously created a LinkedIn Profile to establish my online presence as I’ve previously looked for internships and co-ops for my future career. At first, I thought the concept was counterintuitive as my narrow view of social media was purely friendship but after reading and learning more about LinkedIn and what it has to offer I’m happy to have improved my profile following the assignment.

Formal Report So Far

Aside from clearing up some questions I have in regard to audience I’m very happy with my progress towards my formal report. I feel as though I have all the groundwork in place and following my execution of the interviews, I will be in a very good place to finish my research and construct a quality report. The report is very near and dear to me as it is researching a problem that I have faced, poor interview process for Software Engineering roles, and I’m looking forward to establishing and solving the problems within it.

Peer Review

Reviewing other’s writing work is still very new to me, it’s not like a code review that I have done in the past, and as such is very interesting trying to analyze writing without looking too closely at the content. I think it’s really hammered in the thought that the writing can be both very specific in detail without alienating a reader with jargon and tribal knowledge to them.

As such, I have tried to incorporate some of these ideas following reading other’s proposals and their feedback on my own. While in some cases technical terms are necessary but it’s very important to know exactly when they are necessary.

End Result

The sheer amount of writing in this course has been quite eye opening. As a Computer Science major, I think I’ve written more in this class than all my classes previously combined, and its been very eye opening to see how much I have and can improve in this aspect. I’m very certain the writing aspect of my career will no doubt benefit from the practice and lessons so far and still to come.

Kimberly’s Peer Review of My Report Proposal

Revised Report Proposal

Original Definition Document

I assumed with my experience writing technical documents and reports these definitions would be an easy assignment however they were surprisingly more difficult than I had originally thought. When you are writing for people you work with, be it at a job or for a class, you can take real liberties in the explanations you use as the people in that environment are usually well versed in the topic being discussed. This assignment on the other hand is both technical in nature but to an audience who has a lot of unfamiliarity in the area. It is often one thing to have an understanding of something and it is another to be able to explain it in layman’s term or to teach it and this is where the difficulty of this assignment arises. I have some relevant work and some minor investments in cryptocurrencies, but distilling my knowledge into a format where the reader doesn’t have 5 years of Computer Science like myself becomes an entirely different ball game. I found that, one of our key expansion strategies outlined in the text: compare and contrast, was especially helpful in my explanations as cryptocurrencies can be seen as a derivative of modern digital financial systems.

Peer Review

The peer review process is very interesting for many of the same reasons as the original document was to create. In an area where I have little to no relevant background knowledge, having to edit the technicality and approach to detail while having no real understanding of the concepts. It’s an interesting task and one that I think would help a lot of people like myself in improving their writing. It puts you outside your comfort zone of knowledge and forces you to look at the minutiae of the text and not the details it is trying to convey, but the way they are being conveyed.

Editing Process

Reading the review of my work puts much of the work in my original document in perspective. In areas where I thought the purpose was clear, when explained from my partner’s point of view, its easy to see I was misguided. Going back I was able to really improve the brevity of the original document following the insight given to me by Jovana. One of the key improvements I feel, was the removal of redundant areas, where I may have intended to highly something different but instead doubled down on something. In particular I was able to combine the wallet section into a lower area discussing differences as well rearrange other sections into a proper section using the negation expansion strategy.

What I Learned

About My Writing

While I think one of my strengths in writing is the flow, I sometimes struggle with redundancy and repitition in trying to keep it easy to read. Along those same lines, I need to be more specific in audience. Knowing your audience is key to tailoring a document for them, and while my first version was not awful in this regard, it needed some adjustments to improve the context and breadth of detail that can be used. Another thing I learned I could improve upon is narrowing sections to be more tighter and concise in their purpose. I used comparisons to traditional currencies a few too many times in sections that were not meant to be highlighting differences and have since taken this into account for the updated document.

My Peer’s Writing

After reading Jovana’s definitions of Anomie I learned that I could be more rigid in the structure used for the writeup. Her approach was very easy to see what aspect of the concept it was trying to explain while mine was more subtle in trying to answer to questions that comes out of those aspects. Neither of us is wrong, but I think her’s was a better formal approach then mine and took some of the mental burden off of the reader. Instead of them reading a section and having questions that would be answered next, her approach simply answered the questions before they were asked.

End Result

In conclusion this unit and assignment in particular were very helpful. While explaining technical work to those within your ecosystem are important I think this assignment was particularly helpful in learning how to communicate in those who are not. In my future in the technology industry, I could see this being extraordinarily useful in things like pitches or proposals to stakeholders or management who may not see the values in something that I might.

 

Jovana’s Peer Review of My Definitions

301 Nick Rutigliano Updated Definitions

To: Erin Fowler
Subject: 301 Technical Writing Team
From: Nick Rutigliano

Hi Erin,

I read your application letter for potential writing teams for English 301 and would like to invite you to join my writing team.

After reviewing your application, I believe that you and I have much we can learn from each other and would benefit from being teammates.

One of the things that stood out was your experience at a corporate recruitment agency as well as starting your own company.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Best,
Nick Rutigliano

att. 301 Nick Rutigliano Application Letter.doc

To: Kim Hatcher
Subject: 301 Technical Writing Team
From: Nick Rutigliano

Hi Kim,

I have reviewed you application letter and would like to invite you join my writing team.

I believe our differences in professional interests and future careers would allow us to benefit from the diversity of perspectives and improve our writing skills even more.

Both you academic background and your focus on effective team work would make a great addition to any team.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Best,
Nick Rutigliano

att. 301 Nick Rutigliano Application Letter.doc

To: Carl Ryan
Subject: 301 Technical Writing Team
From: Nick Rutigliano

Hi Carl,

I have read and reviewed your application and would like to invite you to join my writing team.

Given your life experience and attitude of concise and specific technical writing I believe we would be able to benefit each other greatly as writing teammates.

Your openness to collaboration and criticisms is extremely helpful in any professional team environment.

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

Best,
Nick Rutigliano

att. 301 Nick Rutigliano Application Letter.doc

To: Erika Paterson
From: Nick Rutigliano
Date: Sept 15, 2017
Subject: Application Letter for ENGL 301

I have posted my application letter for potential teammates for future coursework on my blog which can be found here.

The application can be summarized as such:

• I am extremely invested and dedicated to improving my skills as I am approaching the end of my degree and the beginning of my career
• I am experienced in technical write-ups from projects and assignments I have done in Computer Science
• I have past experience as an Intern at Microsoft where I got real world practice on technical specifications and professional email communication.
• I heavily value effective team work and integration when working with others and have a history of prioritizing it as such

Please feel free to contact me should you have any further questions or things you wish to discuss.

Best,
Nick Rutigliano

301 Nick Rutigliano Application Letter