assignments ENGL202 Business Writing: TORDA Top Five Documents
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LEE TORDA 310 Tillinghast Hall Bridgewater State University 508.531.2436 [email protected] www.leetorda.com |
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Torda's Top Five for 15 October 2014 (Chapter 13)
- Seriously? Dattoo? or "Hasn't any person ever seen, oh, I don't know, the original Alien? Any--and I mean even the bad ones--any of the Terminator movies? The remake of Robocop?" or "We are the Borg. Resistance is Futile." Yes, totally: I am devoting one of my top fives to the opening image and blurb about "dattoo" technology. The idea that anything that looks like it might change the channel on my television that is implanted in my body can be called "minimally invasive" is full-on, unconditionally, whack-a-doo crazy. I mean don't these people know that every sci-fi story that starts off with just a little bit of harmlessly and non-invasively implanted technology turns into the mass destruction of all living things? Welcome to the desert of the real, my friends, welcome to the mother-hocking desert of the real. But the point is made: usability means how much of a piece of technology, how much of a document that we experience through technology, or, really, any document we encounter feels like it's just an extension of our bodies--does the document think like we think? Does it do things the way it feels natural for us to want it to do things? Or is it like walking with a limp? That's usability in a nutshell, but keep the dattoo far, far away from me.
- Measuring Usability. The book identifies a number of ways to evaluate the usability of a document that are not about talking about limps. They are: how easy is the site/document to learn how to use or to learn from? How efficiently does it do its job (fewer steps doing more work faster)? How easy is it to remember what to do from what the document tells you? How error-proof is it--and how easy is it to fix and recover from errors when you do make them? How happy are people during and after using it? This is the standard for a document. But how to measure is really the major focus of the chapter.
- Revising versus editing versus proofreading, part I. They are different. I really liked how the book identified not one, not two, but three aspects to the process of drafting a good document. Students in any decent writing class get taught a process method--even in high school and grade school these days. But process seems fake in school--like, really, you should write a perfect draft in one night and get an A on it. But the book takes time to really talk about a messy, recursive, difficult process. And I'm grateful for that. Also, I very much appreciate that the book distinguishes between editing versus proofreading. It is my sense that students see "revising" as "editing" and "proofreading." They are different and none of them are the original drafting process. So useful.
- Revising versus editing versus proofreading, part II. The one thing that struck me as a writing teacher and writer is that what the book calls "editing" is actually what I call "revising." At first I was confused by this distinction, but, in paying better attention, I feel like revising suggests making sure the bones of your document are sturdy and in place. It's is big picture fact-checking. Editing, here, is the careful attention to an already complete document to make sure it says what you want it to say. This is the most complicated and labor-intensive step. And the book really talks about that aspect of it. Here is where you think about things like how well you are making an argument, how well your design helps to make that argument, if your organization works right to accomplish your goals. Markel calls proofreading a "long, slow process." And, again, I like him for that.This is real world writing that he's talking about.
- You are not the decider. Student writers often resent workshopping. They don't want to show their work to other students. They don't want to get feedback. They don't want to change the document. They just want the damn grade. But Markel talks about how usability testing and evaluation relies on showing your material to users--to experts (in a classroom setting that might be a teacher) and regular joe-on-the-street users (other readers, such as your classmates). It's not an option not to. It's just what you have to do. The book talks about a lot of aspects of that would be meaningful in a work setting, but it's not entirely useful at this moments since we are, in fact, in a classroom. But, in the end, what I'd most hope students see from this chapter is how the work of writing is hard and it is incredibly recursive and it requires the attention of a lot of eyes to do it well. This is information that applies to any kind of writing setting.
Torda's Top Five for 1 October 2014 (Chapters 5 & 7)
- What can you do to figure out who your audience is? I’m really glad all those people came to talk with us last week, but I’m sad that we didn’t spend a lot of time on Chapters 5 and 7 in class. They bring together a lot of ideas that we’ve been working on/talking about in class. Mainly, though, chapter five continues the conversation about audience. This chapter was focused on finding and using information about your audience. Everyone talked about social media (and that is true—it’s why companies have social media pages). This goes back to a point made earlier last week about social media as a kind of engagement and not just marketing. It sounds ridiculous, but I’ve learned a lot about students from doing the English Department facebook page. There is other kinds of research though: focus groups, interviews, research into demographic profiles. The most useful and tangible idea from this section is the audience profile sheet. I’m going to ask folks to do this as part of the workshop for the new minor campaign. It asks folks to think about things like education, personal characteristics & preferences, professional experience, as well as typical demographic information like age and gender.
- How will they use the document? So if every single chapter has talked about audience, every single chapter has also talked about purpose. I hastily put up the Aristotelian Triangle on the board the other day, and that speaks to relationships between readers/writers/texts. We can understand that relationship in our text book as a relationship between audience/writer/purpose. I think students typically don’t pay much attention to purpose because the sole purpose of writing for school is to get a good grade (if you think it has any purpose). So to think about the idea that a reader doesn’t have to read a document, might only read part of it, or might not read it the way you intended it to be written, and then have to take all of that into consideration, is a lot to think about.
- Verbs! That’s what’s happening. What's this clever title? Why italics? I refer you to this Youtube video in order for you to understand this title: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=US8mGU1MzYw. This is just a small thing, but whenever I can call people’s attention to grammar in a meaningful way, I choose to. The book talks about purpose and verbs. What are you hoping your document will do? That is a question I intend to ask all of you when we workshop the minor campaign materials. Thinking in terms of strong verbs is so useful—not just for a document like this, but for any writing. Verbs are everything.
- Organizing your information is the marriage between audience and purpose, Part I. There are two parts to thinking about organization. First, there is the stuff that, for the life of me, looks like the kinds of essays some folks ask students to write in a first year writing class. Did anybody else notice this? Compare/Contrast? Definition? That’s an awful first year writing class if that’s the only kind of essay you are asked to write, but, interestingly, it is another connection between the kinds of skills you learn in your Core writing classes and writing in the professional world—that’s become a theme in my Top Fives, making note of those connections.
- Organizing your information is the marriage between audience and purpose, Part II. The second aspect of organization I want to talk about is actually talked about first in the book. If I can continue on with the relationship to Core writing classes and skills, it would be transitions. I’m always telling student writers, it’s not enough that you mean something, you have to express what you mean in a way that the reader understands you. I have a story about cantaloupe; I’ll use it in class. But this section is about using patterns of organization, using headers, numbers, lists, repetition, graphics, etc.—whatever you can use to help your reader get the most out of the document you’ve written for them, no matter who they are and what they are using it for.
Torda's Top Five for 24 September 2014 (Chapters 14 & 22)
1. The steps you take to write a piece of professional communication are, essentially, the same steps you’d do for any kind of writing (frankly). The book talks about a series of steps for drafting professional communication: 1) consider audience; 2) determine purpose; 3) gather information; 4) determine the right kind of correspondence; 5) draft; 6) format (design); 7) revise; 8) send. I don’t even know why they felt compelled to include step 8, but, that aside, I think that the fact that audience and purpose appears at number one and two, and that these ideas were the main ideas of previous paragraphs, should begin to indicate how very important these steps are to writing in professional settings. And I want to say that while students may not have reason to pay much attention to either of those in a classroom setting, that they are stressed in your Core writing classes. Further, all of these steps are really the same as any composing process if you think about it. My point? You’ve been learning this stuff all along. This is about application.
2. “You Americans, You're All The Same. Always Overdressing For The Wrong Occasions.” This line appears nowhere in our reading for the day. It comes from Raiders of the Lost Ark. One of the evil villain Nazi’s says this sarcastically just before he settles in to torture Karen Black’s character. But I hope you’ll see my point. The book talks about levels of formality appropriate to the kind of document you are sending. Also included in this section is “avoiding clichés.” I have two points to make about this: 1) students learn to write those puffy sentences because they think that is what their teachers want them to write. And, frankly, few teachers do anything to curb that instinct. I hope this section demonstrates that the best sentences are clear and to the point and, also, respectful. Respectful. Respectful. Respectful. And 2), in the new age of electronic everything, where formal letters and memos are sent via email, tone and appropriate levels of formality are blurred. Which is, again, why I think some of the most useful stuff in this section is the stuff on being respectful to your readers.
3. It’s here that Grammar, punctuation, and usage matter. Beyond the mention of “correctness” in materials, this is not something explicitly covered, but I wonder if you noticed how much attention is paid here to grammatical constructions. For instance: the overly-formal phrases were in passive voice exclusively. How often were you told not to write in passive voice? This is why. Also, did you notice how, in the section on writing memos, there is the part about the role of the infinitive? The book is referring to the use of the infinitive “to present” in the summary of one of the examples. A summary should tell you what the document is going “to do.” And so you use the infinitive. In a lifetime of not really needing to know grammar like this in order to write good sentences, now is the time to start to pay attention to this kind of thing. It’s not about correctness so much as it about what is appropriate—and knowing the kinds of writing that will get you there.
4. It’s about creating a persuasive argument. In both Chapter 14 and Chapter 22 (though it is only explicit in 22), the book is talking about creating arguments that persuade readers. If a customer wants you to reimburse her for all the data she lost on a flash drive, your challenge is to persuade her that that this is not the case. If you want a student to try a new minor, than it is your job to create an argument, in writing, that will persuade them. Now, what is that sound that you hear? Is it the voice of your ENGL 101 and 102 teacher? Having flashbacks to first and second year seminar? Well, you should. People think the Core is a time-waster, but this is the stuff that you are learning.
5. We are, all of us, writers and readers, members of a community. That was, for me, the most interesting part of the conversation in Chapter 22. It’s not enough anymore just to make a product or provide a service. You are connected via a great many factors to the community you are a part of. And readers and consumers want to know about how you are integrated with that community. And so I want to close with a line from Chapter 14: The most professional thing is to tell the truth. There is some ethos for you.
Torda Top Five Document 17 September 2014 (Chapters 1, parts of 2, 3, &
11)
1. Keeping your resume “clear” and “specific” in both words and design. I think that the stuff about document design and the appearance of the resume is important. Too many students have ugly resumes crammed with info and bad fonts. I think students read this and then ignore this because they want to cram stuff into their resume. Do you need to say that a resume shouldn’t have errors? I guess so. The thing about clear, specific information is important because business and school teach you to write in generalizations without committing to anything specific. I am not sure that all of the samples are that helpful ( the skills resume is not really a useful format for anyone, but especially new graduates), but the general information here is important. While a lot of the chapter is just lists of stuff that you can or should include (and I don’t agree with all of it—I hate job objectives and I know a lot of folks who do too), I think the blue box on page 411 was particularly helpful. Students tend not to put the added things that I think help distinguish them to an employer.
2. Elements of the Job-Application letter: developing single idea. The job application letter is good in that it tells you the basics. I don’t know if folks notice about how the cover letter is, in many ways, a mini-essay about yourself. The opening paragraph was quite useful, I think. I appreciated the samples.
3. The employment paragraph (a missed opportunity): how you are particularly well-suited to the job. The employment paragraph is a crucial paragraph. It’s to my mind, the most important paragraph. I think the examples are the strongest part here. This follows the education section and this worries me. There is no real space on a resume for four paragraphs. Looking at the samples, I think they are a shade too long. But one thing that is useful is the idea that a cover letter is NOT just three sentences. And it is NOT a form letter.
4. The job search is a commitment. I was glad to see that the book talked about how long it takes. I’ve often said that finding a job is a full time job in and of itself, and I feel that way here. All that self-inventory stuff didn’t resonate with me. Nobody cares about soft skills unless you have someway to talk about them concretely. I did think the information about looking at a wide variety of sources to find a job was a good point. I find a lot of students don’t know where to start to look or only rely on one source. My version of what this guy says is that you’ve got to hustle to get a job. Leave no corner unturned.
5. Know your possible employer. While I thought that the place where the info was was less than useful, learning about your employer was very important. And not just for the sake of knowing it. You need to know that to craft the right resume and the right cover letter for that job. And knowing the employer, in my experience, has always helped to distinguish me both in the paper materials and in the interview. And it certainly impresses me when folks I’ve interviewed know who we are and what they could bring to the job (and what we could do for them).
- What A Professional
Writing Class can teach you. This
is a bit of a hodge-podge title, but the first part of the first chapter talks
about the kinds of baseline skills that employers are looking for. Now, to be
clear, I feel like all classes where you do a lot of writing and a a lot of
revising and some workshopping--so, in other words, any well run Writing
Intensive class--will teach you these skills to a certain extent. All employers
want you to write the way they want you to write (and that is a point that the
chapter makes well--follow the rules as laid out by your employer), so just
knowing how to write is what is important. But what a professional writing class
can teach you, in particular, is the kind of pace and skill required in a
professional setting: clear writing, fast writing, collaborative (leave your
author ego at the door) writing.
- Know your Audience;
know your purpose. Know
your audience; know your purpose. One of the worst things that school
does to you is it too often robs you of thinking of who you are writing for and
why. You write for your teacher. You write for a grade. Writing for professional
reasons has effects. I can't say this enough. If you write in a professional
setting, something is going to happen because of it. You are going to sell
something or keep something from doing something that will hurt them or you will
be getting a money that will help school children have a playground. Whatever.
The point is, in professional writing, you need to know why you are writing and
who you are writing to. If you ignore those two things you will be the least
successful professional writer ever and no one will hire you.
Period.
- Measures of excellence in
professional writing. The majority of the chapter, via
discussion and then example, points out how good professional writing is
measured. These measures include the following: clarity (no puffed up stupid
sentences that seem to sound smart but really say absolutely nothing--crap ugly
sentences); accessibility, or creating a document that your entire audience will
intuitively--notice that, intuitively--be able to read and understand it ;
concision (writing only what is necessary to get your point across);
professional appearance. Ultimately, really great professional writing helps
readers to solve problems. I love that definition. All writing should do
that--even the writing you do for your teachers.
- Design matters.
Different than academic
writing, where you don't even think of design matters, design is a major part of
writing in the professional world (though of course, design includes things like
how big your margins are and how big and what kind of font you use and how many
spaces you put between your name and the title of your paper). There is a lot to
consider here, things like font size and choice, use of white space (I could
actually have an entire bullet on white-space); stuff about templates ; stuff
about choosing the right size and kind of paper, of binding; thinking about
color choice; thinking about headings and titles and all of that. But the thing
I most want to stress are thinking about how we make arguments visually. Design
in a professional document does all the things that I talk about in number three
and it does it by visually helping a reader to access the purpose of a document
(here again, notice, numbers two, three, and four are connected, always, always
connected). Things like proximity (keeping images and the text that talks about
it close to each other), alignment (creating, literally, a line of argument in a
print document--creating a hierarchy for importance and for reading via
spacing), and repetition (not repeating the same information, but using the same
elements of design to group and separate like information) are the visual
language of argument.
- Don't be a crook.
There is a lot of stuff
about ethos in this section. The book talks a lot about the legality of
professional writing--things like copy right and other stuff that will look a
lot like thinking about citation in academic writing. The thing that is most
important is that you need to be an honest person. Period. I don't know how else
to say it or what else needs to be said.
1. Keeping your resume “clear” and “specific” in both words and design. I think that the stuff about document design and the appearance of the resume is important. Too many students have ugly resumes crammed with info and bad fonts. I think students read this and then ignore this because they want to cram stuff into their resume. Do you need to say that a resume shouldn’t have errors? I guess so. The thing about clear, specific information is important because business and school teach you to write in generalizations without committing to anything specific. I am not sure that all of the samples are that helpful ( the skills resume is not really a useful format for anyone, but especially new graduates), but the general information here is important. While a lot of the chapter is just lists of stuff that you can or should include (and I don’t agree with all of it—I hate job objectives and I know a lot of folks who do too), I think the blue box on page 411 was particularly helpful. Students tend not to put the added things that I think help distinguish them to an employer.
2. Elements of the Job-Application letter: developing single idea. The job application letter is good in that it tells you the basics. I don’t know if folks notice about how the cover letter is, in many ways, a mini-essay about yourself. The opening paragraph was quite useful, I think. I appreciated the samples.
3. The employment paragraph (a missed opportunity): how you are particularly well-suited to the job. The employment paragraph is a crucial paragraph. It’s to my mind, the most important paragraph. I think the examples are the strongest part here. This follows the education section and this worries me. There is no real space on a resume for four paragraphs. Looking at the samples, I think they are a shade too long. But one thing that is useful is the idea that a cover letter is NOT just three sentences. And it is NOT a form letter.
4. The job search is a commitment. I was glad to see that the book talked about how long it takes. I’ve often said that finding a job is a full time job in and of itself, and I feel that way here. All that self-inventory stuff didn’t resonate with me. Nobody cares about soft skills unless you have someway to talk about them concretely. I did think the information about looking at a wide variety of sources to find a job was a good point. I find a lot of students don’t know where to start to look or only rely on one source. My version of what this guy says is that you’ve got to hustle to get a job. Leave no corner unturned.
5. Know your possible employer. While I thought that the place where the info was was less than useful, learning about your employer was very important. And not just for the sake of knowing it. You need to know that to craft the right resume and the right cover letter for that job. And knowing the employer, in my experience, has always helped to distinguish me both in the paper materials and in the interview. And it certainly impresses me when folks I’ve interviewed know who we are and what they could bring to the job (and what we could do for them).