Chapter 7 in Markel’s book is about organizing your information to reflect your audience, purpose and subject. There are three principles for organizing technical information. First, analyze your audience and purpose, then using conventional patterns of arrangement and finally displaying your arrangement prominently. Whenever writing you should always keep in mind a few questions like will your audience like the message you are presenting or what is the purpose of this technical document?
A piece of text should follow expected organizational patterns and must include introductions as well as conclusion that present the kind of information you would expect. It should be organized linearly and it’s never a bad idea to using headings to make it more clearly from the reader to understand the topic. Conventional patterns like chronological and spatial arraignments are encouraged. We always want to make our documents easier for our readers to understand so things like creating a table of contents, usage of headings and topic sentences can really help us achieve that goal.
Chapter 8 is about communicating persuasively. This involves understanding your audience’s broader goals, their values and what seems to motivate them. Three main goals that most share are security, recognition, and finally personal and professional goals. When talking about security, we need to make sure that nothing hurts their own intentions and maybe cause them to lose their jobs or increase workload. We want to recognize and praise people for their hard work and try not to humiliate anyone in public for their mistakes. And encourage behavior that leads to growth in jobs and in personal lives.
When crafting a persuasive argument there are many points to keep in mind. First of all it is important to keep the 3 elements in mind which are claim, evidence and reasoning. Claim is what you want your readers to accept after they read your document. Evidence is the information that your want them to consider and reasoning is the logic you use to connect the evidence to the claim. Along with these you also have to make sure that you are using the right kinds of evidence and considering opposing viewpoints. Finally you can use graphics and designs to send the final message that you want to audience to get.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
Thursday, July 22, 2010
Markel Chapter's 5 and 6
Markel’s chapter 5 is about analyzing your audience and purpose. It is also important to determine the characteristics of your audience. Characteristics like the reader’s education, his/her professional experience, job responsibilities, personal characteristics, personal preferences, and finally cultural characteristics. There are also questions that one should keep in mind like, who is the reader, why is he/she reading your document, what could be their attitude and expectations towards this document, and finally how will the readers use this document?
There are many techniques that can be used to learn more about your audience. There is the option of interviewing, research on the web, reading previous documents that have been written by your readers and asking questions. All these will give you a better idea of their expectations and standards. Another part that is important is communication across cultures, overseas with people of different languages. Effective communication requires understanding of a certain culture, their beliefs attitudes, and values.
Now chapter six in Markel’s book talks about researching your subject. There are two kinds of research methods however you usually will use both of them when ever doing any research. First is primary research which involves creating technical information yourself. Second one is secondary research which is collecting and using information others have already discovered or created. Also there is academic research which helps answer scholarly question and workplace research which helps answer practical questions.
It is important to understand the research process, if done correctly this process can be very effective and efficient. First comes analyzing your audience, followed by the purpose and subject. Then comes visualization and delivery method follow by schedule and budget for the project. Then you need to ask yourself few questions, like which information do I want to present or which ones I don’t? Always good to ask questions and conduct secondary research. Finally you want to evaluate the information that has been gathered and do more research if necessary.
There are many techniques that can be used to learn more about your audience. There is the option of interviewing, research on the web, reading previous documents that have been written by your readers and asking questions. All these will give you a better idea of their expectations and standards. Another part that is important is communication across cultures, overseas with people of different languages. Effective communication requires understanding of a certain culture, their beliefs attitudes, and values.
Now chapter six in Markel’s book talks about researching your subject. There are two kinds of research methods however you usually will use both of them when ever doing any research. First is primary research which involves creating technical information yourself. Second one is secondary research which is collecting and using information others have already discovered or created. Also there is academic research which helps answer scholarly question and workplace research which helps answer practical questions.
It is important to understand the research process, if done correctly this process can be very effective and efficient. First comes analyzing your audience, followed by the purpose and subject. Then comes visualization and delivery method follow by schedule and budget for the project. Then you need to ask yourself few questions, like which information do I want to present or which ones I don’t? Always good to ask questions and conduct secondary research. Finally you want to evaluate the information that has been gathered and do more research if necessary.
Monday, July 12, 2010
Writing Technical Documents and Collaboration
Writing technical documents is something that all of us will have to do throughout our careers, some more than others. There are 5 steps to a good technical document, planning, drafting, revising, editing and finally proofreading.
Planning is a process where you must consider the audience and subject that you will be addressing. Asking yourself questions like, who is the reader, what could be there attitudes and expectation and how can the reader use this document? You always want to get as much information about the subject through research and interviewing professionals. Organizing and outlining the main ideas is also important in order to make sure you are on task rather then drifting off.
Second is drafting effectively. When drafting you want to make sure you are comfortable. Using templates is a good idea however sometimes they can get boring because everyone seems to use the same format. However there are many style out that to choose from that can be attractive to the audience. Third come revision where you want to again consider the purpose and audience of the document. Getting help and feedback from others is helpful. Next is editing where you would want to check for grammar, punctuation, style, word choice, and mechanics. Finally is proofreading because it s vital that your document is clear and well written.
Collaboration is done everywhere from school group projects to fortune 500 companies worldwide. It is a key to a successful document which could include a project report, manuals or even an online website. However there are both advantages and disadvantage to collaboration. Advantages include having a greater knowledge on the subject since more people are required to work on the same topic. It also allows people to better communicate and build strong relationship amongst coworkers as well as acclimate new ones. Now disadvantages include requiring more time, schedule meeting and leading to group think rather than individual opinion. It can also yield a disjoint document and maybe cause inequitable workload, which can lead to a lack in motivation and interpersonal conflict.
Planning is a process where you must consider the audience and subject that you will be addressing. Asking yourself questions like, who is the reader, what could be there attitudes and expectation and how can the reader use this document? You always want to get as much information about the subject through research and interviewing professionals. Organizing and outlining the main ideas is also important in order to make sure you are on task rather then drifting off.
Second is drafting effectively. When drafting you want to make sure you are comfortable. Using templates is a good idea however sometimes they can get boring because everyone seems to use the same format. However there are many style out that to choose from that can be attractive to the audience. Third come revision where you want to again consider the purpose and audience of the document. Getting help and feedback from others is helpful. Next is editing where you would want to check for grammar, punctuation, style, word choice, and mechanics. Finally is proofreading because it s vital that your document is clear and well written.
Collaboration is done everywhere from school group projects to fortune 500 companies worldwide. It is a key to a successful document which could include a project report, manuals or even an online website. However there are both advantages and disadvantage to collaboration. Advantages include having a greater knowledge on the subject since more people are required to work on the same topic. It also allows people to better communicate and build strong relationship amongst coworkers as well as acclimate new ones. Now disadvantages include requiring more time, schedule meeting and leading to group think rather than individual opinion. It can also yield a disjoint document and maybe cause inequitable workload, which can lead to a lack in motivation and interpersonal conflict.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
1984 by George Orwell
1984 by George Orwell is a story about a corrupt society, in which Winston Smith is member of one the 4 main parties. It takes place in the nation of Oceania. In this society a citizen is very limited to what he/she can and cannot do. Everything is monitored by telescreens therefore one can’t really avoid or cheat the system without taking extreme caution. Everyone works for the and even questioning the ways of the party was considered a crime with a minimum plenty of 5 years. People that broke the laws were tortured, beaten, and eventually shot. The motive of the party was to implement all documents and history to where they would always seem like the good guys, and put the blame on nations like Eastasia and Euroasia. Winston was a part of this and eventually started to question the ways of the party and decided to take a risk to seek answers.
Throughout the book Winston feels frustrated and annoyed with the rigid control that the party had on the society. He wants to join the brotherhood in order to overthrow the party but this never really happens. While working for the ministry of truth his job was to manipulate the historical documents to make the party look better. Short while into the novel Winston meets a girl name Julia and they start to have an affair even though it was against the party. In his eyes she was a beautiful young girl, and turned out that she was against the party also. As their relationship starts to get more and more serious their desire to rebel against the party also increases.
Finally they both decided to turn to O’Brien for some help, whom they believe blindly also to be against the party, and being the inner member they felt like he already had good connections with the brotherhood. O’Brien agrees to help and gives them the copy of Goldstein’s book who was supposedly still alive and the leader of the brotherhood organization. While reading the book, both Winston and Julia were betrayed by their landlord who turned out to be a member to the Thought Police.
In the end, it turns out that O’Brien was a fake and a loyal member of the party. Winston spends many months, maybe years being tortured and brainwashed by O’Brien and fellow members of the party. He tried his best to resist for the longest time but he was helpless. The motive of the party was to make its members love big brother and in the end they succeed with making Winston do the same. At the end of the novel he had lost all he had for Julia and loved the Big Brother.
Throughout the book Winston feels frustrated and annoyed with the rigid control that the party had on the society. He wants to join the brotherhood in order to overthrow the party but this never really happens. While working for the ministry of truth his job was to manipulate the historical documents to make the party look better. Short while into the novel Winston meets a girl name Julia and they start to have an affair even though it was against the party. In his eyes she was a beautiful young girl, and turned out that she was against the party also. As their relationship starts to get more and more serious their desire to rebel against the party also increases.
Finally they both decided to turn to O’Brien for some help, whom they believe blindly also to be against the party, and being the inner member they felt like he already had good connections with the brotherhood. O’Brien agrees to help and gives them the copy of Goldstein’s book who was supposedly still alive and the leader of the brotherhood organization. While reading the book, both Winston and Julia were betrayed by their landlord who turned out to be a member to the Thought Police.
In the end, it turns out that O’Brien was a fake and a loyal member of the party. Winston spends many months, maybe years being tortured and brainwashed by O’Brien and fellow members of the party. He tried his best to resist for the longest time but he was helpless. The motive of the party was to make its members love big brother and in the end they succeed with making Winston do the same. At the end of the novel he had lost all he had for Julia and loved the Big Brother.
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