Deciding on a topic for a blog is a hard thing to do.

I am probably one of the oldest students in this class. After a twenty year hiatus I decided to return to school and finally earn my degree. I currently work in a Special Education classroom at an elementary school. I have held many jobs, but this is the first time I have worked with children with special needs. Much to my surprise I found out I have a natural talent for working with these kids. Because of this, I decided to get my teaching degree with a Special Ed. endorsement. To make a long story short, I just found out that I won’t be able to get my Bachelors degree in education because of scheduling conflicts (my school schedule would conflict with my work schedule). I will have to get my degree in Humanities (this is the fastest degree I can earn). I will then have to go to City University to get my Master in Teaching Special Ed.

I know that teaching general education would be easier, but I feel that I can do the most good teaching special ed. students. Many of these children fall by the wayside because there are not enough good teachers out there. I am lucky enough to work with two very good teachers, so I have been able to learn a lot. This will help me when I am earning my Masters Degree. The children I plan to teach do not have profound disabilities, but they also cannot function in a regular classroom. I know with the proper education they can become contributing members of society, even if they aren’t tomorrow’s business executives. I am optimistic that I can be a good teacher and that this is my contribution to making this world a better place.

Chapters 2, 9, and 10

Chapter 2 is about organizing and writing an effective resume and application letter. As a future job seeker this chapter is very important to me. I had to submit a resume in order to be considered for my current job, but the knowledge in this chapter would have helped me write a better resume. I like the stating your objective tip and will definitely do this in future resumes. My resume basically gives some personal information, lists schools I have attended, and listed previous jobs I have held. I did little highlighting of facts about what I learned how to do in previous positions. The resume I currently have is a few years old and needs to be updated. This chapter will help make my resume more effective.

Chapters 9 and 10 are both about written communications. Chapter 9 focuses on beginning a communication and Chapter 10 on concluding a communication. Instead of just stating a topic, effective work communication states both a topic and the benefit of the topic. A reader will more likely continue reading the communication by doing this. The guidelines given in both chapters give the writer options about how to begin and end their communications, depending on the situation. The examples the text uses are very helpful. I can read and understand the guidelines, but reading actual communications help me to fully understand what the text is suggesting.

Response to Melisa's Blog

Chapter 14 Response


Not having to do much writing at my workplace, I did not put much emphasis on writing on the job. While reading Melisa’s blog, I noticed this lack of emphasis when she mentioned improving your writing in the least amount of time. I noticed that we both already do some of the self-review techniques such as reading a draft out loud or putting your work down for a little bit and coming back to it.


Chapter 15 Response


Like Melisa, I have never been required to test a draft for usability or persuasiveness. Melisa did a nice job of summarizing this chapter. I can see how testing a draft would be beneficial to a project.

Chapters 14 and 15

Chapter 14 focuses on revising. The guidelines given for checking your draft yourself are something I do every time I write an essay or a paper. I especially liked the tip given in Guideline 3: Distance Yourself from Your Draft: Read your draft aloud. When I do this it helps me find awkward sentences as well as spelling errors. I also do this when I am reviewing a something someone else has written. This seems to help me focus. I rely heavily on spell check but tend to ignore the grammar checker since it is not very accurate.

I appreciate the guidelines given for reviewing drafts. I have been taught how to review and revise my drafts throughout the years, but reviewing another person’s draft has not been covered much. I do have others review my work and want their suggestions and feedback. Ranking suggested revisions is a very good tip for someone reviewing another’s draft. I tend to react to the writing as a come across a problem. Ranking my suggestions would be more beneficial to the writer since it would give me time to think about my suggestions.

Like many people I tend to procrastinate and write what I need to write at the last minute. A flaw I really have to fight. The section which lists the guidelines for managing your revising time is an excellent resource. This section is important because it help the writer organize revisions so that they can be finished in a timely manner. Guideline 2: Make the Most Significant Revisions First in very important. Too many times I get bogged down with details that are not that important and the section about how to rank revisions is good. I also like the suggestion to revise to learn. I agree that this will help a person improve his or her writing skills.

Chapter 15 is about testing your drafts for usability and persuasiveness. This is important, especially when you are writing instructions or manuals. Guideline 2: Pick Test Readers Who Truly Represent Your Target Readers is essential. Of course, you must know who your target audience is before starting your testing. Sometimes I think that a writer does not know who their target audience is before they write an instruction manual or web page. I know that I don’t always think about who my audience is before I write. Testing your draft ensures that a writer will think about their audience.

I believe that everyone who develops a web page should give a performance test. I have lost track of how many times I have visited a web site that is hard to read and navigate. I am taking an online class that could have been improved if the professor had tested his site using a performance test. He could have also benefited by focusing on the usability of his web site. I know that the difficulty of navigating this site has greatly affected my attitude. The information given is good and something I need to know, but I just hate sitting down at my computer and finding the information I need. The tips given in Chapter 15 are a good way to find ways to revise your writing so that it is effective pertinent.

Response to Vic's Blog

While reading Vic’s blog about news programs I noticed that he watches mostly national news. He is totally opposite from me. I avoid national news. I believe that the local stations provide enough world and national coverage and what they don’t cover I can get on the internet, without any spin. The local channels do follow the same reporting sequence that Vic mentioned: local, regional, world, weather and sports news. This makes sense. They start with what impacts their viewership the most. Like Vic, I too am most interested in the seven day weather forecast. That is usually why I watch the entire news program, so I can see what the weather is like.

I usually watch a news program everyday. The program I watch is local, not national. I don’t watch national news because I believe it has become too political and is no longer objective. I am not interested in some reporter’s opinion of the President or the candidates. Just report what happened and move on. The local networks sometimes are not objective, but not often. They do a good job of reporting the local news and cover some national news.

Friday I was watching a local news program and their top story was about one case of vandalism on an individual’s car. I don’t remember what their next story was, but the third item was an alert about a missing teenager, who was possibly suicidal. My husband and I commented on this. We thought that the top story should have been about the missing teen instead of a story about someone’s tires getting slashed. Who decides what the top stories are? Usually, as a viewer, I just watch the news. On Friday I was analyzing what I was watching. I really don’t know anything at all about producing a news program. I know that the anchors usually read what is put in front of them (when they do improvise it can be disastrous), but that is all I know about news programs. Hopefully our guest speaker will be able to teach me more.

Response to Inna's blog

Like Inna, I too didn't realize how many magazine used freelance writers for their publications. She also had the same concern I did about not being good enough to write freelance. I liked her comment about starting small and building up to better publications. Doing this would help a freelance writer learn how to write a good article and help him or her ease into the trade. Inna wrote a good blog which basically summed up the lesson we had last Monday.

Freelance Writing

I found the lesson on freelance writing very interesting because I have always toyed with the idea about writing freelance. I never did the writing because I had no idea how to get my ideas to a publication and I'm not confidant about writing for a publication. This lesson taught me what I need to do should I decide to freelance write. The proposal letter I wrote for our class assignment is actually an idea I have been wanting to write for a regional magazine for many years. Maybe I will actually do it now that I know what to do. The question I have is what degree of expertise does a freelance writer need to have about a subject, or is diligent research enough to write an informed article?

Rhetoric

Rhetoric, to me, is the words someone uses to convince or persuade another person to agree with their view or to influence another person to do something. Everyone uses rhetoric. Since this is an election year, ethos, pathos and logos are prevalent in rhetoric. Politicians employee rhetoric to convince voters to vote for “me” using emotion and logic. A person is exposed to rhetoric everyday. It can be seen on television or through casual conversations.

Chapters 4,5, 16, and 23 response

Chapter 4 focuses on planning for your writing. Guideline 1 focuses on identifying the questions readers may ask while reading a communication. A writer not only needs to predict the questions readers may ask but also needs to include information that your readers may need to know, even if they do not realize this. Guidelines 2 and 3 focus on the organization of the communiqué. Proper organization makes the communication easy to read and helps the reader find the data they need. Guideline 5 touches on using superstructures. This technique appeals to me. It helps the writer identify the needs of the readers. Another helpful technique for writers is also using an outline before writing a communication.

Chapter 5 also focuses on planning. The focal point of Chapter 5 is planning how to persuade your audience. Like Chapter 4, chapter 5 lists ten guidelines giving strategies to write with persuasion. Guideline 2 makes an important point: knowing the readers’ goals and values. A writer who does not know this will probably not be able to influence the readers. To me, this guideline is the key to effective writing. Another important guideline is the fourth one: reason soundly. If a writer is not able make the proposal sensible, then the reader probably will not be persuaded to agree with the writer. A writer does not only need to sound reasonable but should be able to back up what they are writing with evidence.

I have only experienced one group project, and that was for a class my first semester back in college. Reading Chapter 16 before working with a group would have been beneficial. The group I worked with basically divided the work and worked independently. I believe the project would have been easier if we had designated a leader. We knew when the presentation would be, but we did not make a project schedule. Because of this, we ended up scrambling to finish our project just days before the presentation. This chapter gives valuable guidelines for those working on a team project.

How I wish everyone who has ever written an instruction manual or instructions had read this chapter. This chapter provides clear, detailed instructions on how to write an effective instructional manual that people will want to use.

response to Jeff Schafer's Chapter 3 posting

Jeff gives a good summary of the chapter. I agree with Jeff’s assessment regarding the near impossibility of predicting every potential reader and addressing their needs and concerns. I also expressed those concerns. Asking for the input of more experienced writers will help a writing acquire the ability to write effectively for a broader audience.

Jeff touches on the importance of keeping the “stakeholders” in mind throughout the writing process. I concur with Jeff that doing this is very important. I believe the process of keeping the stakeholders in mind helps the writer deal with ethical problems. The points that Jeff touched on were important parts of Chapter 3.

Chapter 3 reading

Chapter 3 focuses on defining your objectives before starting your writing. Techniques for defining your objectives are divided into ten guidelines. Each of the ten guidelines gives valuable information about writing in a professional capacity. I understand the importance of knowing your readers and writing an effective communiqué but the amount of information needed to meet the readers’ needs seemed overwhelming. Guideline 4: Learn Your Readers’ Personal Characteristics and Guideline 5: Global Guideline: Learn Your Readers’ Cultural Characteristics seemed especially cumbersome. Perhaps to an experienced writer this task becomes second nature, but to a new employee this seems daunting. Guideline 7: Ask Others to Help You Understand Your Readers and Their Context did address some of my concerns. I agree that it would be very valuable to be able to interview your readers. The worksheet for defining objectives (Fig.3.5) is also a very useful tool. This worksheet uses questions to help the writer define the objective of the written work and seems to make the task of addressing each reader easier.
Guideline 8: Learn Who All Your Readers Will Be is a difficult task. I know that most memos will have phantom readers, but how do you write to these readers when you do not know who they will be? How do you write to future readers?
Guideline 10: Ethics Guideline: Identify Your Communication’s Stakeholders is an important guideline. This guideline deals with ethics. I agree that an ethical perspective should be used in every stage of a writer’s communication.
The examples of defining objectives given in this chapter were helpful in helping me understand how to write for very readers, but I now realize how much practice is needed in order to write an effective communication.