![[PukiWiki]](image/pukiwiki.png "[PukiWiki]")
WRTG 393 students,
Welcome to the class! Please introduce yourself to the rest of the class. You might state your major (if you have one), why you are taking WRTG 393, and any other interesting details you would like to share.
Thanks
Hello everyone,
My name is Yuji Shimojo and I'm 28. I am from Okinawa, Japan and just moved to Tokyo three months ago. I used to study Information Engineering at University of the Ryukyus in Okinawa, but I dropped out of the college 6 years ago. While in the college, I had lived in San Jose, California for 6 months for an internship. I'm currently majoring in Computer Science with a minor in Business Administration.
Yuji
WRTG 393 students,
In this discussion topic, we will discuss what technical writing is. Please answer the following questions. Feel free to interact with your classmates on their answers as well.
1. From your own experience, please provide a definition of technical writing. You may use the information in Unit 1 of your textbook to help you in constructing your definition if you would like to.
2. Read over pages 129-131 of the article by Kitty Locker, “Will Professional Communication Be the Death of Business Communication?” The article is in the eReserves section of your class. To access the article, please take the following steps:
How does Locker distinguish technical writing from business writing? Write a couple of sentences or so in your response to this question.
3. Read over pages 325-3236 of the article by Mark Gellis, “Autobiographical Writing in the Technical Writing Course.” The article is also in the eReserves section of your class.
How does Gellis distinguish an essay from a report or a proposal? Write a couple of sentences or so in your response to this question.
4. In your life, have you written any documents that might be labeled technical writing? If so, what did you write?
5. In your life, have you had to read or work through a piece of technical writing that you found problematic? If so, what was the document, and why was it problematic to work with?
1. From your own experience, please provide a definition of technical writing. You may use the information in Unit 1 of your textbook to help you in constructing your definition if you would like to.
Because I work in the IT field, technical writing I come up with is to write software documents such as software requirements specifications (SRSs), software design documents (SDDs), software test specifications (STSs), and software development plans (SDPs). In my opinion, when you write such documents, it is very important that you define who readers at first. Even if you write instructions and procedures on how to do something in detail, if your document have an entirely different expectation for your readers, it makes no sense.
2. How does Locker distinguish technical writing from business writing? Write a couple of sentences or so in your response to this question.
According to Locker, K. O. (2003), business communication has only its own concerns, insight, and identity. It focuses on persuasion and context. In contrast, Technical communication focuses on exposition and explanation.
3. How does Gellis distinguish an essay from a report or a proposal? Write a couple of sentences or so in your response to this question.
According to Gellis, M. (2011), essays are subjective, and are written not only to explain, but express, entertain and reveal the author's personal interaction with the subject. They will do more than simply give you a set of observed facts and objective conclusions.
On the other hand, reports are objective, analytical, and purely referential. They are written from one professional to another, and have the aim of achieving a profession-related goal.
To me the most interesting Gellis's description for comparison between reports and essays are that reports are written for people who need the information, whether or not they want it; in contrast, essays are written for people who want the information, whether or no they need it.
4. In your life, have you written any documents that might be labeled technical writing? If so, what did you write?
I usually write up SDDs, STSs, and SDPs according to SRSs from customers. A SDD includes E-R diagrams (ERDs), architectural context diagrams (ACDs), sequence diagrams (SDs), and data flow diagrams (DFDs), etc.. A STS includes test cases of black box and white box testing and the results. A SDP includes organizational charts which describe the project team and external entities or stakeholders with roles and responsibilities, work breakdown structures (WBSs), and risk management plans, etc..
5. In your life, have you had to read or work through a piece of technical writing that you found problematic? If so, what was the document, and why was it problematic to work with?
Sometimes I face problem with a SRS which our customer wrote. The problem is that the SRS doesn't say anything about the objective or the project goal. Since software engineering is a tool to solve some kind of problems, we can find what the problem really is, and provide a solution to solve it to achieve the goal; however, if the goal is unclear, we can hardly provide it.
WRTG 393 students,
This task is designed to help prepare you for the first writing assignment, the technical description
At the top of the Content area for Week 1, you will see two items:
Please peruse those two webites. The hybrid car website has a Flash as well as an html version you can explore.
Then examine the following two reading texts. The first one is available through eReserves
“Writing Descriptions” by Mike Markel
You can access the document by taking the following steps:
Technical Description: What Does it Look Like? By David McMurrey
Please respond to this discussion topic by answering the following question:
'How do the two technical descriptions—the one on hybrid cars and the one on laser printers—apply the strategies given by either Markel or McMurrey?
Please select at least one of the technical descriptions and at least one of the two authors, Markel or McMurrey, and write one paragraph analyzing how the technical descriptions do or do not apply the strategies the author(s) mentions. You can write 100-150 words.
Both the two technical descriptions give an introduction or an overview, discuss the parts or characteristics, and use graphics and headings, which McMurrey. mentions in Contents and Organization of Descriptions and Graphics and Format in Descriptions. Also, both clearly show Markel's objects, mechanisms, and processes.
The difference between the two technical descriptions is that the description of laser printers give its background as introducing the first laser printer invented by Gary Starkweather and explaining how it works, although the description of hybrid cars don't do so.
On the other hand, the hybrid cars' description gives more detailed illustrations. In addition to clearer the shape and the dimensions, it provides graphics showing different views and step-by-step illustrated instructions, which Markel mentions in Providing Appropriate Detail.
WRTG 393 students,
One of our writing assignment (WA #2) involves writing an instruction manual. This discussion topic is designed to help you prepare for that assignment.
Please peruse the following web pages. They are linked to above, at the top of this week's content.
1. Imagine you are helping write an instruction manual for UMUC students on how to access their classes in LEO. How might you revise the following sentences if they were proposed for an instruction manual?
The user should log into the LEO system
The class will be on the right-hand side. You have to click on the class to access it.
The class will appear in your interface. You will need to select whatever menu item you want to access in order to access it.
2. Please comment on any piece of advice given in these websites. Write a sentence or two describing the advice and what the chapter noted about it. Try to comment on a section of the chapter that one of your classmates has not commented on yet.
I really agree with the advice given in Wikibooks about the idea that reader can locate steps quickly and easily. I like the example of instructions on how to change engine oil in the Instructions by McMurrey because the number of steps you need to follow is clearly written in the title. I believe readers want easily to estimate how much time they need to complete the steps at first.
WRTG 393 students,
The following discussion topic is designed to help you prepare for writing assignment #2, the instruction manual. Directions for that writing assignment can be accessed by clicking here.
To complete this discussion topic, please do the following:
Watch the following video, which is sort of an instruction manual on the Kindle Fire:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pEOLIF5qKZA&feature=youtu.be
Then answer the following questions or complete the following tasks.
1. The author of this manual does not define any terms. What terms might need to be defined to a user who is not at all familiar with the Kindle and who may never have purchased a electronic book? Please note that I am not asking you to define any terms. However, I am asking you to identify what terms might need to be defined.
2. The author begins immediately with the instructions. He does not start off with an introduction to the device or an explanation of why one would want to know how to use the device.
Please write a one-paragraph introduction that might be suitable for the Kindle Fire.
WRTG 393 students,
The following task is designed to help you become familiar with UMUC’s Information and Library Services. Completing this exercise might help you get started on developing a topic for the white paper.
Please watch library tutorial #1. The tutorial is linked to at the top of the list of Content items for this week.
The tutorial is designed to demonstrate some searching strategies when finding articles through OneSearch, a research tool that allows you to search on many databases at one time.
After you have watched the tutorial, please complete the following tasks. Post your responses to this conference thread.
Let us assume you work for a company that is hiring more and more employees of the millennial generation.
Your supervisor has asked you to conduct research on issues regarding employees from the millennial generation. For example, she mentions that millennial individuals may have different expectations of the work environment from those of workers from older generations. In addition, she mentions that millennials have different habits with regard to their use of technology than workers from older generations exhibit.
The instructions you have been given by your supervisor are quite broad. But let us assume that this is the directive you have been given.
For this reason, you will conduct a very general search on millennials and their work or technology habits. You are not quite sure how to focus the topic, but you know that you would like to pursue this general topic and focus it later.
1. Search on some terms and find four articles on this topic. Your search can be quite broad at this stage. Try to use some search phrases that require that you use quotation marks, as the video demonstrates.
Please write the topic on which you searched and the search terms you used to search on it.
2. In addition, for the four articles you found, please write titles of the four articles and the journals in which they appeared. You don’t have to cite anything in APA format, or anything of that nature. Just post the titles and the journal names.
I searched for "(("millennial generation" OR millennials) OR "generation Y") AND (work OR technolog*) AND (habit* OR custom* OR style)." I found the following four articles.
WRTG 393 students,
The following task is designed to expand your familiarity with UMUC’s Information and Library Service’s OneSearch function. Completing this exercise will also help you as you pursue the white paper assignment for this class.
If you would like to, please review the same video tutorial that you watched for our earlier exercise. The tutorial is designed to demonstrate some searching strategies when finding articles in the databases that UMUC subscribes to.
Please watch library tutorial #2. The tutorial is linked to at the top of the list of Content items for this week.
After you have reviewed the tutorial, please complete the following tasks.
1. Conduct a new search on a phrase related to the same topic on which you searched for the previous exercise. As the video demonstrates, make sure to use quotation marks around the phrase.
- How many search results do you get?
2. Then, following the instructions provided in the second video, focus your search by using the SU-subject terms option from the drop-down menu for one of the rows.
- How many search result do you find after limiting the search by using SU-subject terms ?
When I searched on my search terms: "(("millennial generation" OR millennials) OR "generation Y") AND (work OR technolog*) AND (habit* OR custom* OR style)," the number of search results was 1,678. When I did on the same terms by using the SU-subject terms option, the number of search results was 82.
WRTG 393 students,
The last writing assignment in our class will be a white paper. This discussion thread is designed to help you get started in thinking about this assignment.
Please watch the following video from the Purdue Owl. The video is entitled, “White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations.”
The video is 9:44 long.
White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations
After watching the video, please respond to the following two tasks.
1. Describe a possible white paper for an internal audience. You may consider your workplace or a community organization you belong to. What might be a possible white paper topic that could be written for this audience?
For example, let us consider an example of an individual named Arnold. He coaches soccer for his local soccer team. The soccer league does not have a Facebook page. He could write a white paper to the board of his soccer league discussing why social media presence might be helpful to the league and why Facebook in particular might be a form of social media the league should consider.
This would be an example of an internal audience, as Arnold is familiar with the individuals on the board, coaches for the league, and is involved in the organization.
2. Describe a possible white paper for an external audience. You may consider your workplace or any other organization.
For example, let us consider an example of a person named Sharon. She works for a company that has developed a new method of taking care of outdoor turf for athletic fields. She could write a white paper for athletic leagues in her area. The white paper might compare current methods of treating turf to the new method.
This would be an example of an external audience, as Sharon is not familiar with the individuals who will read her white paper, does not work for or volunteer for these athletic leagues, and is not involved in these organizations.
In this discussion task, you will consider your own work or community situation. What would represent an issue, problem, or development that you might respond to with a white paper to an internal audience? And what would represent an issue, problem, or development that you might respond to with a white paper to an external audience?
Whatever ideas you come up with in responding to this discussion thread, you are not bound to any of these ideas for your last writing assignment. The purpose of this discussion thread is to help you start your thinking process for the last paper.
WRTG 393 students,
The last writing assignment in our class will be a white paper. This discussion thread is designed to help you get started in thinking about this assignment.
Please watch the following video from the Purdue Owl. The video is entitled, “White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations.”
The video is 9:44 long.
White Papers: An Introduction to the Genre and Its Expectations
After watching the video, please respond to the following two tasks.
1. Examine the following white paper by Adria Kline.
Of the various types of white papers the Purdue OWL lecture describes, how would you label this type of white paper? Why? Please write a short paragraph in giving your answer.
2. Then examine the white paper titled “Causality: School Libraries and Student Success (CLASS) by the American Association of School Librarians.
This white paper is available in the eReserves for this class. You can access the document by taking the following steps:
Of the various types of white papers the Purdue OWL lecture describes, how would you label this type of white paper? Why? Please write a short paragraph in giving your answer.
This proposal will lead up to the final white paper. The proposal must be problem-based and it must address a technical issue/problem an executive or other has.
WRTG 393 students,
The following task is designed to expand your familiarity with UMUC’s Information and Library Service’s OneSearch function.
As with the previous two library tasks, completing this exercise will help inform your research for the white paper in our class.
Please watch library tutorial #3. The tutorial is linked to at the top of the list of Content items for this week.
After you have watched the tutorial, please complete the following tasks.
1. Conduct a keyword search on a topic that interests you. You can conduct the same search you made in one of our previous library exercises if you would like.
What word or phrase did you search on?
How many search results do you get?
2. Follow the instructions provided on the video and select a new database on the right-hand side of your screen. Then answer the following questions:
What database did you select?
How many search results did you get after adding this database?
3. Next, locate the research guide for your major. If you have not declared a major yet, please select one from that interests you from the options from the drop-down menu.
Peruse the research guide for that major. Describe to the rest of the class in a few sentences any interesting resources you discovered.
If you have the same major as another student in the class, this would be a great time to collaborate and share any resources you found with which others might no be familiar.
WRTG 393 students,
Please download the following documents. They are both located in the e-reserves section of our class.
To access the documents, please take the following steps:
Then, please watch the following video. The video takes you through some highlights of the CANRIGHT document.
After watching this video, please peruse the white paper, “The need for specialty curricula based on core competencies.”
This white paper is structured quite differently from the structures that you have seen in the Purdue OWL lecture and in other materials. It does not have an executive summary or a table of contents. It is set up more like a journal article.
Please answer the following questions:
1. The CANRIGHT document discusses various types of white papers on pages 10-11. As you examine the AWS white paper, what type of white paper would you argue is the AWS white paper?
2. What is the problem that the AWS white paper is identifying? Please write one sentence in giving this answer.
3. What is the proposed solution? Please write one sentence in giving this answer.
4. Examine the graphics in this white paper. Do they enhance the message being delivered? Why or why not? You might choose two or three graphics in this white paper and analyze them in defending your answer.
5. In his lecture on white papers, Mak Pandit noted that white papers can "market" services but that the marketing should be "subtle." Is the AWS white paper subtle in its approach when it discusses AWS services? Write a few sentences in answering this question.
Hi, WRTG 393 students,
The following tutorial might be helpful to you as you write the annotated bibliography and as you work on the analytical report.
The tutorial is “APA Citations:Citing an Article With a DOI and Without a DOI.” Please access it by clicking here.
You don't have to respond to this conference. However, please feel free to post comments or questions if you would like to.
Students,
You have heard some lectures on white papers and have read some materials on them. This discussion thread is designed to help you analyze two sample white papers.
In the e-reserves section of your class, there are two white papers on the topic of education.
In this discussion thread, you will peruse both white papers and answer a few questions
Please note that these white papers are rather lengthy. They are much longer than the white paper you will write for this class. In addition, in answering this set of discussion questions, you don’t have to read through every word of both of these white papers.
To access these white papers, please take the following steps:
Discussion questions:
The first three questions refer to the CED white paper, "How Business Leaders Can Support College- and Career-Readiness: Staying the Course on the Common Core.
1. The CED white paper supports the Common Core. Please read the executive summary. What is the problem that the CED is identifying? What is the CED's solution? Please write one or two sentences in answering this question.
2. Examine the graphics the CED white paper integrates. Please comment on at least one graphic and how it helps (or hinders) the message of the white paper.
3. Who is the audience for this white paper? Please write a few sentences in which you comment on how effectively this white paper reaches this audience.
Questions 4-6 refer to the “The Revenge of K-12” white paper.
1. This white paper, which is from the Pioneer Institute, is opposed to the Common Core. Please read the executive summary. What is the problem the Pioneer Institute is identifying? What is its solution? Please write one or two sentences in answering this question.
2. Examine the graphics the Pioneer Institute white paper integrates. The graphics in this white paper seem to incorporate a slightly different purpose than do the graphics for the CED white paper. Please comment on at least one graphic and how it helps (or hinders) the message of the white paper.
3. Who is the audience for this white paper? Who is the audience for this white paper? Please write a few sentences in which you comment on how effectively this white paper reaches this audience.
WRTG 393 students,This discussion thread is designed to continue in facilitating your thinking about this assignment.
Please watch the following video, “What is a White Paper,” from Mak Pandit.
The video is 16:35 long.
Then answer the following questions. This discussion thread is set up so that you cannot see other students’ answers to the thread until you have posted your answers to the thread.
1. Are white papers also marketing brochures? Why or why not? Write a few sentences, drawing from the lecture, in responding to this question.
2. Do some research on the history of white papers and how the term “white paper” came into our lexicon. Write one paragraph of a few sentences describing what you find. You don’t have to cite sources in this paragraph in APA format. Simply list the websites you accessed in finding the information.
1. According to the video, white papers don't replace marketing brochures. A brochure has a lot of additional information on features and on how to order to products. On the other hand, a white paper doesn't describe B2C communication products which a brochure can do, and it is much more focus on such as technical description, process information, comparison, analysis, opinions, conclusion, and recommendations.
2. According to www.writingwhitepapers.com/resources.html#history and www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/History/whitetoc.html, white papers come from official reports issued by the British government. A famous historic white paper is the British White Paper of 1922 (also known as the Churchill White Paper).
WRTG 393 students,
At the top of the Content list for Week 5, you will see a link to a document, “5 Blunders I Made in my First White Paper Assignment,” by Carol Tice.
Please read the document. Then answer the following questions:
1. Choose one blunder the author describes. Why, in your own words, was this a blunder?
2. What topic are you considering for your white paper in this class?
3. With your topic in mind, comment on any piece of advice that the author, Carol Tice, gave and how it might be relevant to your white paper assignment.
Please note that the comments posted by readers at the bottom of the article are interesting as well.
1. I choose "2. No direct client contact." In my opinion, the author might not have understood her stakeholders exactly. Generally in project management, the more number of stakeholders, the more chaos the project team will face. According to www.pmp-certification-exam.com/pmp-formulas.htm#.WDqAj6KLRE4, the formula for the number of communication channels is N * (N - 1) / 2, which is actually the formula for sides and diagonals of N polygon. N represents the number of stakeholders in this case. Therefore, knowing your stakeholders before the project starts is quite crucial.
2. The topic I am considering for my white paper assignment is Slack, which is a cloud-based team collaboration and messaging tool. Actually, I am using it at work in some projects. Unlike other chat tools such as Skye and Google Hangouts, Slack provides many ChatOps functionalities. The term 'ChatOps' means a new model for continuous software development and operations called conversation-driven development. The strongest competitor of Slack as a ChatOps app is HipChat I think, so that I would describe the comparison between two products in my white paper.
3. I agree with the advice to find out what all the elements are that are our deliverables in the project. This advice make me feel a strong need more to identify who readers and what they want and consider what my deliverables should be when I when I write my white paper.
WRTG 393 students,
Amazon Web Services (AWS) has a series of white papers available for download. For this discussion thread, you will download the white paper, “How Cities Can Stop Wasting Money, Move Faster, and Innovate.”
To access this white paper, please go to the following url:
https://aws.amazon.com/whitepapers/
This white paper is the eighth paper on the website. Please scroll down to this particular white paper and click download Whitepaper.
This white paper is organized in a similar fashion as other white papers you have read in this class. It has a title page, a table of contents on page 4, an abstract on page 4, and then the body of the white paper on pages 5-16. It does not cite any sources, but rather uses testimonies from various cities and municipalities to give credibility to its claims.
Please answer the following questions, answering each one in one to three sentences or so.
1. Who is the audience for this white paper? In other words, what potential clients is it trying to attract?
2. Examine pages 5-7. Is this white paper “marketing” AWS a bit too much? Remember the lecture from Mak Pandit in which he noted that the presentation should be “neutral” and “marketing should be subtle.” Please use one or two examples of words or phrases from pages 5-7 and explain whether you feel Amazon is being subtle here.
3. Notice the headings in the white paper. They are not typical academic headings. They are designed to catch the reader’s attention. This strategy resonates with a strategy given in the Purdue OWL lecture. What strategy did the Purdue OWL mention in this regard?
4. Please comment on whether the graphics in this white paper help communicate the message. You can see Figure 1 on page 6 and Figure 2 on page 14.
5. Various cities are mentioned in this white paper. The white paper first mentions three cities and one county in the United States (McKinney, Texas; Asheville, North Carolina; and King County in Washington State; and Boston, Massachusetts). It then mentions locations outside of the United States—Moovit in Israel, Transport for London, and the London City Airport.
Is there a strategy as to why a particular city or location is mentioned in any particular part of the white paper? In answering this question, you can select one city or location and analyze why it was mentioned in the particular section of the white paper in which it was mentioned.
