English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Edit 2/20: Since the job listing from my job ad analysis has been removed from Monster.com, I'll link to the description on L-3's website.

Here it is.

Again, the position is project engineer, and it's the description I was responding to (since it's identical to the one posted on Monster) is the second project engineer description listed out of three.

I had some trouble with formatting. I lost Microsoft Office and I just started using OpenOffice. It's nice but I'm pretty shaky with some of the details.

My questions:
1. It's way long. What can I cut out/combine? I'm too narcissistic; I'm having trouble letting go.
2. Do I need to elaborate more on my personal traits? As if I have room to cram anything else in.

Enjoy.

I was happy to see that this week's readings on writing cover letters were more consistent and less frustrating than last week's frenzy of conflicting resume advice. Week five's cover letter readings presented fairly uniform advice: Successful cover letters use professional, appropriate and personable writing and have a message aimed toward satisfying companies' hiring goals.

Douglas Richardson's Skeptical Resume Reader Tells How He Really Thinks was an eye-opener.

The article's message (think about your resume's reader) was not unexpected; if the concept was new to any student in this course then the ship has set sail without that person. Still, the pointed delivery was not just comical; it really made me think - not the message but some of the specific material the article presented.

When I started reaching Chapter 8 of TCT there was one idea right out of the introduction stood out to me: “You need to organize the information… into patterns that are familiar to your readers” (TCT 180). Thinking about the way we view and transmit information, organization is important, and not just in writing applications.

I was pretty picky about selecting a job for this project, so I was plenty frustrated while poking around the many job search websites listed in the assignment. This is especially true since I’m executing my third internship with the same company and they’ll most likely offer me a job when I’m done; the project description does say if you have a job you should look for one that would be an improvement.

But as soon as I found this one one and read the description I was sold.

I took plenty of notes on this week's reading, "Chapter 15 - Starting Your Career" in TCT.

Although I've been successful in finding a job in the sense that I have one right now, I wouldn't say I've had a lot of success with my job-seeking activities.

The importance of considering your audience when writing is presented in this week's assigned reading, “Chapter 3 – Readers and Context of Use,” from Technical Communication Today.

When I read it I couldn’t help thinking, "I already know that!" But if I'm honest with myself, I know most of the time I don't think that way when I'm writing.