English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

The readings for this week all focused on research and applying research in literature. I was not looking forward to starting my research for this project, but the tips offered in these chapters makes it seem a little more manageable. As I begin my research this week, I think I will begin by doing some preliminary research. I want to spend my first day of research getting comfortable with the keywords associated with our topic and try to find as many sources of credible information as possible. I will make a list of all of these sources so that I can easily go back to each one.

This week was very busy for me, having two exams, so I was not able to do too much work on the white paper project until Thursday. I began by going over all of the requirements posted on the web site a few times to make sure that our group would not miss any key features as we started to write the paper. On Thursday I contributed some possible topics via emails with my group before we decided to meet in a gmail chat on Thursday night. In the chat, I helped my group narrow down our topic choice to green energy and offered several solutions to the problem we would be focusing on.

Our group decided to do our white paper on the topic of conserving energy and going green. We want to focus on simple and cheap/ free solutions that college students can use in their dorms or apartments. The three topics that we will focus on are using electricity, heating/ cooling, and laundry solutions. For electricity we will focus on the use of compact fluorescent bulbs to not only save energy, but also money. For heating and cooling we will explain the use of door sweeps, window seals, and other small improvements that can help reduce the need for heaters and air conditioning.

After doing the readings for this week, it seems that the two most important things to keep in mind while writing white papers are the audience (as with every other type of writing) and context. Writing a good white paper depends on the audience you are writing for. While one version may be good for one audience, it may not be so good for other audiences, such as those less knowledgeable about the topic. All of the criteria for a good white paper listed in "The Steak Behind the Sizzle" relate back to the audience.

Assessment attached.

My instructions are currently designed to be used in a packet on standard sized paper. It is meant to be handed to a customer who enters a hardware store with questions about installing a shelf. I am considering changing this format over to a brochure but couldn't decide on the layout for it.

One part of the reading that caught my attention was the simple usability question of "Is it safe?" This seems pretty simple, which is why I never gave it any thought until I actually read it. Since my instructions are about installing a shelf, various tools are used that have the potential to be dangerous. I am familiar with handling these tools on a daily basis, so it didn't occur to me that it could be unsafe for some users. While my expert readers shouldn't run as high of a risk, I think I will still use a few precautionary statements for liability purposes.

The readings for this week gave me a lot of great ideas to use for my instructions project. One of the things that stuck with me most was properly using white space. I guess this is one of those things that I had always taken for granted. I know that in my own personal experience, if I didn't like the design of a document, chances are I would skip it unless I really had to read it. Whether it was instructions for assembling something, or reading people's resumes, if it wasn't visually appealing it didn't get read.