English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Chapter 8 – Organizing and Drafting was nothing that hadn’t been drilled into in middle school, high school and ENGL 106. Have a beginning middle and end, tell ‘em what you’re going to tell ‘em, etc. I would say by now that after having to write papers and reports for almost every class that this is all common sense and even habitual.

I did like the “Smoking Gun” memo. As stated in the reading, it was a very good example of organization. While I stated that organization was common sense, it is always a good idea to look at good examples of other people’s writing.

Chapter 15 focuses some of the steps that you need to go to when searching for a job. It covered constructing a resume, writing an application letter, forming a portfolio, and interviewing.

When it comes to writing a resume the chapter suggested that you could use a template but then change parts of to make it original. In my own opinion I feel that creating your own “template” by changing font size, color and alignment produces a much better looking resume than anything created with a template. As the book suggests there are multitudes of websites out there with suggestions.

One of the main points that Chapter 3: Readers and Context of Use stressed was the fact that different types of readers are looking for different things when reading. For example, the author states that the primary user is generally "raiding" the information for what they want. They are looking for the information required to make a decision or take action. Everything else just gets in the way.