English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

Questions to be answered:
1. Do I need more detailed information regarding previous experience?
2. Does the overall formatting and structure appear to be professional?

According to the reading “Kairos and the Cover Letter”, one needs to adjust what they put on their cover letter according to what the job ad itself is asking. When creating a cover letter I will take this into account and make sure to properly answer the questions and conditions listed in the job ad without being too over the top. In the article titled “Junk Cover Letters Kill Good Resumes”, there are a few questions you want to ask yourself when writing a cover letter. The first question they talk about that you may want to ask yourself is “does your cover letter use a personable approach”.

After going through all of these readings I have came to the conclusion that when the instructor said “Resumes are a gamble”, he was exactly right. When you go over all of the assigned reading you will notice that they are all different ways to go about writing your resume. To sum up all of the readings the main point of a resume is to explain you and your experience in the best way possible, while using the least amount of words possible.

As stated in this chapter different genres are used to help achieve a purpose and patterns for your writing to make it better. After reading this chapter I discovered new genres that I didn’t think about while writing before. Some of these are definitions, Instructions, and proposals. I guess I never really thought about using these in my writing because I never really had to explain anything in great detail like you would with instructions. I have also never really had to give definitions in a piece because the terms I used were generally understood by the person reading it.

http://www.careerbuilder.com/JobSeeker/Jobs/JobDetails.aspx?ipath=SJPRCB...

Construction Project Engineer - ProCLAD, INC

Chapter 15 “Starting Your Career” is about what it says, starting your career. There are many steps you need to take when starting a career. First you need to make a resume which briefly explains why you would be a good employee for the job. After you make a strong resume you need to create an application letter to give more information if requested. Creating a professional portfolio may also be a necessary step in starting your career.

Chapter three in the reading titled Readers and Context of Use teaches us as writers how to reach out and be specific to the audience we intend to speak to. What I learned in this reading is that in order for you to be a good technical writer you need to be familiar with the audience you intend to reach. You need to know the profiles of the people you are speaking to. You also need to keep in mind the ethnic or cultural background of the audience because many different cultures have different ways of reading and writing.