English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

     Chapter 8 of TCT offers forth one of the single most important guidelines to follow in writing any paper but applies fully, in concept and application, to technical documents. That guideline is, “tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them,” (TCT). For instance, in my line of work we deal with white-papers quite often.

In the chapter 8 reading the structure of a document and techniques for good organization were visited. The author began by expressing the importance of determining a genre. The first step listed was to determine what you are writing; this can be accomplished by asking questions to yourself to pinpoint what you are trying to say. These questions will also help identify the audience and lead to the general order that the document should follow. An outline is a good way to begin to organize. State the main topics to be discussed.

Everyone in this class has organized and drafted documents as well as given presentations either for school or outside purposes. Chapter 8 goes into detail of how to prepare a draft and outlines, and how to follow both to help keep thoughts organized. Looking at the summaries, which have the step by step process (e.g. six moves in an introduction), throughout the chapter helps me keep on track and serves as a guide while writing.

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.

This chapter, "Organizing and Drafting," makes some good points about patterns of arrangements and the patterns that different genres follow. I've written many documents in several genres, although I've never necessarily considered them as their own genre while writing them. I suppose I always saw them as a set format, but saw that format as a set of requirements more than a tool for the audience to use while reading the document.

As defined by the TCT, a genre is a predictable pattern for organizing information to achieve specific purposes (pg 183). Different genres dictate which document types are utilized, eg. the report genre could use a research proposal document and the hypertext genre could use a web format. Most of my experience with genre's falls into these two categories. I've written plenty of research papers for other English classes, and I've written my share of content for the web. What interests me are some of the other genres described in the article.

I felt like Chapter 8 was mainly a review section. I already knew most of this information from earlier college and high school classes, especially the section that drilled in outlining. Although I already knew most of it, I did find the part about using presentation software to develop an outline pretty helpful. I had never thought of using those programs in that way, but it seems like a pretty easy way to start when there is a lot of information to keep track of.

What really stood out from this reading to me was the common saying that tied together the chapter: “Tell them what your are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them.” It may seem redundant and pointless to basically say the same thing over and over but it is the basis of most technical writing and presentations.

In this chapter, Starting your Career, it talks about how you should find a job, type up a resume, write a cover letter, make a portfolio, and most importantly how to act professionally. That means don’t pick your nose during the interview.

A resume is a document whose main purpose is to create a good impression. Companies go through many resumes and many times only the candidates with resume’s that stand out are invited for an interview.