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. This could have helped me greatly in the past when I was writing 10-20 page scientific papers and trying to keep track of all different kinds of results and procedures.
I also found the opening and closing moves to be helpful. I have never had a particularly hard time with these areas, but these moves simplify it a lot. If you are sure to use the 6 opening and 5 closing moves, you have everything that you need in the introduction and conclusion and don’t have to worry about accidentally leaving something important out.
For the body paragraphs, I thought the patterns of arrangement were very useful. When I think back, the body sections in most of my past writing followed one of these patterns, but it kind of just turned out that way. I have never planned on using certain patterns for certain sections and others for different sections. It seems like a good plan though, and something that could make the writing process a little bit easier. Making a decision on a pattern should be relatively easy, and can be done between outlining and the actual writing. Then I can just lay out my thoughts and ideas into the pattern when I am ready to write that particular section.
The section about indirect approach was also helpful. I have never written for an international audience before, so had not given any thought to this type of approach. If I have to write an international piece in the future I will know how to handle it and gear it towards the culture of that particular audience, especially if it is my primary audience that is international.
R3 Been there, done that
I understand how you can see this as a review of early English classes. I've seen most, if not all of this information before and it becomes a chore to make interesting and insightful reading responses or comments on it. It's frustrating when you have to make parallels to the topic of the reading that might really have nothing to do with the chapter. At that point it feels more like I am just expressing rather than learning (at least as it applies to technical writing). It may also have a large deal to do with my personality. I just cannot find topics such as this all that interesting.
Shane
Review
I agree with you that when I first started reading this chapter it seemed like a review of the basics we all learned when we first started writing. However I have to disagree with Shane, I thought the reading did a fairly decent job of making this review material seem new. It managed to bring it up while also bringing up a few topics and some new information I hadn't considered before. The hint about power point for a outline, or the six moves for an introduction were especially interesting for me.
Patrick Griffin
pgriffin@purdue.edu
The Impact of Organization
Although the majority of chapter 8 was a review for me as well, there were portions that proved quite beneficial. Primarily, these include the various methods and techniques one should adopt in order to properly organize the content. This concept directly relates to something that was covered in my first programming course at Purdue. The professor invoked a pop quiz where he prompted the class to design a software application to resolve a simple problem he had made up. Once the instructions were clear, he turned the class loose to begin and monitored us as we worked. At the end of class he called in the assignment and compared the results. He showed how the individuals that quickly began typing with out hesitation yielded less efficient applications than those that had considered the task at hand and prepared accordingly. The point he wanted to make, similar to chapter 8, was that organization is necessary to produce quality results. Prior to this experiment, I had not considered the impact that proper organization has on the finished documents.