This reading response focuses closely on my recent experiences when writing my job ad analysis. Tips from Chapter 8 - Organizing and Drafting have aided me with my detection of flaws in my writing. Before writing, I should outline key points that I want to convey. I also am willing to try to writing the body of my text first, and finishing with the introduction.
Outlining is extremely useful when trying to put together all of my thoughts. I will use this writing technique to gather my ideas when I write my cover letter for my employment project in a couple of weeks. I believe that this will gather my ideas, and then I can sort through them and keep the good, concrete ideas for when I write it. I did not outline my ideas for the job ad analysis, and I think it showed. I had a intro, body, and conclusion, but when I read back over it my ideas did not flow as smoothly as I thought they did when I was typing. I have a big problem with that; I am thinking clearly and typing, but when someone else reads it they sometimes do not understand my thoughts I am trying to convey.
I read Chapter 8 after I finished writing my job ad analysis. This was unfortunate because upon finishing reading Chapter 8, I realized I made a few mistakes when writing my job ad analysis. First, I should have written the body first and the intro and conclusion last. I did not, and I struggled with the introduction which slowed my whole writing process down. I have about doing this in the past, but have forgotten about it. It was nice to have it refreshed by Chapter 8. I thought this was an intriguing idea, so I decided to try with the body first for this assignment.
Overall, Chapter 8 helped me realize that I need to concentrate more on outlining my thoughts and putting them in a sensible order. I believe I am slowly getting better at this. I also think that proofreading when finished and starting with the body may produce better writings.
No need to outline?
I felt that the instructors really gave us an outline to follow by telling us what they wanted in the analysis. While outlining is good for longer papers, in my opinion it isn't always necessary. For the job analysis all I did was writing a few paragraphs for each of the things requested by the instructor (why you chose the job, your qualifications, etc.) and I was done. It goes back to the audience and context of your writing as discussed earlier in the semester. I would be more concerned with outlining something like a cover letter or report for my boss as I feel that those audiences are more important and would view my writing more critically than a mere class assignment.
Andy
Outline
I agree with you that the job ad analysis was pretty much outlined for us in the assignment description. I feel that you do not need an outline for everything thing that your write. I think that it ends up pretty clear when you should have a strict outline to follow and when you can basically wing it. As long as you are getting your point across clearly and your writing is not a jumbled mess than you should be ok. I feel that you should use an outline if you are going to be writing a very important document such as your cover letter.
Jumbled
Most of the time my writing becomes jumbled, and after writing even I sometimes can't tell what was going on. This is where the outline comes in handy, although I do not use them frequently. This is why I think I should start using one more, especially for, like you said, the cover letter. I may not need one as it is a small, one page paper, but I need to squeeze a lot of information into the one page so the potential employer can see all my great qualifications. Using an outline will help me do this.