I am an agricultural communications major. This means that much of my academic career has been spent writing and speaking. While reading Chapter 8 of Telcomunications Today, I thought about what I did when I was preparing to write papers or speeches in the past. I certainly could have used some of the information shared about generes. Although this seems like a simple process, putting some serious though into what format you will use to convey a message can be the difference between your audience understanding and acting or not.
I was also struck by the section about using software like Microsoft PowerPoint to outline writing. I have used PowerPoint for a lot of things, but outlining makes a lot of sense. When using these types of programs, the idea is to just put the main points down and let your audience hear the details from the speaker. This same idea can be applied to writing. By putting your main ideas down and helping yourself to navigate through the details, your writing can be much more impactfull.
I thought the section on how to organize a piece of writing could be simplified into what I call the "Tell" method. You need to: "Tell the audience what your going to tell them, tell them, then tell them what you told them." The first time I heard this from a teaching assistant, this made no sense, but if you say it to yourself a few times it becomes clear. The introduction is where you need to tell the audience what is coming. You introduce your main topic and why the reader needs to read on. The body of text is to bring the details. I've found that you almost need to have a separate outline for the body to help organize the main thoughts of the piece. Then the conclusion is where you sumarize everything for them again. You told the reader what you were going to tell them, you told them and then you told them what you told them. This is a way for me to use a play on words to simplify the complicated process of writing and it's worked for me.
Tell method
The part of the chapter eight reading that touched on the tell method complimented the rest of the reading nicely. It is a good way of summing up the basic intro, body, and conclusion structure that we all use. To me I never heard this phrase until college, but have found it very useful since. The saying can be applied to almost any kind of formal document, and forces the reader to hear the point that the author is trying to make. By simply using the tell method a paper can be prepared easily, and with some good supporting information a quality outcome can be produced.
Powerpoint and Outlines
I too found the Microsoft Powerpoint as an outline tool tip from the reading to be very interesting. I've never tried this before and on my blog specifically asked if anyone else had. I think this appeals to me because of my more visual style of learning. If I can organize the main points in way that can be separated into different graphics, for instance each slide in Powerpoint, then it's much easier for me to effectively communicate the ideas.
I actually hadn't heard of the "Tell" method until reading this chapter, but it's an easy way to explain the three necessary parts of any document: introduction, body, and conclusion.
tell them!
I also agree that using presentation software to outline a technical document is very beneficial. It’s really an unique tool that I had never thought about. However, I think using this method is a different strategy for everyone. As a visual learner myself, applying an outline with presentation software would be a key solution for helping organization a document. With the able to see your outline setup can dramatically change the way you present your information to your audience.
In response to your comments on the “Tell” method, I never heard/learn this saying. I found it very interesting and useful saying to use as guideline. The concept of going to tell them, tell them, and then tell them what you told them, can help the reader comprehend all the information.
The "Tell" method
The tell method is a great little key item to remember from this chapter. It's pretty easy to remember, and when utilized can greatly impact your writing. I never really though how much more organized your writing can be just by sticking to this simple method. However, by doing this your readers now know what to expect and they may recall more from your document. Utilizing a mechanism that helps your readers recall is an absolute must. They retain the information more and don’t have to refer back to your document as much. I plan on trying to use this method more in my writing and hopefully improve it a bit.
This chapter certainly does
This chapter certainly does make us think twice about how we could have improved upon our previous documents. Thinking about the fact that a reader may or may not understand the document or at least take it for what it is worth based on the format used is pretty interesting. I have never heard of anyone using PowerPoint to outline a document either. I might just have to try this out, as it does seem like it is extremely applicable to what we are trying to accomplish with an outline. This “Tell” method is something that we have all heard of before, but this chapter did enlighten me on some of the inner details.
Thanks!
JFlitt
www.JFlitt.com
Presentation and Writing
In your review of chapter 8 you make some references to creating presentations. This is especially relevant as you bring up the idea of power point. I too never thought to use power point as a tool to create an outline. You make an excellent point when you say your outline is basically the same concept as creating a slide show for a presentation. This idea is interchangeable for writing class or a speech class. In a writing class this idea could be used to describe an outline, and in a speech class the idea could be used to create a power point presentation.
As a teacher you would just have to hope your students know about one of the two, outlines or presentations.
Evan
On the Tell Method
I think this kind of approach is great for speeches or presentations where repetition is used to drive home important information to an audience. I'm not a huge fan of this, though, for written documents; at least not in a direct way that is typically used for presentations. I avoid phrases like "in this paper i will discuss" and "now that I have told you about __ I will now move on to __" like the plague. Perhaps in a subtle way, this sort of message can be said, but only to allow the document to flow naturally in terms of general good writing practice. On the same note, conclusions shouldn't be so abrupt either-there is no need to state what was written directly because the reader can just scan back up to the body and re-read the section if needed.