English 421Y: Technical Writing Online

This week my group met online via AOL Instant Messenger on Sunday. Our schedules conflict a lot so I was the odd man out as I had work during this virtual chat meeting. I was caught up to speed that night with email and a document of the entire chat. Our Gantt chart was completed during the meeting. The next day we needed to shift our subject to allow for options to be presented in our paper better. We all decided by email on three different wireless routers to compare. Today I began my research into the D-Link DIR-615 wireless router. We have a standard set of information that we are to look up for each product and I began by seeking out the cost of this item. My first move was to go directly to the manufacturer. This gave me a good reference of resource for my upcoming research as well. After searching the internet, I found many other offers of the same product that were far cheaper than the direct price from the maker. My research then guided me to a website that offered an extremely cheap price because it requires the beginning of monthly service with the purchase of its products. Since you could easily cancel the service without cost to the buyer I reflected this information in my first research blog. I also posted the information onto a document on Google Docs that combines all of our important technical research data of all three routers. My research this week has me thinking that there may be a pro or con for one product that may not relate to its competing product. This could affect the format that we will need to use in our white paper.