ENG 204-002

In Chapter 3 of TCT I feel like a lot of good points were brought up considering the presentation and writing of documents that are going to be read and analyzed by not native English speakers. I think it is extremely important to consider the suggested guidelines of using simple and short context, using the same words each time when addressing something specific, not using jokes until a relationship is established, etc. because as a society that is rapidly globalizing everything, communicating globally is becoming extremely important as well and it is necessary that we all do our best to make it so we can understand each other. Without considering that English may not be your audience's first language you may create a document in which the main points are entirely missed by your reader. Another good point that surfaced in the chapter was having regards to the fact that gestures, body language, use of humor, desired approach to writing business documents, etc. varies from culture to culture. I think this is most important because you do not want to offend your audience unintentionally, or at all for that matter, by putting in a graphic or visual that may surprisingly be found as offensive by your audience.

The familiar speechwriters' saying "Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then tell them what you told them" is the most important concept that I took away from Chapter 8 on organizing and drafting. Personally this is such a helpful quote to remember when writing a professional document because I tend to get excessively wordy, descriptive and lofty with my ideas, and this idea re-enforces the notion that although you may feel repetitious, that is what you are aiming for. Especially for professional writing, wordiness and bouncing around from idea to idea is the exact opposite of the way you should construct a professional document. I feel like the suggested organizational outlining techniques are extremely helpful unless you have already found a way for yourself that you use to outline that helps you organize your own ideas. The chapter as a whole is an extremely useful guide for those who have trouble organizing information and deciding what is and what isn't useful/necessary to the main point of the presentation.

These readings are guides to constructing an informative and effective document in a professional manner which is useful in creating a Crisis Analysis because this is a type of writing I am not familiar with. I am personally use to writing analytical essays and news stories and pieces of that sort versus a document that is there to present facts, present problems, present solutions, etc. These chapters opened my mind to areas that I had not previously considered in professional writing such as heavily considering my audience. In considering the audience that includes their ethnicity, primary language, values, wants, needs, etc. and having those things in the back of your mind while writing a document such as a Crisis Analysis can help it be more effective when you know exactly who you are writing for. Tailoring your writing to the audience makes it all the more worth while because your targeted audience is able to draw from your document exactly what you are trying to portray. Therefore, it is more beneficial for all parties involved.

In Chapter 3: Readers and Contexts of Use, the information that struck me as the most important was the development of reader profiles and context analysis. By taking the time to identify the physical, economic, political, and ethical context of use for your primary, secondary, and tertiary readers and gatekeepers, you should be able to create a document that will be understandable, professional, and appropriate for all of those who might read or refer to your document for whatever reason. I found the DHS Employee Memo a helpful example of a document that was unsuitable for tertiary readers, as it shed a negative light on the internal structure of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. Though I thought the international and cross-cultural communication portion of this chapter was vital information, I feel that if you seriously consider your reader profiles and context analysis while creating your document, you would include these considerations as well.

Naturally, I think it is important to outline any document you create in order to organize your thoughts and create a better product. However, I feel that the most important information presented in Chapter 8: Organizing and Drafting were the precise breakdowns of each segment of your document. “Six Opening Moves in an Introduction,” “Carving the Body into Sections,” and “Five Closing Moves in a Conclusion,” struck me as the most helpful because by breaking down each portion of your document into small, direct pieces of information, it seems easier to knock out all necessary information and then return to your outline and build on each piece. This way, you will more than likely end up with a richer and more successful document.

One small piece of information I found valuable in regards to the beginning stages of my Crisis Analysis was the elimination of unwanted information while conducting research through a search engine. By using the + and - signs (as well as quotation marks and wildcard symbols), I can narrow down a vast amount of web results by adding and eliminating words in order to yield more efficient results. Profiling readers was also incredibly helpful. Though it is quite obvious, I did not think much about how important it is to take careful consideration when writing my analysis order to prevent including information some readers should not see or could use in their favor. The breakdown of the outline process was also very helpful and should be a great resort when creating our own documents.

I think the most important concpet in Chapter 3 was that you need to learn how to profile your readers. Profiling can be very hard and difficult, but it does pay off. Knowing how your audience will react to a piece that you are writing is very detrimental in the business world. Being able to profile also helps you becasue you can cut out ouf the useless rambling because you know what the audience knows and you know what the audiences's needs are and what they want to hear.While profiling your readers you will also need to know their ethics and what they as a whole believe in, you dont not want to so write anything that could be a sticky subject for the readers. Knowing their attitudes helps because you will know how they will react when you write certain opinions in your paper. Profiling is like giving a good speech, you want to learn your demographics so that you can write the right opinon down, it will also help you to get more famiiar with the topic becasue you can have a specific focus instead of trying to include to much. Profiles help you stick to the point and keep the audience interested.

The most important concept that I took in Chapter 8 was, Six opening moves to start your introduction. I thought this was very interesting becasue most people only open their papers one way, and that way is to State the purpose and just jump right into the paper. After reading over this part, I found different ways like define the purpose which is when you tell your audience what the subject is about, or use background information and tell about the situation surrounding the issue before you go into telling the actual situation. I also like forecasting the subject, which means you basically tell what you will cover before you actually cover the issue.

These readings will help us in many ways when we are describing out crisis analysis because we ahve to know how to profile our audience. We are righting for a specific audience and we want what we write to be accepted by that audience in a receiving manner. Also being able to have an eye opening introduction will keep the audience's attention on the paper. Knowing the audience's demographics will help extremely when writing the paper because we will know the level which to write it, I'm not going to write a long lenghty paper for a highschool or college level course.

Chapter 3 contained a lot of good advice about writing documents, but I felt the most important tip to take away was to profile your readers. It’s crucial to consider the needs, values, attitudes, and cultures of those that will be reading your work. When these factors are taken in to account your audience better understands your points and goals, and you’re more likely to achieve success. Also keep in mind that it’s not just primary readers that could see your work but secondary, tertiary, and gatekeepers as well. You need to discusses issues in a way that won’t prove embarrassing or potentially damaging if it falls in to the hands of someone other than your direct audience.

I felt the most important point of Chapter 8 was that all documents should have basic organization. By that I mean there should be an introduction, a body, and a conclusion in your document. Just because a business document isn’t an English essay doesn’t mean it’s okay to just jump straight in to the facts. All documents need contextual information at the beginning and end in order to really emphasize your main points to your readers. Outlining these different sections of your document prior to their construction is a good way to organize your thoughts and can help make your writing stronger in the end.

In regards to the project, I found several points in the readings to be helpful. First, I was not aware of some of the search engine tips that the text provided. These will be especially helpful as we use various search engines to research topics. Secondly, I thought the book really made a good point by emphasizing the fact that internal memos can be really damaging when leaked if they’re not framed the proper way. This point was demonstrated well with the DHS memo, and helped to show exactly what not to do when our groups are constructing our own internal memo.

In reading Chapter 3, I felt that one concept in particular was being generally broadcast for a reader to pick up and utilize: a writer's ability and job to tailor their writing to their desired audience. I made a note on the first page that says, "Made-to-order". Even from the beginning, the text is telling us that we need to be able to give an audience the information they want, in the way that they want it. Of course, it breaks the specifics down more as the chapter progresses, but I think that the importance of that concept of tailoring to a specific demographic is one that beginning technical writers (myself included) may have missed. The "5 "W"'s (who, what, when, where, why) approach is particularly effective and for introductory writers, solidifies this concept of personalizing pieces of technical work.

I found that much of the useful material discussed in Chapter 8 was just solid concepts and tips on the rudimentary skills needed for writing a document, followed by details on how to expand on them. Everyone knows that when you write something you need some sort of introduction, a body area, and a conclusion to wrap it up. Still, although people know they are necessary, actually cranking that piece of work out is a process that may need a slight tune up. What i especially liked about this was that the text gives you that general, intro.-body-conclusion outline, but then applies it "genres". This would give me an outline to work from, and then a way to apply and adapt it in accordance with my needs.

Both the topics I found helpful in Chapters 3 and 8 would be applicable to the Crisis Analysis. This crisis analysis is supposed to be directed internally-not to the press or the public, but to members of my own company. This dramatically alters the way that the piece has to be written. If it were being released to the public, there would probably need to be a bit more "smoothing over" with aesthetic structure and wording. Now, since it is an internal document, the facts and plan of action are really all that's necessary. from Chapter 8 I can glean HOW exactly I am to professionally tell a company about its own crisis. I can give the report and the statistics, and tailor it to them specifically in the way that I write.

• Know your readers and be concise

On one hand, what appealed me most in TCT Chapter 3: Readers and Contexts of Use was the advice concerning our readers’ profiles. The more we know about them, the better we will provide them what they seek. All the process of gathering information about our readers’ profiles will help us organize the document in ways that the most important information is highlighted. Actually, it looks like marketing: the better we know our customers, the better the products and services will satisfy their needs and respect their values. On the other hand, the Chapter 3 encourages us to deliver the message in a clear and concise way, which is important as well to make the reading easier and understandable. Indeed, not only our readers might be in a hurry but they also need a specific piece of information and expect to find it. If we give them useless information, they are not likely to go on reading the document. Thus, as writers, we must make sure the readers can rapidly find this particular information in our document.

• Organize your ideas

In TCT Chapter 8: Organizing and Drafting, I think the most important idea we have to keep in mind is the organization of each section of our document: the introduction, the body and the conclusion. After gathering a large amount of information, we must organize it in ways that make it understandable to our readers. Indeed, a well-organized document will allow them to better capture the main points we are presenting. If it is not clear, it is not very likely that they will seize the real meaning of the document. We should put ourselves in the readers’ place and ask ourselves: “What do they want to know from us? Why should they feel concerned about our presentation? What are the main topics that are going to be discussed?”. The Chapter 8 also emphasizes the importance of both the introduction and the conclusion. I believe we must make sure the content is properly written and presented to the readers. Indeed, the introduction is crucial to appeal their attention and arouse their curiosity and the conclusion is the last impression that we will be leaving.

• Get to the point

Obviously, these readings will be helpful and will guide us in writing our Crisis Analysis. Both chapters provide guidance on how to organize our ideas in an effective way, which will enable us to properly write the document. As shown in the Chapter 3, studying our readers’ profiles and gathering information about their needs and values will allow us to provide the most important information they really need. Also, it is important to consider the document’s context of use to deliver the message to the readers in the best way. Finally, as explained in the Chapter 8, we have to organize each section of the Crisis Analysis in ways that our readers can easily understand the core of the document. By combining those ideas, one sentence could sum up what I would take away from the readings: “get to the point”.

Chapter three in TCT goes into detail concerning the importance of remembering who your audience is when drafting any type of document. It begins by reminding the writer about the five-W and How questions to consider while getting ready to write. This is important because these are questions that should become automatic when a writer sits down to type a document; they need to know who they’re writing for, when and where their audience is going to be reading it, and so on. By following these guidelines the writer then minimizes the chance of completely throwing off their target audience with whatever they’re going to say. The chapter then transitions into telling the writer that when they compose any type of memo or internal document, they should always know that whatever they’re writing has the chance of being seen by more people than just the primary audience – something that is often forgotten. One of the most interesting and perhaps enlightening portions of this chapter was when the various countries were listed and how they read their documents. Particularly when dealing with international clients, that section is very helpful because it goes into detail about what the writer should and should not put into their documents so as not to risk offending a potential client.

In the eighth chapter of TCT, Organizing and Drafting, the main point revolves around how to write an effective document. This deals with not so much the content of the document in question, but how it’s formatted and put together. It begins by highlighting some very basic formats of a document (i.e. remember to always have an introduction, body, and conclusion paragraph). From there it goes into the benefits of outlining a paper before beginning the arduous task of writing it. But then it transitions into details about formatting within those individual paragraphs; something that is often overlooked because, personally speaking, people tend to forget that an introduction paragraph for example is more than just writing what the paper is going to be about, there are other parts as well. The chapter then goes into a discussion on the different types of reports that can be written, the purpose for these and what are the best types of situations to use them in. Again, at the end, the chapter reflects upon the possibility of having to write for international clients and what the best way to open up a paper, for example, would be for each of the different nationalities.

These readings could prove to be very beneficial when constructing our Crisis Analysis papers because they highlight important task points about writing a paper. Chapter three is consistently reminding us that we need to keep our target audience in mind when writing the paper, while being fully conscious that whatever we write has the possibility of being leaked to the press. Chapter eight goes through, step by step, the basic constructs of a well written document that pertains to the audience intended and covers all the information necessary. When combined, these chapters give us the basic ingredients for helping us write a focused and conscientious paper detailing the crisis in question.

In Chapter 3: Readers and Context, I believe the most important concept is 'Profiling Your Readers'. Personally, I tend to forget my audience when writing. Having a better understanding of who my audience is will help change my writing in many ways. Knowing that your readers prefer not to read but so much and that they would rather see pictures or graphics can positively impact your reader's opinions and interests. As a reader more-so than a writer, I was able to relate to the guidelines discussed.

In Chapter 8: Organizing and Drafting, I believe the most important concept I read about was 'Outlining the Document'. I say this is important because I've noticed that planning your writing is a great step. From experience, I struggle when it comes to putting my thoughts together in an organized way. An outline serves as a guideline. This is a way for a writer to organize his/her ideas in a structured way.

The readings in these two chapters will greatly help with creating our Crisis Analysis. The readings helped me a lot to better understand the things I tend to lack or do wrong when writing. We now have an understanding on how to write with our audience in mind which in this case is a specific audience. The readings also provided information on how to research readers using search engines which we will be using when researching customers, investors and competitors for the Crisis Analysis.

I believe the most important concept in chapter 3 is to be conscience of the reader. It is important that the author makes sure that they do everything possible to satisfy the reader. The author wants to make sure their writing is clear and comprehensive. Stay away from fillers and get to the point because the reader is more inclined to read a shorter document. An effective way to ensure that you're appealing to the reader is by using the 5 w's and How questions. Developing profiles of your reader is key.
The most important concpt in this chapter seems to be organization. Organization helps the reader to get through the document as quickly and easily as possible. Youre writing is for the reader, so it's important that you do what you can to please the reader. If you want to keep the reader's attention, try using graphics such as a powerpoint or chart. This makes your document easier to read and is more pleasing to the eye.
Chapters 3 and 8 are certainly beneficial in creating a crisis analysis. Chapter 3 shows us how important it is to satisfy our audience. You work to make sure the audience gets what they want and need out of your document. Chapter 8 shows us that in order to appeal to the audience, you want to make sure your document is well organized. A good structured document helps the reader get through the document more quickly and easily.

Chapter 3 makes many important statements and suggestions for improving the quality of a communication act based on audience base. Different audiences are come from different backgrounds and bring with them their own ideas and traditions which a communicator must realize and address in order to better get their point across and to not offend or put of any reader simply by being accidentally offensive or unprofessional. I feel like the most beneficial section in this chapter was the one addressing the act of Profiling the reader's need, values, and attitudes. Finding each will help the communicator stay reader focused and to not go off on tangents that the reader has no time or use for. The book offers a chart that could help in breaking down what the audience will be reacting to text based on.

Chapter 8 that focuses on Organizing and drafting documents I found to be very straightforward and more or less just giving an organizational flow to documentation... intro, body, conclusion. I did find the section on ways to succeed as a telecommuter in technical careers to be intriguing. Tips given in the section such as scheduling meetings to get to know members of your team, using social networking, daily reports, taking on new responsibilities, and finishing tasks early seem to be very good ways of building positive rapport with your colleges.

Chapters 3 and 8 can help us in our first project of making a PR presentation based on a real life current crisis in that they can help us to better pick apart our reader and then show us correct organization for putting together information. chapter 8 even gives suggestions for structuring a document that would appeal to people from different cultures so that ideas and information are transferred more readily in a way that is easily understood.

A key take-away of Chapter 3: Readers and context of use is the absolute necessity to profile readers whenever providing a technical communication document, and do so early in the writing process. Knowing and understanding the characteristics of one’s target audience impact the format and content of the message to be delivered. As it goes without saying, the expectations from one category of readers to another differ. Therefore, identifying to whom a document is being addressed – be it directly or indirectly – determines the latter’s shape and content. It enhances its reader-friendliness as well as persuasive potential. In other words, profiling readers is essential to effective technical communication.

A key take-away of Chapter 8: Organizing and drafting is the importance of managing information. In today’s workplace, information overload prevails. Therefore, ways to gain and retain readers’ attention whenever drafting a document are crucial. This is even more the case for technical documents as they are never read for pleasure. A well polished format that presents information in a predictable and usable manner fills that purpose. And so does brevity.

Both chapters will prove to be useful in our corporate crises analyses as they outline concepts that should help us draft concise, professional documents that get to the point. Although the readings provide us with concepts and tools aiming at improving our works’ effectiveness, emphasis is also put on adaptability. Flexibility and change are particularly important nowadays in an ever more globalized market. In a nutshell, basic formats should constitute a starting point, before the message is tailored to fit the context and a given audience’s needs and expectations.

In TCT chapter 3: Readers and Contexts of Use many important things are brought up through the lesson. The idea of using different tactics to profile your target audience and readers are very key in being successful. If you don't reach the readers that you have written the document for then there is no point to have written it in the first place. Why would you advertise and try to sell Pool supplies to people who don't own pools? You wouldn't. That is why using the "Five W and How questions is important. Asking Who, what, where, when, why and how can be helpful in determining the different types of people who are going to be reading the document and their needs. You don't want to discriminate on any certain group but you need to get the message across to the desired audience. Another tactic that is important is the 5 guidelines, five bases of determining what you should write and what you shouldn't write. Readers are "Raiders, readers are wholly responsible for what they interpret, and so on and so forth. The tactic of profile readers according to their familiarity with the document, experiences, educational level, reading comp. level, and skill level help the writer view the document from their perspective. If you were to use this as a PR case then seeing the argument from the other side would be very important to keep good diplomatic standing with the audience. Using search engines to find pages that refer to the subject matter is another effective way of profiling your readers. These different tactics put together form a great system that can be used in many different kinds of documents. By putting them together you create a framework to develop a document for a specific reader and target audience, you don't want to miss that your audience doesn't speak or understand your language, or that certain things may be found as offensive, thats why doing thorough background research will be very effective in creating a strong document.

In TCT Chapter 8: organizing and drafting, it stresses the importance of a Rough Draft/ Outline of your document that you are writing. It gives the initial breakdown for any document which usually rests with a Introduction followed by a body and then a conclusion. The many tips that are given I find to be important in forming a presentable document. I found that step by step outline of how to create a document was the most important part of the reading in this chapter. It outlined the different tools in Microsoft Word that you should use to create your rough draft and outline. The reading stressed the importance of creating a rough draft by giving you different methods of making one. If your document gets larger you can use Presentation software like Powerpoint, which I have found to be not as useful as a word document with everything written in front of you. The thing that stood out the most for me, was the quote "Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Tell them what you told them", i found that to be a great way to design your document and proceed with your writing. This chapter is great because it gives you a set of guidelines to follow just in case you are not already used to making an outline. If applied it can be very useful for anyone with organizational issues.

These two chapters contain great rules and steps for developing a professional paper or document. These two chapters provide a guideline for writing documents therefore they will be a great help in creating our Crisis Analyses. I am taking this class because i am not sure how to or what a Crisis Analyses really is so all the information i have gleaned from the two chapters are very helpful. With the methods from CH 3 on profiling the different readers and the steps on outlining and structuring the document i think i have a better grasp of what i will do and how i should go about creating my Crisis Analyses. These two chapters were very informative and a great help to understanding what i have to do for the assignment due on Friday.

I think the most important idea/concept in Chapter 3 of Technical Communication Today is the ability to accurately profile the potential readers of whatever document you are preparing. It would be very difficult to know what to write if you didn't know who you were writing for. The "Five-W and How Questions" are easy to remember and an especially helpful tool for establishing a launchpad for your writing. I was also particularly interested in the segment of the chapter that describes the difference in content, organization, and style between different cultures. The American method of technical documentation has the potential to come off as rude to professionals in other countries due to our abruptness and haste to highlight key points, so it's important to keep this in mind when preparing a document for them.

In Chapter 8, the need to prepare an outline before you begin to write stood out as exceptionally important to me. I have always constructed an outline of key points before writing a document of any kind and have found it to be a huge convenience. Not only does it make your final product more coherent and organized, but also makes the writing process itself go much smoother. An outline is a valuable asset that a writer will refer back to numerous times throughout the drafting of the final document.

Both of these chapters will be very helpful to me in creating the Crisis Analysis. The analysis is to be directed towards the company itself and will therefore have to be written in an appropriate manner. If the document were to be prepared for the public, however, it would contain much different language and would need to provide different assertions to the audience. Chapter 3 will help in determining the sort of language pertinent to each unique audience. I will also be developing an outline for my Crisis Analysis to ensure all necessary points are addressed and wholly explicated.

The information I found most important in TCT chapter 3 was how to profile your readers. It is interesting that text should be altered due to someone’s physical, political, economic, and ethical context. Profiling allows you to have more of a focus and can influence choice of words, and style of writing.

From TCT chapter 8, the information I found most important was organizing your information within a written document. Professional documents, like personal essays must include some sort of structure that makes it easy for readers to follow and understand. It is helpful when there is an introduction, body, and conclusion.

By focusing on a certain group of people that may be targeted by a certain crisis, one can chose different ways to better explain, apologize, and offer a solution to the problem. Structure will allow the recipients of the message to better understand the information. Structure can also help portray how formal or informal the message is.

What I found most interesting about these chapters is the information it pointed out to that I wouldn’t have thought of other wise. For instance when I write, sometimes I don’t think about my audience and weather or no they will understand what I’m saying. The artilcles pointed out good techniques in helping to make pieces of writing more understandable to others.

I think it is very important to take into consideration the suggestions and guidelines that are pointed out here to better understand each other. I agree in using lots of photos and pictures for articles, for I think that those types of things bring in more readers than just words.

The most important idea in TCT Chapter 3: Readers and Contexts, is that different cultures and countries look for different things in their documents. This is highly important because in today’s world when everything can be found online, all these cultures and countries can read and see these documents. Therefore it is important to put the proper content, organization and style, into these documents. If not then you could lose a lot of global sales. An example would be the iPods catching on fire. IPods are around the entire world, and if one culture or country is left out, or left not completely understanding, then that is a lot of money Apple would be missing out on. It would not be a good idea to include a joke in a document about this the Chinese could see because they value relationships above all and are looking for facts only.

The most important idea I took away from TCT Chapter 4: Basic Organization for Any Document, is just that, how to organize a document. The most memorable thing I found was at the very beginning with the quote, “Tell them what you are going to tell them. Tell them. Then, tell them what you told them.” It’s a very simple way of remembering what the introduction, then body paragraphs, and conclusion is supposed to do. The intro is going to tell them what you will be discussing, and the body paragraphs are the discussions, and the conclusion will be restating what the audience was just told. I found this the most important because sometimes when writing a paper you can get swept away in tangents and lose track of your purpose. In order to be as concise and effective as possible a structure is of utmost importance.

These chapters will be very important to writing an effective crisis analysis because we have to address multiple countries and cultures, and do so in an effective and concise means. If we did not take into account the many cultures in our “mixing pot” then many would be left out and feel confused or even disrespected. Also, while addressing all these cultures we must also keep to our organization and not write sloppily. It would be very easy to lose yourself in a paper that must comment on the dilemma and appease all the cultures. These two chapters will greatly increase the quality of our crisis analysis