Erik Simmons
(email address)

Intro to Your Portfolio: Seeing the Rhetorical Process of my Life
When I first came into the class, I thought I had a clear idea of what it is to be a technical communicator. Considering the grade I received in my last ENG 324: Technical Communication course, I felt confident in what I knew. In this course, ENG 424: Professional Writing and Rhetoric, it showed me that there is much more to being a technical communicator than working from a template. I was taught that technical writing is clearly situational; you cannot stick to normal forms of writing when you are trying to connect to a discourse community. When looking at the Faigley article, he explains that you have to look at writing from a social perspective. Because when you are on the outside of this community, it is hard to enter unless you take the time to adapt and understand the behaviors and language of that community.

A classic example of this failure to write from a social perspective is the time when I worked as a stock person at the GAP. When I was working there, we would get a job list memo from one of the head managers. In one memo we were instructed to make sure that we keep restocking the clothing that was being sold the most and move the stands closer to the front. The details left out of the memo caused a lot of confusion because we would get in about 100 boxes a day, and we didn't know which product was being sold the most. The manager was not working until the afternoon so we weren't able to ask her questions. Also, it was specified in the memo that we had to have this setup before the store opened. The other stock people and I remember stocking a lot of certain types of clothing but fads change and there were always promotional items and sales being held. So, not sure what was specified, we end up stocking the wrong clothing and getting yelled at by the manager. This relates to Faigley's point by suggesting that the manager is the outsider and the stock people are the community, not realizing that things are run differently in the backroom she failed to provide the necessary details about what needed to be done.

The Team Introduction Memo (TIM) and Process Documentation Memo (PDM): Applying the Social Perspective

Reflecting on the TIM & PDM
The Team Intro Memo (TIM) and the Process Document Memo (PDM) are good examples of trying to make that connect to a discourse community. When I began my first draft of the Team Intro Memo, I thought I was following the correct format of writing a memo. With what I was including in the memo, I felt like it was accurately providing enough information about how well I work with others and what I can bring to the team. The problem was that I was making claims with no evidence or warrants to back up my claims. In the first draft, I made the claim that I had better experiences working better in smaller groups than bigger groups. This claim alone makes no indication of what my definition of a small or big group is. Plus I had no examples of why I had problems being in a big group.

With each draft, and the feedback I was receiving I was learning how to examine more closely of what I was trying to explain to my peers. I learned that not only do I need an academic background, but an overview was needed to explain the nature of the memo. Also, the idea of having clear talking heads was important to let the reader know what they will be reading about in that particular section being explained.

The PDM assignment helped me a lot. With each draft, I learned how to examine the rhetorical process of writing a memo. It helped me realize how a rhetorical situation can be seen in everyday life. When I made the reference to working in the GAP, it showed an example that the manager made a several assumptions that caused problems in productivity.

The Creative Rhetoric Scenario: The Fun of Being the Youngest

Reflecting on the Creative Rhetoric Scenario
This was a fun document to work on. I enjoyed working on this one because the scenario dealt with something I experience many times since I am the youngest brother. I am sure anyone who has older siblings can relate to the scenario I picked. However, there were a few things I had to revise. The first time I worked on this document I had created something completely off track of what we were supposed to do. My task was to create a rhetorical situation that would fit into a real life scenario. What I did was instead of creating a fictional setting, I actually asked my brother to explain what rhetoric means to him. Since it would be difficult to really have a clear example of a rhetorical debate in an actual real life setting, it was best to create a fictional setting that would demonstrate this properly. Another problem I had was not explaining some of the tacit knowledge that my brother and I share. Also, I had to give more information about the scene I was trying to explain.

The Context & Genre Analysis Project:

Reflecting on the Context & Genre Analysis Project:
Even though this was the hardest document I ever had to work on, it was the most informative for me. After examining the rhetorical situation I picked for this project, I saw many things wrong with the way the course was being conducted. Doing this project raised many questions. Analyzing this context and its genre helped me see the possible goals of the students, myself, the professor, and the teacher assistant. In the beginning of the course I was only looking for an easy grade, plus it satisfied an area of my major requirements. However, as I worked through the book and seeing how the class was conducted, I craved more substance to the class. There was no comprehensive approach to what we were learning. I don’t think many of the students in the class really cared about why we were learning these programs. The class was completely mediated from a computer and a textbook; the class pretty much taught itself.

You can relate this analysis to what we read in the class. The Katz article comes to mind when thinking about the process of how this class was conducted. We were learning effective ways to become more efficient in the workplace but why should we be learning this technology only to be able to help some big time executive keep the cash flowing into his pocket. I am sure some of the students in the class were looking forward to learning this technology for the workplace but I think it can be applied to other venues other than some job. Just like in the movie "Office Space," the main character said something along the lines of person's goal shouldn't be working in a small cubicle looking at "TPS" reports all day. You may be doing your job efficiently to keep your job but you have to ask yourself why am I doing this? Who benefits from me doing this? What are the goals behind doing this work? Questions like these can help in many rhetorical situations whether it is academic or on the job. This analysis gave me a chance to raise these types of questions and try to see the ethics behind the context and its genre.