Sarah Gorski
(sgorski at emich.edu)

Technical Communication: Rhetorical Writing in specific situations

Technical communication, according to Websters dictionary, means having a special skill in a scientific field and conveying that information to someone else. After taking this course, I learned that technical communication goes way beyond this meaning.

Throughout the semester of English 424, I learned many new things. This course taught me to think about writing and communication in a whole new way. I had to stop thinking about the simple forms of writing and start thinking beyond that. For example, what writing does and how it functions in different situations.

I also learned how rhetorical situations can relate to writing practices. This class will help me in acting more professional, using my ethics and maybe even becoming more successful.

The Team Introduction Memo (TIM) and Process Documentation Memo (PDM): Learning How to Write Professional Memos

Contextualizing the TIM & PDM

Discovering The Purpose of a Memo
The team introduction memo was a memo that I was assigned to write to introduce myself to the class. This memo was supposed to give an impression of myself and make the class want me on their team. I was supposed to make connections between myself and the team, and take my experiences and relate them to the other teammates. I had to discuss the purpose of my memo and give details of my past so that the team would think that I was highly qualified for the position. I had to make claims throughout the memo giving examples and explanations on how I was a good teammate. After completing this assignment, I gained knowledge on how writing establishes and maintains relationships.

The process documentation memo was a memo that I wrote to show how I used concepts and how I applied them. I had to talk about the claim, support, and warrants that I used in my team introduction memo. This was a memo about writing the team introduction memo. I had to think about the audience and the results that they gave me. I supported the changes that I made from my first memo to my second memo. I had to put headings in this memo so I could relate concrete ideas together and get the results from that.

Reflecting on the TIM & PDM

Team Introduction Memorandum
My team introduction memo was my first major memorandum that I worked on in this class. I learned many new things about writing memos. Throughout this process, I gained knowledge on how detailed memos should be. I also learned that each chunk of information should have a heading to it, there should be an overview, and that the most important information should be bolded to make it easier to read. These are some of the drastic changes that I made to my memo. This memo can easily be related to the Faigley article because in order to write this memo, I had to look at the whole social perspective of things and find the relationship between the readers and myself. My writing practices changes as my situtaions chagned, just as explained in the article.

Process Documentation Memo
The process documentation memo was a memo that I wrote that decribed the changes that I made between my first team introduction memo and my second one. This memo described how its audience was likely to respond to something. It made my audience aware of all of my changes. This memo can be related to the Katz article by the adaptness to self-interest that it shows. I believe that this memo shows a great example of the ethics of expedieny by stating what the purpose of the team introduction memo is intended to do.

The Creative Rhetoric Scenario: Project Title

Contextualizing the Creative Rhetoric Scenario

Realizing That I Understand What Rhetoric Is
The creative rhetoric scenario was a dialog that I had to write in order to show the class that I understood what rhetoric was. I was assigned to come up with my own definition of what rhetoric actually is and describe it in a way that was understandable. I did some research on rhetoric and then sat down and had a conversation with a paralegal that I work with. I explained to her what I thought rhetoric was and then asked her several of questions about what she thought that it was. The setting of the dialog conditioned the speech, and I also had to explain different theoretical concepts. The dialog included a setting of where, what, and who the person I was interviewing was like. This assignment made me discover the rhetorical skills that I already had.

Reflecting on the Creative Rhetoric Scenario

Creative Rhetoric Scenario
My creative rhetoric scenario was a dialog that I wrote to show the class that I understood rhetoric and that I was able to teach it to someone else. This was designed for a particular setting that I had to show how I could apply the rhetoric of the setting to a specific situation. I explained the ways that rhetoric rhetoric taylors speech. This dialog can be related to the Regli article because it involved technical writers and made them serve as an expert in technical communicationi. The dialog gave a great example of how there is invention in technical writing, that it's not just choosing a font and proofreading a paper. I spoke to my audience directly to find out their expectations.

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The Context & Genre Analysis Project: Project Title

Contextualizing the Context & Genre Analysis Project

Documenting Some Legal Writing Practices
The context-genre analysis report started with writing a proposal of how I was going to do this and to show that I had chosen a good topic for the report. I had to write about how I was going to carry out my research and look at specific documents and talk to different people.

The actual report that I wrote for this assignment was to pick a context and describe how the documents and the writing practices in the context can relate to real life rhetorical situations. The context that I chose was The Thurswell Law Firm. I answered questions like what the context does, who works there, and what they do. I also documented on a system of documents and the environment of them as well. I talked about the multiple readers that each document had and the effects that the documents had. For example, if the document worked or not, if it got the right outcome. I also wrote about what the goals and tasks were for this specific context; what was supposed to happen and what actually happened. Overall, this assignment made me realize the relationships between writing practices and contextual influences of The Thurswell Law Firm.

Reflecting on the Context & Genre Analysis Project:

Contex-Genre Analysis
My context-genre analysis that I worked on was a document that showed how writing is conditioned in defferent situations. I had to analyize real life situations and relate them to rhetorical writing. I researched and documented my work place, The Thurswell Law Firm. I also wrote abot a specific document in this context and the process that it went through and the outcomes of the document. For example, if the document worked or not. This assignmentcan be closely related to the Driskell article because the context of this document explained the type of meaning writers express and readers expect to get from specific situations. The article talks about business communication and how it tells little about the effects of the context in the writing process. Another relation that this document had with the article was that structure and culture are both needed for good communication and that language is the backbone of the organization and it's enviornment. This can relate directly to the Thurswell Law Firm.