September 19, 2008

Once again, all the information in the assigned chapters proved to be very interesting, and I can really see how I will incorporate the guidelines into my writing. Chapter 16, specifically, was of interest to me not only for working in our groups, but also because so many of my other classes will require group projects. I am just starting a large group project that will require an 8-page paper along with multiple other written submissions. The guidelines in chapter 16 gave me some great ideas to get my group focused and looking ahead to creating the best finished product possible. I enjoyed the way it described how to use strengths from each member, and while an agenda makes perfect sense in a meeting structure, I have never considered it from a project-meeting standpoint.

Reading chapter 23 was thought provoking as well. I could not help but compare personal experience with directions to the ideas in the book. My experiences range from trying to follow very poorly written instructions or mastering the most well written instructions to completely tossing the instructions aside (perhaps based on an introduction that failed to persuade me to read them). I also did some instruction writing when I worked as an item processor for my bank. The assignment was to write systematic instructions on how to do my job so that someone with no knowledge whatsoever could follow them and be successful. During the testing phase, it did not take long to see that the amount of background and explanation I needed to give for each step well exceeded even the twenty page manual I developed. Ultimately, my employer determined that some skill set and knowledge base was required in order to execute my duties. It was not feasible to create the instruction manual they desired.

I was surprised that chapter 4 describes outlining as one of multiple options for organizing your writing. That shows how this information on writing is so much different from what I have studied in other English classes. It was music to my ears (...or eyes?). Outlining was not ever something that I found to help me. Most of the time I wrote my papers, and then I pulled the outline from the finished product. I always did well, so perhaps that fuels my bias toward outlines.

Direct and indirect patterns are what I focused on in chapter 5. From previous reading, we learned that if the reader may interpret your information negatively, you do not necessarily want to start with it. However, there was not really a suggestion of how to go about this. Figure 5.5 on page 133 is a great visual to help compare the two patterns, and I completely buy in to the idea of stating possible flaws with a current system to gain support of your suggested solution before you even present it. Depending on how you word it, I believe that has to be rhetoric of some sort.