Upload
beverly-gilmore
View
225
Download
1
Tags:
Embed Size (px)
Citation preview
CONDUCTING A NEEDS ANALYSIS: WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? HOW?
Audience: Who are you writing for? What is their knowledge level? What background knowledge will your audience need?
Purpose: What information are you conveying? Why are you writing the document? How will your audience use your document? How will you meet their needs?
Context/Situation: In what setting (Where) will your audience use the document? In what media should the document be prepared?
PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: AFTER GATHERING THE DATA
Define the
Problem
Describe the
Cause
Design the
Solution
SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS
PROCESS Consider how the less-familiar process is like your area
of expertise: Inventing a System vs. Writing About a System
Solar Sun Tracker (charging station to maximize energy collection)Solar Wind Power Station (data acquisition and instrumentation of wind-solar power station)Maximum Power Pointer Tracker (circuit that maintains constant system voltage)Trailer Hitch Assistant (dash-mounted system to improve safety for the driver)DisTek Project for Data Acquisition and Instrumentation
PROCESS
Planning, Pre-writing: Noting your decisions about purpose, audience; Sketching out the architecture of your project (content and order); Making a map you can rely on
PROCESS
Creativity, foresight, audience awarenessCasual, low-stress
NOTCritical scrutiny, proofreading, grades
PROCESS
Drafting: Shaping; Expanding; Ordering; Connecting
Use Headings as Your Draft-Shaper1. Introduction
1.1 Orient the reader to the topic1.2 State your Purpose
2. Background: 1.1 Establish the Problem1.2 Define terms, name names, and contextualize your document (what you did and why)
3. Discussion: Shape depends on purpose & context: are you explaining your system? Instructing someone how to use it? Arguing for its adoption?
4. Conclusion: Show how all the pieces fit together; Make recommendations
PRODUCT: DISCUSSION
• Fully-developed paragraphs with easy to identify topic statements
• Connectors between each paragraph and back to the purpose you expressed in the intro
DISCUSSION(most of your
work gets done here)
PRODUCT: CONCLUSION
Conclusion reasserts most important points without repeating them; Summarizes what it all means;Suggests a course of action for the reader
PROCESS
Revising: Revisiting the document to make big-picture improvements in focus, content, organization, visual design, and connections
See handout
SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS
“As long as there is an unbroken connection from source to load and back again as shown here, electrons will be pushed from the negative
terminal of the source, through the load, and then back to the positive terminal of the source. . . the electrons are always moving in the same direction
through the circuit” (
http://www.play-hookey.com/)
SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS
SHORT CIRCUIT a usually accidental low-resistance connection between two points in an electric circuit, resulting in either excessive current flow that often causes damage or, in a new shorter circuit, that draws current away from the original pathways and components; a disrupted electric circuit resulting from this (http://www.yourdictionary.com/short-circuit)
“The purpose of the senior design course is to bridge the gap between academic theory and real world practice.” —Course Syllabus
EXAMPLES
Title: version 1 Digital Camcorders version 2 Which Camcorder is Most Reliable Out
of 12? version 3 Technical Benchmark Testing of 12
Digital Camcorders
(example from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical/reports reports3.htm)