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Reflections on Technical CommunicationWilliam Whitehair ENGL 2311
RHETORIC01
Table of Contents
02CULTURAL CONSIDERATIONS03
04 ETHICS
COLLABORATION
3
What is technical communication?
. “Rhetoric, which is the use of language to inform or persuade, is very important in shaping public opinion. We are very easily fooled by language and how it is used by others.” by Ray Comfort
Rhetoric is one of the most important skills to have when it comes to communication. In today’s age communications is done through many different ways physically communicating with somebody, through emails or any technical devices people can use to communicate and last but not least the old fashion way like letters in the mail. Although we have so many ways to get a hold of people and communicate with them Rhetoric will never change.
The definition of rhetoric is “the art of effective or persuasive speaking or writing, especially the use of figures of speech and other compositional techniques” essentially every time we are communicating with somebody else we are trying to persuade them into listening to what you have to say, making rhetoric one of the most important styles of communications
Through our time in ENGL 2311, we have covered many different uses of technical communication, which can and will help us outside the classroom. Some of the examples we have covered in ENGL 2311 that uses rhetoric are: Resumes, Cover letters, memos, instructions, Thank you letters, etc.
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Introduction
4
Rhetoric is used in every conversation.
Every assignment in this class was meant for a specific audience. My favorite examples of rhetoric in this class is the usability test and the final project, my groups target audience for our final project was students attending college ages 18-26 that uses printing on campus. For our usability test we had the same target audience as our final project and our results were pretty promising.
A couple problems that my group ran into during our usability test was first, Our instruction set had a couple miss spelling and our steps were different colors which through off some of the users while trying to read the instructions.
Secondly we left out 2 very easy steps but were the most important at the end of the day and they were letting the students know they have to log off once creating an account and also letting the students know they need to bring their own paper in order to get the free printing.
Our resolution was fixing the miss spellings and the colors of the instructions to all be the same color and then adding the last two steps that let the students know to bring their own paper and to log off once the account was made.
Rhetoric
section 01
5
The feedback we were able to get from the usability test was then applied towards our final project.
Based on the nature of our project, which was to get every student on campus to get free printing through the WEPA machines, my group all decided that the best way to communicate our project was through a set of step by step instructions. We felt like we didn’t need to do a video because the instruction was very thorough. We realized that most students are visual learners so we made pictures on our instructions that walk them through how to create a WEPA account.
Technology is everywhere in todays age, especially in communication. The technology we used in our project was a digital camera, photo editing software on the mac, Microsoft word, and power point, which we used for our presentation.
Through the usability test and the final project we really learned how to use technology to communicate to our audience. This will really grow me as a communicator in the real world which is a very important and useful skill to have in todays age.
Rhetoric
section 01
6
“Alone we are smart but together we are brilliant
-Steve Anderson, Education
Collaboration is a very important tool to use and be able to function with. Almost every job you will ever have has employees you must collaborate with in order to get the job done, if you cant work with other people you are in a world of hurt. We all took personality tests the first week of class to see who we are and who we would work best with in order to get our final project complete. I was lucky enough to be put in a group with Tatyana Gains and Dylan Bushlong, I felt like us three in a group could have conquered anything that came our way, we worked together very well and all had a good understanding of what was going on and what needed to be done in order to get the job done correctly.
When choosing what to do our project over, it took us about a minute to all agree on one idea and once we made our choice we took it and ran with it and never looked back. We chose our roles by just talking about it and see who wants what and who is better at that specific role, my role was the team manager and the Budgeter and I was completely okay with taking both of those roles. Once we got our roles figured out we talked about it and helped each other out with each role by giving good ideas and good in site.
Agile Model
PlanningDesignImplemen-tationTestingEvaluation
*Model we used for our group projects
Collaboration
section 02
7
Conflict makes us better.
Challenges our team faced:• figuring out the budget because of the specific idea we had.•Having trouble figuring out the best way to do the usability test. • At times, team members had different ideas on how they wanted things done.
Challenges solved:
•The way we figured out the budget was by just getting the flat costs and than deducting that from the amount of paper the university spends on paper. Dylan gave me that idea and I used it because it made sense.•The way we figured out the usability test was by all talking about it and than choosing one together. We used Tatyana’s idea because it fit our project the best, •The way we fixed this was by all talking together and figuring out what was the easiest and would make the most sense at the end of the day. We used Dylan’s cause it made the most sense.
•Some team members had really great ideas, but the reality is that not all of them were practical. So, we had to come to an understanding of that with each other and work to value other people's opinions.
Collaboration
section 02
8
“Those seeking to identify common cultural values across Latinos with diverse backgrounds face a difficult task” Elizabeth Fraga,
Friends and family are the important things in life because those are the ones you can go to in times of need. Figuring out where you came from and why you are who you are today are very important when it comes to finding your true meaning
I think when we did the cultural ladder in class activity when we went around and picked the 4 things that make you who you are today was a very eye opening activity. I think it really made me understand how I am who I am today and it all comes from my family and the activities we do together. I really enjoyed that activity because now I know how I became what I am today and it makes me happy and strive to become more like my parents because they are the ones who raised me and are the ones who are successful in our big family.
Cultural Considerations
section 03
9
Cultural consideration is bigger in our world than it has ever been because we are becoming a much more technological culture. Businesses now are going over seas more and more to do business and need to be considerate of the culture they are doing business in. If business men or women go over seas and have no idea how to treat their associates than they are not going to want to be apart of that company and find a better company that will treat them with the respect they deserve.
All over the world people meet and greet differently, in one country a kiss on the cheek is looked down upon but in another country if you don’t greet that way it’s a sign of disrespect, so people need to understand where they are going and respect those peoples accordingly.
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Cultural Considerations
section 03
10
Ethics makes us who we are today
Ethics is an unspoken code of conduct which infiltrates our lives.
Ethics was covered the most in section 1 where we created resumes, cover letters, and thank you notes. When building my resume I noticed how easy it was to get off topic.
The goal of a resume is to grab the attention of the employer you are pursuing and make him interested in your set of skills so he/she will hire you.. It is so easy to add unnecessary words or leave out important eye catching words that could really hurt you. After building a mock resume and than getting feedback and making a legit survey I realized how important it is to really brag about your strengths and leave out your weaknesses
The concept of ethics extends beyond writing resumes. Living an honest ethical life is what my parents have been teaching me my whole life, having standards and rules to hold you accountable are some of the most important standards to live by and will really pay off if you hold to these rules. Having morals is something I pride myself on and nobody can tell you to follow your morals or not its all up to you. Living by these rules will help you get through college and furthermore your entire life.
Ethics
section 04
Citation Page
Ray Comfort. (n.d.). BrainyQuote.com. Retrieved July 7, 2016, from BrainyQuote.com
Fraga, Elizabeth. "Cultural Consideration." America Psychological Association. N.p., Jan. 2005. Web. 07 July 2016.
