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Personal Development
Project Gabrielle Wohead
English 2311
Meet the Technical Writer:Gabrielle Wohead
The purpose of this presentation is to inform of my experiences & major growth as a communicator through my English 2311 course.
Hello! My name is Gabrielle and I am a sophomore at Texas Tech University. I am majoring in Human Development and Family Studies and aspire to one day practice Occupational Therapy. This semester I took English 2311, which is all about Technical Writing.
Communication Growth Throughout the semester in English 2311, I grew abundantly in many different areas of my communication skills. In order to compare my skill level at the beginning of the semester to my present abilities, I have comprised these lists to compare and contrast. My Skills Prior to English 2311• I have always been
confident in my skills as a writer. Some things
• Decent presentation abilities & confidence due to former speech classes
New Skills • Resume Building• Knowledge of formal
proposal guidelines• Ability to use less words to
simplify the point• Greater cultural
understanding• Conflict resolution amongst
team members• Understanding of
importance of Technical Communication
Unit 1 ▧Examining real/current job ads:This was very helpful in gaining a greater understanding of ads for
jobs post-college will look like, and what will be required upon responding to them.
▧ Cover LetterWriting the cover letter was important to understand how to
introduce yourself to a possible employer. I had never written one before, so I was glad to learn about it.
▧ ResumeBefore this class, I have no formal resume of any sort in existence.
It was very beneficial to me to get all of my job experience, volunteer work, and other positive qualitites written in one place. This helped me gain confidence on how qualified I will be post-graduation.
▧ Thank you noteWriting the thank you note helped my gain perspective into how to
professionally address your superiors in the business world. It was enlightening to know what a long way a short note can go in gaining the respect of potential bosses.
Unit 2 Formal ProposalsIn writing our proposal, the JCG design team really began to blossom. We had to begin to think about and discuss what we really wanted to do with this project, and how we were going to make it happen. We had big plans, but had to eliminate a few things when actually writing out our proposal due to limited time and resources.
Teaming WorksheetsWe split up the team roles in order to make sure all tasks were taken care of and also that everyone had a specific task at hand. Although my role as Record Keeper may have not been my first choice, I made it work well. As shown in the diagram, all of our team’s roles were equally important- if one was missing, we could not function.
JCG Design Team
Team Leader
Record Keeper Designer
Editor
Unit 3Paper Airplanes- When we started this unit, we had a team paper airplane contest which involved us using instructions with pictures included in order to make a complex paper airplane. This made me realize just how important instructions can really be.
Progress Reports-This allowed us to reflect on how we felt we were doing personally and also how we were getting along as a group. I was thankful for the opportunity to give feedback.
Usability Reports-The biggest purpose of Unit 3 was creating and conducting Usability Reports on our fellow classmates. Because this was such a largeportion of the chapter, it will be discussed further on the following slide.
Unit 3: Usability
Create Paper Prototype
Test on college
students
Make changes if neccessary
With Usability, the task seemed simple: Test out our design and see if it was helpful to the average college student or not.However, the options of how to conduct the test were endless, and I struggled a bit with picking just one option. This chapter tested my decision making skills greatly. We used tools such as the Five E’s to perfect our usability test. The method we found best fit for us was Paper Prototyping.
The Five E’s
Effective
Efficient
Engaging
Error Tolerant
Easy To Learn
Types of Usability Tests Think-Aloud
Protocol
Card-sorting
Heuristic Evaluation
Paper Prototyping
Technical Testing
Unit 4 Cultural Memo
We analyzed the significant differences of the Texas Tech campus in Lubbock and the one in Spain.The areas we took into account were:• Power Distance• Individualism• Masculinity• Uncertainty Avoidance• Long Term Orientation
Instructional Documents We experienced a group workshop with various types of instructional documents. The one I found most challenging was a document with pictures displaying how to fold a shirt. I found the pictures very misleading and without words I was completely lost. It was good to see what not to do for our instruction set.
Meeting MinutesI kept track of everything we discussed at out meetings. I turned the notes of one meeting in particular into formal meeting minutes. I feel like this is a really helpful skill not just for college, but for life in general. There will always be value in keeping track of what happens at meetings.
Unit 5
Group Practice/PresentingWhile I personally would have liked to have practiced our presentation more than we were able to, I definitely am confident in the fact that the practice we did do was the reason for our success. Our presentation was overall successful, although if I had to do it over I would have set practice dates early on! I feel like I gained the ability to compromise.
Discussed Biggest FearsThe purpose of this was to see some of the common fears amongst classmates and recognize that most of them are in some way related to death. The positive in this situation is that no matter how bad public speaking may seem… it’s much better than death!
Learned how body language effected our presentation:This was a confidence builder for me, because I do tend to use my hands way too much in presentations. It’s good to be conscious of body language and understand that it is normal to worry about it as well as possible to fix.
Created a Visual AidFor this we used a powerpoint and screencast. Looking back, I wish we would have just used a powerpoint considering the screencast seemed to bore the audience a bit. However, it got the information across well.
Place your screenshot here
The Finished Product!
PAY CITATION HERE
So What’s Next?The skills I have learned throughout the semester will without a doubt help me in the real world. I want to be an occupational therapist, and a huge part of this job is writing reports on patients. This class has really improved my ability to be conscious of the words I choose to write and to make sure they will be beneficial and understandable to a diverse audience.
References
▧Baehr, & Cargile Cook. (2015). The Agile Communicator. Kendall Hunt.
▧Jacobsen, K. (2015).▧Slides Carnival, Pixeden, Unsplash.
(2015).
