Engl 308 - a pleasant surprise

I'm not going to lie, when my advisor told me I was going to have to complete "English 308: Technical Communication" this semester, I did not have high hopes on the class. I went into the class thinking it was going to be very boring, writing professional documents about things I didn't care about. I am happy to say that this class was a pleasant surprise for me. I found myself excited to go to class and attack the next project we were assigned. I ended up enjoying the projects and found the work quite rewarding. It was work that I had fun doing, while also learning how to effectively complete the projects using proper technical communication strategies. I think a big contributor to this feeling was the way Professor Kyburz structured her class and the project we were expected to complete. There was always a positive vibe in the classroom, and the students were able to work with her during the projects and learn how to develop their work better. I think this is a good strategy because rather than a professor assigning something and not giving their input, dr. Kyburz was able to expand the knowledge of the students by interacting with them in their projects. This is helpful because it allows students to experience what it is like to work with a professional and it prepares them for the workplace more.

Restaurant redesign reflection

After completing the restaurant redesign project, I am pleased to say that this project was both fun and productive. Our redesign focused on making Pizza Pro's a more fun atmosphere to coincide with the college town it is a part of. Our biggest improvements revolved around modernizing the sign, menu and interior amenities to make Pizza Pro's a higher competitor against the other bar and grills in Dekalb. I believe our biggest improvement was relocating the bar into the current "party room" and creating an atmosphere that students will to drawn to. Doing this was a huge step for Pizza Pro's because if they already have a bar in place and a license to serve alcohol, they should take advantage of that and try to attract the most customers. Once they attract more customers, I believe they will be more than satisfied with the delicious food that Pizza Pro's already serves. Overall, I had a lot of fun doing this assignment, and designing buildings has actually been an interest of mine for a while now. I would like to do more projects like this and work in teams to accomplish a goal just like we did in this project.

Campus Safety

Hello all! Throughout my time here at NIU, I have noticed an issue involving the safety of students attending the university. I am constantly receiving emails from the university about the most recent act of crime in the Dekalb area. With that being said, I have decided to investigate this issue for one of my projects in another class. I will be researching about the issue of campus safety in general, and how it impacts students. Then, I will be applying that knowledge and comparing it to the students here at NIU. To help develop my ideas I have created a survey open to all NIU students to complete. Please take a few minutes out of your day to complete my 10 question survey on campus safety at NIU. The bigger the sample size I am able to gather, the better! The survey link is attached below, as well as a QR code.

Happy Winter!

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZJFMGZZ

The perfect imperfect situation

This past weekend my family said their last goodbyes to my Papa. Although this was a very difficult time for all of us, it is important to find the beauties in the situation. When reminiscing on his final days, I noticed that despite the circumstances, the situation was quite perfect. It was Thanksgiving day, and nearly all of the 8 grandkids and other family members were in town for the holidays. Normally, there are only a few of us in Illinois at one time, and it isn't often we can all get together considering our busy and hectic lives. However, this holiday season, we were all there together; and while my Papa was struggling in the hospital, we were all there by his side and shared a beautiful moment together. As my Papa was finally accepting defeat, he had one request. He wanted to go home to his cozy condo in Barrington and spend his last moments in the home he loved with the people he loved. We all had a very hard time watching him lay there, knowing what was about to come. Me and my brother especially had a hard time, since it was the first grandparent we were about to lose. Having all of our family there, sharing stories and remembering the good times we have had was what kept us all together. It's what kept us at peace. Yes, there were tears. Yes, there were countless prayers. Yes, there was grief. But having the family all there together was what Papa wanted, and it was the perfect situation. Thanksgiving wasn't what we all expected, but it was a special moment that I will never forget. Papa lived a great life, attending the first super bowl, serving the country in the United States Coast Guard, surviving cancer, and watching his favorite team in the world win the world series, the Chicago Cubs. So for that we say farewell and we will meet again.. Love you Papa.

Vote!

Jim Carrey is known for displaying his political views through unique artwork and emotionally filled captions. Here is an image of one of his tweets regarding this years midterm election. Jim Carrey is known for his liberal views and he describes here that he believes the current president does not support the ideas in his caption.

Reflection on Procedural Rhetoric

After completing and presenting my procedural rhetoric assignment, there were a few main points I learned. The first point is that relating to your audience is a key factor in gaining their full interest during your presentation. In the beginning of my presentation, I abruptly started explaining that our presentation was on how to change a car tire and proceeded in describing the first step. Instead, I could have started with a brief introduction to set the scene of why knowing how to change a car tire is so important. I could have asked the audience if any of them have done the task before and if they struggled with it or not. Doing this would attempt to relate to the audience on a more personal level and keep them interested. If I were to do this assignment again, I would add a little bit of personality to my portion of the presentation to lighten up the environment. Another thing I learned from this assignment is that writing clear, precise, and effective instructions can be more difficult than you expect! It is sometimes hard to decide what information is essential and what is unnecessary. To help solve this problem, it is a good idea to rehearse the presentation ahead of time because sometimes you don't notice issues until you present aloud. Including pictures and graphics was a great tool in this assignment and helped give the audience a better idea of the process.

Technical Communication - the importance of storytelling

What exactly is technical communication? How and why do we use it? The way I interpret the phrase involves the distribution or presentation of specific information. Documents in technical communication have one similar goal, to inform the audience about a certain subject clearly and professionally. The motivation of this goal can serve different purposes. Sometimes we are motivated to simply inform the audience; other times we seek the audience to carry out a task or make a decision.  In our book, Practical Strategies for Technical Communication by Mike Markel,  we examine the characteristics of a technical document. These characteristics includes addressing a particular audience, helping the audience solve problems, producing the document collaboratively, using words and/or images, and maintaining a readable design that reflects the organizations goals and culture (7). 

In order to increase the effectiveness of a technical document, it is often encouraged to use the process of storytelling to present the information. Storytelling is beneficial for its use of a chronological timeline, emotional appeal, and familiar structure. Many times, when you tell a story, you describe it in an organized timeline that makes it easiest for your audience to understand. This is very useful in technical communication, because information can be understood efficiently with a logical timeline supporting it.  Another aspect in storytelling is its emotional appeal. Telling a story provides a personal experience to the information given and creates an understanding beyond the factual information. While the facts are important, creating emotion behind the facts, or vice versa, can help increase the overall affect the document has on the audience.  Lastly, the process of storytelling is a familiar way of communicating. In almost all human conversations, we approach the information we want to deliver in the organization of storytelling. Presenting technical documents in this familiar structure will help increase how comfortable the audience is when analyzing the document. A more comfortable audience helps ease the interpretation of the subject.

As for the digitally manipulated image of concepts valuable to technical communication shown below, I think there are a few words that identify with my own course work. The first word is improvisation, and it relates to the process I use when initially writing or creating a document. I found that I initially develop my work "on the spot" without much thinking about specific guidelines. I usually like to make a general plan of what I would like to create, but once my plan is complete, I tend to type away freely and get all of my ideas onto the paper. After I do this, I then look back to clean up all the information I wrote by analyzing the work and organizing it appropriately. I think this can be a useful strategy, but I should be careful to remain focused on the task and review my work carefully.

Sources: 
MARKEL, MIKE. PRACTICAL STRATEGIES FOR TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION. 2nd ed., BEDFORD SAINT MARTIN'S, 2018.