Welcome to ENGL 3050

1. Welcome to ENGL 3050 • Practical Writing • Summer II 2011

2. June 30 Agenda • Course Introductions and Overview • Intro to Practical Writing: Reader-Centered vs. Writer-Centered • Introduction to Information Design • Introduce Projects 1 and 2 • Density Exercises

3. Course Introductions • About Dr. Perryman-Clark • Icebreaker • Find two classmates (buddy system) • Find out what brought them to this class • Find out at least one unusual fact about partner • Introduce one of your classmates to the class

4. Syllabus and Policies • Required Text: Technical Writing: A Reader-Centered Approach, 7th edition by Paul V. Anderson • $5.00 Fee Card • If you miss a deadline for a draft, a workshop, or a small-group conference, you will not receive the points assigned to that activity (usually 10-25 points for review-draft activities) • If you miss a deadline for final submission of a project, you will receive a reduction of points (equivalent to one full letter grade) for each 48 hours late. • Buddy System: Select 2 Classmates (from icebreaker) • Plagiarism • WMU Email

5. Intro to Practical Writing • We will write for “practical” purposes where writing situations have “real world” implications • Your classmates will become your colleagues and coworkers • We will compose texts that satisfy many different readers in a single communication (this will be hard!). • We will use distinctive types of communication • We will use graphics and visual designs to increase effectiveness. • We will collaborate. • We will devote critical attention to organizational conventions and cultures. • We will be sensitive to legal and ethical issues. • We will meet deadlines!

6. Reader-Centered Approach • You ALWAYS have to think about how the reader responds to your text. Why? • Because readers construct meaning • Readers interact, engage, and interpret • Constructed meaning is often based on readers’ frame of reference • Because readers’ responses are shaped by the rhetorical situation • Responses are contextual, meaning that they are dependent on many factors • A wide range of contextual factors affect how readers respond. • Because readers react moment by moment • readers respond at various points in a text (sentence-by-sentence, paragraph-by-paragraph, etc.) • their reaction to what you write in one part of the text can influence their reaction in other parts of the text.

7. Project 1: The Resume • Conventional print resume (not scanned version) • Memo to professor explaining how the documents exemplify reader-centered principles, accompanied by copy of ad or position notice

8. Your Reader-Centered Resume: How Employers Will Read It • Initial Screening: Employers receive tons, so first screening is often electronic. • Detailed examination of most promising application: forwarded to managers. • Preparation for interview: Persuasive resumes are invented for interviews.

9. Project 1 Reader Centered Resume: Guide to Success • Understand your key challenge. This challenge is to convey the education and experience you have that relates to the opportunity you want. • Create Target resumes. Avoid a generic approach—one resume for all opportunities—and instead adapt and revise your resume to target each specific opportunity. • Do Your Homework. Research the organization or institution to whom you are submitting a resume,and use that knowledge to relate your education and experience to the organization. • Take an employer’s or reader’s perspective. When deciding what to include and how to describe it in your resume, always think about the qualities an employer will hope to find in the successful applicant. • Lead with your strengths. Busy employers often “size up” a resume very quickly, so make it easy for readers to see your most impressive credentials. Don’t bury the good stuff. • Be concise. Avoid paragraphs and often even full sentences. Your challenge is to prune your prose; you don’t want to sacrifice clarity but you do want to eliminate unnecessary words. • Be willing to sacrifice information. Information about you may be relevant in your resume for one opportunity but not relevant for another. Study the opportunity description and eliminate items unimportant to the opportunity.

10. Addtn. Reader-Centered Tips • When defining your resume objectives, think about your readers in the act of reading. • To understand your readers, know who your employers are. • Create an accurate portrait of how employers will read your resume in ways that will persuade employers of your qualifications. • Present your resume and qualifications in a way that is accessible and readable for employers.

11. Reader-Centered vs. Writer Centered Resume Objectives • Writer Centered • Describes what you want, not what you would bring to the table • Position that will compensate me for my work and provide continuing growth opportunities • (e.gs. Seek a challenging position with opportunity for advancement; seek a position with a major firm that will result in increased responsibility). • Too Specific • Names a specific position in a specific organization rather than an objective (e.g. Seek an internship in video production with Jax Studios.) • Reader Centered • Emphasizes type of position or the general skills/experience applicant is able to contribute • (e.g.Seek an operations management position utilizing my staff supervision, departmental, and customer service management experience). • Reader Centered • Combines objective with qualifications followed by bulleted list

12. Intro to Informational Design • Short informative headings • Lists • Bullets • Italics • Variety of heading sizes • Different typefaces for headings than for text • White space to separate sections • Ample margins (3/4” to 1”) • Visual balance

13. Sample Resumes : Reader or Writer-Centered? • Example 1 • Example 2

14. Prewriting: Brainstorming Your Design • Spend some time looking at sample resumes on the web • Determine if they are reader or writer-centered • Select a resume that you like • Determine the features that make this resume desirable • Set forth a plan for applying these features to your resume. • Start composing!

15. Check-in, Report, Share • Share the samples you found • Explain how they’re reader-centered • Walk us through your plan to implement these features into your design.

16. Reader-Centered Resume Examples • http://www.distinctiveweb.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/sample-career-change-resume.jpg • http://marcfrechette.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/marc_frechette_resume.pdf

17. Design Recap • Typography.  • Are you taking advantage of typography to create contrast?  Do you use a sans serif font for your headings? Don't go font happy though. Usually no more than two fonts types are recommended for good design in a resume.  You can always adjust size and contrast to differentiate levels in your resume.  Also, you do not have to stick with 12 point font size simply because that is what you usually do for manuscripts.  A 10 or 11 point font is still pretty readable. • Spacing. • Are you using spacing to accentuate groupings?  Remember to use more space to separate major segments than you use to separate elements within a segment. In other words, don't just push the space bar and have the same amount of spacing throughout your resume. • Contrast. • Are you using one level of headings to set off major segments but then forgetting about the importance of contrast within segments?  Remember to help readers locate and identify information within segments. Hierarchy matters. • Page layout. • Are you going to a second page, when you fill only a third or so of that page? If so, go back and look at page one and ways you can economize (font size, two columns, etc.). • Reference Sheet.  • Did you remember to create a reference sheet with full identification and contact information for each reference? • Hanging Indent. • Are you remembering to use clean, clear points of alignment in your document? A hanging indent is one way to employ alignment effectively. (This slide uses a hanging intent)

18. Reader vs. Writer-Centered Communication Examples • Student Email: Appropriate Rhetorical Strategies • Density Chunking on consent forms • Curriculum Vitae: rules of hierarchy and design

19. Project 2: The Interview • Write request memo request to a professional in your field. • Then plan and conduct interview. • Write 3-4 page report of major findings.

20. Elements of Interview Report • Introductory Segment: orients reader • Background Segment(s): provides reader with background info so that reader can understand • Major findings segment: Reflect on all data and write major findings; group related sub-findings under major findings • Sub-findings category: begin with general summary of findings and then provide supporting evidence from interview data • Text Hierarchy Levels: Create hierarchy levels that guide readers through your report, and use at least two-level headings, one for major segments and another to break down info within segs. • Concluding segment: create a sense of closure in the document.

21. Density Exercises • Use chunking and grouping to break up the density of text. • Use spacing. To visually emphasize groupings of text, Use more space between major chunks than space within the chunk. This spacing strategy will tell the reader instantly what text belongs together. • Create hierarchy by grouping text chunks together. Your aim with hierarchy is to show how some chunks are subsets of a topic. Headings are a good way to show hierarchy. • Create contrast with typography. Sans serif for headings and serif for body text is one way to achieve this contrast. (Such contrast aids in what to look at, provides resting place for the eye, and allows multiple entry and exit points) • Avoid underlining as major contrast tool. Let typeface do the work.

22. Density Tips, cont. • Avoid capitals for non-display text (spot only). When text is set in all capital letters, reading speed is slowed about 13-20 percent. • Avoid italics for non-display text (spot only). When italic type is used for continuous prose, reading speed can be substantially reduced. • Use bolding for emphasis, but be frugal and systematic with bolded elements. Over bolding defeats the purpose of directing the reader’s attention to select information • Align groups and chunks of text for a clean, sharp left margin. Hanging and aligned indentation are important in lists and grouped paragraphs. • Make judicious use of white space. Text with generous • amounts of blank space may attract and hold the reader’s • attention longer than text with little blank space.

23. Density Example • Chunking texts • Spacing texts • Using fonts/Typography

24. Next Time • Finish Density Exercises • Decide Interview Subject and One Back-Up Subject • Bring to class an example of one reader-centered and one writer-centered form of communication • Read Anderson Chapter 1 • Bring $5.00 Copy Cards to class