ENC 3250 Professional Writing: Midterm Reflection

1. ENC 3250
Professional
Writing
Elliot
Hutchinson
March 9, 2015
MIDTERM REFLECTION
ASSIGNMENT

2. News -> What?
 Is it bad? -> Start with nice/neutral statement.
Reason -> Why?
 Don’t start with this!
Details -> How?
 Don’t tell them what they already know.
Closing -> Now What?
 Action and/or honey statement.
FUNCTIONAL OUTLINE

3. I have used the functional outline for each assignment so
far. I find it useful when first creating a document for an
assignment to fill it with:
TODO: insert News paragraph
TODO: insert Reason paragraph
TODO: insert Details paragraph
TODO: insert Closing paragraph
I use the functional outline to remind myself what content
should go in each paragraph. It has been a very valuable
tool!
FUNCTIONAL OUTLINE

4. Clear
 Is it obvious what you are informing, requesting, or persuading?
Concise
 Remove extra words and information already known.
Complete
 Be sure to include news, details, closing.
Correct
 Double-check format, grammar, punctuation, spelling, and word usage.
Courteous
 Be polite and professional with tone.
5 CS

5. The 5 Cs make this course
and writing professional
correspondence so easy.
They serve as a checklist
that I routinely cycle
through and ask if my
writing meets the criteria. I
use this aid for each of my
assignments and I have
even used it in writing some
emails this semester!
5 CS

6. Audience
 Know who you are writing for.
 Use “you” viewpoint.
Context
 Your writing is read within a certain bias and environment.
Purpose
 Your writing should answer the what and why.
Ethics
 Avoid deception and don’t withhold info.
 Take responsibility and avoid passive voice.
Introduction
 Focuses reader’s attention.
Conclusion
 Shaped by audience, purpose, and context.
CHAPTER 1: THE WRITING PROCESS

7. I’ve found that reminding
myself that my writing is
meant to be read by a
particular audience keeps me
focused on writing for the
prompt.
This helps establish a link to
the purpose of the document
as well as the context that it
will be read in and what
assumptions and biases my
reader might have.
CHAPTER 1: THE WRITING PROCESS

8. Email
 Watch grammar and tone.
 Easily forwarded, sent to unknown recipients (BCC), never really deleted.
 Send courtesy reply if you need more time.
Instant Messaging
 Acceptable to use abbreviations.
 Keep conversations constrained to a single topic.
Text Messaging
 Don’t use text messages for important information.
Social Media
 Be professional as content is public.
CHAPTER 2: WORKPLACE TECHNOLOGY

9.  Correspondence
 Establish good will with “you” viewpoint.
 Be respectful, modest, polite, tactful.
 Use indirect pattern for negative correspondence.
 Help the reader by using headings.
 Complaints
 Be careful with tone.
 Explain why the problem happened.
 Letters
 Used for external communication.
 Block style.
 Continue pages with two lines of text and add a header.
 Memos
 Internal organization communication.
 Utilize headings and lists for clarity.
CHAPTER 4: CORRESPONDENCE

10. I didn’t know the difference
between a letter and a memo
prior to this module, so I found
it useful to think that one is
what you would send outside
and one is what you would send
inside. Being respectful,
professional, and maintaining a
courteous tone are important in
all correspondence, but
especially with complaint
letters. I also learned that an
indirect approach can help with
negative subject matter. I used
this in the complaint letter
assignment to help with the
tone.
CHAPTER 4: CORRESPONDENCE

11.  Parallel Structure
 Elements in a sequence should share the same form.
 “You” Viewpoint
 Gather the reader’s attention by writing from their perspective.
 Use you and your but watch for accusatory statements.
 Clichés
 Avoid commonly used expressions.
 May not be understood by audience with different cultures.
 Vague Words
 Be clear and concise with concrete words.
 Logic Errors
 Non sequiturs: conclusions that don’t follow what came before.
 Post-hoc rationalization: contributing cause to whatever follows.
 Concise Words
 Avoid modifiers that cause redundancy in ideas.
CHAPTER 10: STYLE & CLARITY

12.  Layout
 Use grouping, alignment, proximity, similarity, to segment content.
 Design
 Use white space to enable chunking of content.
 Use color to segment sections.
 Headings
 Assist the reader by highlighting the topic.
 Signal new topics.
 Carry headings over to the next page if last line.
 Lists
 Capitalize first word of each item.
 Be consistent with form of each item.
CHAPTER 7: DESIGN & VISUALS

13. Content from chapter 7 helped
in analyzing the two not-for-
profit websites as well as the
analysis of a poorly designed
website. I am developing 3
websites this semester so this
material has been topical
outside of this course, as well.
Using color to help segment
and denote new sections to aid
the user is useful in designing
UI which is a big part of
software development.
CHAPTER 7: DESIGN & VISUALS

14.  ENC 3250 Professional Writing Course Material
 The Business Writer’s Companion 7th Edition
 Instructor Sheila Bolduc-Simpson
 NormanEinstein, CC BY-SA 3.0,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ionian_Sea#mediaviewer/File:Io
nian_Sea_map.png
 Andrew Taylor, CC BY 2.0,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/profilerehab/6956509317/
 Adrian Clark, CC BY-ND 2.0,
 https://www.flickr.com/photos/adrianclarkmbbs/304195456
6/in/set-72157607752583617
 Juhan Sonin, CC BY 2.0,
https://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/3254322054/in/s
et-72157627141978784
REFERENCES