The document summarizes Anne Berryman's capstone portfolio for the Technical Communication program. It includes posters, documents, and handouts she created that demonstrate meeting various program outcomes related to rhetorical knowledge, critical thinking, writing processes, and conventions. The portfolio contains artifacts from different genres including posters, informational documents, a patient handout, and documents from a collaborative project.

1. TC CAPSTONE PORTFOLIO
by: Anne M. Berryman

2. TC Program Outcomes
 Rhetorical
Knowledge
 Critical
Thinking, Reading &
Writing
 Processes
 Knowledge of
Conventions

3. 1 in 5 Poster
Outcomes Met:
 It usually takes multiple drafts to create
and complete a successful text
 Use appropriate technologies to
organize, present, and communicate
information that addresses a range of
audiences, purposes, and genres
 Understand the relationships among
language, knowledge, and power
including social, cultural, historical, and
economic issues related to
information, writing, and technology
 Write in multiple genres
 Understand the role of a variety of
technologies/media in
accessing, retrieving, managing, and
communicating information

4. 1 in 5 Poster Beginnings
 These were two of my first poster designs
 All writing projects require multiple drafts and
further consideration of what is most
responsive to the audience’s needs and what
meets the expectations of the audience

5. 1 in 5 Poster Details
 I used 3 Adobe Software Applications to
create this poster
 Photoshop
 InDesign
 Illustrator
 To appeal to my target audience, young
up and comers, I did the following:
 Applied futuristic effects to make
the rail system look cool & cutting
edge
 Addressed social/economic issues
this demographic is concerned with
 Environment
 Money
 Frustration
 Time
 Economy

6. Informational Documents
Outcomes Met:
 Understand that research and writing as an
open process that permits writers to use
later invention and re-thinking to revise
their work
 Recognize, understand, and analyze the
context within which
language, information, and knowledge are
produced, managed, organized, and
disseminated
 Write in multiple genres

7. Informational Document Details
 I designed these documents for 2
different mediums
 Print
 Electronic
 At 1st I just changed visual elements,
added weblinks, and changed wording
 I realized that a numerical scored quiz
is user-unfriendly and an abstract
concept
 In order to fix this, I changed the
context to a universally understood
one--the grading system
 This will allow my audience to
understand and benefit from the
information provided
 Information Documentation is one of
many genres I’ve written in during the
TC Program

8. The Breast Cancer Handout
Outcomes Met:
 Respond to the need of the appropriate
audience
 Develop research and writing strategies
appropriate to the context and situation
 Learn standard tools for accessing and
retrieving information
 Use information, writing, and reading
for inquiry, learning, thinking, and
communicating
 Apply appropriate means of
documenting work
 Understand and apply legal and ethical
uses of information and technology
including copyright and intellectual
property
 Use appropriate technologies to
manage data and information collected
or generated for future use

9. Breast Cancer Patient Handout
Details
How do Cancer Cells  Provides Basic Information
Metastasize?  Definitions of terms
 Diagnosis
 Treatment options
For purposes of this  Ways to better health
discussion, I will liken the
lymph system to a waste
management system that is  In order to be responsive to the
composed of audience’s needs and meet his/her
expectations, I asked myself the
roads, trash, dump trucks, and following questions:
dump sites. The tubes that 1. How would I feel if I was just
run throughout the body are diagnosed with cancer?
like roads that lead to trash 2. How would I like for this
(cancer cells), dump sites information to be presented, if I
(lymph nodes), and back to the were the audience?
dump truck dispatch center
(the heart). On “trash day,”  My strategy was to analyze the
the cancer cells abandon the information and understand it
tissue/organ they’re growing first, so that I could break it down
from a science context into a
in and hit the road. They hitch practical context that a lay audience
a ride on the lymph express. could understand and apply to her
life and health.

10. Bibliography from the Breast
Cancer Patient Handout
Works Cited  The sources are documented in MLA
Breast Cancer Fund. “Bisphenol A format
(BPA).” Breast Cancer Fund. Web.
28 Sept. 2011.
 I obtained information from various
Breastcancer.org. 2011. sources
Breastcancer.org. Web. 28 Sept.
2011.  Websites dedicated to breast
Stoppler, Melissa. “Mammogram.” cancer
Medicine.net. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.  General medical websites
Susan G. Komen for the Cure®.  Articles
2011. Susan G. Komen for the
Cure®. Web. 28 Sept. 2011.
Image Used
Dreamstime. 2010. Dreamstime.
Web. 15 September 2011.

11. Cool Fido
Outcomes Met:
 Integrate previously held
beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge
with new information and the ideas of
others
 Understand the collaborative and social
aspects of research and writing
processes
 Learn to balance the advantages of
relying on others with the responsibility
of doing my part
 Learn to critique my own and others’
work

12. Cool Fido Details
The Science Behind How Cool Fido  This document is the result of an
Lowers Heat Exposure experiment my partner and I conducted
 We analyzed the results to
Think of the science behind the interaction
of the material composing Cool Fido (high determine whether 3 differently
density polyethylene) and the sun’s rays as shaped plastic tubs would provide a
a childhood game of Red Rover. A long discernable, good form of
line of children has formed with all of their temperature relief for dogs in the
arms stretched out and their hands
clasped. Most of the children are around Arizona summer
the same height and build. The line
alternates between boys and girls;
therefore, each boy is holding a girl’s hand.  I thought the heat reduction would be
The boy’s grip is strong, and each boy has nominal at best
an affinity for the girl next to him. The
game begins: “Red Rover, Red Rover send
Jonathan over….” Jonathan runs his
fastest straight into the interlocking hands  I adjusted the tone of the document to
of a boy and girl. Despite his energetic reflect this (an excerpt showing this
dash, he is unable to break the boy and change can be seen here on the left
girls’ hands apart. The force with which he
ran only causes the boy and girl to sway a hand side of the screen)
little back and forth, but most of the force
is absorbed. Jonathan doesn’t break
through the chain.

13. More Cool Fido Details
 Things my partner and I had to coordinate
 The program we used to conference
with one another and share our
respective parts of the project
 The time we wanted to conference at
 We had to analyze each other’s work
and merge our 2 voices into 1
 Strategies I’ve learned for successful
group work:
 Set deadline times
 Make it clear what the expectations are
for each member of the group from the
beginning of the project
 Divide the workload evenly

14. Employee Performance Review
Outcomes Met:
 Adopt an appropriate voice, tone, and
level of formality
 Develop a knowledge of genre
conventions ranging from structure and
paragraphing to tone and mechanics
 Respond appropriately to the rhetorical
situation

15. Employee Performance Review
Details

16. Wubsie Wormie
Outcomes Met:
 Understand how each genre helps to
shape writing and how readers respond
to it
 Identify, articulate, and focus on a
defined purpose
 Develop flexible strategies for
generating, revising, editing, and proof-
reading

17. Wubsie Wormie Details
 This is an excerpt from my Wubsie
Wormie Audience Analysis
PURPOSE  It shows the purpose of this
document
The purpose of the manual for the
“Wubsie Wormie” is to teach children
from 4-6 years of age how to  I used the purpose to create
construct a simple model from documentation that was responsive
Fisher-Price® Trio Bricks, Sticks and to the unique needs of my
Panels. The “Wubsie Wormie” audience, 4-6 year old children, and
that met their expectations
instructions are formatted in step by
step word and picture directions so
that the child can interact with the
model in the method that they
understand best. The “Wubsie
Wormie” will help children gain a
sense of wonder and curiosity as
they use large, easy to assemble
blocks and shapes to make one of
their first creations as young
architects.

18. The Wubsie Wormie Audience
ANALYZING THE AUDIENCE  Taking a good look at my audience
helps me to generate documents that
are responsive to his/her needs and
The Audience that is likely to meets his/her expectations
complete the construction of my
“Wubsie Wormie” is as follows:
 Parents aiding their children from  Each audience is different and how you
4-6 years of age should approach one often isn’t how
 Children are likely to be in either a you should approach another
preschool learning program or
their first year of elementary
school  One strategy that I’ve developed is to
 Parents are likely to have an complete an audience analysis on every
Associates to Bachelors college document before I generate it
degree
 The environment is likely to be
suitable for one on one interaction
between the child and parent;
i.e., quiet with the child and parent
interacting at a table or on the
floor one on one

19. How the Audience Analysis
Influenced the Wubsie Wormie

20. “How To” Computer
Documentation
Outcomes Met:
 Understand that research and writing is
a series of tasks, including
accessing, retrieving, evaluating, analyz
ing and synthesizing appropriate data
and information from sources that vary
in content, format, structure, and scope
 Respond appropriately to different
rhetorical situations
 Learn and apply appropriate
standards, laws, policies, and accepted
practices for the use of a variety of
technologies

21. “How To” Computer
Documentation Details
 We had 3 different types of users
 Novice
 Intermediate
 Advanced
 I selected each work task for the user to
complete relative to their experience
level
 I analyzed the following areas in every
“How To” guide
 Experience level
 User attitude
 Description of the user’s current
procedure to perform the task
 My goals for the procedure
 What I will do for my user to see the
benefit of the guide
 How to use the guide
 The benefits of using the program
to complete the task

22. The Novice User
 The novice user isn’t usually
confident with his/her abilities to
use a computer program, so (s)he
will need a lot of special
accommodations at the beginning
of his/her learning experience with a
program
 More pictures for each step
 Show each step in its entirety—
don’t assume that the user has
any prior knowledge

23. The Intermediate User
 The intermediate user is open to
learning new operations that will
make (s)he a more efficient and
adept worker
 The user will possess some tacit
knowledge from his/her prior work
with the program and his/her prior
work with computers in general, so
 Fewer pictures are needed
 Some basic details, like how to
save a document, can have the
specific steps omitted

24. The Second Chance Charity
Memo
Outcomes Met:
 Use conventions of format and
structure appropriate to the rhetorical
situation
 Learn common formats for different
genres
 Control such surface features as
syntax, grammar, punctuation, and
spelling

25. The Second Chance Charity
Memo Details

26. Illustrations
Dreamstime. 2010. Dreamstime. Web. 22 November 2011.