P4 – Technical Writing

Submitting Project 4

tengrrl — Thu, 30 Oct 2014 04:49:58 +0000

This is the post for the October 30, 2014 class meeting.

Today is the due date for Project 4, your job application materials. Aim to submit your work today, but remember that you have a one-week grace period if you need it.

Work for October 30

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

Go over the requirements for Project 4.
Review the location of the FAQs for using Google Drive.
Review the LinkedIn permissions settings.
Discuss the reflection memo and how to submit Project 4 in Scholar.

Requirements for Project 4

You need to turn in a reflection memo as well as a share link to your job application materials. Use the project assignment to check your work. Make sure that you include all the elements that you proposed in your Project 3 Proposal. Also remember to check your spelling and proofread for grammar and punctuation.

Google Drive FAQs

Note: this is the same information you followed in Project 1. I’m including it as a reference in case you need a reminder.

To make sure that you can submit your project smoothly, pay attention to the following FAQs:

If you worked in something other than Google Drive, you can use your preferences to automatically convert files you upload to Google Drive automatically.
This step is important so that I can use the commenting features in Google Drive.
If you already uploaded a document to Google Drive, check the format of your files and manually convert the files on Google Drive if necessary.
Follow the instructions on how to set permissions and get the Google Drive Share link to get a link that will allow me to read and comment on your document.

Set Permissions for LinkedIn Projects

For me to see and grade your work on LinkedIn, I either need you to connect with me on LinkedIn or for you to make sure your privacy setting will let the public see your profile. Check the What permissions do I need on LinkedIn? FAQ for more details.

Writing Your Reflection Memo and Submitting Your Project

Your reflection memo is your chance to tell me anything you want me to know before I read your project. For this project, your reflection memo will give me the link to your spreadsheet on Google Drive and the link to your analysis memo if you created one. You will also tell me about what you have written. Follow these instructions to submit your work:

Go to the Assignments tab on the left menu in Scholar.
Choose “P4: Job Application Materials.”
Scroll down to the text box below the headings Submission and Assignment Text. You will write your memo in this box. (Alternately, you can write in a word processor or Google Doc, and copy/paste your text into this box.)
Add your memo headers (To, From, Subject, and Date). For your reflection memo, you’ll use the following:

Address your memo to me (Traci) and from yourself (use your name).
Add a subject line that indicates this is your reflection memo and which project it is for.
Add the current date.

Insert a horizontal divider line using the button indicated with the red arrow in the image below:
Introduce your project—what are your overall goals, what grade have you aimed for for Project 4, and what documents have you written for the project? Be sure to list all three levels (A-level work, B-level work, and C-level work) that you outlined for your job application materials in your Project 3 proposal.
If you are using Google Drive for any of your documents, do the following:
1. Convert your document to Google Drive format if you worked in another word processor.
2. Add the Share link to the document on your Google Drive. Use the instructions for how to get the Share link on the FAQ site if you are unsure how to share documents. Make sure you set permissions so that I can add comments.
If you are working on other sites (like LinkedIn or GitHub), do the following:
1. Make sure that your permissions are set so that I can see your work.
2. Add the link to your profile or website to your reflection memo.
Tell me what I need to know to understand the information you have included in your document.
Tell me anything else you want me to know about the the layout and design.
Add a concluding section that tells me anything else you want me to know about your project.
Agree to the Honor Code by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page in Scholar. You cannot finish submitting the project without clicking that checkbox (and it’s easy to miss).
Submit your Project, and save a copy of the confirmation and submission ID. If something goes wrong in Scholar, you can contact 4HELP with that information.
You’re done! Congrats!

Peer Review for Project 4

tengrrl — Mon, 27 Oct 2014 15:56:49 +0000

This is the post for the October 28, 2014 class meeting.

Class Work for October 28

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

Go over the requirements for Project 4.
Set permissions for LinkedIn (if relevant).
Refresh yourself on the documentation for the comment system in Google Drive.
Post drafts for Project 4 in the forums.
Respond to two students on Google Drive and in the forums.
Review the comments on your own work.

Comments on Graded Work

If you have any questions about your grades, please check the comments on graded work. You can use the How do I find feedback on my Assignments in Scholar? FAQ for help.

Requirements for Project 4

Project 4 requires you to create and turn in the job application materials that your proposed in Project 3. The specifics of your project depend upon what you proposed. Look back at your Project 3 Proposal for details.

Set Permissions for LinkedIn Projects

If you proposed working on a LinkedIn profile, you need to make sure that the permissions are set properly. For me to see and grade your work on LinkedIn, I either need you to connect with me on LinkedIn or for you to make sure your privacy setting will let the public see your profile. Check the What permissions do I need on LinkedIn? FAQ for more details.

Refresher on the Google Drive Comment System

If you need a reminder on the comment and sharing systems in Google Drive, use the step-by-step instructions for how to use Google Drive for peer review on the FAQ site, which includes details on how to share your document, how to comment, and how to respond to comments. If you need a more detailed explanation, be sure to check out the Lynda video on “Commenting on a file.”

Posting Your Drafts for Project 4

You will post the share link to your draft in the forums:

Go to the Project 4 Peer Review section of the forums, and create a topic for your draft with your name or your username (e.g., “Traci’s Job App”).
Post a reply in your topic, doing the following:
- If you do not want to share your last name in the forums, change it in your draft to a pseudonym. You can use a generic last name like Doe or Smith, or you can change it to Lastname.
- Share the link(s) to your Project 4 drafts in Google Docs, using the FAQ linked in the Refresher section above. If you have links to other documents, like you LinkedIn profile, provide those instead (or as well).
Tell your classmates what job application materials you have created and let them know about any specific concerns that you want them to consider as they comment on your draft.
Be sure to Preview your draft to make sure everything shows up the way you want it to, and then submit your post.

Responding to Your Classmates’ Drafts

Follow these instructions to respond to your classmates’s drafts:

Read and comment on the drafts of at least two of your classmates:
- Find one post that no other student has replied to (so that we can be sure everyone gets a reply).
- Find a second post that has only one other student reply.
Either use the Share link to go to your classmate’s draft on Google Drive or visit the page(s) they have submitted.

If you are working on Google Drive, use the Comment system to add details on the following issues. If you are reviewing a LinkedIn profile or another document outside Google Drive, add a reply in the forums and include answers to the following in your reply:
- Consider your immediate impression of the document(s), and add a comment to tell your partner your first thoughts. Job application materials can be rejected at a glance, so first impressions matter.
- If you notice any spelling errors, punctuation errors, or typos, mark them as you read, but please focus more on the content rather than editing.
- Add comments on the content of the draft. Comment on at least three things your classmate does well and at least three things that your classmate could improve on.
Once you finish commenting on the document, add an overall comment in the forums that sums up what you thought of the job application materials and gives your partner some encouragement.

Reviewing the Comments You Received

Once you have finished adding comments to your classmates’ projects, return to your own draft, read the comments that your classmates have given you, and add replies as appropriate. For instance, you might thank your partner for catching an error, ask your partner for more detail on feedback you don’t understand, or share a revision and ask your partner if it is an improvement. Your goal is to reply today so that your classmate can respond if you need more information.

Overview of Projects 3 and 4

tengrrl — Fri, 03 Oct 2014 03:37:21 +0000

This is the post for the October 3, 2014 class meeting.

Sorry for the delay in getting this post online. For today, we will look at the assignments for Project 3 and Project 4, which are related to each other. If you do nothing else today, make sure that you read them and understand how they connect!

Class Work for October 3

These are the tasks to complete for today’s work:

Go over Projects 3 and 4
List some examples for Project 4
Look at information on proposals

Getting Started on Projects 3 and 4

The third project for this course is a proposal for the work you will do for the fourth project.

Project 3 is an informal proposal. You will research the job application expectations for your field and write an informal proposal that explains a job application project you want to complete.
Project 4 is your job application materials. You will create whatever job application materials you proposed in Project 3, with my approval. The specifics for this project will be up to you.

The goal for these projects is for you to identify something that you can use and that you need or want to create. I used to ask all students to write a conventional résumé and cover letter. The problem is that you may not need a résumé and cover letter. You might need something like an online portfolio or an internship application. By opening the project up, I can let you write whatever you need or want to create for Project 4.

Because Project 4 is wide open however, I need you to tell me what you plan to work and approve your plan. Project 3 is where you tell me what you need to create and set goals for what you will turn in. You will write an informal, short report that tells me about what people in your field usually write and what you have chosen to create. Your proposal will tell me what you will produce for each grade level (C, B, and A work) for Project 4.

So here’s what you need to do to get started:

Read the assignment for Project 3 and 4 completely. Begin thinking about the job application documents you need (or want) to create. You don’t have to commit to anything yet, but start thinking about it.
If you have any questions (today or in the future) about the assignments, go to the forums and post them in the Questions about Projects 3 & 4: Job App Materials forum. Please make your subject line clearly indicate whether your question is about the proposal or about the job application materials themselves.

Examples for Project 4

As I explain in the assignment , I am referring to what you are working on for Project 6 as “job application materials.” In reality, you do not have to create materials for applying for a job. You have many other options. To show you want I mean, I want to tell you about some of the projects that students have done in the past. You don’t have to choose something from this list. The idea is simply to help you understand the options:

a job posting and a résumé and cover letter you would use to apply for the job
an internship announcement and the materials you would use to apply for the internship
a scholarship announcement and the materials you would use to apply for that scholarship
a before image (PDF) of your LinkedIn profile and a link to your revised LinkedIn profile
before images of several online profiles (e.g., Facebook, Twitter) and then links to your newly cleaned up profiles
the link to a website you have built as a portfolio, which provides info about yourself and your accomplishments
the link to your GitHub repository with descriptions and well-documented code for projects you have done
the link to your Academia.edu profile, which provides info on your education and projects you have done
the link to a YouTube video that gives a guided tour of some work that you have done or presentations you have given

This list is just some of the options. You can do whatever makes sense for your field and career goals. You can combine and rearrange things as well. For example, I had some students in the past who cleaned up their existing online profiles and then created a LinkedIn profile to build a professional online persona.

I cannot stress enough that this is your chance to work on a project that you can use now and in the future. I’ve had students, for instance, who told me that their in-major advisors or advisors at Career Services kept telling them they needed to set up profiles on LinkedIn, but they never had time. They used this project to get that work done.

Writing Proposals

The proposal that you will write for Project 4 is a short, informal report. Chapter 11 of the textbook provides details on more complex proposals than what you are doing. You will often find that textbook descriptions do not match the writing that you do exactly, and this proposal is a good example. The assignment outlines the parts that your proposal needs to include and the relevant details on each section in the text:

summary (p. 282–283)
introduction, which explains the findings of your research and your needs (p. 283)
proposed tasks, that is what you propose to create for Project 4 (p. 283–286)
task schedule (p. 287–289)
evaluation techniques (p. 289), which outlines three levels of work for Project 4:
- Average Work ( a C project)
- Above-Average Work (a B project)
- Excellent Work (an A project)

Those are the pages in the chapter to pay the most attention to. You will need to adapt the information to fit what you are doing, but the general information is all there. Be sure to review the Project 3: Proposal Grade Expectations to set your goal for Project 3.

Thinking about What to Propose

Go to the What Would Your Propose? post in the forums, choose one of the situations and add a reply that explains what you would recommend to the student. Aim to have your response posted by the end of the weekend.