Blog Posting #7. PPT Presentations

Part 1: The reading "Structure of Power Point Presentations" presents the power points as the center  of communication media and provides some design guidelines on creating an organized and effective presentation. It analyzes Power Points for both a general audience and a professional audience. One of Doumont's guidelines that I follow in almost all of my presentations are including as little text as possible and having relevant visual evidences for them. Some other guidelines that we can use in the final presentation for this class is adapting to the audience and maximizing relevant redundancy. In the presentation of this class in particular, other students might not know anything about the project that we are doing. It is critical not to assume that they are knowledgeable about it. Repeating the ideas will help the audience pay more attention, understand the concept more, and moreover, understand its relevancy.  In the section of Iversion's presentation, the paper displays two visuals of the same idea in a power point slide form. One can be interpreted as easy to understand, and maybe even just for the general audience. The use of arrows to indicate the point of focus can make it easier for the general audience to grasp the information quickly. The second visualization might be for a professional audience. The use of graphs and technical terms might not be appealing to the general public.


Part 2: 

• The presentation will be broken down into 4 parts: Background (problem statement revisited),  Live demo, How the final deliverable work, and our reflection. Katie will be presenting the Background section, Charlie and Dale will be presenting the Live demo of the application, I will be explaining the steps the download the application, and Hannah will do the reflection section. 
• I will cover the "How to Download the application" section by providing a step by step guide to it. 
• The device will be connected so that the whole class can view how to access the final deliverable.
• Android application development procedure.  

Blog Posting #6. Social Nature of Technical Communication

The paper discusses the difficulty that  Barry Marshall faced to convince his colleagues the validity of his work. The paper analyzes the role of persuasion in scientific communication. It clearly states that the reason why his theory was not readily accepted is the lack of persuasion in communication. The paper also discusses the wrong ways that Dr. Marshall tried to persuade his colleagues-by drinking a mixture of the bacteria. In science, there is a presence of prevailing assumptions. Effective persuasion can be used to change this. Persuasion is generated by the presentation and style of the communication. Computer science is just another field that focuses on collaboration and communication. For example, most project ideas require some amount of persuasion to be first recognized. In the context of this class, we were asked to send a persuasive email to get the project that most of the team members were comfortable with. Now, the project is being implemented through collaboration. Every project, every task is a product of collaboration in the computer science field. By describing the readers' initial attitude and what it should be after reading our communication can determine the level of persuasiveness in the communication. It is important to find out the rationales the readers' will find persuasive.

Blog Posting #5. Drafting Prose

Part 1: Chapter 8 discusses drafting reader-centered paragraphs, sections, and chapters. The main takeaways from the chapter is to start each segment in a clear and persuasive manner, arrange other parts of the document to create coherence and persuasiveness, make sure we recognize how the readers understand the organization. There are several guidelines in this chapter that I follow. One of the main one is presenting information so that the most important information is identified first and then it moves on to the least important. It becomes more crucial to follow the guideline if the reader is in a hurry and just skim through the document. I follow this guideline as a writer and I find it useful when I am the reader scanning to locate key points. The rest of the guidelines provided in the chapter can be very beneficial when creating reader centered documents that are both useful and persuasive. One of the guidelines I need to work on for my documents is providing signposts that create a map for the communication. Using forecasting statements, transitions, headings, or visual arrangement of the text can help the reader see the organization of the communication. This can aid with smoothing the flow of thought from sentence to sentence. 

Part 2: Chapter 10 focuses on creating an effective and professional style in communication that is easy to understand, clear, precise, and builds reader’s confidence in us. One of the guidelines that I believe I follow always is avoiding stereotypes in the communication. It is really crucial to generalize the audience in our communication so that it brings out a trusting voice for the readers and it is ethical. Sometimes we might employ stereotypes inadvertently. This should be avoided by being very careful in our communication. Other important guideline to follow is finding out what is to be expected. To have an effective voice in our communication, we should recognize the level of formality required in the writing, consider the reader’s personality, discipline, and profession, and overall the style that the reader expects. Another guideline that is helpful in writing any document is simplifying our sentences. Elimination of unnecessary words or phrases can help condense our writing. Sometimes it is possible to write a more effective communication when there is no requirement to have complex sentence structures. This can also be done by combining short sentences. The guideline of using specialized terms only when readers will understand them ties into this. To establish credibility, it might be useful to use key terms from our field showing our knowledge of the subject. But, ensure that the reader understands the terms.

Blog Posting #4. Progress Reports

Chapter 27 describes the common questions asked by the readers of progress reports and how reader centered writing process can result in effective progress reports adhering to the superstructure for reports that includes ways to correspond with readers' major questions. I have not written a progress report by myself, but my team has composed a progress report letting our client know the progress of our project. By taking the readers’ concern with the future into account, we wrote a progress report that shows the preliminary results of our projects. The superstructure for the progress report covered these topics: Introduction, problem, objectives, solution, schedule/management, and recommendation. In the first part of the report, we introduced ourselves as part of the team doing the particular project. The second part answers the question of the purpose of work and the work in progress. It explained how the project is ahead of schedule, and the results that we have produced. Next part inquired whether there needs to be any additional functionalities recommended by the client. We explained how things stand overall and welcomed recommendations to improve the project. At the end, we arranged a meeting with the reader and offered flexibility. We generally followed a persuasive and optimistic tone in the progress report. 

Blog Posting #3. Designing Documents (Chapter 17 posting)

Chapter 17 discusses possible ways to revise and improve documents and how to improve them in the most limited time. I have followed several of the guidelines to identify the feasible ways to improve a draft. I always read the draft at least twice to spot any changes that needs to be done. A guideline that I can follow when revising the Detailed Design is to shift focus each time when proof reading the drafts. This can be separated into grammatical revision and quality check. One of the guidelines that I need to work on is reading the draft from the reader’s perspective. It is important to do this is identify how my communication might impact the organization and their policies. I can accomplish this by reading the draft out loud so that I can listen how it might sound to the reader and try to improve the draft. It is also critical to consider if the reader might find each section of the document persuasive and useful. Another guideline that I follow for all my documents is using computer aids to check for possible errors. I use spell checkers and grammar checkers to identify possible misspellings and grammatical errors for my documents. In order to improve the detailed design, I can also check for any mistakes missed by computer suggestions. 

Blog Posting #2. Designing Documents

Part 1: Chapter 16 entails designing reader centered documents and pages that will help readers understand, locate, and notice highly critical information. The reader centered approach comprising of six important elements: text, graphics, headings and titles, white space, headers and footers, and physical features. These six elements can be arranged in different forms to achieve efficient reader centered communications. The chapter states several guidelines that are critical for overall design of documents. One statement that surprised me was to avoid using italics for more than a sentence at a time. I have always assumed that it can be used to emphasize a particular content, but it can obscure the main lines. I have taken a user interface design class where I had to build a prototype for an application implementing most of the guidelines stated in this chapter. It is critical to have a consistent design elements so that the reader is not confused. The prototype that I build complied to gestalt principles which are used to organize the elements so that readers can perceive complex scenes. Mostly all the guidelines in this chapter can be used in the future. We can use it for designing any professional document. Making the documents intuitive for the reader to understand will increase the efficiency.


Part 2: Out of the 4 designs, I had a hard time deciding which design would work the best. Designs 3 and 4 seemed did not have much differences in terms of the layout and guidelines it followed. I have concluded that design number 3 would work the best and design number 2 would be the worst. In design 3, the graphic designer was very consistent with the font type and alignment of the design elements. The key labels were bold, so that the reader would know what to focus on. The only issue I found with this design was that the label "Caution" wasn't bold or capitalized. That's the section where design 4 excels. For design 3, the designer used laws of proximity and relativity so that the reader can create a visual link between the title and each labels. I have chosen design 2 to be the worst out of all because of the inconsistency in the design. There is an entire section/block dedicated to the registered trade mark sign of the prescription medication. The text informing the reader about other critical information about the med seems less relevant compared to the trade mark sign. Also, design 2 used red color to display the name and other information of the medication. This color can have negative associations in certain cultures.

Blog Posting #1. Creating Reader-Centered Graphics

Part 1:   The first type of graphics I noticed in one of my textbooks is a line graph (Figure 1). In the context of the text book, it shows correlational evidence for two variables. The graph contained all the required components such as the figure number, a precise title, several data points, labels for both axes, and axis length. The line graph used appropriate colors to highlight the crucial message. It used bright colors so that the reader knows where to focus first. The graph is very simple with only manageable amount of materials with only necessary details. The graph has also provided a very informative title making it intuitive for the reader.

Figure 1- Line graph

       

          Another type of graphics that I noticed is a Table (Figure 2). The table seems to comply to the required design of a formal table. It contains a source, table number and title, column and row headings, and footnotes as a guide to what certain headings mean. The table follows the guideline of getting permission and citing the sources for the graphics.  For the context that it is used, the table can increase the persuasiveness that it is trying to establish. This conveys the data in a significant manner which impacts its persuasiveness. The table is also integrated with the text. It is referred a few times on the same page.

Figure 2: Table

Part 2: 

Drawing: In CS documents drawings can be used to locate and identify certain features. It is used to understand how something is constructed. This follows the guideline of designing the graphics so that it supports reader's tasks. This graphic is used to identify components of a computer. 

Flowchart: In CS documents flowcharts can be used to understand a process. It lists the steps in the process and labels each step. This graphic conveys boolean logic by checking if an input is Bob or Mary. 

Organizational Chart: The purpose of organizational charts is to help readers understand the structure of the units in the organization. The following graphic is used to display the charge of each positions. This follows the guideline of simplifying the graphics. This chart has made it intuitive to understand the structure.

Schedule Chart: In CS documents a schedule chart can be used to understand the schedule in completing a project. In the graphic the bars indicate when the steps will be completed. This graphic complies to using appropriate color to support the message and supporting reader's tasks.

Table: A table can be used to display data and find, and use information and facts. This graphic shows the primitive datatypes, its description, range, and sample declaration and initialization

Line Graph: In CS documents line graphs can be used to understand the relationships among variables and display a trend. This graphics portrays a burn down chart as part of project management. It shows what amount of work is done in a specific time period.

Pie Chart: In CS documents pie charts can be used to see the relative sizes of the parts of a whole.
The graphic shows the percentage of new STEM jobs by area through 2018. There is a sub chart that shows the distribution of computing based jobs.

Screen Shots: In CS documents screen shots can be used to present directions or help readers locate items. This graphic shows directions on how to install Windows 8. These visual cues follow many of the guidelines for reader-centered graphics.


Photograph: In CS documents, photographs are used to see how something looks, locate something, or do something. It is similar to drawings but the details can be more visible in a photograph. This graphic is a photograph of many computer hardware parts. The actual photograph can help the reader accurately identify the parts.