Different audiences

In a business setting, concerning workplace documents, might a technical writer fall victim to the use of logical fallacies? If so, how? Your book might help you think of an example. In regard to the images such business documents employ, might these also be compromised is terms of ethics? How can a business graphic appeal to the reader's sense of the company's credibility or to the reader's emotion or logic?

Website appeals

Of the websites you/we perused in class today, which do you think relies most heavily on an emotional appeal to its audience (pathos)? Explain and give evidence. Can you think of any sites that you visit regularly that are free of emotional appeals?

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Document in Field

In your recent "Document in Field" assignment, what was the most difficult challenge to you in "translating" technical information from your field for the comprehension of a non-expert? In what instances in your professional future might you have to perform such a "translation"?

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Your resumes . . .

After completing the resume assignment, what would you say were the most significant items you learned in regard to the content of the resume as well as the design of it? In what ways do you think your resume is stronger now as compared to your original version? What do you think still needs to be improved?

Ethics and your previous jobs...

Reflecting on jobs you've held in the past or currently have, reflect on what your "obligations to your employer" were, an idea your book discusses in chapter two. Was there ever a time when your obligations to your employer conflicted with your "obligations to the public"? How? If you've never been faced with such a conflict yourself, relate an experience of a friend's or family member's or one that you've seen unfold in the public domain.

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Welcome to Technical Writing!

I am excited for us to embark on our investigation of "technical writing" this semester! Since you all are Juniors and Seniors and have done significant research in your major field of study by this time, I am guessing that at some point you have come across a document or graphic that was intended to communication "specialist" information to a non-specialist audience. I know, however, that you have probably more often come across documents that were written for people with a specialized vocabulary in a particular scholarly area. You are now becoming a kind of "specialist" yourself, but our class this semester aims to help you maintain (or develop!) sensitivity to the comprehension needs of non-specialists.

Can you think of an instance in your field of study and/or future career when you might need to communicate some highly technical information to a non-specialist audience? How might you do that and why might it be critically important to do so?