Description:
For this assignment, you will compose a document that might circulate in a workplace, professional, or organizational environment. You will focus on creating a document that is practical and useful, helping those in the workplace accomplish tasks more efficiently or effectively. You may improve organization, define a series of tasks, streamline a process, or in some other way resolve a problem with your document. The types of texts used in this context might include instructions, guidelines, and procedures; Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs); memos; letters; training materials; and other kinds of writing that I have not imagined, but which are important for your own work and/or discipline.
To start this project, you need to think about your life in organizations and the kinds of roles you play. What are the issues you address, the tasks you perform, and the practical problems you solve as you work within that context? For example, a student who has completed a co---op in an office environment might identify tasks she performed that need to be completed by her successor, and might construct a training guide for the next person in that position. Someone who works with a student organization might identify problems in the transfer of information from one group of student leaders to another and create a guidebook for the leadership.
Whatever their particular form, most instances of workplace writing have certain things in common:
- They focus on a single subject.
- They place a high priority on clarity.
- They waste no words.
- They are written and designed to be used in a very specific context and to meet specific needs.
Most importantly, these documents are designed to be useful. In addition, many, though not all, workplace documents share additional features:
- They may batch or "chunk" information into discrete units.
- They may separate these units using headings and subheadings
- They may employ figures, tables, or other visual aids.
You will need to think about the needs and knowledge base of your audience, how the document you create will actually be used, how to most effectively organize your information, and how to provide an effective visual design.
Some professional documents do not quote sources or cite them in ways typical of academic writing. This does not mean, however, that they don't cite (they most certainly give credit to others for their ideas/intellectual labor) or use quotation marks around a direct quotation. (If you include a word---for---word quote you must of course use quotation marks.) For this project, I'd like you write in imitation of a form appropriate to your field. You will include a bibliography on a separate page. Most importantly, be careful that your document consists of your own language.
Create a document whose primary purpose is to be practical and useful.
Choose a genre/type of document appropriate to/for a given professional setting.
Demonstrate an understanding of the depth of knowledge in a particular discourse community.
Demonstrate an understanding of audience in terms of document design.