Module Two

Due: 26 January by 11:59pm Points: 20 Weight: 12% Readings -Re-read pertinent parts of Chapter 14 -Chapter 3 -Chapter 1, stopping at page 291 Summary of Responsibilities -Complete thumbnail sketch like the ones on page 273 (Task One) and then complete the full document, based loosely on Exercise 7 on page 396 (Task Two) -Combine both documents into one PDF and upload to the Module 2 dropbox on Blackboard by 11:59pm, Saturday, January 26th -Complete Module 2 Quiz on Blackboard by 11:59pm, Saturday, January 26th Detailed Description of Responsibilities Task One: Thumbnail Sketch As you found out from your readings this week, effective technical documents take substantial time, planning, and revising. Specically, good documents begin as rough drafts known as thumbnail sketches (Figure 11.8, page 273). The rst page of the PDF document you submit for this module will be a thumbnail sketch of your document. Ideally, this will be done by hand, with pencil, on a piece of real paper and then scanned to your computer for inclusion in your complete Module 2 PDF. However, an electronic version of a thumbnail sketch will be accepted. What I am looking for in the thumbnail sketch is evidence that you planned your document by taking into consideration the design principles laid out in chapter 11. I want to see evidence that you thought about image placement, content organization, alignment, and subheadings. Task Two: Netiquette Guide for E-mail Lets face it: having to engage in a writing genre with which you are entirely unfamiliar is scary. Imagine having to write a poem for the local creative writing magazine press, given no instructions and a deadline of next week. Right.

Most likely you would scour the internet for examples of poems, and maybe shufe through your old box of schoolwork for that notebook you were asked to keep in the Writers Craft high school English course you took four years ago. Well, for many rst-year students coming into university, writing an email to a professor or a professional organization from which they seek employment is equally terrifying. Luckily, having just read and composed a professional e-mail yourself last module, you are somewhat of an authority on this topic. Your role as a technical communicator in this module is to create a one-page handout on how to compose a professional e-mail. Imagine yourself as a student chosen by The Career Center at USF to help address the prevalent issue of professors and administrators consistently receiving e-mails from students that are unprofessional. The Career Center wants an easily readable document to disseminate across campus. Your audience is incoming university students. Using an online search engine, nd three or four netiquette guides on the internet that focus on using e-mail. Study these guides and write a one-page student guide to using e-mail to communicate with USF professors and administrators. Somewhere in the guide, be sure to integrate the sites you studied so that students can visit them for further information. This module allows you two weeks to essentially compose one page of information. This should indicate the level of thought and effort in terms of design and text I am looking for in this one, single-page document. I want you to think critically about your document; specically, I am looking at whether or not you are able to: -use the four principles of design (cf. page 262) in guiding your creation, -write a visible, concise purpose statement, -pay close attention to typography, line spacing, and justication -pay close attention to spelling, grammar, and punctuation, -organize the information in an easily readable manner using white space, -provide useful information for the appropriate audience, with sources integrated in an aesthetically-pleasing way, -create an appropriate title, -and create an attractive but not overwhelming header, like the one in Figure 11.6 (page 272).