Logan Wagner

Rationalization

One of the course goals for English 304 is: “Compose and design documents, including memos,

employment documents, and reports that meet the needs of a diverse audience and accomplish

persuasive goals.” I have consistently kept up with the weekly readings, incorporating strategies

from them in my projects. This has produced projects crafted in Layman’s terms with maximum

focus and organization in order to appeal to a diverse audience and better accomplish

persuasiveness.

Another course goal mentions, “Conduct research and analyze data that can be used to

support arguments.” My group’s recommendation report showcases the thoroughness with which

we conducted research, and our presentation was a strong showcase of using that research for

making a coherent argument.

Some of the writing in my first project had flow issues; it didn’t always show the short

and to-the-point language of business writing. Some of the sentences were cleaned up to be more

precise. For example, “I hope you and your company will decide to book with us despite this,

and I will reserve the room June 15-17th in your name for a complementary two weeks, until

your company decides what is best for them,” was changed to: “I hope you will still decide to

book with us. The room will be reserved in your name June 15th-17th for a complementary two

weeks. Take your time to decide if we are right for you. If not the Grand Geneva, I hope you find

an arrangement that fits your needs.”

In my second project, I revised my cover letters so that they didn’t include the repetitive

“I”— “I this” or “I that.” They now incorporate varied sentence structures and take on the “you”
attitude more. This is what “I” can do for “you.” I made one of the resumes pop with a little color

and better utilization of white space. I completely scrapped my second resume and tried a more

creative approach with the second draft. While in the FFN version, my resumes had a similar

format, my final draft takes a large creative risk with one of them.

My third project suffered from a lack of design risks. For the final draft, I kept the

worded content relatively the same (with some slight grammatical changes) and focused instead

on the design. I added a boarder, more pictures, and better utilized white space. I didn’t want to

over do it. It should still look professional but be more visually appealing. It’s not too barebones,

but it’s still professional.

The group Recommendation Report was difficult to bring together as one cohesive voice,

but in the final draft we are closer to one voice than we were in the FFN version. We added a few

things to help with transitions, like a little section before tables to tell the reader where we got

our data. There is also a better summation sentence at the end of the conclusion that tells exactly

what we want: “The policy must be easier to find, and the school must close within specific time

intervals.”