WEEK 2:
On week 2, Dr. Naqaa Abbas presented a powerpoint presentation and asked us about what technical communication mean? Tony responded that it relates to the reports and memos we write for our courses. Dr. Abbas asked us how it differs from our essays we write in english courses. The class did not know how to respond or we mostly got it wrong. At the end this what I learned about technical communication in work place:
Technical communication is a process of developing and sharing ideas in the workplace. It heavily centers on products and services related to the workplace. For example, how to manufacture and use them. Writing in the workplace is essential and can branch into several sectors. A customer can register a complaint letter, and a graduate can write a resume or letter of application,… Like any other form of writing, technical communication depends on the audience, purpose, and situation. It also branches to internal audiences, like coworkers and supervisors, and external audiences, like customers and vendors. Writing must not always be the form of communication. Sometimes, it is better to require oral communication, like if there is an urgent need to inform terrible news.
Technical writing is essential in the work environment. On the business side, it provides job opportunities through resumes, advertises a company’s products through internet websites and blogs, and maintains an excellent customer-client relationship through follow-up letters. Moreover, technical communication requires time. Studies showed that forty-three percent spend eleven to thirty percent of their time writing. In addition to time, it involves money. Since technical communication is essential in the workplace, money is spent on the cost of correspondence, percentage of salary, cost of training, and generating income. Technical communication is unique to every person; each person writes in a way that reflects him. The better the tone and grammar, the better the reflection. Technical writing is also essential in team works. Diversity of opinion, empowerment, team building, broad-based understanding, and checks and balances are developed in teamwork technical communication.
Technical communication is a process of developing and sharing ideas in the workplace. It heavily centers on products and services related to the workplace. For example, how to manufacture and use them. Writing in the workplace is essential and can branch into several sectors. A customer can register a complaint letter, and a graduate can write a resume or letter of application,… Like any other form of writing, technical communication depends on the audience, purpose, and situation. It also branches to internal audiences, like coworkers and supervisors, and external audiences, like customers and vendors. Writing must not always be the form of communication. Sometimes, it is better to require oral communication, like if there is an urgent need to inform terrible news.
Technical writing is essential in the work environment. On the business side, it provides job opportunities through resumes, advertises a company’s products through internet websites and blogs, and maintains an excellent customer-client relationship through follow-up letters. Moreover, technical communication requires time. Studies showed that forty-three percent spend eleven to thirty percent of their time writing. In addition to time, it involves money. Since technical communication is essential in the workplace, money is spent on the cost of correspondence, percentage of salary, cost of training, and generating income. Technical communication is unique to every person; each person writes in a way that reflects him. The better the tone and grammar, the better the reflection. Technical writing is also essential in team works. Diversity of opinion, empowerment, team building, broad-based understanding, and checks and balances are developed in teamwork technical communication.
WEEK 3:
On this week, we learned about memos and emails. Memos are important to communicate certain ideas within organization. That is why memos are important for future as engineers. The memo's purpose is to inform. The memo must contain a heading that includes the sender, receiver, date and the subject. It then should contain an opening segment that includes the purpose of the memo, the task, and/or the problem before getting into details. The memo continues to have context, task segment about how you are going to solve the problem, summary, discussion segment to support your argument, and a closing segment. Also, attachment can be included. An email is the same as the memo as a format.
On the last two classes of the week, we got assigned by pairs to write an email to request a grade change of "D". The assignment was fun, each of us had his/her own way to request a grade change. Some students begged the professor, others did not include a reason, others were not nice and rather demanded the change,... Each group corrected the other groups. It was fun to grade your colleagues and to learn your mistakes from each other. This task made English ten times better. I hope there are similar assignments in the future.
On the last two classes of the week, we got assigned by pairs to write an email to request a grade change of "D". The assignment was fun, each of us had his/her own way to request a grade change. Some students begged the professor, others did not include a reason, others were not nice and rather demanded the change,... Each group corrected the other groups. It was fun to grade your colleagues and to learn your mistakes from each other. This task made English ten times better. I hope there are similar assignments in the future.
WEEK 4:
On our fourth week, resumes and CV were discussed in class. Both resumes and cover letters are important to lean about to submit job applications in the future. A resume is a one page that discusses yourself as a summary, your education, and experience, skills. The CV, however, is 3-4 pages at least. The resume describes a professional identity, meanwhile the cv describes a teacher and a researcher. A CV must include the same as resume, but with research projects and community services.
A cover letter is for the applicant to explain why he is a good candidate by explaining in details your experience in a story-like format, and provide your communication skills. A cover letter is a one page letter.
Dr. Abbas presented some resume examples and asked us if they were good or not and what was wrong with them. Some resumes did not have an organized paper, where the quarters of the resume were not the same. Others had their education or the summary at the bottom. Some had unprofessional emails or too personal details on the resume.
The activity was fun. In this way, we can correct our friends' resumes when they need to find mistakes, and for them to correct ours when we need the help. Since when writing a resume, we will not be able to figure out our own mistakes, but first time readers will.
A cover letter is for the applicant to explain why he is a good candidate by explaining in details your experience in a story-like format, and provide your communication skills. A cover letter is a one page letter.
Dr. Abbas presented some resume examples and asked us if they were good or not and what was wrong with them. Some resumes did not have an organized paper, where the quarters of the resume were not the same. Others had their education or the summary at the bottom. Some had unprofessional emails or too personal details on the resume.
The activity was fun. In this way, we can correct our friends' resumes when they need to find mistakes, and for them to correct ours when we need the help. Since when writing a resume, we will not be able to figure out our own mistakes, but first time readers will.
WEEK 5:
On the fifth week, Dr. Naqaa assigned our groups. I met with my assigned group. We discussed what we wanted to do in the future, and how we prefer our tasks to be divided. We also agreed that we hate an hour before the deadline submission. Hence, we agreed to finish our project a day before so that we have time to revise it. We also discussed what we hated in each previous group we had been in. Abdellatif said that some students did their part one hour before the deadline, Meera said that she was too picky in the assignments and hoped the other students understood her, Haya agreed with Abdelllatif and she would prefer to finish the assignment a day before. I personally struggled with the overload work I had, since a team member did not do her part, and I ended up doing it by myself. The group, I am in, is so friendly and lovable. We agreed on everything and we were on the same page. We also chose Meera to be the leader of our group.
WEEK 6:
On this week, we had a team workshop. I got assigned with Judy before joining my group. We played a game where I was the describer and she was the painter. What I did is I tried to describe the shape I had om paper without her seeing it, and she tried to draw it based on my description. We struggled on the first time since no question were allowed to asked. The second and third times were easier since questions were allowed. It ended up with similar painting to the picture.
The professor started to ask what our ways to describe were. For me, I used the eyes. Since it was 3-D shape, I asked her to look at it from the right. Then, she asked me to count the boxes for her in order to draw it exactly. Judy and I used our mathematical knowledge and engineering skills to draw the 3-D shape.
After this activity, with our assigned groups, there was another task which was to prepare a breakfast of several dishes and drinks, and we have 40 minutes for the breakfast to be done. On our table, we assigned for each task timings, where we found out setting table was the last thing and making pancakes was the first thing to do, boiling eggs, frying them and making tea and coffee were in the middle.
The task was fun. We compared our table to other groups and we saw how each group assign the tasks at different timings compared to us.
In the last class, Meera chose to retire from being a leader since her workload is too much and her schedule does not let her to be a leader. We then suggested Abdellatif to be a leader instead.
The professor started to ask what our ways to describe were. For me, I used the eyes. Since it was 3-D shape, I asked her to look at it from the right. Then, she asked me to count the boxes for her in order to draw it exactly. Judy and I used our mathematical knowledge and engineering skills to draw the 3-D shape.
After this activity, with our assigned groups, there was another task which was to prepare a breakfast of several dishes and drinks, and we have 40 minutes for the breakfast to be done. On our table, we assigned for each task timings, where we found out setting table was the last thing and making pancakes was the first thing to do, boiling eggs, frying them and making tea and coffee were in the middle.
The task was fun. We compared our table to other groups and we saw how each group assign the tasks at different timings compared to us.
In the last class, Meera chose to retire from being a leader since her workload is too much and her schedule does not let her to be a leader. We then suggested Abdellatif to be a leader instead.