All posts by Karina Philaphandeth

Blog Project Prompts, What is technical communication?

Blog #10: Technical Communication Defined By Karina

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Overview

The purpose of this blog post is to introduce a new definition of technical communication to my classmates so that you all know what I have learned and hopefully can relate to my observations. I will discuss my definition and explain how I created it as well as whom counts as a technical communicator based on my definition.

My Definition

I chose my definition of technical communication by reassessing the collaboration of our readings and other outside sources and how their authors defined it. Below, I have listed the definitions from multiple authors that were particularly interesting to me.

  1. “Technical communication is no longer simply communication about technology; it is also often communication as and in technology […] In other words, technical communication has become both a process and a product” –Solving Problems in Technical Communications by Johndan Johnson-Eilola and Stuart A. Selber.
  2. “Communicating about technical or specialized topics […] by using technology and providing instructions about how to do something” – Society for Technical Communication.
  3. “A means to document or convey scientific, engineering, or other technical information” –Wikipedia (Let’s be real, Wikipedia’s definitions are usually spot-on).

I notice that many sources define technical communication by its characteristics instead of one sentence. I also noticed that the main thing these definitions have in common is logical order. But with these definitions, I have settled on my own meaning of technical communication: a means of explaining procedures that produces another procedure and/or product successfully using multimodal tools. I created this definition also because of my own experiences through the course of our class. For example, the process for which I created the annual report template for Our House and explaining the procedure to recreate are forms of technical communication.

My Definition and Tech Comm

However, my definition does not only satisfy my firsthand experiences, but it also relates to the general field of technical communication in that it does not focus on a specific topic or kind of technology but also includes process, product, and technology simultaneously. For instance, throughout the weeks in class, we have been introduced to development/training module presentations that covered a good portion of technical communication: Griffith’s Procedural Narrative, aka “A How-To on How-To’s,” module presentation is one that directly relates to my definition that technical communications is a means of explaining procedures that produces another procedure and/or product successfully using multimodal tools.

My Definition and English

My definition also applies to my major and focus: English and rhetoric and composition. One of the reasons that I chose to take this class is the importance of being able to enhance my critical thinking and applying it to real situations (our service learning project). I think logically and less abstractly, so technical communications sounded like a course that could help me gain new skills and apply them to other courses as well.

Who Counts As a Technical Communicator?

By my definition, teachers, medical doctors, scientists, chefs, and pretty much anyone who deals with more logical work are considered technical communicators because each of them instruct others with or without technical knowledge. Even after this course, I would consider all of us technical communicators because we will apply the logical written skills and knowledge that we gained at some point in our job application processes.

Sources Cited

Johnson-Eilola, Johndan and Stuart A. Selber. Solving Problems in Technical Communication. The University of Chicago, 2013. Print.

Society for Technical Communication: http://www.stc.org/about-stc/the-profession-all-about-technical-communication/defining-tc

Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Technical_communication

PowerPoint and Communication Design, Uncategorized

Blog #8: PowerPoint or People?

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Boring PresentationPhoto courtesy of Envision Presentations

Overview

The problem with bad PowerPoint (PPT) presentations is the user’s application of poor design and implementation. If we choose to use PowerPoint as our medium, then I feel like we must be able to do the best with what we are given. Here, I explain why users are the problem and how to fix these problems. I will be making several references to Mike Markel’s Exploiting Verbal-Visual Synergy in Presentation Slides. Also, I will conclude by explaining how to be considerate of our pitch presentations in order to convey our messages and ideas successfully next week.

We Are the Problem
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Photo courtesy of SomeEcards

An example of poor implementation and inappropriateness of use is the most common mistake that users/presenters make with PPT presentations: reading from the slides. As Chris Anderson stated in How to Give a Killer Presentation, “Don’t use a slide deck as a substitute for notes […] and don’t repeat out loud words that are on the slide.” If you look at a TED Talk in which the presenter uses a PPT (my favorite is My invention that made peace with lions), then you will notice that some things are better experienced visually with verbal comments and background information. The TED Talk video applies to Markel’s principle “Show what is best shown; say what is best said.”

My Problem

Although I argue that people are the problem, I think that space limitations of the medium are also a problem; however, there is a way around this. I have experienced space limitations in my PPT slides in my module presentation about modalities. For instance, I wanted to show the use of good spatial modes in a professional profile vs. the use of bad spatial modes in a different professional profile by providing examples of each one on the same slide. I wanted to have both pictures side-by-side so that I could verbally compare and contrast how different audiences would react; however, if I would have done that, then my audience (our class) would not have been able to see everything because the examples would have been too small.

My Solution

dnaSequencingStructure9

Photo courtesy of Center for BioMolecular Modeling

What I have learned is that whenever I feel like I have space limitations, I should use a diagram because it will allow me to eliminate visual clutter and highlight just what I need. The diagram above of an individual cell and its parts is a good example of drawing tools; it is an example of the tools that I should have applied to my module PPT presentation. As Markel explained, we should use one drawing or photo of our primary subject and use another to provide a close up of it; this way, “[we] would not have to worry about space limitations, poor figure-ground contrast, and visual clutter.”

Pitch Presentations

Obviously, the drawing tools that I have mentioned cannot best convey every PPT presentation’s purpose. So, here are a few things to consider when we are pitching our presentations to our clients this coming week:

  • Analyze the audience and purpose of your presentation.
  • Only use visuals when absolutely necessary; otherwise, they are distractions.
  • Do not simply slap words on the screen; otherwise, a handout may be a better medium (Markel).
  • Make fewer, better slides (i.e. less is more) (Markel).
  • Use the assertion-evidence structure when convincing your client that your product is the way to go: making a claim in the form of a brief sentence in the title section of the PPT slide and inserting a graphic that validates your claim in the main content area (Markel).
    Example of the assertion-evidence structure:cheetah3

Photo courtesy of Penn State University

Plain Language, Uncategorized

Blog#6: Less Is More, Right?

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confused_reader
Photo courtesy of Barnes & Nobles.

 

Compare the following over-the-counter drug labels that have the same content in different formats:

 

druglabelbefore

 

druglabelafter
Photos courtesy of Plain Language.

 

The bottom label is undoubtedly the easier one to read and understand because the author used “plain language,” or “clear Government communication that the public can understand and use” (PlainLanguage). In addition, they used different modalities, such as bold lettering, various font sizes, bullet points, and effective use of space (despite how small the backsides of medicine are).


ENGFISH: HOW WOULD YOU DEFINE IT?
The mistake that most students make, including me, is the tendency to use too many words in order to sound scholarly. In fact, Ken Macrorie creates a word for it, Engfish, in his article “The Poisoned Fish.” My definition of Engfish is that it is a wordy weapon inflicted on students to sound smart. Macrorie suggests that textbooks are responsible for the ways that students write and that redundancy and unnecessary words are the underlying issues. To fix these issues, we should use plain language.


MY PERSONAL EXAMPLE: CAN YOU RELATE?
In my personal life, I found that I cannot speak to my mother in ways that I can speak to my brother. For example, when I text my mother, I have to be considerate of the words I use and how to construct them into sentences that are easy for her to understand and that do not require any further explanation. However, the texts I send my brother contain more complex words, implications, and other language that would be a burden to my mother in everyday conversation. The difference is in their education levels. My mother has no college degree, but my brother has a master’s degree. Forty percent of Americans have a college degree, which means we need to accommodate our writings for the other 60 percent without a college education by using plain language. Is this always possible?


STEM FIELDS AND PLAIN LANGUAGE: LIKE OIL AND WATER?
I think that STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) courses intimidate and discourage people from investing their education in those fields. Applying plain language principles to make them less intimidating is difficult because STEM fields contain jargon associated with their specialized subjects. Yes, every field has its set of jargon, but STEM jargon is not easily (or accurately) defined in a dictionary or understood by the average person.


TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION AND PLAIN LANGUAGE
Similarly, technical communicators need to use plain language because it is intimidating not to do so. However, unlike STEM fields, it is an easier field to apply plain language principles. Technical communicators often already use tables to organize information and use pictures as examples—think of our Writer Designer booklet, and now imagine it without the tables and pictures. Plain language is very effective under these circumstances.


PLAIN LANGUAGE: WHAT IS THE RISK?
The biggest risk of plain language is unwanted results from the lack of information. For example, in a previous technical communications class, I had to write a recipe for Swiss chard rolls. It was a fairly long recipe, and I found it too intimidating for the average cook, so I got carried away with the “backspace” button and eliminated important steps in the process. For instance, the cook had to take out the rib of the leaves so that it was pliable and easier to roll, but I did not explain how to do that. Likewise, the cook had to dry the Swiss chard leaves after blanching them, but I never specified the best technique to dry them. Therefore, many users ended up with soggy rolls that kept falling apart.


EVALUATE YOUR AUDIENCE CAREFULLY:
IT’S NOT YOU, IT’S ME.
Also, my target audience was current vegetarians, so I assumed they knew certain ingredients, such as tempeh. However, most of the vegetarians in my user-testing were at various levels; some just started as vegetarians and some were veterans of the diet. I learned that I had to evaluate my audience further, so this led me to believe that I was solely responsible for making sure my audience knew everything from different cooking equipment to the difference between shredded cheese and grated cheese. I created a quick checklist for evaluating the audience based on information provided by the Center for Plain Language:

  • List the different levels of education of the audience
  • List what people want to know
  • Anticipate what readers already know and what they need to know to complete the task
  • Use words the audience knows
  • List characteristics of the groups that should influence design


SERVICE LEARNING AND PLAIN LANGUAGE:
HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT RELATE?
Lastly, I think it is worth noting how this topic relates to our service learning project. I would relate plain language to it in a couple of ways. For instance, my group’s project focuses on creating an annual report and newsletter templates. The audience for both of these projects will be the donors of Our House. Annual reports have more formal and scholarly tones compared to newsletters. Therefore, we have to maintain some level of academic writing. However, we have to keep in mind that our projects are not limited to the current donors. Potential donors have access as well, which puts us in a position to aim for plain language.

 

Sources Cited

Center for Plain Language.
http://centerforplainlanguage.org/5-steps-to-plain-language/

PBS News Hour. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/rundown/percentage-americans-college-degrees-rises-paying-degrees-tops-financial-challenges/

Plain Language.
http://www.plainlanguage.gov/plLaw/index.cfm

Copywriter, Project and Role Selection, Uncategorized

Blog #5: Statement of Interest for Copywriter

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My first preference for a team role is the copywriter position because I am an English major focusing on rhetoric and composition. The classes in which I am enrolled will add value to my assignments, my team, and most importantly, our clients.

Every week, I must submit 500-words to a discussion board in another English class in addition to the 500-words that we must submit in technical communications; that is a minimum of 1,000 words per week for only two of my five classes. Therefore, I have acquired proficiency in writing by producing a great deal of quality work in a timely manner. I am also currently enrolled in practical grammar, and I have been chosen several times to help my peers in class and have volunteered to tutor outside of class. Another course in which I am enrolled that is beneficial to the copywriter position is business writing. Most people associate business with power-hungry corporations, but we need to remind ourselves that programs, such as Whitefoord, Our House, and Moving in the Spirit, are businesses as well. Therefore, we need to maintain communication in cordial manners appropriate for business. These experiences have made me a well-rounded candidate for the copywriter position.

Moreover, I have kept several samples of my work that I wrote at my previous college, including one research paper that qualified me for the Southern Regional Honors Council Conference as well as the Florida Collegiate Honors Council Conference; both at which I gave presentations of my research paper. You can also view samples of my writing in my blog posts: The Lack of Ethics in Resumes and Why It’s OK and When Does It Pay To Be Creative.  Also, I am familiar with the structure and content of annual reports from my role as an honors ambassador at my previous college. I still have access to the annual report as a reference for future intensive and extensive writing assignments.

I have kept two letters of recommendation: one is from my former honors director, and the other is from my former English and linguistics professor. Both have Ph.D.’s in English, and both have said in their letters that I am detail-oriented and have strong written and verbal communication skills. I will be very happy to provide those letters by request.

This semester, technical communications has been my top priority primarily because of the considerable amounts of time-sensitive work. This is advantageous because I will have my part of our service learning project ready every time assignments are due within group deadlines and class deadlines. Also, Not only am I punctual when submitting my work, but also when I am scheduled to be somewhere (i.e. I have never been late to class).

You may call for any questions, but text messages and emails are the quickest and most effective ways to reach me. I am willing to meet on campus outside of classroom hours, online via Skype, and in Buckhead or anywhere within 15 minutes of Buckhead.

I am confident that, with my skills, I will produce written content and deliverables that are most accurate and coherent to my knowledge in order to help my team succeed in supporting our clients and their goals.

Beyond the Resume, Resumes, Uncategorized

Blog #3: When Does It Pay To Be Creative?

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Remember my presentation on Wednesday about modalities? I would like to think of this blog post as an extension of my PowerPoint presentation. Specifically, the way audiences’ reactions to modalities shift in various context and cultures. When we are ready to write our resumes, we must apply cognitive empathy. That is, we must put ourselves in our potential employers’ shoes in order to understand their thought processes when analyzing our resumes.

In my PowerPoint, I broke down employers into three very broad groups: general audience, specific audience, and international audience.  General and international audiences would want traditional-style resumes because these have always been deemed professional, and thus, suitable for professional workplaces, such as law firms, investment banks, and government offices.

However, specific audiences are media-based employers like Facebook, film, or radio stations, whose audience is the public. Specific audiences do not like traditional resumes because they do not represent the progressive actions of the company, nor do traditional styles reflect their values in creativity and imagination. So, what should we give them? The examples below are alternative resumes that have landed job interviews. Click one for a closer look.

 

resume_FB  resume_movie

(Images: “13 Insanely Cool Resumes that Landed Interviews At Google And Other Top Jobs.” 2014. Web. Courtesy of Patricia Laya on Business Insider.)

 

What does this mean for us? It means that we need to be ready to create multiple styles of resumes in addition to our traditional resumes. Click here for more creative resume ideas to apply to your field.

My field is in English, so I can go into multiple positions for editing anywhere. If I were to go into menu design and editing, I would resemble my resume to a menu:

  • Name of the restaurant: Your name and contact information
  • Appetizers: Your objective/goal
  • Tapas: Your skills
  • Entrees: Your skills applied to experiences
  • Sides: Your education and work history
  • Desserts: Your awards, certificates, or licenses

If I were to go for a position at a greeting card company, I would use a bi-fold card as my resume template:

  • Outside of card: Name, contact information, objective/goal
  • Inside (left page): Skills and skills applied to experiences
  • Inside (right page): Education/work history and awards/certificates/licenses

 

In addition to alternative resumes as a means of deviating from the crowd, there are a few other ways to distinguish you from others with similar backgrounds:

  • Kill the buzz words, like “team player” or “detail-oriented.” Instead of using these adjectives, provide a concrete example of a project where you had to work with others. Also, show the employer that you are detail-oriented through your resume. Make sure you used correct grammar and that your spaces are parallel and words are aligned.
  • Include your goals. People with similar backgrounds don’t necessarily have the same goals (Veritas Prep). Being able to articulate exactly why you need the job to achieve your goals is a strong tool.
  • Avoid jargons associated with your field.  Employers are subjected to the same words used in multiple resumes, which means they will be inclined to overlooking these words and consider it a poor use of space on resumes.

On the other hand, we need to keep in mind that these alternative resumes can be risky even within the specific audience. For example, I included an animated resume in my PowerPoint with background music that was far too fast-paced, and thereby, affecting the pace of the content in the video. Another example of the risks of alternative resumes is Greg Dizzia’s experience when his “resume became the actual interview.” An employer asked him “what would happen if this was black and white?” and from there he learned that his “resume itself was becoming a pivoting point in the negotiation of [his] position” and that “although he says he’s gotten mostly positive feedback, he says his resume has caused mixed reactions. It mostly depends on who you’re talking to[…]and he gets much better reactions from people in creative positions than people in HR” (Laya).

Other risky ways of representing yourself include social media profiles. We need to step back and ask ourselves not how do we want to portray ourselves, but rather as whom do we want to portray ourselves? This refers us back to my blog post last week about the lack of ethics in resumes and why it is okay.

I have never thought deeply about the image I want to portray on social media. After Brandin’s presentation on Wednesday about audience, I took his advice on what we should keep in mind when we have social media profiles:

  • Likes/dislikes/following whom
  • Memes that we share indicating racism, sexism, violence
  • Grammar, homophones, apostrophes
  • Photos/what is in the background of those photos

In a perfect world, we would want to create a neutral image for our employers. However, it is hard to tell who considers things negative or positive. Personally, regardless of what I want to be or for whom I want to work, I know that my degree will be in English. So, the image I want to create is a person with good grammar and coherent sentences. In addition, I “like” Grammarly on Facebook, and the “Books I’ve Read” section on my profile lists all of the classic novels I have read (even if I did not like them). These factors can work in my favor instead of being risks to my character.

So, when does it pay to be creative? Career coaches say that “it depends on where you’re applying to” (Laya).

 

Sources Cited

“Distinguishing Yourself in Your MBA Applications.” Veritas Prep. Web. 14 September 2014 <http://www.veritasprep.com/blog/2012/12/distinguishing-yourself/>.

Laya, Patricia. “13 Insanely Cool Resumes that Landed Interviews At Google And Other Top Jobs.” Business Insider. Web. 14 September 2014 <http://www.businessinsider.com/insanely-creative-resumes-2011-6?op=1>.

Blog Project Prompts, Ethics, Resumes

Blog #2: The Lack of Ethics in Resumes and Why It’s OK

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simpsons(Image: “Angels on My Shoulders.” 2011. Web. Courtesy of Daniebob on WordPress)

Is it acceptable to lie to a potential employer for an opportunity at your dream job? The right answer is no, but my answer is YES.

“The percentage of people who lie to potential employers is substantial” (Tomassi), and who can blame them? Employers intimidate us in ways that slightly encourage us to shade the truth. In fact, “40 [percent] of all resumes aren’t altogether aboveboard” (Tomassi). Given the circumstances of seeking for a job in a highly-competitive market, it is understandable that one of the ways people influence their resumes is by lying. “Omission is one of the most common forms of lying in the workplace” (Goman) because people want to avoid discrimination. Let’s consider Joanne Rowling. Most of us know her as J.K. Rowling. She omitted her name with the intention of misleading the reader of her sex. “Joanne Rowling had somehow gotten the idea that books by women were not as widely read or taken seriously as books by men—or that boys shy from reading female authors—and so had chosen to be known by her gender-neutral initials” (Prose).

As common as omission is in a resume, the same is not recommended for resumes internationally. In fact, resumes between the US and Asia differ tremendously. My father lives in Vientiane, Laos, and is the chairman of our family’s distribution company, KP Co., Ltd. During the summer, I visited him at the peak of hiring season and saw stacks of resumes on a desk. The sample resume below is a very similar template of one that I saw; instead of omitting personal details, they emphasize them. Click the photo below for a closer look.

International resume
(Image: “English Teacher Resume Review.” 2014. Web. Courtesy of An’nisa Khairani Haningsih on All Docs)

“Different countries expect and require certain information to be present on resumes, and therefore it is critical that your new resume meets the unique requirements of that country” (Redelman). Thus, resume-writing conventions need to adapt to their current marketplace whether it is an entirely different culture or within different domestic fields of study. It is important because the standard “one-size-fits-all” template is no longer enough to capture everyone’s attention. The field in which you apply influences the multimodal tools in your resume. For example, the following resume emphasizes the applicant’s talent in graphic design. Obviously, this would be an inappropriate template for legal professions.

Graphic designer resume
(Image: “Graphic designer resume sample.” 2014. Web. Courtesy of Vizual Resume.)

 

Between the two resume examples, there are differences in the contents. The second resume does not include a self-photograph or personal details that risk discrimination; though, both applicants could have lied by embellishing their experiences. This raises the question: how do we know that our competitors will not be lying in the same way that we are? “[We are] lied to from 10 to 200 times per day” (Firestone), so there is a great possibility that people are more likely to stretch or bend the truth on their resumes. After all, it becomes a cutthroat atmosphere when people are after the same job. However, I do believe that we have a moral obligation to our employers by telling them truthful experiences and giving them valid credentials so as not to waste their time interviewing us, or further, investing time and money to train us for our jobs. I think that the reason for interviewing someone is not only to get to know the applicant, but also to cross-examine the details of his/her resume. So, if you are going to embellish your experiences and credentials, then it is your sole responsibility to defend your claims.

While there are similarities between what U.S. and international applicants will do to make their resumes standout, there are differences in addition to the unique resume requirements of each country. When a U.S. citizen seeks for a job abroad, or when an international applicant seeks for a job in the U.S., there will be dilemmas that could prevent each from getting a job. For example, one trying to understand and adhere to the laws of that country and risking law violations on behalf of the business. I think that in whichever country you are, you should follow their rules. This applies to U.S. and international corporations and employees.

Another issue is language barriers that lead to miscommunication. What if a word or phrase in your resume means something entirely different in another country? It could offend the employer, or you may even have lied about your credentials unknowingly. Would you consider this lying?

Whether we think of ourselves as liars or not, “we certainly shade the truth to make it fit more comfortably into our lives—to keep it from disrupting anything from our careers to our relationships to our afternoons” (Firestone).

 

Sources Cited

 

Firestone, Lisa. “Shades of Truth: The Many Ways We Lie.” Huffingtonpost. Web. 5 Sep. 2014 <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/lisa-firestone/telling-the-truth_b_3831304.html>.

Goman, Carol Kinsey. “The 10 Most Common Workplace Lies.” Forbes. Web. 5 Sep. 2014 <http://www.forbes.com/sites/carolkinseygoman/2013/10/17/10-of-the-biggest-workplace-lies/>.

Prose, Francine. “How Do We Judge Books Written Under Pseudonyms?” NYTimes. Web. 5 Sep. 2014 <http://www.nytimes.com/2013/11/17/books/review/how-do-we-judge-books-written-under-pseudonyms.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0>.

Redelman, Gavin. “How Resumes Differ from Country to Country.” Expatarrivals. Web. 5 Sep. 2014 <http://www.expatarrivals.com/article/how-resumes-differ-from-country-to-country>.

Tomassi, Kate DuBose. “Most Common Resume Lies.” Forbes. Web. 5 Sep. 2014 <http://www.forbes.com/2006/05/20/resume-lies-work_cx_kdt_06work_0523lies.html>.