Today’s Plan:
- ABO Crowdsourcing: What is a Report? What do Reports look like?
- Report Expectations
- Finalizing Report Data (to the Spreadsheet)
- Miller
- Homework
ABO Crowdsourcing: What is a Report? What do reports look like?
Your collective challenge today is to put together an “assignment sheet” that details what the Job Ad Analysis includes and how it should be formatted.
This is an exercise in “genre” familiarity and invention. Let’s talk about that term, and what a “genre” is and what it isn’t.
Here is a link to a collaborative workspace.
You have ten minutes to accomplish two different tasks.
Resources:
The ABO book contains sections on:
- Feasibility Reports
- Formal Reports
- Investigative Reports
- Tables
- Graphs
I want to look at the sample proposal on 439. Sample feasability report, 187-188. Sample formal report 202-218. Sample investigative report 291.
A few other resources:
- David McMurrey, Recommendation and Feasibility Report
- American Chemical Society, Preparing a Research Report
- Bhat, “Research Reports: Definition and How to Write Them”
- Sample report
- Scroll down to the section on “How should the main points of ‘Discussion’ section be constructed?”
- How to label a chart or graph and UNC’s Figures and Charts
My Expectations for the Report
Let’s start here:
- Length: Generally this report is 6-8 pages singled-spaced (this includes a title page, a table of content, and properly sized charts/graphs)
- Front Loaded Introduction: Does the intro summarize all significant findings and include specific, actionable recommendations?
- Methodology: Does the methodology explain how the sample was collected, coded, and how codings were verified? Could I recreate this work based on this section?
- Presentation of Data: Does the section contain a table or graph of data?
Can you understand the table or graph, or is there some mystery meat?
Does the writer make clear what the table says?
Does the writer make clear the significance of what the table says? - Style and Grammar [commas, run-ons, fragments, tense shifts, agreement errors, etc]
Does the paper reflect our work on style (Williams and Bizup, Characters and Actions)? - Does this paper reflect expectations for business formatting?
- Title Page
- Page Numbers (should not include the title page)
Does the document version history indicate that the paper was given a careful edit? (And/or, is the document relatively error free? Are their sentences in which grammatical errors lead to misunderstanding?)
I think this will be useful: more details about the assignment expectations.
Finalizing Our Data
We have three things to accomplish today. First, a homework assignment: if you haven’t already, make sure you add your codes to the spreadsheet. If you are the first person to add codes, put your initials in the SUBMIT column. If codes are there, review them and add your initials to the REVIEW column.
Second, we need to talk about how to create your own spreadsheet tabulating codes for 20 jobs. >Here is a blank template (note: this is set to view-only, you will need to make your own copy. File > Make a Copy).
Third, I want to show you how to generate a graph.
Here’s a link to documentation by google on making charts/graphs.
in Sheets.
Miller Reading
The questions I asked:
- What is positivism? Why is it a problem for technical writing? What does Miller identify as the most problematic dimension of a non-rhetorical approach to scientific communication?
- Miller identifies 4 problems for technical writing pedagogy that stem from the positivist tradition. How do we avoid them?
- How does Miller–writing in 1979–describe the epistemology that is replacing positivism?
- What does it mean to teach technical writing from a communalist perspective? Why might some students reject a communalist approach to teaching writing?
- I assert that Miller’s grounds for labeling technical writing a Humanity lies in what she identifies as a consensualist relation to audience. Why do I think this? What does this mean?
Homework
Your homework is to have a complete draft of your report ready for peer review next Tuesday. Please print three copies of your report and bring them to class (feel free to print two-sided to save paper).
Since this is a pretty big assignment, I’ve pushed back the upcoming reading assignment.
