Develop a Gantt chart for the class, and to send me an email so that I could invite you to join our blog, to join our blog and introduce yourself there, and to read chapter one from Dinner at the New Gene Cafe. If you contacted me about your first blog, I should have sent you your own copy of the grade sheet. If I haven't, I will soon, but here is what the grade sheet for the course looks like. The example is for Spring 2005.
This lesson focuses on memo form (transformed for us into email form) and on planning for the course. Last time you were introduced to Gantt charts. Today we want to focus on the covering memo that should accompany the Gantt chart when you submit it. Although visual representations are often worth a thousand words, they aren't much good if the viewer hasn't been oriented to them.
To orient your reader to the Gantt chart, imagine someone other than me as your reader. Imagine this person picks up your memo and the Gantt chart. Will she be able to understand the purpose of these documents, the work context of the documents, the writer's purpose, and the reader's expectations? If not, your memo and Gantt chart are not self-sufficient documents. I want you to strive to produce self-sufficient documents. By that I mean, I don't want you to rely to heavily on what we know between ourselves but what outsiders do not know. Make information explicit.
Traditionally a memo had a heading and the body. The heading had the To: From: Subject: and Date: lines spread out like this:
To:
From:
Subject:
Date:
You can see that these lines are similar to the lines of an email heading; in fact, email messages were designed to imitate the memo visual structure. If the memo is hardcopy instead of an email, then you validate the memo by placing your initials after your name in the From: line. If it is an email, you validate it by putting your signature material at the bottom of the message.
The introduction inside the body of a memo or email should be very direct. Explain the purpose of the memo in the first sentence. Are you simply conveying information or are you asking for action? The reader should know after the first sentence. After the purpose statement, a memo usually gives any background necessary to introduce the reader to the context of the message or to remind the reader of the context. By context we mean just that (con=with; text=text). In other words, the background information paints the picture of why this memo is being written and explains how it fits in the ongoing work of a project. Depending on the length of the memo, this background section can often be restricted to one or two sentences.
The major part of the message, the body itself, is usually divided into two or three sections depending on the joints of your message. These paragraphs should be unified and coherent, discussing only one topic per paragraph. The conclusion should summarize the message if it has been long. If not it should simply state what action you would like the reader to take.
After composing the message, you should double check that the purpose of the memo is clear, the context is apparent, and the message fully developed and clearly organized. Then you should check the subject line in the heading. Make sure the subject line conveys real information. It is better to make the subject line a little longer than a couple words if in so doing you can tell the reader what the message is about unambiguously. Also, view that subject line from the reader's perspective rather than your own.
For our class, your covering memo should tell the reader about the Gantt chart, which will be attached to it. Not only that, I want the covering memo to talk about the course as you preview it. It is important for us at this stage of the course to be sure that both you and I understand the assignments, how much effort you will have to put into the course, and what your expectations are for the course. In this case, the memo carries more information than the attachment; the Gantt chart is simply showing both of us that you have thought through the schedule of the course.
We'll talk more about memos and letters in the next lesson.
Writing Assignment: Send me an email (as a fully developed memo) describing the course as you preview you, explaining what you will have to do to be successful in the course, and telling me what you hope to learn from it. When you talk about what you want to get out of the class, it would be to set goals for yourself, such as getting work done on time, learning email protocol, learning to write reports, learning to do online research, learning to work in an online environment, learning how to argue effectively, learning about job applications, learning about my discourse field, etc. These goals will turn out to be handy when you write your activity report at the end of the course. Attach the Gantt chart to this email and sent it to me dale.sullivan@ndsu.nodak.edu .
Blog Assignment: Go to blogger.com, sign in and post a message based on your reading of chapters one and two of Dinner at the New Gene Cafe. You might talk about what you know or don't know already about GMOs or Monsanto, or you might talk about the style of writing in the book. Send me a quick post indicating that you have done so and specifying the day and time of the post.
About the blogger site: the link above, blogger.com, takes you to the interface where you sign in so that you can post messages. The other link, http://320web.blogspot.com/, takes you to the interface where you can read the class blog.
Reading Assignment for Next Time: (1) Read “Correspondence,” “e-mail,” and “memos” in Handbook for Technical Writing. (These entries are alphabetized in the book.) (2) Read Wired Magazine Article on GMO Foods.