Lesson for Week 2: Day 2
2:2
1. Take the quiz listed in number 1, just above, and send it to me.
2. Write the short analysis of Philemon described just above and send it to
me.
3. Read chapter 3 of Dinner at the New Gene Cafe
4. Find job announcements in the paper or on the web and copy a few that interest
you. Find out what you can (in ten or fifteen minutes each) about the companies
in the job announcements so that you can decide which you want to apply for.
Contact someone who has a job something like the one you want to apply for
and set up and interview. Conduct the interview to find out skills, habits,
attitudes, and knowledge needed for the job. Summarize the interview and send
a thank you note to the person you interviewed.
This lesson follows up 2:1, continuing the focus on correspondence. Last time you read my notes and comments on correspondence and passages out of HTW on correspondence, email, and memos.
Basically, I want you to read some notes I've written and compare them to page 616 in Handbook of Technical Writing. Review the types of letter types listed under the heading "letter types" in the left column of HTW 616. Compare those types, or genres, of letters to those listed by Libanius (see list of 40 types under #5). Just note the difference at this time. What you should notice about the differences is that letters reflect the cultural milieu of people who write them. Because letters might be compared to speech acts, we come to realize that different kinds of speech acts are dominant in our business world than in Libanius' world. Look up each of the letter types listed on page 616 of HTW, and scan the entries quickly. Then finish reading my notes on line.
1. You have a choice of two writing assignments for this lesson. Both involve rewriting a letter and explaining why you made the changes you made.
EITHER
a. Go to a modern administrative letter and read it carefully. What message is it trying to convey. What action is it asking for? How do the paragraph structure, sentence structure, and word choice facilitate or obstruct the communication? What tone comes through? What response do you think a typical reader is likely to have? Having considered these aspects of the letter, copy and paste the letter into a Word document and revise it. Once you have revised it, go on to the second page of the document and enumerate the changes you made. After each change, write a note explaining why you think the change is an improvement.
OR
b. Go to an ancient apologia letter (it begins "To Apollonios. I received your letter on Pachon 14 from Zoilos"). What message is it trying to convey. What action is it asking for? How do the paragraph structure, sentence structure, and word choice facilitate or obstruct the communication? What tone comes through? What response do you think a typical reader is likely to have? Having considered these aspects of the letter, copy and paste the letter into a Word document and revise it as though it were written today (modernize it). Once you have revised it, go on to the second page of the document and enumerate the changes you made. After each change, write a note explaining why you think the change is an improvement.
Once you have completed this revision and analysis, send the Word document to me.
2. Go to blogger.com and post a message about the taco shell incident in chapter three of Dinner, and explain what you think about labeling. If other students have already responded to this prompt or another, please respond to their responses. I would like to see the blog become a conversation room, a place where you begin to engage each other. Send me a quick post indicating that you have done so and specifying the day and time of the post. Should food products in the US be labeled so that we know if they have genetically modified ingredients or not? Why or why not? Here's another report on StarLink corn, which is the corn involved.
3. In preparation for the next lesson, read “Readers,” “Application Letters,” and “Interviewing for a Job” in HTW. Read Mathes and Stevenson on audience and read Shriver on three models of the audience analysis
4. You should have found a job announcement by now and contacted someone to interview. If you haven't conducted the interview, do so and summarize the information. Start incorporating that information, and information about the company you want to apply to in an informal report and write a first draft of an application letter in Word based on your reading in HTW, but don't send it in yet; you will revise it later.