Unsubscribing from the Course Website and Twitter Updates

I will begin sending out updates for the Spring sections of Technical Writing in a few hours, so you likely want to unsubscribe from the course tools. Here’s how:

• If you subscribed to the course website at the beginning of the term, you probably want to unsubscribe now. Look for an unsubscribe link at the bottom of the email message that you get from the course website.
• If you were following the course Twitter account (@HokieTengrrl), just go the the page in Twitter and click the Unfollow button.
• I have archived the Facebook group, so you should receive no more updates from it. If you prefer, you can also Leave the Group (instructions).

Overall Feedback for the Class

Generally, everyone did a well on the Genre Analysis Reports. Many of you reported that you learned valuable information that you could use in the workplace. Reports tended to use appropriate headings to structure the documents well.

Addressing the Genre Activity Report in Your Final

If you received an Incomplete, you have until 11:59 PM tonight (Friday, 01/12) to turn in a revision. Unfortunately, classes are over today. Because I must turn my attention to grading the final exams, there simply isn’t time to grade revisions after today.

So What Do You Do if Your Genre Activity Report Earned an Incomplete?

1. Take a deep breath. You are not doomed. You are in the same kind of situation as someone in the workplace who didn’t win a bid or lost a client. There’s still hope.
2. Turn your attention to your final exam. As you explain the grade that you deserve in the course, explain what happened with your Genre Activity Report. Account for what went wrong, and convince me that you’ll deal with such situations in the future.
3. Do not stress yourself about the “bell curve.” There are always some students who are exemplary. The idea of the curve is only to ensure that exemplary students earn higher grades than those who just meet the requirements. That may be a tough standard, but I think it’s fair. In truth, I do not plot out all the numbers in some beautiful graph; but I do pay attention to students who have gone above and beyond the norm.
4. Focus on making your final exam persuasive by using these tips:
   1. Pay attention to the advice in the #Tutorial: Determining Your Course Grade.
   2. Use what you know about document design. Remember the value of chunking information, using information-rich headings, and making your document easy to navigate. Don’t make me (your audience) search for information. Use document design strategies that show me where everything is.
   3. Consider adding tables or graphs that support your argument. Be sure that any graphics you include add to the content. Don’t toss in clipart or other graphics just as decorations. Be sure your graphics help you make your point.
   4. Provide concrete data on your performance. Use numbers, facts, and even quotations from your work or feedback. Show me how you have done in the course. Make everything completely obvious.
   5. Remember to spellcheck and proofread. It’s important to your argument that your document is polished and professional. Errors will make your point less persuasive.

Overall Feedback for the Class

The status of your work as reported in your Progress Reports indicates you are all on target to finish your projects on time.

Feedback on Progress Reports

• Good Attention to Design. Progress reports should make it fast and easy to find the key information, and you all used information-rich headings to help block out the information and organize the document. Many of you also included an updated version of the Gantt chart that you used in your proposal—that’s a great strategy!
• Value of the Assignment. Many of you indicated that you found the progress report useful because it allowed you to stop and reflect on the work you had done on the Genre Analysis Report. You were able to appreciate your progress on the larger report while still determining what more you had to do. That was the exact goal of the Progress Report assignment!

Revision Activities for Progress Reports

I have reopened the assignment so that those of you who want to revise can improve your project. Follow the guidelines below to resubmit your work.

1. If I made a mistake
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll fix it.
2. If there were problems with the content or design of your bio
   Revise your project to improve your work, adding whatever is missing or tweaking the design. Resubmit your project, and I will regrade your work. All revisions MUST be submitted by 11:59PM on the last day of class (Friday, 1/12).
3. If you did not submit your work at all
   It is too late. Be sure to turn in all the remaining projects if you want to pass the course.
4. If something else is going on
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Overall Feedback for the Class

Everyone did a great job on the proposals. The topics you chose for your Genre Analysis Reports will work well in most cases—and I’m very excited to see what you learn as you work on the projects. Everything sounds so interesting.

Feedback on Your Short Proposals

• Well-structured and detailed. Everyone did a great job with details and explanations. It was easy for me to see what you were going to explore in your Genre Analysis Reports as well as for me to understand why you all made the choices that you did.
• Strong use of design. All of the reports used great layout strategies with strong, information-rich headings. It was easy to find all the required information.
• Pay attention to any comments. There were a few minor points that I noted in some of the proposals. Since the remaining major projects are all related, you may make the same minor errors in your Progress Reports or Genre Analysis Reports. Apply those notes to your final two drafts.
• Avoid comma splices. A few of you had problems with comma splices. We all make this error from time to time. I make them most often when I’m texting and not paying attention to what I’m doing. It’s not the worst error you can make, but it is one you should avoid in professional writing. Watch this tutorial video from Texas A&M (2m14s) to find out how to avoid them:
   
  
  

Revision Activities for the Analysis Project

I have reopened the assignment so that those of you who want to revise can improve your project. Follow the guidelines below to resubmit your work.

1. If I made a mistake
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll fix it.
2. If there were problems with the content or design of your bio
   Revise your project to improve your work, adding whatever is missing or tweaking the design. Resubmit your project, and I will regrade your work. All revisions MUST be submitted by 11:59PM on the last day of class (Friday, 1/12).
3. If you did not submit your work at all
   It is too late. Be sure to turn in all the remaining projects if you want to pass the course.
4. If something else is going on
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.

I have graded all of the Analysis of Writing in Your Field projects. To save time, I left minimal comments on the documents. Instead, I’ll provide additional information as a whole-class comment in this post.

This post also explains what you can do if you are not happy with your grade.

Overall Feedback for the Class

• Requirements of the assignment. Yay! Everyone included 10 (or more!) kinds of writing. That didn’t happen last semester, so I’m quite pleased that you all read the instructions carefully..
• Parallel grammatical structure. Remember that the text in all cells of a column needs to be grammatically parallel. They need to match in their structure. Read more about parallelism on the Purdue OWL for help and examples, and revisit the #Tutorial: Using Parallel Structures.
• Centered text. Remember that the best design for text is flush left, ragged right. Centered text is harder to read. See the #Tutorial: Avoid Centered Text on the course website for help.

Revision Activities for the Analysis Project

I have reopened the assignment so that those of you who want to revise can improve your project. Follow the guidelines below to resubmit your work.

1. If I made a mistake
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll fix it.
2. If there were problems with the content or design of your bio
   Revise your project to improve your work, adding whatever is missing or tweaking the design. Resubmit your project, and I will regrade your work. All revisions MUST be submitted by 11:59PM on the last day of class (Friday, 1/12).
3. If you did not submit your work at all
   It is too late. Be sure to turn in all the remaining projects if you want to pass the course.
4. If something else is going on
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.

I have graded all of the Professional Bio projects. In this post, I’ll comment on how everyone did and what you can do if you are not happy with your grade.

Overall Feedback for the Class

• Complete bios: Everyone did a good job following the instructions in the assignment by including all of the required information and paying attention to document design.
• Work on document design: Most of the projects used a good layout, with the image well-integrated with the text. Some projects could be improved with more attention to “chunking” text and visual elements.
• Stronger sentences: In some projects, the phrasing was unnecessarily long. Very long sentences in a document like your biography can make it hard for the reader to follow the ideas. Try the #Watch: Using Strong Verbs post for a video from the American Chemical Society that demonstrates how changing the verb can shorten and strengthen the sentences.
• Semicolon use: A couple of people had difficulty with the proper use of semicolons. For a refresher on how to use semicolons, watch the Ted Ed video below. It is a little elementary in style (with the game-like cartoon image), but it is a thorough explanation:
  

Revision Activities for the Bio Project

I have reopened the assignment so that those of you who want to revise can improve your project. Follow the guidelines below to resubmit your work.

1. If I made a mistake
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll fix it.
2. If there were problems with the content or design of your bio
   Revise your project to improve your work, adding whatever is missing or tweaking the design. Resubmit your project, and I will regrade your work. All revisions MUST be submitted by 11:59PM on the last day of class (Friday, 1/12).
3. If you did not submit your work at all
   It is too late. Be sure to turn in all the remaining projects if you want to pass the course.
4. If something else is going on
   Send me an email message or a private message in Canvas with the details. I’ll see what I can do to help you.

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.

Credits: Infographic was created on canva.com. Star icon from The Noun Project, used under a CC-BY 3.0 license: rating by Guilhem. Burruss Hall by joepyrek on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA 2.0 license.