ARCS Pg. 364 1 & 4

1.) Tropes

From Sports Illustrated: The All New King Cobra L5V Driver. Cobra's longest, straightest driver ever, with no adjustable settings to optimize ball flight.
From Sports Illustrated: The King Cobra Baffler DWS Utility Metal. The club that does everything can now do more.
From Sports Illustrated: All New '09 F-150. Man, trailers are like Wild Animals. They're always trying to get away from you.

3.) Hi Mr Freemat my name is Michael Ast, I talked to you with Jessica
Kinley before class on Thursday. I was wondering if you could reopen
homework 7 for me. I have completed and submitted all of the other
ones including homework 8 to this point. I also have attended almost
every class excep 1 or 2 of them so far. You can check on any of the sign in
sheets you passed out after some people left following the mid class
breaks. My name should be on all of them. Thanks

ARCS Pg. 318 2 & 3

2.) I decided to review the most recent major speech given by a presidential candidate. This is the concession speech given by the Republican candidate John McCain. In his speech McCain displayed narratives, partitions, and perorations.

From the start he provides his narrative topic by saying that even after a long and hard fought campaign the American people have spoken and decided to elect Barak Obama. He states this in the lines "My friends, we have come to the end of a long journey. The American people have spoken, and they have spoken clearly. A little while ago, I had the honor of calling Senator Barack Obama to congratulate him on being elected the next president of the country that we both love."

After stating the point of his speech McCain moves onto to label the partitions. These are the arguments that him and Obama may have as well as the issues they still disagree on. He does this to speak to his followers that he is still loyal to them and will keep his beliefs. McCain wanted to make it clear he still feels he would have made a better president but that Obama won and there is nothing he can do about it. This summed up when McCain said "Senator Obama and I have had and argued our differences, and he has prevailed. No doubt many of those differences remain. These are difficult times for our country, and I pledge to him tonight to do all in my power to help him lead us through the many challenges we face. I urge all Americans who supported me to join me in not just congratulating him, but offering our next president our goodwill and earnest effort to find ways to come together, to find the necessary compromises, to bridge our differences and help restore our prosperity, defend our security in a dangerous world, and leave our children and grandchildren a stronger, better country than we inherited."

Finally McCain closes things out by concluding his speech. Doing this is an example of his peroration. The peroration is summing up all of the major points discussed through out the speech. McCain does this when stating "I would not be an American worthy of the name, should I regret a fate that has allowed me the extraordinary privilege of serving this country for a half a century. Today, I was a candidate for the highest office in the country I love so much. And tonight, I remain her servant. That is blessing enough for anyone and I thank the people of Arizona for it.
Tonight, more than any night, I hold in my heart nothing but love for this country and for all its citizens, whether they supported me or Senator Obama, I wish Godspeed to the man who was my former opponent and will be my president. And I call on all Americans, as I have often in this campaign, to not despair of our present difficulties but to believe always in the promise and greatness of America, because nothing is inevitable here."

3.) Shapiro may need to adjust her language depending on who her audience was. Knowing your audience is one of the most important things for any writer to be aware of. However most people want to actually learn the issues and discover the news so it may ruin the quality of her work to dumb down or simplify any of the information she would want to include in her work. I do not see a problem with her writing but there certainly could be more sensitive people would prefer a lighter less harsh approach.

Freewrite - Final Project

For my project I am focusing on the fact that my subjects career is one of a professional writer and editor. I will be examining his job to determine his writing process. My research is similar to that of Jack seltzers since we are both investigating a subject while learning more about a career in general. In my project I will include an explanation for what exact steps he goes through when writing. This is similar to when Seltzer explained his need to use a rough draft.

ARCS Pg. 283 2 & 4

2.) Using the senses is something very important in certain aspects of writing. Each of the sense can play a major role in providing descriptions. It is important to use sensory details when describing an object or person in a paper or essay. One of the senses that I feel is the most unique and complicated is the sense of smell. The sense of smell is interesting to me because it can differ depending on the person and situation. Most everything that has a taste has a smell. However not everything that tastes good smells good. Certain foods such as mushrooms or spinach do not have the best of smells but there are some people that enjoy the tastes. You can not just rely on the smell of something in order to determine if it will also have a positive taste. When a person is trying a new food they usually smell it first to attempt to picture if it will be worth it to try. It is even common for someone to to claim that they do not like a food because it smells bad when in reality they may have not ever have tasted that same food.

4.) I have found it that incorporating sources is one of the toughest parts of writing. Usually I know what I want to say quickly and how it will fit in my paper but until I relate the statement back to a source it is not credible. If the source is not reliable then my sentence could lose credibility. I tend to spend more time researching my ideas even when at times I already know them to be fact. For this paper sources are not as important, however, it is necessary for me to conduct an interview with the subject so that my information can be traced back to my report. I plan to use quotes from my interview portion and even comments made by my subject while I was observing him writing.

ARCS Pg. 186

Elvis has left the building

Elvis is no longer in the location

Elvis is gone

The end

Ancient Rhetorics Pg. 153 4 & 5

4.) Recently with our economy's struggles there has been the idea of a bailout plan. This plan is designed to help out the stock market and therefor save the economy from falling any further. I understand the main purpose of this and why it is being done but I am not clear on the inner workings and thoughts behind this. Why was this brought up from what seemed out of nowhere and why was this being pushed so hard without warning? A bill such as this one is something that usually is discussed and argued for a while before going through. It was not long after it was first talked about at least by the media that it was being voted on. How long was this plan in the works and underground before being brought to our attention. Could this have been done earlier in a lesser form to avoid even having a need for a bailout? Of course if the economy was not as bad as it is right now this idea would not even be considered but since it is why are there not other possibilities being offered?. A news story such as this is something that can affect everyone and is influential to our society as a whole. Going through this topic heuristically has allowed me to develop several more arguments that expand on my original thoughts about the subject. This type of topic is never ending.

5.) In the news media there are publications or stations that have there own agenda and lean one direction over the other. This fact affects how they report the news and what stories they may discuss or leave off. The presidential election is a perfect example of this. A conservative station such as FOX News would depict the Republican candidate John McCain in a positive light and the Democratic nominee Barak Obama in a negative one as often as possible. This is to try to persuade its viewers to agree with them and teach them about things that would direct them into that path. FOX compared to CNN which is considered more liberal will focus more on Obama's connection with Bill Ayers while CNN and Larry King may cover it but try to emphasise how that is not someone he still associates with and how long ago that was. FOX most likely would counter that by including numerous segments storying there connection to each other and why it is important for the American people to be aware of it especially now. It is important for each person to be informed and watch both stations with this knowledge and to be able to view them with an open mind. Both programs incorporate an intelligent way of covering the election but just like the candidates themselves have opinions that the viewer may not always agree with. Understanding this reality will help people better know all of the issues and then give them a chance to make a smart developed opinion on everything.

Specifying Analysis of Data

After reviewing all of the readings and people we have studied to this point I have been able to learn several different methods of how to analyze the materials for my research. I now can look over the materials and know exactly what documents would be better suited for persuasion and which ones would work well by just asking more questions. It seems that most of the materials for my project should be analyzed similar to how Pryor would. I am looking into the writing process of my subject and how his writing compares to my own. This means I will be interpreting what type of writing and how my subject went about composing the document. I May also be taking direct quotes from his work to explain his audience and why he wrote a certain way. It may help me to better develop a conclusion and to persuade my readers that my subject is indeed a professional writer. Going back and figuring out where he acquired the knowledge he needed to write the document and why he chose to include some language while excluding other terms and phrases.

Ideologic: Arguments

Ideology: Set of beliefs, values, ideas that shape how someone views the world
Feminism
Conservatism, Liberalism
Humanism
Communism, Capitalism
Libertarianism
Environmentalism

Common Topic: Specific procedures/set of questions for generating arguments (heuristics)

Common Place: Family "Someone people can take comfort in"
"Taken for granted unstated"

Self help
Altruism
Frontier
Faith in God guides the nation
Patriotism
Loyalty
National flags, anthems
Truth telling

"Keeping Austin Weird"
1. An "ideal" city is a weird city
2. A weird city has lots of different people, different shops, different ideas, different cultures
A weird city is heterogeneous
3. Austin is a weird city
4. Homogeneity is not weird
5. Box stores corporations promote homogeneity
6. Government should promote what is unique in a city rather than what is "the same."
7. Austin Policy should keep local stores here rather than inviting in corporations

"Guns don't kill people, people kill people
"Earth first"
"Guns don't do anything on their own"
"Bad people make guns bad through bad choices"
"People are inherently good or bad"
"Good people will allow laws, bad people will ignore laws, governments job is to protect the community"
"Responsible people should be given rights; irresponsible forfeit their rights"
"Gun ownership is an inherent American right"

Freewrite - Abstract

Motivation/Problem statement: The research I am covering consists of discovering the connection a head radio engineer has with broadcasters. While doing this I will study his writing and compare it with the work of my own as a broadcaster for the same station. It is essential for anyone involved or interested in professional writing to look over my research. Doing so can provide you with a better understanding of the numerous opportunities for professional writers and exactly how broad a field it is. This could hep students better equip themselves by incorporating a professional writing degree into their concentration. Communication as well as engineering students may find this research shockingly interesting and important.

Methods/procedure/approach: In order to come to my conclusion and results I conducted an interview with a prominent figure in this field. I interviewed the head engineer at the radio station I am currently working for. During my interview I followed him through out a normal day at the office and studied his writing process. At times I took notes if something stood out to me or seemed very different or similar to how I write casts and other work there. A period of time was set aside where I sat down and asked questions based on information I wanted to know about his job. Follow up questions were even asked at times.

Results/findings/product: After completing my research I was able to draw a few conclusions similar to my hypothesis. I discovered that this engineer was truly a professional writer. The amount of writing and type of writing he developed everyday was something only a skilled writer could do. I also realized that his writing had some similarities but was very different to the work I complete as a broadcaster. He does not focus on short phrases as much and his audience is only his peers unlike mine being the public.

Conclusion/implications: This research can help students understand their possible job options.

Incorporating Genres

Understanding genres has now provided me with a better sense of how to go about my project. I now have a blueprint or outline in my head of the steps I will be taking. This lesson gave me a clear rubric of what order each aspect of my research will go and how to use it. The necessity of including descriptive details was made evident.

Activity 3 P. 94

I have probably written hundreds of papers through out my schooling on several topics. Almost all of them have taught one thing or another about myself and my writing ability. Each one helps to demonstrate how I have adapted and grown as a writer over time. The paper that I believe most closely relates to this course is one I wrote for my technical writing class last spring. This class was taught by the same professor and ironically was structured similar. I completed a technical description project which included a paper explaining a product. I chose to dissect a top of the line golf club. This assignment forced me to incorporate multiple aspects of writing. I had to both introduce this club to my audience while at the same time attempt to persuade them to use it. We are currently learning how to analyze several different people and how they go about writing in their everyday lives. The writers we are analyzing have been for the most part teachers or mentors of some kind who were conveying their craft to a group. When working on the technical description I needed to put myself in the mindset of my audience and begin to ponder what they would want to hear. It was essential to write with the audience in mind because I was trying to impress them with my product and explain why it is the best driver on the market today. I also used golf lingo at times which is similar to how the graffiti artist spoke in terms that only his students would understand. Every project from the technical writing class has help to provide a leg up when diving into the assignments for this course. They each introduced new skills as well as overlapped different forms of writing. Following my experiences to date in these type of classes I have been able to realize my natural talents and strengths when it comes to writing.

Reflections of Observations

When observing my group I made sure to be accurate and attempt to understand their writing process. I remembered how they observed my partner and I while we were working on the assignment so I wanted to incorporate similar tactics now that it was my turn. I took notes and wrote down anything that I felt was important that they said while discussing the questions. I immediately noticed that they were taking a different approach then we had taken. This was not a wrong way of going about it just different. They decided to focus on the potential courses available in the Professional writing and editing program. My partner and I chose to use this as a form of persuading people to major or minor in PWE. We focused more on the future and how this program would help you with possible career choices. The group I observed acted as if striving for a high grade based on writing abilities was the most important reason to be apart of the program. I also noticed that even with an extra person this group took a little longer to complete the task. They spent time going back and forth between the questions and there document. One of the members continuously would attempt to gain clarification and re ask questions trying to determine if they were going in the proper direction. After looking back on this activity I realized it will provide me with a glimpse of what I may be doing in my research. I am planning on observing my subject while he is at work and recording what he does and most notably what he writes. That is basically a much larger version of what our group did in class the other day.

Statis Theory Questions - DA Register to Vote

Topic: Voting/Political Participation

Question: Should young adults participate in the political process?

Theoretical: Can, Abstract ideas

Should youth participate in politics?
Does the voting process act as a good way to decide direction for the community?

Practical: Should, Action/specific

Conjecture: Does credibility exist in the voting process?

A. "Purity" of the Democratic process
B. Lack of political participation

What is the reason for lack of participation? What are its effects? How can it be changed? Why do political parties target young voters? What kind of ways are youth participating? What are they doing?

Definition: How can it be defined? What makes it up?

What kind of thing is voting? Is voting a luxury or it a duty or it's right or it a priovilege or a responsibility or a responsibility or obligation?

What is "Political participation"? What are its parts?

Quality: Simple, Comparative

Is it right to vote not knowing the issues and candidates v.s. not voting at all? Is it more base to pay attention to the political process when there's so much negativity or is it more base to "tune off"? Is it honorable to vote? Is it better for the youth to participate in the process or should the "experienced" make the decisions?

Policy: Should action be taken?

Class Update 3

At this point in the course I feel comfortable with most aspects of our project. I feel that after reviewing the job application package as well as studies y other writers I am ready to conduct my research. I have a person that will be my subject and have a good idea if the type of questions I might ask him. The goals of the project are clear to me as I am trying to discover how my subject uses writing in his career. I then am supposed to uncover more about how his job relates to my career goals and how writing is incorporated into both. It is important to remember the type of audience I am writing to but I am still unclear as to how that relates to this since it seems obvious.

Class Update 2

I feel that out of everything we have covered so far in this class I understood our recent discussions about the job application package the most. This was a project I had previously completed during my time in the technical writing course. That gave me a leg up on knowing what went in to the project and how I personally completed each aspect of it. I found it easy to apply it to our current assignment. There were similarities based on knowing who your audience is and what parts to focus in on more then others. Both projects also incorporate research of a job and force you to focus on narrowing down the career that would most suit your abilities. However I was not as clear on what a discourse community is. I am unsure of how it is different if at all from just doing an audience analysis. If it is similar why is understanding a discourse community important?

Exploratory Essay

When working on the exploratory essay I had to go through several steps. First I began to think for possible careers related to professional writers to cover. This was easy because I have a pretty good idea of what I want to do in life and what type of jobs are available. I also have experience in my field of broadcasting so I already had first hand knowledge to go off of. After deciding on the type of job to study I then started to reflect on possible interview research subjects. Once I thought of the people who have helped me and who are my superiors at the radio station I work for I immediately knew who would be perfect. From then on my essay was simple. I just mapped out a path for completing my research and why I would be doing certain things. I provided the activities and responsibilities my subject takes part in on a daily basis. This was to show him in a credible light and why he is a legitimate person to cover for the project. It also allowed the reader to understand how his position connects to the work of a professional writer and editor. The rest of my paper goes over the process I will incorporate when studying my subjects job and everything that includes. I state how I will be able to use this research as a tool to reflect on during my career. My subject may give me a glimpse of what activities I may be doing in the future. Questions I will ask and possible answers to them are added to the essay. The answers are only predictions of what I think may be reasons for what the subject needs to do and why. I will later be able to look back on my exploratory essay at the beginning of my research in order to determine just how much I actually do know about my subjects job. I will have a chance to see if I truly understand how people in broadcasting and media write.

Discourse Community

I am a member of the West Virginia University radio station. There I am involved in the broadcasting aspect of the station. I write and perform sports and news casts. This is updating the public on the sports and basic news of the day. In order to communicate with the other broadcasters we use e-mail as well as calling each other. The communication is something that takes place daily. We update each other on breaking stories and what events we need to cover. After games or events in the area i conduct interviews of the players and important figures. There I ask questions on their opinions of what happened and why things took place the way they did. Our communication also involves weekly meetings where we get together and discuss any suggestions for change or to update everyone on how each persons role may impact the station as a whole. Without some form of routine communication the radio station would not be able to function at all.

Rhetorical Activities 1 & 4

1.) I reviewed the articles in two famous sports related magazines. Sports Illustrated and ESPN Magazine both contain articles covering numerous issues in the world of sports. These issues can range from predicting which team will win to the environment in China during the Olympics. This assignment allowed me to look at these two publications in a way I had not to this point. Instead of just reading or quickly scanning through to compare my predictions with professional sports writers or to review a particular writer depicts the struggle of certain a athlete I dissected the articles to see how each writer reported the story.

One major topics in the recent additions of both magazines was the Olympics. This years Olympics was filled with great triumph like Michael Phelps winning 8 gold medals to break Mark Spitz's record and great controversy like the Chinese women's gymnastics teams age scandal. Both ESPN and Sports Illustrated covered these issues multiple times. I noticed that ESPN gave a more in depth look at the whole picture and how it truly affected everyone involved. By this I mean they did not hesitate as much to focus in on the negative. The ESPN writers offered their opinions and never went off path when trying to uncover the story. They wanted to find the truth discover what the age of the gymnasts were and how that scandal affected the other athletes and the rest of the games. ESPN also included interviews and opinions from both the American and Chinese sides. In contrast Sports Illustrated focused almost entirely on the positives. They spent multiple issues on Phelps and his achievements as well as the return of the men's basketball teams gold medal win. SI wanted its readers to learn about the Phelps family and what went on behind the scenes. They told of his loving relationship with his mother and the intense training he has gone through to get to this point. Mark Spitz's opinion of his record being broken and a comparison of the two Olympians was added. There only was a small blurb in one edition about the gymnastic age scandal. This blurb also was done in a humorous way. It seemed that ESPN was more willing to go head first at the tough stories while SI aimed to please and wanted to depict a more sunshine and rainbows type environment of these Olympics when clearly not everything that went on was all positive.

4.) I decided to focus on a story about the life and recent death of NFL Players Representative Gene Upshaw. This is an important article for any NFL fan to read as he truly was one of the most influential figures in the sports history. This also seemed important since I am an avid sports fan trying to make a career out of covering the world of sports. The NFL is the most popular sport and its fans need to be aware of its important figures. Upshaw is probably known by all football fans as the long time hard nose Players Rep. Most fans may know him from several stories telling of the battles he would have with the commissioner on issues regarding the league. However, he was not just a jerk who wanted to make the players more money. Gene Upshaw truly cared about his job. He worked to establish a union in the NFL and worked to make it one of the strongest in the country. During his time in office Upshaw fought for the players rights. Even though he is not noted for this Upshaw even was able to actually increase the players pension plan and give long time retired men the money that had been owed to them for decades. This was all not only done because it was his job but because he first was a player himself. Upshaw was also not your average player he was a Hall of Fame guard for many years. He spent his entire career with the Raiders organization. While with the Raiders Upshaw powered a line that was one of the most feared in NFL history. Gene Upshaw won 2 Super Bowl championships, made it to 7 Pro Bowls, and was an 11 time All-Pro selection through out his career. The Raiders even retired his jersey number of 63 after his retirement. For his achievements on the field Upshaw was named as a both a member of the NFL's All-Decade Team for the 1970's as well as being placed on the leagues 75th Anniversary All-Time Team. His hard working attitude and power were attributes that many current guards incorporate in their careers. The numbers on the field earned him enshrinement into the Professional Football Hall of Fame in 1987 but his tenure as Player Rep. will do nothing but increase his legacy. Gene Upshaw may now be gone but certainly should never be forgotten by any fan of the National Football League.

Gene Upshaw 1945-2008 R.I.P.

Class Update

I have now come to realize the many types of jobs that involve professional writing forms. There are numerous careers that would not be classified as to involve writing but actually do just as much as the more common professions. The field of broadcasting that I am embarking in could actually be a type of professional writing career. When broadcasting on the radio it may now even be helpful to do a quick audience analysis.

The Process of Communication in the Workplace

Communication is one of the most important aspects in a working environment. It is also a necessity for a long successful career. Proper communication does not always come easy and can take time to perfect. A person needs to know how to adapt the way they communicate both verbally and non verbally depending on the situation and the other participants. In a workplace it is necessary to develop a good relationship with your co-workers as well as your superiors. Doing this is not always as simple as just being nice or working hard. You need to learn how to communicate by expressing yourself clearly. In the lives of professional writers and editors communicating is essential for success. Professional writers do most of their communicating by documenting their needs and wants. They write what they are looking for in other people such as co-workers as well as what they can bring to the table. It is important for writers to communicate in the workplace more then any other part of their lives. A lack of proper communication can lead to failing a task or being thought of as not doing your job. Communication is done to administrate and let others know how you will go about completing the task and the process that will lead you and the rest of the organization to the so called promise land. Communication is not like taking notes or recording information that encompasses other parts of some professional writing careers, however it is documenting information to provide to equal peers.

Brainstorming PWE Positions

*What different skills does a technical writer need to have that other professional writers may not?

What kind of ethics do technical writers have?

How do editors deal with controversial subjects or things they don't believe in?

How does a technical writer sort through their information to decide what is worth publishing and what can be discarded?

What does it take for a technical writers work to be respected and used?

Rhetorical Activities 2 & 4

2.) Today people argue about almost anything. Arguing has become a form of speech just as common as talking. Most people can even find themselves arguing about something that they truly don't even care about. Sometimes during an argument the people involved tend to discover they agree with each other and there was no need for the argument to take place at all. Our current society doesn't not think anything of arguments unless they become more serious then the normal everyday argument. During each day people argue about very little things like where to go to lunch or who is better between Kobe and Michael Jordan. These are not serious arguments but even these debates can become heated and spark a possible confrontation.

I work for the WVU college radio station of U92. I am involved in both the sports and news departments there. While at the station employees who are either just sitting around in between classes or are working on a cast tend to randomly get in arguments. During each day we argue about very little things usually like where to get lunch or who is better between Kobe and Michael. These are not serious but sometimes can lead to heated debates. We do not mean to be cruel or scream but in the heat of the moment it just happens. Sports and politics are hot button issues at the station and people have strong opinions one way or the other. This sets them off and forces you to defend what you believe in. Everyone there is studying some form of English or broadcasting in college and is not afraid to speak their mind. We have both theatrical arguments as well as rhetorically engaged arguments in our everyday lives. A theatrical argument is where the participants yell until there points are heard. This is similar to the example to the arguments I described at the station. A rhetorically engaged argument usually has a winner and loser. In this type of argument one person tends to stand out and dominate the debate even though both people get time to state their points. However, in a theatrical argument it is hard to determine a fair winner or loser since not everyone always has time to speak and the content can be lost in the shouting match.

4.) There are many reason why people change their minds about topics. When one person feels a certain way he or she may attempt to persuade someone else to agree with them. Persuasion is something that can be a skill and can only work if done correctly. If you start out by looking down at the person for their beliefs or by coming across as arrogant the persuasion most likely will fall on deaf ears.

I am usually an open person. I am eager to learn new things and can accept change if it is presented to me properly. It may be hard to change my mind about something but it can be done if enough facts are presented in the opposite direction. This was true for me recently in the presidential race. I originally felt as if Obama did not have enough experience to lead our country and even though I am a Democrat was not going to vote for him. I then decided to conduct research sparked by others and after reviewing all the facts have since changed my opinion on the matter and realize he is the best man for the country at this time.

Controversial topics such as changing ones religion is a very serious issue. Most people feel strongly about their religious beliefs and do not change them. In order to persuade someone about religion or even for a person to switch religions a lot of work needs to be put in. This work includes first hand research as well as trying to live that religion experience for yourself. It is important in a decision like that one you take everything into account and know what your getting into before making the change official. Other serious issues are easier to persuade someone about. Deciding to stop smoking is very difficult to be successful at but usually smokers try to stop at some point or another. This is due to the obvious health risks attached to the habit. These risks are on the labels and are made evident by commercials and other forms of media. Deciding to attempt to quit smoking is something that may not even take much persuading because the smoker may want to be healthier on their own. This could be for themselves or wanting to live long for their loved ones. The only catch with this is smoking is an addictive habit and is hard to stop all together it takes time to eventually be done. It can not just be stopped cold turkey. Finally the topic of how people become racist usually goes back to how a person was brought up. Most racist people had racist parents and are around other racist individuals reinforcing their negative beliefs. If this same person was born to non racist parents and was surrounded by accepting people. Being around others who do not judge a person by the color of their skin or where they are from might help to change that person and they probably would not be racist to begin with. Presidents use all of these approaches when either running for office or when trying to persuade the public to agree with them. Recently this is seen in the President trying to use these strategies to persuade the public to believe he made the right call in deciding to go to war with Iraq and other terroristic countries.

The Composing Process of an Engineer

Why did Jack Selzer want to study the composing process of an engineer?

Selzer wanted to investigate how someone in a profession that was outside the norm used writing their lives. Engineers are not typically thought of as people who are professional writers. They are not considered people who use writing that often. Selzer may have been interested in looking into a job such as an engineer for those reasons. He wanted to learn how engineers use writing and what type of writing they incorporate into their career. Selzer hoped to examine their scripts of tasks or jobs, letters about engineer work, and other pieces of writing that are different for engineers then any other more common professional writing job.

How do engineers plan, write, arrange, and revise?

What did you find interesting, unique, or surprising about his answer to this question?

Selzer realized the engineer used many similar techniques that someone who was writing a big research paper would also include. The engineer did have a structure and topic sentence in his writing like most more common forms would use. However the engineer spent more time planning and making sure everything was sound in his work. The engineer of course did not spend time trying to translate his writings as they would be easily understood by fellow engineers working on the same assignments. I was surprised how much the engineer focused on the audience analysis stage. Since he does not dumb down his work it was curious that he spends most of his time trying to determine who his audience is and what they may want to know. The engineer also doesn't revise or change his work often he just makes sure it is accurate originally.

How did Selzer convince you he was correct or on target?

The investigation into the engineers every day writing and his process gives Selzer credibility. He spent time studying how the engineer jotted information down and what steps he goes through. Selzer did not guess but examined every move of the engineer while observing him in his natural habitat at work. Selzer did this by recording the engineer exactly how he went about his writing. After his study Selzer collected all of the engineers documents and looked over them with a fine tooth comb.

*The engineer only spent 5% of his time revising.
*He spent 80% in the planning phase.

Proffessional Writers and Possible Futures

During my time in school I have realized that writing is one of my strong suits. Having the ability to construct a proper well thought out piece of writting is something that should truly be appreciated. This skill can be very usefull not only while in college but also in the work force. In almost every type of professional career writing comes into play. That fact makes it one of the most important aspects and abilities to learn. There are many different forms of writing. Writing can be as complicated as analyzing a piece of literary work or constructing a brief news cast.

Many people who feel writing comes easy chose to focus on it while in school and incorporate it into their future career. There are many options and career choices for professional writing students. Some of these include working for a magazine or publishing company. If involved in either of those fields a person will possibly write articles or stories as well as looking over already written novels and sections of different magazine genres. You can also focus in on your interest in a career such as one of these by deciding to work for a magazine or publication that focuses on music, sports, or any other form of popular culture and hobby. Another type of potential career path for a professional writer is working for a law firm or hospital. In these jobs you would write legal scripts for a case or record medical information for a patient. All of these possible options are well paying jobs that can lead to a successful and fullfilling life.

There are positions that may require a lot of writing where the person would not even consider themselves a professional writer or even someone who feels it to be a strong suit of theirs. Examples of jobs such as this are engineers and numerous types of broadcasters. Both of these two careers are involved with the media in television and radio. Most people with either of these two jobs would classify themselves as professional writers but use a significant amount of writing every day. Engineers need to write when jotting down the information they need to know while using their technology. They also have special lingo that only other engineers would know. This lingo is written down in most cases. Engineers in both the radio and t.v. world communicate with their co workers every second especially while on air. During a show engineers need to quickly be able to translate in writing what they need and have done in order to have a successful program for the on air talent. An example of this is an engineer for a show such as "Sunday Night Baseball" which shows the Major League Baseball game of the week during the season.

From my own personal experience being a Communications major in college with an English minor I have realized broadcasters with a strong writing background have a leg up on the competition. I have been involved in the college radio station for West Virginia University and have worked in both the news and sports departments. There I have discovered the several different ways a broadcaster uses writing in their lives. They need to know how to write casts which are a skill all in themselves. It is necessary to write casts in certain ways. This is true in that passive voice is forbidden by reporters who are broadcasting news updates or political stories in which the persons opinion is not supposed to be added. A professional writer would have a much easier time adjusting to this type of writing then someone who just knows how to speak and not write as well. Casts also universally for all broadcasters need to have short phrases and statements on each line. This is to not bore the viewer or listener. When reporting what took place in last nights game it is necessary to get to the point as quickly as possible while still be entertaining and interesting. Having a strong writting background will help a broadcaster do this easily by knowing how to break down information and put information into sections signifying breaths in the cast.

Do not hesitate to use a solid writing ability to help fullfill your hopes and deams career wise. There are tons of great options out there for all types of writers with vast interests.