ENC 3250 Professional Writing: Midterm

ReflectionBy: Zachary Yarish

The 5 Cs • The 5 Cs are Clear, Concise, Complete, Correct and Courteous.• In order to be clear it must be obvious if you are trying to persuade, request,

or inform your reader.• To be concise you must be short and to the point.• To be complete you must include all the details and news needed to

understand the letter, memo, or email.• To be correct you must have the proper grammar, correct format, spelling, and

punctuation.• To be courteous you must be careful with punctuation, capitalization, biased

language, and being polite when asking someone to do something.

What I've Learned• I've learned that without incorporating the 5 Cs in a letter, memo, or email, it

is very unprofessional. It is just like having a casual conversation if they are not involved.

• I've learned the 5 Cs very specifically as they are how we are graded on nearly every assignment we turn in.

• Understanding the 5 Cs is very important when you need to email a professor or boss with a question, concern, anything else you to talk to them about.

• I will be using the 5 Cs all the time in the future. I plan on doing something in business so I will have to incorporate these into every email I send whether it e to my boss or another colleague.

Chapter 1: The Writing Process• When writing, you must know what type of audience you are writing for.• Each document has to have a opening or introduction that should include one of the

following: objective, problem statement, scope, background, definition, anecdote, forecast, etc.

• A paragraphs 3 functions are to develop the unit of thought, provide a logical break in the material, and show a visual break on the page signaling a new topic.

• Point of view is the writers relation to the information that they have given.• The purpose of a document is what you want the reader to know, learn, or do once they

have read it.• Revision is extremely important after writing a paper to make sure you have no spelling

or grammar errors and to make sure you are getting your point across to the audience that is going to read it.

What I've Learned• The most important pieces I've learned from the writing process are

knowing the type of audience to write for, and determining the main purpose of a paper that I have written.

• I think the best way I learned these was when we did the complaint letter assignment. I had to be very specific in my purpose for complaining and I had to know who my audience was and how to talk to them.

• Learning this is very important so that I know how to get my point across with the audience understanding me.

• I will be using this all the time in the future whether I'm applying for a job, sending a letter to an old friend, or emailing a boss.

Chapter 2: Workplace Technology

• A blog is a web journal that a person or group of people write about their opinions, experiences, or provide information about a certain subject.

• A forum is basically a larger blog. People can respond to other posts but the can also start new topics or discussions.

• Email is the main way in a workplace to talk to clients, colleagues, and customers. It can be used as a letter, memo, or personal note.

• Instant messaging is communicating through text messaging. It is very useful when you need to know something on the spot.

• Video conferences are mainly used when traveling is unreasonable.• A fax is used when the information has to be seen in the original form.• Telephone and conference calls are best used when you need to interpret the other persons tone when

discussing a sensitive issue or resolving a problem.• Social media includes websites such as Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn which are used to create

online communities that have a similar interest and can discuss their opinions and share information.

What I've Learned• The most important thing I learned is how common and useful emailing can be.

It can be used to contact old friends or it could be used to solve an important business problem.

• I've learned this very specifically because almost each assignment that we have done could be transferred into an email and used in that form rather than word documents.

• Its very important learning about all the types of workplace technologies so that I know which ones I should use and how to use them when I need to.

• Right now the main ways I use of communicating are through text, email, and telephone calls but in the future I'm sure I will need to understand how to make a video conference, how to update or post something on a blog or forum, and how to communicate on a business related social media page.

Chapter 4: Correspondence• An adjustment letter or email is a response to a complaint letter explaining what

they are going to do about the complaint.• A complaint letter or email is a problem that the writer requests to have fixed.• The opening of a correspondence should include the subject and any other main

points.• Direct patterns are effective because readers like messages that get to the point.• Indirect patterns are effective when presenting a sensitive message.• Letters include a heading, inside address, salutation, optional subject line, body,

complimentary closing, writers signature block, and end notations.• A refusal is a negative letter, memo, or email.

What I've Learned• The most important thing I learned from this chapter was how to right a

letter and a memo.• We learned it quite extensively when we had to write a memo to the One

Book One Campus Organization.• This learning is significant because I will be doing it a lot in my future job

in business. I wont need to be taught how to do it because I will already know.

• I will be using this mainly for writing to my employees, colleagues, and or bosses. To improve the quality of my learning I will have to continue to practice writing and have my peers evaluate it for me.

Chapter 7: Design & Visuals• A flowchart uses symbols, words, or pictures to show the stages of a sequence from

start to finish.• The main graphs that are used are: line graphs, bar graphs, pie graphs, and picture

graphs.• Headings are the titles that show the main topic changes within the body of a

document.• Design principles include grouping(helps see relationships among items on page),

contrast(sets items apart), repetition, and typography(style and arrangement of text).• Design elements include justification, headings, headers and footers, lists, columns,

color, visuals, icons, and captions.• A table organizes numerical and verbal data into rows and columns.

What I've Learned• I've learned the most about the design elements and how important they

are to organize a document.• The assignment most related to what I learned is the memo to the One

Book One Campus Organization when I had to make the table with multiple rows and columns.

• This learning is important because at some point in the future I will need to know how to organize a table and make it easy to read with different colors or fonts.

• I'm sure I will be using these skills in the future when I have to make a presentation showing statistics and making it easy to understand.

Chapter 10: Style & Clarity• Affectation is using language that is more formal, technical, and or showy than

necessary.• Coherence is when relationships among ideas are clear to the audience.• Denotation is the actual meaning of the word.• Connotation is the meaning of the word associated beyond its literal definition.• Emphasis is when you stress the most important ideas.• A garbled sentence is a sentence that has so many grammar and structure

problems that it can’t be fixed.• Parallel structure is when sentence elements that are alike in function have the

same grammatical form too.• Tone is the attitude of the writer.

What I've Learned• The most important thing I learned is how affectation and parallel

structure affect how a sentence is read.• These were linked very highly in exam 2. It helped me understand

them much better by seeing a bunch of different examples.• Learning these are important so that I know not to try to use fancy

words to make my assignments seem better.• I will need to know how to use these correctly in the future so that

my sentences make sense and so I am not flashy with my sentences.

Work Cited• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brrusaw, Walter E. Oliu, 5 Cs

document• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, Chapter

1: The Writing Process (pp. 1-40)• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, Chapter

2: Workplace Technology (pp. 41-67)• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, Chapter

4: Correspondence (pp. 105-139)• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, Chapter

7: Design & Visuals• The Business Writers Companion, Gerald J. Alred, Charles T. Brusaw, Walter E. Oliu, Chapter

10: Style & Clarity (pp. 289 - 323)