Today you will complete peer review for the second project and then submit your work by the end of the day. Remember that you have a 24-hour grace period if you need an extension.

Readings for January 2

For today’s session, please review the following, as necessary:

• Editing and Proofreading tips and skim Appendix B of Markel.
• Guidelines on “Organizing a Memo” in Markel, on p. 232.
• FAQs on the Google Drive system.

Work for January 2

• Complete the Reading Quizzes on Chapters 1, 3, 4, 6, 7, & 9 by 11:55 PM tonight (01/02)
• Complete the peer review activities:
  • Post drafts for Project 2 in the forums.
  • Respond to two students in the forums.
  • Revise your Project 2 based on the feedback.
• Write your reflection memo and submit your project.

• Writing your reflection memo.
  The reflection memo is your chance to tell me anything you want me to know about your project. I will read your reflection before I read the project.

• Sharing your project links.
  For this project, your reflection memo will give me the link(s) to your spreadsheet and to your analysis memo, if you created one.

  • Your spreadsheet should be well-organized with clearly labeled headings and an appropriate title. Make sure that the information in your spreadsheet is grammatically parallel (see pp. 122–123 of Markel and if you need more information). In other words, the information in each column should match in grammatical structure.

  • If you are turning in an analysis memo, ensure that you include all six characteristics of technical communication and that you have used design features (like headings) to arrange the memo in a way that increases readability.

Writing Your Reflection Memo and Submitting Your Project

Follow these instructions to submit your work:

1. Go to the Assignments tab on the left menu in Scholar.
2. Choose “P2: Writing in Your Field.”
3. Scroll down to the text box below the headings Submission and Assignment Text. You will write your reflection memo in this box. (Alternately, you can write in a word processor and copy/paste your text into this box.)
4. Add your memo headers (To, From, Subject, and Date). For your reflection memo, you’ll use the following:
• Address your memo to me (Traci) and from you (use your name).
• Add a subject line that indicates this is your reflection memo and which project it is for.
• Add the current date.
5. Insert a horizontal divider line using the button indicated with the red arrow in the image below:
   
6. Introduce your project—what are your overall goals, what grade have you aimed for, and what documents have you written for the project?
7. For each part of the project you have written (e.g., spreadsheet, analysis memo), do the following:
   1. Label the document so I know whether it is your spreadsheet or analysis memo.
   2. For each part of the project, add the Share link to the document on your Google Drive. Use the instructions for how to get the Share link on the FAQ site if you are unsure how to share documents (see the tips below).
   3. Explain who the audience for your statement(s) is. What do I need to know to understand the information you have included and the tone you have used?
   4. Tell me anything else you want me to know about the project, including the content, the layout and design, and any images you included.
8. Review the information for your project. You should have a block for each piece you have written that tells me what it is, gives me the link, and tells me about it.
9. Add a concluding section that tells me anything else you want me to know about your project.
10. Agree to the Honor Code by clicking the checkbox at the bottom of the page in Scholar. You cannot finish submitting the project without clicking that checkbox (and it’s easy to miss).
11. Submit Project 2, and save a copy of the confirmation and submission ID. If something goes wrong in Scholar, you can contact 4HELP with that information.
12. Celebrate! You’ve finished the second project!

Tips on Using Google Drive

The FAQ site has step-by-step instructions for tasks you will complete with your Google Drive, including converting your document if you have worked in another word processor, adding comments, and sharing your documents are all included.

To make sure that you can submit your first project smoothly, pay attention to the following FAQs:

• If you worked in something other than Google Drive, you can use your preferences to automatically convert files you upload to Google Drive automatically.
  This step is important so that I can use the commenting features in Google Drive.
• If you already uploaded a document to Google Drive, check the format of your files and manually convert the files on Google Drive if necessary.
• Follow the instructions on how to set permissions and get the Google Drive Share link to get a link that will allow me to read and comment on your document.

Note that if your documents are in the wrong format or the permissions do not allow me to comment, I will return your work ungraded.

• Post drafts for Project 2 in the forums.
• Respond to two students in the forums.
• Revise your Project 2 based on the feedback.

Posting Your Drafts for Project 2

1. Go to the Project 2: Analysis of Writing in Your Field forum, and start a new topic:
   • Give the topic your name or your username, and your career or field (e.g., “Traci, college writing instructor”).
   • If you do not want to share your last name in the forums, change it in your Google Doc to a pseudonym. You can use a generic last name like Doe or Smith, or you can change it to Lastname.
   • Share the link to your spreadsheet in Google Docs (and your analysis memo, if you wrote one). You can follow these instructions to make your link clickable.
   • If you have any specific concerns that you want your readers to consider, add a note on that as well.

2. Be sure to Preview your forum post to make sure everything shows up the way you want it to, and then Submit your message.

Replying to Project 2 Drafts

Next, you will reply to the posts of some of your classmates:

1. Go to the Project 2: Analysis of Writing in Your Field forum, and read the drafts of at least two of your classmates and add a reply with advice and encouragement (more below).
   • Find one post that no other student has replied to (so that we can be sure everyone gets a reply).
   • Find a second post that has only one other student reply.

2. Use the Share link to go to your classmate’s draft on Google Drive and do the following:

   • Check the title of the document(s), and add a comment to tell your partner if it is clear and effective.
   • If you notice any spelling errors, punctuation errors, or typos, mark them as you read, but please focus more on the content rather than editing.
   • Add comments on the content of the draft. Comment on at least three things your classmate does well and at least three things that your classmate could improve on. It’s fine to include more than the minimum number of comments.
   • If your classmate has included the optional analytical memo, check whether the draft addresses all six characteristics of technical communication. If anything is missing, add a comment that lets your partner know.

3. Go back to the forums and add a reply to your classmate’s topic that includes this information:

   • Add an overall comment that sums up what you thought of the draft(s).
   • Give your classmate some encouragement.

Reviewing the Comments You Received

Once you have finished adding comments to your classmates’ projects, return to your own draft, read the comments that your classmates have given you, and add replies as appropriate. For instance, you might thank your partner for catching an error, ask your partner for more detail on feedback you don’t understand, or share a revision and ask your partner if it is an improvement. Your goal is to reply by mid-afternoon so that your classmate can respond if you need more information.

Many of you have already turned in your first project. If you are taking advantage of the grace period, you should have your work in my 11:55 PM tonight, December 31. Today we move on to Project 2, which is due Friday night at 11:55 PM.

Readings for December 31

For today’s session, please read the following:

• The assignment for Project 2.
• Information on using Google’s spreadsheet tool.
• Details on document design and chapter 7 of Markel.
• Information on kinds of correspondence and chapter 9 of Markel.

Work for December 31

• Get started on your second project.
  • Think of your audience for this project as yourself, and your purpose is to learn about the characteristics of the kinds of writing you will typically do in the workplace. A year from now, if you were in the workplace, you should be able to come back to this analysis to remind yourself of the features to include in whatever you are writing.
  • Don’t panic if you find that you have an empty slot on your spreadsheet. If one of the columns is irrelevant for one of the documents you have listed, that is okay.
  • Likewise, if you cannot find an example of the document online to link to, that’s okay too.
  • Remember however that you need to account for those empty spaces in your reflection memo when you submit your project.

• Go to Tests & Quizzes in Scholar, and complete the reading quizzes on Chapter 7 and Chapter 9 of Markel by 11:55 PM on Friday, January 2. See the policies for quizzes on the course logistics page, and see the Announcements in Scholar for details in the change of due dates for this first week of classes.

Optional: Discussing the Example Memos

The example memos included on on the Project 2 assignment page were written by students who were analyzing a piece of technical writing in their field using the six characteristics of technical writing that are explained in Markel, Chapter 1. If you are aiming for an A, these memos are similar to what you need to write.

If you are aiming for an A on Project 2, this activity will help you with your writing:

1. Read through the Example Analysis Memos. You don’t have to read every word, but look at them well enough to get a sense of how they work, what they do well, and what they could improve on.

2. Go to the Discussion of Example Memos topic in the forums and weigh in on which of the examples seemed more effective. You can quote someone else’s post or just start in on your own ideas. You will find some guiding questions in the forum post.

I very strongly advise you to work in Google from the start on this project. Excel spreadsheets do not convert perfectly to Google, and you will ultimately end up frustrated.

Getting Help with Google Spreadsheets

If you need a tutorial, go to the Virginia Tech login for Lynda.com, and then watch the section on Working with spreadsheets. You are only entering text in your spreadsheets, so you don’t need to worry about making calculations or using functions and formulas. If you run into trouble, post a question in the Questions about Project 2 topic in the forums or email me directly.