To                   Dr. Jared Grogan

From               Michael Holcomb 

Date                April 25, 2015

Subject           Performance Review Memo

 

Introduction

 

            My experience this semester in English 3050 has been one that I can say I have learned a lot from. Not only have I learned a lot but I have also grown quite a bit as a technical writer. I can say that over the course of the semester I have been able to successfully meet the learning objectives for this course which are:

• Writing and designing: Being able to write effectively individually and collaboratively in standard genres of technical writing while also making appropriate use of grammar, mechanics, style, and document design.

• Reading and analyzing: Reading, analyzing, and evaluating the design of, and audience and purpose for technical documents.

• Researching and documenting: Designing and conducting primary and secondary research along with evaluating appropriate sources when composing technical documents.

• Using technology and media: making productive use of current technologies for reading, researching, writing, and technical documents.

     

            Meeting these objectives not only helped me pass this course, but they also helped me develop into a solid technical writer that can successfully write technical documents such as medical reports in the future. Throughout the semester I completed a variety of individual and collaborative projects that demonstrate how I have met these learning outcomes for this course.

 

Individual Performance Review

           

            Over the course of the semester the majority of my work was done individually. For each and every assignment it can be seen that I demonstrated all four course learning outcomes.  In terms of the first learning outcome of writing and designing, the professional resume and cover letter I completed shows that I met this outcome. Both documents are unlike normal documents with their own formal format and design. I was able to successfully write using the formal language, format, and design of a resume and a cover letter. For example, my resume featured sections each with different information included. Some of these sections included education, experience, and technical skills. Also because this type of technical writing is formal, I made sure to use proper grammar while also maintaining a formal tone. This assignment in particular proves that I met the individual writing and designing learning outcome for this course.

 

            Secondly, I was able to meet the reading and analyzing outcomes through the completion of my individual assignments. Before I could write my resume and cover letter I needed to read about and analyze my audience which was the organization I was applying to: Encore Rehabilitation Services. After I read about the organization I was then able to draw conclusions about what the organization was looking for in possible employees and what I needed to tell them in my resume/ cover letter. I also did this when constructing my WikiHow instruction set, by reading about both the general WikiHow audience as well as my target audience which was individuals interested in learning Karate. Reading about the audiences allowed me to focus on what my audiences would look for in my documents and in turn meet the individual reading and analyzing outcome.

 

            While I did not do as much researching as I did during the collaborative project, I did do some researching and documenting which enabled me to meet the individual learning outcome. For my WikiHow instruction set, I had to conduct a little research in order to make a successful instruction set written for the particular audiences I was targeting. I did some secondary research on Karate and on the WikiHow website in general to ensure that my instruction set was an accurate success. This document alone illustrates that individually I was able to meet the researching and documenting learning outcome.

                                                                                          

            Lastly, I successfully achieved the learning outcome of using technology and media. For all of my assignments I used technology which included our class Wiki cite. All of my assignments including the SWAs were posted on my wiki page via our class wiki cite. Although I had my own wiki page with all of my assignments on it, my professional webpage which I made for project one also had all of my assignments as well as other professional documents. My webpage was done using the website Wix.com. This website allowed me to design my own professional looking webpage. These assignments helped me learn more about technology and in turn meet the using technology and media learning outcome.

 

            Each of my individual assignments were different technical documents and required different writing processes. For instance, my resume and cover letter required me to have a professional approach being sure to use a formal and professional language, while my SWAs were all short and informal which didn’t require a very professional approach. My individual assignments were all successful because I focused on concepts including audience, persuasion, design, and revision to ensure that I was producing quality work. I think that overall I had a successful approach for completing these individual assignments and I wouldn’t really change anything about what I did.

 

Collaborative Performance Review

 

                        As I mentioned previously, the majority of my work this semester was done individually however I still completed a substantial amount of collaborative work which was very helpful in allowing me to meet the course learning outcomes. I completed the writing and designing learning outcome most effectively through the main group project. For our group project, we first wrote out a plan which involved all aspects of technical writing including appropriate grammar, mechanics, design and style. Our plan was in the form of a memo, so the format was different than an average paper. Our memo included sub sections, tables, and bullets which allowed for our memo to have a great design. Writing and designing was a major aspect of our actual feasibility report as well. Like memos, feasibility reports follow a certain format with key sections including a methods section, criteria section, results section, and evaluation section. In designing our project we used these sections as the basis of writing our collaborative report. Our drafting process involved an extensive revision and editing process which ended up making our final report a polished piece of work with appropriate grammar, mechanics, and style. The completion of our collaborative feasibility report proves that I met the writing and designing course outcome for collaborative work.

 

            Additionally, it can be observed that through my collaborative projects I met the reading and analyzing outcome. Before starting our feasibility report we as a team had to read about our topic which was Virtual Reality. We also needed to read about and analyze our audience. We established that our audience would be Wayne State students and professors. In our project plan/ memo we analyzed our audiences through a readers profile section. This section evaluated our relationship to each audience as well as why it would be important for each audience to read our report. These analyzing and reading techniques show how I have effectively met the collaborative reading and analyzing outcome.

           

            Next, my collaborative work enabled me to meet the researching and documenting learning outcome. Our feasibility report involved lots of both secondary and primary research. For our secondary research we found scholarly journals and articles as well as online articles which helped us in formulating our report. We documented our secondary research in our report under the results section and also cited it in our works cited page. Along with our secondary research we also completed our own bit of primary research which was composed of interviews and surveys. We included this research in the results section, but did not need to cite it as it was our own research. By completing this research collaboratively I was able to meet the researching and documenting learning outcome.

 

            Last of all, the collaborative projects permitted me to succeed at the using technology and media learning outcome. Similar to the individual projects, the collaborative projects all involved technology and media. For my WikiHow project, I completed a usability test with multiple readers who tested out my WikiHow cite. The readers used my online WikiHow article to complete my usability test and help me find any problems with my article. Technology was also used throughout my group’s collaboration project in which we used online technology to find scholarly journals and other online articles that could be used for our secondary research. We also used the technology provided by Skype to successfully collaborate and complete a perfect report. So, it can be concluded that I was definitely able to meet the using technology and media collaborative learning outcome.

           

            As was the case with my individual projects, the collaborative projects were all done using different processes. For instance, the project plan was done using a memo style writing process, while the actual report was done using a formal report style process. Throughout the completion of our feasibility report, I was in charge as the team leader and project manager, so I had to make sure that things were getting done on time. I feel that I did decent at this and furthered our team’s success. All of my collaborative assignments were successful because I used concepts including genre, revision, usability, and collaboration to ensure that we were constructing effective work. As a whole, I believe that my collaboration projects went smoothly due to the strategies of collaboration that I applied to the completion of the projects.

 

Conclusion

 

            By looking at my work throughout the semester, both individual and collaborative it is clear that I have successfully met the writing and designing, reading and analyzing, researching and documenting, and using technology and media course outcomes for English 3050. Along with achieving the learning outcomes I also learned some valuable lessons through my work this semester. First I learned that writing is not successful without revision. Revision is a huge part of the writing process, and without it a paper can be a whole letter grade worse than with revision. I learned to make revisions a priority and to not submit a paper until I complete a full set of revisions. Secondly, I learned that a successful team has daily goals and makes sure that everyone completes those goals on time. As team leader of the collaborative project I made goals but did not stress the fact that they needed to be done and because of this, the tasks that were assigned never got done in time. I was happy that they eventually got done, but it would have been better for our project if they got done on time. This is something I will keep in mind for future collaborative performances.