MEMORANDUM
To: UWP 104A-3 Students
From: Dr. Andy Jones, Instructor
Date: September 27, 2010
Re: ASSIGNMENT #1—PERSONAL/PROFESSIONAL PROFILE
Your first written assignment in UWP 104A will be a personal/professional profile, which you will publish using the “My Workspace” Profile tool on SmartSite. You will also publish your profile to the Class Profiles “Forum” on our course SmartSite. Your peers will have access to your profile through the “Forum” tool, and the larger SmartSite community (faculty and administrators) will have access to your profile through the “My Workspace” Profile tool.
Assignment
This assignment gives you an opportunity to introduce yourself to your classmates and to highlight your experience and skills in a way that will help your classmates, as well as the larger SmartSite community, get to know you as a student and as a professional. As you plan your profile, consider other potential publication media where you might post your profile, either now or in the future.
Part I
Write a personal/professional profile in which you highlight your professional interests, experience, skills, and accomplishments. You may also emphasize some more personal qualities, such as hobbies, favorite authors/books/movies, or philosophies of life. Keep the characteristics of effective business and technical communication in mind as you draft and revise your profile.
- Communication Context (situation, purpose, audience):
- How will your profile be accessed? In what situations might your profile be read? How might your profile be used?
- For what purpose are you writing your profile (e.g., persuade, inform)?
- Who will likely read and use your profile? How do you want these readers and users to respond to your profile?
- Content: What content should your profile include? Does this content help you to achieve your communication goals?
- Organization: How might you organize your profile to achieve your communication goals?
- Writing Style: What writing style is most appropriate for achieving your communication goals? Informal? Formal? Clear? Concise? Technical? Nontechnical?
- Note: Style in language is the cumulative effect of choices about words, their forms, and their arrangement in sentences. These choices create a writer’s persona (voice and image) and affect comprehension.
- Design: What layout and design best helps you achieve your communication goals?
- Your profile should be 150-200 words. You will thus need to carefully select your content and carefully revise each sentence for conciseness (see the entry “conciseness” in the Handbook).
As an option, you may upload a picture to go with your online profile. You can do this on the SmartSite “My Profile” form (the same form into which you will paste your profile text).
Part II
Write a two to three paragraph rhetorical analysis in which you analyze your profile from a rhetorical perspective. What is the communication context surrounding your profile? What rationales do you have behind your content, organization, style, and design decisions? What aspects of the writing process went well? Not so well? What did you find challenging about writing your profile and why?
Submission Procedures and Deadlines
Personal/Professional Profile
Rough draft due Monday, October 4, by 8:00 a.m. Post your profile draft on SmartSite. Go to “My Workspace” and click “Profile.” Then click “Edit my Profile” and proceed to complete the online form. Bring two print copies of your profile draft to class for an “editorial review” session.
Final draft due Wednesday, October 6, at the beginning of class. Update your Profile (with revisions) on SmartSite. Post your final draft to the Class Profiles “Forum” on our course SmartSite. Bring a print copy of your final draft to class to submit to me. Please include your full name and course information in the left-hand corner of the print copy of your profile.
Rhetorical Analysis
Final draft due Wednesday, October 6, at the beginning of class. Please include your rhetorical analysis with the same document as your profile (you might put your profile first and then follow with your analysis). Make sure that the two assignments are clearly labeled (two informative headings would be appropriate here).
Your profile will be evaluated based on how well it meets the characteristics of effective business and technical communication. Your profile should also be free of typos and spelling errors. Grammar and punctuation should facilitate, not hinder, the clarity of your message.
