Activity Details

This is an optional activity, worth 20 points.

• Due Date: 11:59 PM on Friday, April 30.
• End of Grace Period: 11:59 PM on Monday, May 3.

Goals

• Analyze the rhetorical situation and determine the appropriate audience or users of written communication, considering the needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 1]
• Apply principles of effective visual design for print and electronic presentation, including hierarchical, chronological, and spatial arrangements. [CLO 6]
• Identify and apply the principles of effective style in the composing of usable, reader-centered written communications. [CLO 7]

The Task

What I Want You to Do

Choose a piece of technical or professional writing that is common in your field and analyze its rhetorical situation, including its effectiveness. You will report on your findings in a short memo.

Why I Want You to Do It

Completing a rhetorical analysis will help you learn to look closely, carefully, and critically at how and why documents are created. These skills will enable you to see a text in a variety of ways, evaluate the strengths, weaknesses, usefulness, credibility, and effectiveness of a document. Once you understand rhetorical strategies, you will be able to make more effective choices in your own technical and professional communication.

How You Do It

1. Select a technical/professional document that is commonly produced in your profession:
   • It can be a memo, report, letter, proposal, instructions, pamphlet, specification, safety guidelines, etc.
   • It should be at least a page in length (500 words).
   • If it is a lengthy document, you can choose to focus on a portion of it.
   • It cannot be a document that you wrote, because it’s harder to analyze your own work.
   • It cannot be a document that I have written, because that gets awkward.
2. Scan the document you have chosen if necessary so that you have a digital copy to submit with your analysis.
3. Review the Characteristics of a Technical Document & Measures of Excellence in Technical Documents, and related information in Chapter 1 of Markel & Selber.
4. Write a memo to me that analyzes the document you have chosen, using the Characteristics of a Technical Document & Measures of Excellence in Technical Documents to guide your analysis. Your memo should
   • clearly explain your points.
   • include well-developed details from the document you are analyzing.
   • conclude with your evaluation of the document’s overall effectiveness.

   • uses professional design and formatting makes positive use of the CRAP Design Principles.

5. Submit your position statement:
   • Submit your work here by 11:59 PM on Friday, April 30.
   • If you need more time, use the grace period and submit your work by 11:59 PM on Monday, May 3.

Obtaining the Points for Your Work

This activity is worth 20 points. Be sure to complete the following tasks:

• Track your work in your Weekly Work Log.
• Wait for me to give you points for your answers. Canvas cannot automatically grade written text, so I will confirm that you met the requirements of the activity and add your points manually.