• Time Required
• 10–12 hours, including reading time

Welcome to Week Two of the course. At this point, you should have completed and posted your Introduction Presentation video and already written a draft of your Proposal Memo. If you need details on either of those tasks, use the Module Instructions for Week One.

This week I have two large projects for you to work on and submit:

• A Full Draft of your proposal memo, which will indicate the topic you will work on for your recommendation report.
• A Technical Description of a food-related item or process.

Details on these assignments are included in links below. If you have questions, you can include them in your Check-In Conference message or email me if you need a faster answer.

Remember that on Monday, May 30, we celebrate Memorial Day so there are no classes. I will respond to any email messages on Tuesday the 31st.

Activities to Complete

📚 To Read This Week

1. Chapter 5 of Markel & Selber, “Analyzing Your Audience & Purpose”
   • Determining the Important Characteristics of Your Audience (this is a 2-page summary of key information in Chapter 5)
2. Chapter 20 of Markel & Selber, “Writing Definitions, Descriptions, & Instructions,” pp. 561–569
3. Chapter 7 of Markel & Selber, “Organizing Your Information”
4. Chapter 11 of Markel & Selber, “Designing Print & Online Documents”

 

📝 To Write This Week

• Proposal Memo Assignment (Suggested due date: Tuesday, May 31)
  • Proposal Memo Full Draft Submission
  • Recommendation Report Topic
  • Strong Subject Lines
  • Proposal Memo Criteria
  • 🆕 Memo Format Self-Review (New Resource This Week!)
  • Proposal Memo Self-Check
• Technical Description Assignment (Suggested due date: Tuesday, June 7)
  • Technical Description Full Draft Submission
  • Technical Description Criteria
  • Tip Sheet: Technical Description of an Object or Process (🌟Walks through what to include)
  • Professional Design for Technical Descriptions
  • Technical Description Self-Check

 

💬 To Discuss This Week

• If you haven't seen them all, watch the videos posted by everyone else in the class to get to know your classmates. You can add replies as you like.
• Post any questions you have in the General Q&A Discussion Board in Canvas. If you have a private question, send me an email at tengrrl@vt.edu.

 

✅ To Check In This Week

• Check-In Conferences for Week 2 (Suggested due date: Thursday, June 2. End of Grace Period: Tuesday, June 7.)

 

Photo Credit: Image from page 531 of "Cyclopedia of American horticulture" by Internet Archive Book Images on Flickr, used under public domain.