• Time Required
• 8–10 hours, including reading time

Welcome to Week Eleven of the course. By the end of this week, aim to have the organization of your report sketched out and have a plan for the visuals that you will include in your report. Both the outline and the plan for visuals can change as you work, but this week you are trying to create solid plans for your work.

Holidays & Events This Week

Halloween is Monday the 31st. The holiday is related to All Saints' Day, also known as All Hallows’ Day, (see below). Literally, the name refers to All Hallows Eve, the day before All Hallows’ Day. The word Halloween is composed of the words Hallow and Evening.

Samhain is a harvest festival celebrated by Irish, Scottish, and Celtic people as well as Wiccans. It takes place October 31st through November 1st.

Día de los Muertos, or Day of the Dead, is celebrated November 1–2. Día de los Muertos is a celebration of family and friends who have died.

All Saints’ Day, or All Hallows’ Day, is a Christian holiday that celebrates all saints in the faith. It takes place on November 1, and it is followed by All Souls’ Day on November 2. All Souls’ Day is a day of remembrance for those who have passed away.

Daylight Savings Time ends on Sunday, November 6. Turn your clocks back an hour.

If you observe any of the holidays and need me to adjust your due dates, send me a message in Canvas. I am not making accommodations for Halloween or the end of Daylight Savings Time.

Objectives for this Module

After completing this week’s activities, you address the following course objectives:

• 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]
• Prepare to conduct research appropriate to workplace problem solving, such as literature review, evaluation of online resources, interview, and site inspection. [CLO 2]
• Consider the ethical and human implications of my situation. [CLO 3]
• Collaborate with classmates in planning, researching, writing, revising, and presenting information. [CLO 5]

Activities to Complete

📚 To Read This Week

• “Organizing and Outlining Your Document,” on page 49 in Chapter 3 of Markel & Selber
• Chapter 7 of Markel & Selber, “Organizing Your Information”
• Chapter 18 of Markel & Selber, “Writing Recommendation Reports”
• Videos from LinkedIn Learning (free with your VT.edu login)
  • “Organizing an Outline” (46m)
  • “The importance of planning” (4m 46s)
  • “Develop a final outline” (6m 13s)

📝 To Write This Week

• Develop an Outline for your Recommendation Report, using the these resources:
  • Recommendation Report Criteria
  • Effective Report Titles
  • Tip Sheet: Recommendation Report Outline
  • Recommendation Outline Self-Check
• Try out strategies from the course by submitting these activities:
  • Try-It #19: Evaluating a Webpage’s Structure
  • Try-It #20: Planning Visuals for Your Report

💬 To Discuss This Week

• Check in with your Accountability Group, according to the agreement that you have made. Use whatever tool your group has agreed to.
• 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

• Fill out the Week 11 Check-In Survey to let me know how you are doing in the course.

 

 

Photo credit: 2013-10-09 Thinking about visual outlining #learning #sharing #writing by Sacha Chua on Flickr, used under CC-BY 2.0 license.