The most important thing I think I learned during my time in this course is the importance of knowing your audience. This is equally important when speaking one-on-one with your boss as it is when addressing a boardroom full of co-workers. Second to the importance of knowing your audience is understanding your purpose when communicating. I believe these two things set the course for everything else that comes in the communication process.

If you know what it is you want to say and who you’re going to say it to, you will direct your research towards information that the specific audience will be more receptive to listening to and understanding. Also, you can tweak your communication style so that it is also easier for your audience to receive. As any good psychologist will tell you, it’s not so much about what you say as it is about how your say it. This is true of how you speak your words but also true about your eye contact and posture.

I will be using these lessons on knowing my audience and my purpose in the very near future. I intend to ask my boss for a raise. I’ve been doing a lot of extra work and putting in a lot of overtime. I feel that I’ve earned a raise for my efforts. When I go in to fight for my raise I will come prepared with quantitive information that shows the work I’ve been doing and the time I’ve put in for the project. This evidence will be irrefutable and bolster my argument. When it comes to my delivery I will be firm and assertive yet respectful of our relationship. My boss likes to make small talk but only once business has been taken care of so I will get to my point as quickly as possible.

I believe if I employ these tactics I will be successful with my request and it’s all thanks to the knowledge I’ve gained during my time in this course.

The portfolio that I’ve been sharing with everyone over the course of the Spring 2020 Semester is not my official portfolio that I created for the AIS program. Instead I created a portfolio just the AIS3070 course. I felt this would make it easier for my fellow classmates to navigate my site and find the information that pertains specifically to our shared course. Once the Spring Semester ends, I intend to roll the information from my AIS3070 page and the lessons I’ve learned in this class into my official AIS portfolio.

So clearly my decision to make my AIS3070 portfolio a standalone site was the first design decision I made but I didn’t stop there. I kept my layout very simple and very clean. I have one photo on my homepage which dually displays something I enjoy and what I do for a living. I placed my navigation buttons in a prominent position at the top of the page and labeled them clearly for my fellow students to understand. I placed all of my blogs on a separate page so that any viewer can easily scroll back and see my submissions and my progress over the course of the semester but I’ve also added a link to my most recent posts to my homepage for continued ease of navigation. I originally had a calendar and some other widgets like a view counter on my homepage but ultimately I feel like they didn’t really contribute anything useful. I’ve always been a fan of the the less is more style design. It’s probably the engineer in me but prefer utilitarian and efficient designs.

Reflecting at this point in time is an odd thing to do for me. Looking back over the course of this term I can’t help but to think about how different the world was at the start of this semester and where it is now. When I reflect back, the concept from this course that jumps out at me is the concept of the discourse community.

Obviously the concept of a discourse community is huge when it comes to professional writing. Knowing ones audience is always important when crafting any form of communication. However, with recent worldwide event, many of us have seen a lot of our discourse communities changed in some pretty drastic ways. People who once worked in large groups are now working from home, private clubs and recreational team sports have been disbanded, even family members are being forced to communicate over the internet or interact through drive-by waiving. Ironically, the only discourse community that I’m currently engaged in that hasn’t changed is this class.

Although the changing world hasn’t really affected how I’m formulating my PLP, I’m still writing with the mindset of the world as it was, but with each assignment I can’t help but to think about how the world has changed and to wonder if these changes will be permanent or only temporary.

For the purposes of this weeks blog assignment and activity I’m choosing to focus on the third element of the six elements used to identify a discourse community. Element three states that a discourse community “Uses participatory mechanisms to provide information and feedback.”

My company designs and develops jet engines for use in different styles of aircraft. Developing an aircraft engine requires the cooperation of three different entities; the government or airline company (the customer who has a specific request they’d like met), the airframer like Boeing (they build the actual airplane), and the company who develops and builds the powerplant for the aircraft (the engines).

The costumer will have certain requirements they want in an aircraft design like number of passengers or ordinance the aircraft can carry or fuel efficiency. It is then up to the airframer and the engine maker to create an aircraft that will give the customer what they want. It’s a lengthy process but to keep the airframe and the engine design compatible, the two companies will engage in regular (sometimes monthly, sometimes weekly) meetings to see compare how the two designs are developing and to make sure they will work together. These meetings will involve engineers from both companies and from all disciplines as well as representatives for the customer. In these meetings, for example, an expert on heat transfer may discuss air temperature and flow in one area of the engine but a materials specialist will speak and say that the build material won’t be able to standup to the temperatures the engine is expected to produce. At this point all parties involved will work together to develop a solution.

Meetings like this take place all the time and ensure that by the end of the process (a process that can take years) the customer is delivered an aircraft that works harmoniously with it’s engine powerplant.

A discourse community is a group of people who share common goals and interests. They are usually brought together around this shared goal or interest and communicate in a way that pertains heavily to the goal or interest. Their shared language is often confusing to or requires additional explanation to the un-initiated. Most people belong to many discourse communities in one form or another. Some are professional through their work and some are personal in the form of their hobbies or personal interests. Even a family unit can be a discourse community.

I work for an engineering company that designs jet engines for military aircraft. Engineers have a language all their own with terms like “dynamic load” or “stress riser” and the military has unique language that often consist of using many acronyms and giving time in terms of the 24-hour clock (military time). These are two specific and different discourse communities. As a result of working for an engineering company who works closely with the military I find myself as a member of both communities. Sometimes I engage in each community separately and there are times where I engage both communities at the same time.

I actually disagree with this weeks reading or at least it’s wording. The article states “Expert learners have well-organized knowledge, not just problem-solving strategies.” and I actually think that problem solving is a more practical skill and is the true mark of an expert. The first thing we’re all taught is the fundamentals of our chosen field of study. This is the information that is true no matter what and information that can be studied, memorized, and recited. It’s the base of knowledge that we draw upon when we put our education into practice. The ability to troubleshoot and problem solve are the results of coupling years of study with years of practical application.

My background is in electrical circuit design and it’s a field in which I consider myself an expert. I can take an electrical device on the fritz and troubleshoot it down to the burned up resistor. I’ve had many years of classroom study and many years of field work that have honed my skills.

An area where I would consider myself a novice is on the subject of history. I’m a passionate student of history but it’s a hobby. I haven’t had any formal education outside of a the mandated, basic courses. I also don’t have any practical experience in the study of history outside of visiting museums and historical locations as a tourist.

Mcdaniel, R. (2018, May 7). How People Learn. Retrieved from https://cft.vanderbilt.edu/guides-sub-pages/how-people-learn/

This weeks activity is a little difficult for me as I don’t do much writing outside of work and school. The nature of my work is highly secure so I can’t go into great detail about my workplace writing and unfortunately I’m only in one class this semester (this class) and you all have already seen what I write about in here. So to complete this task I’ll have to describe two pieces I wrote in my recent past.

The first piece was from my previous role at GE. I ran a vibration testing lab and I wanted to acquire a new piece of equipment that would be used to take measurements. I sent an email to my manager that laid out why I was requesting the funding necessary, what the equipment was used for and why it would be an improvement over our old system. The email was written in a very professional and formal matter but I refrained from using overly technical terminology as I was trying to get the approval of my manager who was more of a “bean counter”. To win his approval I phrased my request to focus more on how the new equipment would actually save us time and money in the one run.

The second piece is actually very personal so I won’t go into great detail about the content but I’ll share it’s purpose. I had lost a relative with whom I had a troubled past. I was never able to get closure with this person while they were alive so a therapist suggested I write a letter to them expressing my feelings. The letter was addressed to the deceased relative and was written as though I fully expected them to read it but it’s true purpose was to give me an outlet to relieve myself of some emotional baggage. In some ways I suppose I was the audience as well as the writer.

A rhetorical situation is one where you address an audience (be it written or spoken) with a purpose. Actually the rhetorical situation is not the act of addressing the audience but the combination and interaction of all the components you use to address the audience. You have a purpose, a known audience, a point you’re trying to get across, a genre that you’re speaking in, and a medium you’re speaking through. All are important elements that we, the writer, need to consider carefully.

Rhetorical situations don’t just come in a written form but apply to any situation where one person addresses another person or groups. A rhetorical situation could be the best man giving a speech at a wedding or a doctor addressing fellow physicians at a conference. For the purposes of this class we will view rhetorical situation in terms of writing but the elements are still the same and as stated in What Should I Know about Rhetorical Situations? a rhetorical or “writing situation” is one which “writers and readers bring different purposes, interests, beliefs, and backgrounds to the creation and reception of texts”

“Home.” The WAC Clearinghouse, wac.colostate.edu/resources/wac/intro/rhetoric/.

When writing in the workplace knowing the purpose of the writing and the audience audiences that you’re writing for can help you determine the genre you will be writing in. Are you writing a sales pitch, submitting a project progress report, or requesting material costs? All of these things could relate to the same project at work but in each case you’re addressing different people with different intentions. Not understanding your audience and the purpose for your writing could not only cause confusion in your audience but, in some cases, could have negative consequences.

If you were to use overly technical industry terminology while addressing a customer you might intimidate them and potentially drive them away. Or you might insult them if they feel that you are purposefully talking over their heads. On the other hand, speaking in a less technical way might cause your peers to question your understanding of what it is you’re working on. Confusing your audiences could lead to issues in another way. If you were to confuse a customer with a supplier, you might reveal some information that you didn’t want your customer to know like your own purchase prices.

Always knowing your audience and the purpose of your writing is going to keep your message clear and on point. This will lead to clearer communication and less confusion on the part of your audience.

After reading this weeks assignment, my understanding of what an audience is really hasn’t changed much. An audience is the intended recipient of any creative piece that you’re crafting. Whether it is for music, film, stand-up comedy, or writing. The writing that you do doesn’t just have to be for entertainment purposes to be intended for an audience. Even the writing that we do in our personal and professional lives have intended audiences. Writing a note to excuse your child’s absence from school or sending your boss an email to request a raise are all done with a specific audience in mind. Even as I write this blog I am envisioning my writing professor and my fellow writing students as the intended audience.

I work for a company that builds aircraft engines for commercial and military applications. Developing and designing a jet engine is a highly complex process that takes many years and hundreds of people. I work with brilliant physicists and scientists who understand engineering on a level that most can’t even comprehend. However, most of these people wouldn’t know the head of a hammer from the handle. They see things on such a highly technical level yet they have to design a piece of equipment that can be worked on and maintained by tradesman who maybe never went to college. All of this work has to be approved by business people who have no technical knowledge at all and only view the world in dollars and cents. Finally, all of this work has to be sold to an audience (the flying passenger) who has no technical knowledge and who doesn’t care about the business finances of creating an engine. The passenger just wants to get from point A to joint B safely. These are all very different types of people who accurately represent the different audience category types.

In my role as a CAD designer I fall somewhere between the engineers and the technicians. I have the difficulty of trying to take what the engineer is trying to achieve and translating that into a design that achieves the goal but is practical enough to be mass produced and reasonable to maintain. While I don’t craft sales pitches or write technical manuals, I do have to design CAD models that bring to life the engineers ideas, can be understood by the technicians, and can be produced in a cost-effective way that the executives will sign off on. It is a complex set of variables to have to coordinate with three very different audiences to satisfy.

Citation:

Online Technical Writing:Audience Analysis. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.tu-chemnitz.de/phil/english/sections/linguist/independent/kursmaterialien/TechComm/acchtml/aud.html