MEMORANDUM

Date:
To:
From:
Subject:

October 4, 2004
Dr. Rainey
Catherine Trask
First Periodic Report for TCOM 6001

This first periodic report covers the time period of August 23 - September 27 for
the fall 2004 Technical Writing and Editing course (TCOM 6001). To date, I am
making good progress in the course and have completed all of the work assigned
for each of the five weeks. This report addresses the following topics:
Work assigned versus the work completed in this five-week period
Problems encountered in the course work and how those problems have or are
being addressed
Evaluation or analysis of how the course is proceeding in meeting its objectives
and suggestions about how to more effectively facilitate work in this course
Work Assigned/Work Completed
The work assigned and work completed is illustrated in table 1 below:
Table 1. Work Assigned and Status
Assignment
Remarks
Personal Web Page
Created a personal student web
page based on the instructions
given on the WebCT.
Read the assigned chapters and
Readings and lectures on
studied lecture material. Uploaded
language, grammar, and
required postings (relating to the
punctuation. Diagnostic
reading assignments) to discussion
exercises
board based on the instructions
given on the WebCT. Worked on the
diagnostic exercises (combined
editing and correcting commonly
confused words).
Studied assigned chapters, reviewed
Readings and lectures on
technical communication field lecture material, and worked on
exercise assignments. Researched
and the writer, and writing
process in the workplace, and the ATTW, wrote a report, and
posted findings on the bulletin
various related exercises. A
board based on instructions given
research report on a
by professor.
professional organization.
Studied assigned chapters and
Readings and exercises
worked on exercise applications
pertaining to audience and
relating to revision of persuasive
persuasion in technical
prose and editing sentence
communication
fragments.

Status
Completed
Completed

Completed

Completed

Problems Encountered/Solved or Addressed

Any problems encountered, what action has been taken to address or solve
these problems, and the outcome (whether or not additional support is needed)
are illustrated in table 2 below:
Table 2. Problems Encountered and Outcome
Problem
Action(s) Taken
Encountered
Several attempts were made in
Sizing of photo for
order to reduce the size of this
the personal web
photo for my personal web page. I
page
have limited experience in
Photoshop; but after several
attempts, did manage to make it
work.
I realized my mistake and reIncorrectly posted
first assignment to posted it to the correct milepost.
This was my first attempt at
the general
posting an assignment and I was
discussion board
somewhat nervous about it.
In my original Word document (a
Cutting and
company research report on the
pasting a Word
ATTW), I formatted the document
document into the
with bullets and paragraph
WebCT discussion
indentation. This special formatting
board area
would not paste into the WebCT
bulletin board. As a result, I spent
a great deal of time reformatting
this assignment. I learned to apply
only basic formatting styles when
completing this type of assignment.
Difficulty
completing the
exercises
pertaining to
revising
informative prose

I think I was spending too much

time researching subject material
for each passage. I should probably
try to concentrate more on the
actual application practices, and
less on researching actual subject
material.

Difficulty with the

exercises relating
to the underlying
assumption

I understand the concept of the

underlying assumption, but have a
hard time supplying the missing
link. I plan to review this section
and attempt some additional
exercises.

Outcome
Problem solved - no
assistance required

Problem solved -no

assistance required

Problem solved -no

assistance required

Additional
assistance/feedback
might be helpful
here. Should I take
the extra time to
research subject
areas unfamiliar to
me?
Further assistance
may be needed if
additional practice
exercises do not help
me gain a better
understanding of this
type of revision.

Course Evaluation
Thus far, I feel the delivery of the course has been exceptional. I know what is
expected of me and the materials and on-line resources are easily accessible and
well organized. Because the course content is very detailed and sometimes
overwhelming to me, this exceptional method of delivery is very helpful. It is
reassuring to know that I can easily access the materials and information, and
that any instruction for completing a given assignment is clear and concise. My
only suggestion is that each student be required to submit a weekly posting to
the discussion board. This posting could be a comment or question about a
lecture, reading, or exercise. These required postings might help solve a
problem, or even answer a question for someone in the class. Furthermore, a
required posting could create a more diverse and informative discussion board.
Conclusion
In conclusion, I feel the class is informative and well delivered. It is a challenging
and difficult course, but a course I can succeed at with proper instruction and
good course materials. At this point, I have a better understanding of what is
expected of me in order to succeed in this course. I also have a better feel of my
strengths and weaknesses in professional writing. I expect the class to continue
to teach me the necessary content and practices, and I expect to satisfactorily
complete the work of the course.