Natalie Bull

Prof. Rivard

WRT 1050

November 8, 2020

Summation Paper

In the career of information technology (IT) specialists, I assumed that all their work was

done on the computer and they rarely used writing. I believed they were given a problem through

co-worker’s technology and easily solved it. The only writing I imagined them doing in their

career was writing emails after they’ve found a solution and explaining how to prevent the

problem in the future. After learning more on the daily lives of IT specialists through many only

resources and an actual IT worker, I found that writing is a big part of their career. Writing helps

them successfully solve problems and learn from past mistakes. With the quality of their writing,

professionalism is created to reach out with other companies in order to grow and expand in this

career. Creating new clients and speaking as the face of the company is very important and

crucial in daily work. Writing in the IT career consists of writing styles such as postmortems, IT

assessments, and emails.

My research concluded the difficulty to find information on the daily work of an IT

specialist from the writing standpoint as most of their work is done through code and software.

When locating information directly from IT specialists, it’s found that their work solutions are

always helped by the act of writing. In order to complete the varying daily tasks of their day, IT

specialists enlist several mediums of writing depending on the work they’re doing each day.

Multiple resources brought new structures of writing to my knowledge such as postmortem

writing, which is described in Stålhane’s book, ‘Post Mortem – An Assessment of Two

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Approaches’, where he claims that IT Specialists write past mistakes in order to improve a

software’s development (Stålhane). The act of recording previous mistakes that took place

during a project is creating a postmortem. Postmortems create a full analysis of events in order

for future work to run smoothly. A common way that IT specialists record work made

throughout their day is through IT assessments. An IT Assessment is the practice of gathering

information on part or whole of an IT network infrastructure, and then presented in a detailed

report (Glossary). These detailed reports can be shared with other co-workers to show how the

problem solving was done in this instance and share solutions to ensure this problem doesn’t

occur again. Sharing information in this writing style between co-workers helps create faster and

more convenient solutions to daily work. Each source I’ve found throughout my research has

helped me to discover the detailed writing that IT specialists complete in their workday. For

aspiring students looking to join the IT field, a writing skill doesn’t seem necessary to do the

technological work. It is learned when actively working in the field, that writing is a crucial part

of this career.

In creating my “how to document” brochure, it was important for me to keep everything

very organized and decluttered. The absence of color throughout the brochure felt necessary to

me as I was conveying the straightforward information that conveys the seriousness of working

in the IT field. This environment helps someone learning about the career prepare for monotony

in the workplace and not to expect a creative environment. The theme of blue and red connect as

two of three primary colors and relates to information technology as screens are made up of these

colors to produce images. In the placement of my brochure, I placed the most critical information

inside as the first thing seen when the viewer opened the brochure. On both flaps of the inside,

some vocabulary and experience from a certified IT specialist are included to help the reader
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learn directly about the career. The outside of the brochure gives information on how anyone can

get involved and learn more about this career through active communities. The contrast of title

and subtitle colors were used to draw the viewer’s eye in multiple directions while the

information remained in black for anyone who’d like to read more detail on each topic.

Repetition of key words and phrases were used throughout multiple sections of the brochure such

as the definition for an IT assessment which is found in the glossary as well as in the writing

section. The alignment of the information is similar throughout the brochure as each title is at the

top in bigger, brighter font while all the information is in tight paragraphs underneath. The

proximity of each group of information is spaced evenly between each other, not looking

unorganized and without purpose. All empty spaces are intentional to create a more open

atmosphere. The hope of this document is to inform and encourage people interested in

becoming an IT specialist with the many writing tasks and skills required in daily work.

I had the opportunity to speak with certified IT specialist Kevin Bull who has been

working in the IT field for 12 years. With the chance to learn more about his career, I centered

my questions around writing. In order to educate people interested in pursuing this career, I

asked him how does writing improve daily work to which he responded, “I am emailing users,

managers, CEO’s etc. all day every day so using proper grammar and writing skills are a must in

my job. It's important to write professionally when talking to people over email as they last

forever and can really show your professionalism” (Bull). Including this in my “how to

document” proves to aspiring IT specialists that writing is important in every career including the

IT field and is a skill that should be studied. Writing takes on many forms in day to day work

even if it isn’t obvious individual careers. One of these forms is peer reviewing, I asked Bull a

question on to which he replied, “Sometimes documentation is shared and collaborated on

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between several people, and sometimes it is written by one person, but always reviewed by peers

or managers to make sure nothing is missed” (Bull). The act of receiving feedback on writing is

crucial to ensure work is done correctly and no time is wasted on errors. I’m grateful to receive

more information from a certified IT specialist to compare with my many other sources to adjust

my learning on writing in the IT field and educate others.

During my writing process for this assignment, I was faced with many issues and

adjustment periods. I continually learned more than I had previously through different mediums

of research. Until I had seen a glossary of terms for IT specialists, I didn’t know what an IT

Assessment was and assumed only postmortems were the main writing this career did. I had to

revise my writing to include this crucial piece and compare it to other writing styles an IT

specialist uses. Collaborating with Kevin Bull from my interview helped correct my facts,

provided new information, and added more into what was previously known. Having multiple

different mediums for sources, I was forced to integrate and transition between them smoothly.

Whether I was talking about a scholarly article or taking words from my interview, the

information all painted the same picture that would create the final product of my assignment.

The internet is a successful place to find all information that is needed, but where to look is

always difficult. Searching for online communities was difficult, but once I found one, multiple

started flowing in with it. Having the right tools and resources to know you’re looking in a

proper location, is crucial for researching this assignment.

Some of my strengths in writing this assignment were knowing firsthand what this career

was like by being in close relationship with my interviewee. I knew where important information

could be found due to my knowledge in credible sources and using research to find new related
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information. I struggled with the amount of information that is available online in this career.

Locating scholarly sources that were on topic with what I needed were limited and hard to find.

Through writing for this assignment, I was surprised to learn the impact writing has on this

career. I previously believed writing skills weren’t necessary as an IT Specialist, but now I know

the importance of daily writing in this field. In the future, I will take time to inform myself and

others on the importance of writing in every career, as it is always useful and will never

disappear. In the IT field, I take Kevin Bull my interviewee as an example of the many long

writing hours done throughout even the most technological careers. Daily work in life and in the

workplace is made easier with the help of writing.

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Works Cited

Bull, Kevin. Personal interview. 29 October 2020.

"Glossary of IT Terms." Dataprise, www.dataprise.com/it-glossary.

Stålhane T., Dingsøyr T., Hanssen G.K., Moe N.B. (2003) Post Mortem – An Assessment of

Two Approaches. In: Conradi R., Wang A.I. (eds) Empirical Methods and Studies in

Software Engineering. Lecture Notes in Computer Science, vol 2765. Springer, Berlin,

Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-45143-3_8