Today we’ll do 4, maybe 5, things:
- Get together with your team for the Instructions Project — 10-15 min
- Review your assignment for next Tuesday — 5 min
- Generate possibilities for the Tech Briefing — 25-30 min
- Listen to a lecture on writing proposals — 25-30 min
1. Get together with your team for the Instructions Project. Just like the show the Apprentice, decide on a company name and a project manager. Then have the project manager work with the team to develop a plan for acquiring Legos for the Instructions Project. Ultimately your final product must be a creative design made from 30-50 pieces that has at least four modular “sub-assemblies.” To acquire these, you might:
- Buy them new. Sets 10662 or 6177 should do. Amazon and other online sites have these kits for about $30-40.
- Buy them used. Check Craigslist or garage sales.
- Bring them from home. Ask mom or dad if they’re still in your attic!
2. Review your assignment for next Tuesday. You’ll have two chances to write proposals in this class. Once for the Tech Briefing and again for the Feasibility Study (our final unit).
For this assignment (worth 50 points), you’ll work with a partner to pitch an idea for the Tech Briefing. You should use principles and structures from Chapter 23 (intro, problem, objectives, method, and qualifications) and the data from the memos posted by groups to write a short proposal (i.e. 400-600 words) for the Tech Briefing. Be sure to name the technology, give reasons why the class needs to know about it, and describe your plan for usable deliverables. Note that although the Tech Briefing’s audience is the whole class, this proposal is to me, your boss; think of my concerns and what I want the class to get out of your TB.
Your first job, then, is to read through the Audience Analysis documents carefully and select a workplace technology to research and present to us in Weeks 5-10. You should base your choice on your talents, experiences and comfort level, of course, but most importantly your readers’ needs. Based on the survey and memo, what workplace technologies have your peers used? What workplace technologies are they unfamiliar with, but likely to use professionally? In short, what technologies could you share with us? I want to see well-reasoned arguments, relevant data, and do-able plans in your proposals, so that when your real readers access your document (y’all), they won’t be bored or confused.
3. Generate possibilities for the Tech Briefing. Each group will briefly walk us through the documents they sent the class last night. As they do, we’ll make a collective list of ideas for your TBs. We’ll conclude by having each of you write down your Top 3 ideas. I’ll look at these before Thursday and assign you into pairs so you can work together to write the proposal.
4. Listen to a lecture on writing proposals. You can download the slides here. If there’s time, we’ll look at two examples. If not we’ll start Thursday’s class with that activity.