What do you love most about the PWTC program? How valuable have you found the skills to be in your other courses or in your professional career? What are some of the benefits that have most helped you in your time in the program?
If you have a few moments, your time would be greatly appreciated. I’m collecting written “testimonials,” but would love to record you saying it (Don’t worry I won’t show your face). Nothing too long, but a few lines about the program would be so helpful.
Please send any questions or testimonials to epelkey@student.umass.edu!
Thanks!
Realizing that this progress report is incredibly late, I’m writing today to give an update regarding the project and how far it has come…
The marketing print material is complete. In print, I have only the text-only document laying out the program in such a way that promotes and highlights the undoubted benefits of the PWTC program.
Audio and video is still in progress. I am in the process of gathering testimonials and working with the audio to the video. The interview footage is still being difficult, but I want to get everything else done so I can focus on that element of the video.
More to come…
So, here we are: the first progress report for my capstone project…
Having changed projects mid-stream, I am currently working on formulating a concrete proposal in order to serve as a guideline for the rest of my project. Given the time constraint, I am beginning to develop marketing material for the PWTC program in the form of print material, as well as familiarizing myself with the video element that will be incorporated with the project.
The print material will include brochures, informational cards, more intensive informational documents, as well as advertising posters and flyers. This material will be useful for distribution at events including the orientation programs, career services, etc.
The non-print material will include online content development for the general program website, as well as various announcements/advertisements to be implemented in general university websites. Of course, the main idea is to gear an individual’s interest toward the Professional Writing and Technical Communications program by coordinating with their existing experience or goals.
At the moment, everything is on schedule and in the works. The top priority is to complete the proposal and develop all the necessary material for the presentation.
Bolter’s “Writing Space” reading selection gave an interesting historical perspective of the evolution of the techne of writing and what is has come to entail. The craft, that is writing, incorporates many aspects that have each individually morphed into a newer (not necessarily better quality) form as to better serve the needs of the people. The lesser quality has been upstaged with the need for quantity. Of course, given the time it took to inscribe something into stone in Ancient Egypt eliminates the option of leaving a note for your kid to take out the trash when you leave the house. The inscriptions were meant for long-term communication, only imprinting what was most important, what one felt must survive longer than themselves.
Today, we value quantity and the rapidity offered by new technologies such as the computer. However, as explained in the article. The computer redefined the “machine.” One might argue that we are still in the stages of accepting the fact that the computer is, in fact, an abstraction, a system of materials and parts about which we may have some idea, but at least for now, we know little about.
This article can’t help but take me back to a class discussion about computers and our relationships with them. I’ll bring it back to my comparison to cars as a new, abstract technology. When cars were first made popular among ordinary households, families would go for drives for the pure excitement of being in a car. When asked, “What are you doing?” I don’t feel it would be unusual for someone to have said, “I’m driving in my car.” In fact, we’ve seen many images of people in their cars, happy just because they are driving. Today, were you to ask someone what they are doing, a more likely response would be, “I’m on my way to…” We have lost the need to explain to someone that we are driving. Further, we have lost the daily excitement of driving from one place to another. In regards to computers, sure, a good argument might include the abstract ideas of the computer as being too complex for the ordinary person to grasp, but with time, I would argue that the abstraction of the computer might be something we learn to accept, or perhaps even unravel. Regardless, time has smoothed the uncertainty of almost every technology before us. Who is to say that this, too, will not pass.
As an assignment, but also a brief moment of personal reflection, there is a lot to consider when recounting my personal and academic experiences over the past three and one half years. Undoubtedly, the courses I’ve taken as an undergraduate have molded together to create a unique education that has rendered my own understanding of myself and my capabilities. Between English, Communication, Political Science and other required courses, I’ve gained a more direct goal professionally, as well as in my personal life. Having been flooded with facts and information, I wasn’t sure how it would all pan out in the end when my memory would be put to the test. When that time came, I learned that it wasn’t about remembering the exact facts and figures, rather realizing that the real skills learned were the ones of strategy and tact, the ones that would enable and motivate me to go that extra step to exceed my own expectations.
During the summer of 2011, I completed an Technical Writing internship at an LED lighting company in Boston. I went into the interview feeling highly under-qualified, but knowing that I would never get the position if they felt that way too. Confidently, I underwent a 3 hour long interview with multiple people from the company and was offered the position on the spot. Their comments praised my professional ability and my outlook on the position as positive and ready to learn. The summer consisted of writing technical documents for a lighting system that I knew little about, but I learned and soon found myself able to understanding something I would have never even tried to before and actually being able to explain it to others in a way they would understand. The realization of my ability to do something like this was extremely gratifying. The most important thing I learned that summer was that once we release the limits we place on ourselves, you’ll find yourself accomplishing goals you had never imagined you would.
Recent Comments