Chapter 21

In the section for preparing for oral presentation its first section is about research and connect the topic to your audience. In my opinion I think this is the most important part of not only an oral presentation but to any presentation. Even a very well thought out presentation, proposal, or memo means very little to nothing if it is not researched correctly and fully or made relevant to the audience. Without a connection to an audience, you don't give them a reason to care or listen. Without perfectly researching ones topic, a person can lose an audience if they identify a flaw in the argument.

Chapter 17

The chapter on proposals I found to be most useful in its examples of what a proper proposal should be and the types of such. The thing I found most interesting was the brief discussion on the difference between a formal and informal proposal. Formal proposals are often very specific, long winded, technical document prepared for a specific target audience. I have some experience writing proposals and they usually follow military type standards that are extremely detailed. What I found that was interesting was that informal proposals are relegated to memos. Memos get a point across in a brief form, but the fact that memos are all encompassing shows how important they are.

Packet Review

I reviewed the suggestions/implications portion of the packet for the web study. I did not like that it was broken into two separate sections, and after they were broken up into those sections I felt that the suggestions should have come before any implications of those suggestions. I also felt that they should have stuck to fewer key points in the suggestions instead of a "laundry" list of things. This is because one would be able to better focus on what is important and how to fix it instead of many points with less explanation or justification.

I learned from reviewing another's packet that people write with very different styles when prompted with the same thing. I also learned that paragraphing and chunking are very important to cohesive writing, and if not done correctly it can be bothersome for the reader or even possibly confusing all together. If I could do anything different, in terms of this portion of the packet, would be perhaps outlining what i wanted to achieve before I wrote it out. It also makes me want to review it again in order to make sure it is written coherently and paragraphed properly.

Chapter 10 & 14

Chapter 10:

I find it interesting that the book says that memos are more formal and professional than emails, but that emails are often used in substitute for a memo. I find this interesting because I worked in a workplace that never used memos and relied completely on emails, and these emails were all typically treated formally as long as it was between departments. When it was used within a single department the tone was much more relaxed and therefor less "memo-like". I thought it was interesting how specific of layouts and formats they had for the types of memos, and appreciated the different examples as I definitely pick up things better that way. I also, liked the difference from direct and indirect tones and the context to use them in. Though I think that it is not always as cut and dry and indirect for bad news, direct for good news or things that need to be done. Often I prefer the direct tone but this may be a personal preference thing.

Chapter 14:

I first thought it was interesting that they have an entire chapter devoted to summaries, for the general fact that it is pretty obvious its function and how to effectively create one. The part that I liked was when they expanded on the normal idea of a summary and added that one should include a part to help inform the reader if they should read the entire document and the context of said document being summarized. These two things are I think often more applicable to professional journals and articles as they can often be long winded and technical in nature. I like the step by step approach to writing a summary, I think it is a bit many steps for something so simple, but also the steps allow it to be as effective as possible.