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#TuesdayTutorial: Progress Reports for Clients and Stakeholders

#TuesdayTutorial: Progress Reports for Clients and Stakeholders published on

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Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

On Monday, you will submit an internal progress report. It’s similar to the kind of progress report that you might give to your manager or co-workers to let them know what’s happening with a project.

You also need to know about how to write external progress reports, which will go to clients or stakeholders outside your organization. While the general purpose is the same as that for an internal progress report, the audience is quite different.

The Lynda.com video Using in-progress reports to communicate with clients (4m 23s) will walk you through the key features and the important characteristics of this kind of progress report.

Screenshot from #TuesdayTutorial: Progress Reports for Clients and Stakeholders

 

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Friday, November 3, 2017

Progress Report Overview

Progress Report Overview published on

This is the post for the week of November 6, 2017.

Progress Report by Forest Hill Society on Flickr, used under a CC-BY licenseThis week you will continue writing your Genre Analysis Report, and you will write a Progress Report that tells me about your project.

Readings for the Week

Tasks for the Week

  1. By 11:59PM on Monday, September 25, submit your 11/03 Labor Log in Canvas, if you are using the grace period.
  2. Spend the majority of your time working on your Genre Analysis Report. The more work you get done this week, the easier it will be to finish after Thanksgiving Break.
  3. Plan ahead for next week. I know you are probably planning when you will leave for Break, so I want to mention that the work next week will be light. You will turn in your Progress report and a Labor Log. Otherwise, you will continue working on your Genre Analysis Report. I will still post daily posts that you can comment on if you like.

    4. Why a Progress Report Now?

    Before you leave for Thanksgiving break, I want you to assess your progress and then tell me what you have done and what you still need to do.

    When you return after break, you can return to your progress report to see what you need to work on. This process will help you “hit the ground running” when you get back. You won’t lose any time trying to remember where you left off.

  4. Share a draft of your Progress Report in the Feedback on Progress Reports on Canvas by 11:59 PM on Wednesday, November 8.
    • In your message, ask your group to look at anything you are trying to improve. Let them know the kind of advice you need.
    • By 11:59PM on Friday, November 10, provide feedback to your group members, using the strategies in the Peer Review Commenting Strategies video.
    • Revise your Progress Report, using the feedback from your group members. Be sure to add any details on work you have completed since you wrote the first draft.
  5. Submit your Progress Report in Canvas by 11:59PM on Monday, November 13. The grace period ends at 11:59PM on Thursday, November 16.
  6. By 11:59PM on Friday, November 10, write your 11/10 Labor Log in Canvas. Specific questions for your log are included in Canvas. The grace period for your log entry ends at 11:59 PM on Monday, November 13.

Photo credit: Evernote ETC: My Field Notes by Brooks Duncan on Flickr, used under a CC-BY 2.0 license.


 
Last updated on Friday, November 3, 2017

#WeekendWatch: Citations & Bibliographies in MSWord

#WeekendWatch: Citations & Bibliographies in MSWord published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

If you use Microsoft Word, you can take advantage of the program’s built-in tools for managing your citations and bibliography. Tools are available in both the Mac and Windows versions. There are some slight differences between the two platforms, but the basic capabilities are the same.

Our #WeekendWatch is a series of Lynda.com videos that demonstrates how the tools work in Word 2013. The series “Including Citations and Bibliographies” will take 16m28s overall to view. It includes

Watch any or all of the videos. You might watch the first three now, and then come back later in the month to focus on the last video.

Screenshot from the Lynda.com video Including Citations and Bibliographies

If you prefer reading your instructions to watching videos, the support page Add a citation and create a bibliography on the Office website tells you how to complete all the steps. These instructions apply to Word 2016, 2013, 2010. and 2007.

 

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Wednesday, November 1, 2017

Due Date Changes

Due Date Changes published on

Due dates are closer than they appear by Wesley Fryer on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA license.I recently learned that according to the Faculty Handbook 9.6.1, “instructors should not schedule major assignments or tests for the last three calendar days of scheduled classes or reading day. Students should be allowed time to prepare for their final exams and benefit from feedback on material relevant to exams.”

To comply with this rule, I need to change the due date for your Genre Analysis Report, as shown below:

  • 12/1 (Fri): Post a draft of your report for peer review.
  • 12/5 (Tue): Provide feedback to everyone in your group.
  • 12/8 (Fri): Submit your Genre Analysis Report (the due date).
  • 12/13 (Wed): Submit your Genre Analysis Report, if you are using the grace period.

All the dates have to move back a bit to make the due date occur BEFORE the last three calendar days of scheduled classes. Note, however, that I am NOT moving the end of the grace period, which remains at 11:59PM on the last day of classes.

If this change throws your world into chaos, let me know and we’ll figure something out. My hope is that since you can still turn in your report on the original due date, everything will be okay.

 

Photo credit: Due dates are closer than they appear by Wesley Fryer on Flickr, used under a CC-BY-SA license.


 
Last updated on Friday, November 3, 2017

#FridayFact: You Need to Be a Fact-Checker

#FridayFact: You Need to Be a Fact-Checker published on

Meme: Skeptic Cat demands proofTo avoid being accused of spreading untrue information, be a fact checker. When you write a document in the workplace, your first task is to compose the document; but before you send that project out to your readers, you need to do some fact checking to verify the ideas.

You know all about fact checking from the news. Fact checking isn’t just for political speeches however. In the same way that you will doublecheck your calculations in a budget, you need to confirm the facts and sources that you include in your report.

Read more about the importance of fact checking in the Medium post Three Important Reasons Why You Need to Fact Check Your Content, and then follow up by reading Five Tips for Fact Checking Your Content! Pay particular attention to Tip #3, which will result in different answers for every career field.


 
Last updated on Wednesday, November 1, 2017

#InfographicInspiration: Research Steps

#InfographicInspiration: Research Steps published on

Since you are gathering information for your Genre Analysis Report this week, our #InfographicInspiration for focuses on the research process. The image below breaks the research process into eight steps that are typical for academic projects.

Your Genre Analysis Report probably includes the steps in this infographic, except perhaps the final step “Repeat.” It’s important to realize that research, like most creative projects, can take a much messier route than the infographic suggests. People rarely march through research in a 1-2-3 order. They back up, jump ahead, and redo.

As you look at this infographic, compare it to the way that you usually work. You might comment on any of the following:

  • How is your process the same as the one in the infographic?
  • How is your process different than the one in the infographic?
  • What steps do you follow that are not represented in the infographic?
  • If you created a visualization of your research process, what would it look like?
  • If the infographic inspires you to talk about something not covered in these questions, tell us about it.

Infographic: Steps in the Research Process
Click for larger image

 

 

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 31, 2017

#WednesdayWrite: Emojis and Professional Writing

#WednesdayWrite: Emojis and Professional Writing published on

Today’s #WednesdayWrite focuses on emoji and emoticon. To get started, review the infographic on the right and check out these articles:

Once you have reviewed the background information, add a comment that shares advice you would give someone about the use of emoji in professional discussions. You could write about any of these ideas:

  • when to use emoji (and when not to)
  • what emoji to use
  • what emoji not to use and why
  • how emoji work in special contexts, such as with clients and customers or with international audiences
  • what to do if emoji use goes wrong
  • any additional tips or advice

For examples of what your document can look like, see these resources from “the government’s internal design agency, 18F, about how they use emoji in Slack, including one on how they use emoji to document shared knowledge” (18F information from the Profhacker post, Getting More Done with Emoji).

Using Emoji In Your Comments

I believe that most of you are well-versed in using emoji in your writing. Just in case you are unfamiliar or you aren’t sure how to type emoji from your computer, I am including links to the WordPress documentation for emoji. These links will tell you how to find the emoji images you can insert in your comments:

 

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.


 
Last updated on Tuesday, October 31, 2017

#TuesdayTutorial: Conducting Research for Your Report

#TuesdayTutorial: Conducting Research for Your Report published on

Lynda.com Login Help

Lynda.com videos are free to Virginia Tech students with your VT.EDU login. Start at the VT.EDU login page to access these resources.

I’m sure you have done many research projects during your time as a student. Starting back in elementary school, you were asked to find outside sources and use them to create a project about your topic. Essentially that is your task for the Genre Analysis Report.

To review what goes into conducting research, watch the Lynda.com video on Conducting Research to Collect Information.

After you watch the video, consider the specific list of sources in the discussion of primary and secondary research, and describe how you can find or conduct one or more kind of research mentioned in the video.

Screenshot from the Lynda.com course Conduct Research to Collect Information

Note: This video has closed captioning, so it does not need a transcript.


 
Last updated on Sunday, October 22, 2017

Genre Analysis Report Overview

Genre Analysis Report Overview published on

This is the post for the week of October 30, 2017.

Once you turn in your Short Report Proposal, you will turn your attention to the Genre Analysis Report, which will be your focus for the rest of the term.

Readings for the Week

Everyone
Business Writing Students
  • 9.4 Report from Business Communication for Success
Technical Writing Students
  •  Technical Reports from Style for Students Online: Effective Technical Writing in the Information Age

Tasks for the Week

  1. By 11:59PM on Monday, October 30, submit your 10/27 Labor Log in Canvas, if you are using the grace period.
  2. By 11:59PM on Monday, October 30, submit your project in the Short Proposal assignment in Canvas. If you are using the grace period, submit your project by 11:59PM on November 2.
  3. Assume that your proposal has been accepted, and begin work on your Genre Analysis Report. I have never had to reject a proposed topic, but I do ask for slight changes occasionally.
  4. Begin your research for your Genre Analysis Report, and be sure to keep track of your sources for your bibliography. Use the instructions in Step 3 of the assignment to guide your research. This is a large project, so I encourage you to work steadily over the next month, rather than waiting until the last minute.
  5. Check for tools that can help with your research by reading the infographic on the right of today’s post and the blog post “12 Essential Chrome Extensions for Student Researchers” from the Educational Technology and Mobile Learning blog on research extensions.
  6. By 11:59PM on Friday, November 3, write your 11/03 Labor Log in Canvas. Specific questions for your log are included in Canvas. The grace period for your log entry ends at 11:59 PM on Monday, November 6.

Note: This infographic needs a text-based transcript. See the Optional Accessibility Transcript Activity for more details.

 

 

Photo credit: Chrome Extensions Infographic from Educational Technology and Mobile Learning.


 
Last updated on Sunday, October 22, 2017

#WeekendWatch: Comma Splices

#WeekendWatch: Comma Splices published on

At one point or another, you are bound to make a comma splice. We all have. I make them most often when I’m texting and not paying attention to what I’m doing. It’s not the worst error you could make, but it is one you should avoid in professional writing.

So you know comma splices are a problem to avoid, but do you know what they are? Watch this tutorial video from Texas A&M (2m14s) to find out!

 


 
Last updated on Sunday, October 22, 2017

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