Communicating For Success (C4S) - Writing

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video to get an introduction to the course from your instructor, Dr Oumaima Elghazali.

Course Description

Poor communication skills can have significant negative impacts on both your personal and professional life. In personal relationships, poor communication can lead to misunderstandings and conflicts. In a professional setting, poor communication can lead to mistakes, missed deadlines, and conflicts with coworkers. It can also impact your ability to work with others effectively and can damage your reputation and credibility. On the other hand, good communication skills can help to build strong, positive relationships and can be an important factor in your success both personally and professionally.

Communicating for Success - Writing supports you in developing these critical communication skills that are essential for success in your personal and professional lives. The course will focus on reading and written communication skills. You will learn how to effectively read texts as a precursor to developing your own written communication skills. You will then practice crafting clear communications by learning about topics such as writing structure and organization, grammar, audience awareness, and the iterative writing process.

Course Learning Outcomes

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

• Effectively read and understand written communications, especially technical writing.
• Compose documents with clear organizational structures that enhance your audience’s understanding.
• Use an iterative process to improve the quality of your writing.
• Understand the rules of grammar and apply them appropriately to improve the quality of your writing.
• Diagnose your communication challenges, and utilize techniques to help convey your messages more accurately.

Course and Instructor Information

• The instructor for this course is: Dr. Oumaima Elghazali (oumaima.elghazali@kibo.school).
• The teaching assistant for this course is: Mercy Ade-Ige (mercy.ade-ide@kibo.school)
• The course will run from July 10 to September 17, 2023. Note that this is a 10-week course.
• Live classes will be held on Thursday 5:30 - 7:00 pm GMT. The live classes are mandatory.
• Office hours will be held on Wednesday 5:30 - 6:30 pm GMT. These are optional chances to get additional support from the instructor and teaching assistant.

Weekly Lessons

👩🏿‍🏫 Complete this course by exploring the following lessons.

Lesson 1: Reading Well

Lesson 2: Writing Well

Lesson 3: Planning & Structuring

Lesson 4: Drafting

Lesson 5: Revising, Editing, & Proofreading

Course Topics

Estimated Time: 15 minutes

Communication skills refer to the ability to effectively exchange information, ideas, and thoughts through speaking, writing, and other means.

There are several types of communication skills, including:

⚠️ In this course, we will focus on Reading and Writing.

These are all actions that we repeatedly perform each day, and it's easy to take them for granted. Have you ever stopped to reflect on how well you do each of these things? Do you think about how your competence in these skills impacts your performance and relationships at home, school, or work? Are you intentional about your approach to these forms of communication?

Robin Sharma once said, “Awareness precedes choice, and choice precedes change.” The goal of C4S is to help you develop, 1) awareness of what effective and efficient communication looks like, 2) insight into your current skill level, and 3) strategies for improving your skills so that they can support you in achieving your goals.

📺 Watch the following video from Adesola, one of the Kibo mentors, to learn why communication is an important skill for tech professionals.

Course Structure

Part 1 - Reading

Reading is an important part of communication because it allows us to receive and understand written messages from others. Reading enables us to understand and interpret written texts, which can be anything from emails and news articles to novels and poetry. The ability to effectively receive information in written format is a first step to being able to send back appropriate responses. Reading can help improve your writing skills. When you read, you are exposed to a wide variety of writing styles, language structures, and vocabulary. This can help you develop a sense of what works and what doesn't in terms of writing, and can also help you expand your own writing style and vocabulary. In addition, reading can help you understand the conventions of writing in different genres and disciplines, which can be useful when you are writing in a specific style or for a specific audience.

With all this in mind, C4S begins with an exploration of how to read well, so that you can build a strong foundation for the other communication skills that we will explore afterwards.

Part 2 - Writing

The second part of this course is focused on writing.

Written communication in academic and professional settings is important because it allows you to communicate your thoughts to others across time and space. In a globalised world were you are learning and working with people that aren't in the same location as you, you need to be able to clearly and accurately convey your thoughts and ideas in written form so that they can be understood by others without the direct feedback loops that spoken communication provides. Additionally, in professional settings, written communication is expected as it allows you to convey longer more complex ideas, while also creating a permanent record that can be referred to at a later time.

The goal is to help you improve both the quality of your writing output, and the efficiency of your writing process.

Course Expectations

Estimated Time: 15 minutes

Using Technology

This course will require you to complete a lot of reading and writing, and there are now a lot of tools that you can use to support you in refining your skills.

Discussions: Padlet

To create a Padlet account:

• Go to https://padlet.com/auth/signup and Sign Up for a Padlet account using your Kibo School email address.
• Since you have already created a Kibo School Google Account, you can click "Sign Up with Google" and follow the instructions to link your Padlet account to your Google account. This will mean that you don't have to create a new username and password for the Padlet account.

Word Processing: Google Docs

From previous assignments that Kibo students have turned in, it is evident that you are currently using a variety of tools when creating your written assignments (e.g. Notes, Notion). However, for C4S you should use Google Docs when completing all of your writing assignments because it contains a lot of useful tools that will improve your writing process. If you don't have experience using Google Docs, you can watch the video below to learn about its key features and how to get started quickly.

📺 Watch the following video on how to use Google Docs.

🛠 Here is a link to a longer, more detail Google Docs tutorial.

Speech-to-Text: Google Docs Voice Typing

If you usually have trouble getting started with writing, a helpful technique is to turn the thoughts in your mind into concrete words on a page by just saying them aloud using a speech-to-text tool. One of the benefits of using Google Docs is that it has a built-in speech-to-text tool.

You can supercharge this process by creating questions that you want your writing to answer and then use the voice typing tool to interview yourself in order to capture your thoughts to these questions down in written word. This can be an excellent way to kick-start your writing, if you tend to suffer from writer's block. You can learn more about how to use Google Doc Voice Typing by watching the video below.

📺 Watch the following video on how to use voice typing in Google Docs.

Google Docs Grammar and Spelling Checker

It is important to use a spelling and grammar checker when writing because it can help you catch typos and grammatical errors and will improve the overall quality of your writing. Spelling and grammar mistakes can be distracting for readers and can make your writing seem careless or unprofessional. A spelling and grammar checker can help you identify and correct these mistakes, improving the clarity and credibility of your writing. In addition, using a spelling and grammar checker can help you improve your own language skills. By highlighting errors and suggesting corrections, a spelling and grammar checker can help you learn from your mistakes so that you can become a better writer.

📺 Watch the following video on how to use the spelling and grammar checker in Google Docs.

AI Writing Assistants: Grammarly, Wordtune, Quilbot, etc.

There are now a number of AI-powered tools that you can use to help with rewriting your sentences for clarity and impact. These work by reading the sentences that you have written and suggesting re-writes to improve how your message is conveyed, which you have to review and decide on whether to accept or not. These tools are a powerful support to improve your writing, but they can't write for you. Nor should you just accept all their suggestions without thoroughly evaluating them. Most of these tools will only allow you to access their full features if you pay. However, they all provide some sort of limited free version.

Grammarly

Wordtune

Quilbot

Note: You should only be using these tools to improve the quality of your own writing. Copying the writing of others and passing it off as your own is called plagiarism, and this is a violation of the Kibo Student Code of Conduct and will result in disciplinary action.

All of your submissions will be checked using a plagiarism tool that will be able to compare your work to writing found online. If you want to incorporate the writing of others into your work, be sure to quote, paraphrase, and cite your sources appropriately to avoid any plagiarism issues.

AI Writing Assistant: Hemmingway Editor

Hemmingway Editor is like the other writing assistant tools mentioned above, however, it is specifically useful for re-writing long, complex hard to read sentences into clear and bold sentences. It has a free online text editor that allows you to check a limited number of words at one time.

Hemmingway Editor

Plagiarism Checker: Plagium

If you want to check your writing for plagiarism before you submit, there are a number of free tools like Plagium that will allow you to check a limited number of words to determine how similar your work is to writing that can be found online.

Text-to-Speech

A text-to-speech app is a useful tool when working to improve your writing. The most obvious use for this tool is to allow you to "read" a large amount of text. However, there is a secondary use for such a tool that is actually more powerful. Text-to-speech apps are useful when proofreading your writing because it is often easier to hear the mistakes in your text than to see them. Sometimes when we read, we are not actually reading, but instead remembering what we think the text says. Therefore, it can be hard to catch typos. However, when we listen to our writing, we are processing the words in a new way, and typos are far easier to identify.

There are a number of text-to-speech tools that have Chrome browser extensions. Two good ones that I have used in the past are:

Natural Reader

Read Aloud

Attendance and Engagement Policies

Please make sure you have reviewed all the Kibo Academic Policies that are found in the Catalog.

The general Kibo attendance and engagement policy is as follows:

Students are expected to remain academically engaged in all classes. The requirement for satisfactory academic engagement is to submit all assigned work by the published due date.

You will be deemed academically disengaged in a class if you have an assignment that is 7 or more days late. Academic disengagement carries with it a number of possible penalties, including and up to dismissal from Kibo.

In addition to meeting the requirements for academic engagement, students are expected to actively participate in learning activities. Learning at Kibo involves a variety of experiences including:

• Attending scheduled sessions (e.g., live class or office hours) where there is opportunity for interaction with the instructor and/or peers

• Submitting academic assignments, quizzes, or projects

• Taking exams, or engaging in online tutorials and instruction

• Attending a study group that is assigned by the instructor

• Participating in an online discussion about academic matters

• Initiating contact with an instructor to ask a question about the class

You should inform your instructor if personal emergencies arise that prevent satisfactory academic engagement. If you are ill for more than a week and/or expect to not remain academically engaged due to personal, family, or other emergency, you should also contact your advisor and the Dean.

**For this course specifically, you are expected to engage in the online discussion and reflection questions and activities that are embedded throughout the online lessons. You are also expected to attend the weekly 90-minute live class. If you are unable to attend the live class, you are required to notify the instructor at least 24 hours in advance of the live class that you will be missing and watch the recording of the live class that you have missed and submit your class participation reflection.

If you have any questions, please be sure to post them in the #help-c4s channel in Discord, and the instructor will be able to answer your question there.

Academic Integrity

This course is run in accordance with Kibo School's Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy, which can also be found in the Catalog. We have a zero tolerance policy towards all forms of academic misconduct, including cheating, plagiarism, and fabrication. If you are found to be in breach of the Academic Honesty and Integrity Policy in any of the assignments that you submit, you will be subject to disciplinary action.

Note that assisting another student in the violation of this policy also constitutes a violation of academic integrity (e.g. letting someone copy your assignment counts as a violation for both the person that copied the work and the original owner of the copied work).

Communication Expectations

The most effective way to communicate with the instructor for this course is through posting a message in the #help-c4s channel in Discord. All questions posted there will receive a response within 24 hours.

All course announcements from the instructor will also be posted to the pinned announcement in the #help-c4s channel in Discord.

Course Assessments

Estimated time: 10 minutes

Assignments (40% of final grade)

Over the duration of the course, there will be three assignments that will help you reinforce the concepts that you are exploring in the lessons. These assignments are:

• Assignment 1: Reading and Analyzing Writing (Due date: 22 July, 2023)
• Assignment 2: Internship Cover Letter (Due date: 12 August, 2023)
• Assignment 3: Technical Blog Post (Due date: 2 September, 2023)

All three assignments will be worth 40% of your final grade. Therefore, each assignment is 13.3% of your final grade.

Class Participation (10% of final grade)

During the term, you will have 10 live classes for C4S. Class attendance is mandatory and will count for 10% of your final course grade. To obtain the marks for class attendance you must submit a live class reflection on Gradescope after each live class (apart from the final one). If you are not able to attend a live class, you should watch the recording of the live class and submit your reflection. Reflections are due by 10 pm GMT on the Sunday after a live class.

Tip: Submit the reflection right after the class ends!

The reflection question is: Describe one key takeaway from today's live class and how you plan to use this learning to improve your writing.

Reflections should be 100 - 250 words.

Midterm Project (20% of final grade)

The midterm project for this course will require you to write a press release for a new product.

The due date for the project will be August 26th, 2023.

Final Essay (15% of final grade)

One of your final assessments for this course will be to write a blog post (1000 - 1500 words) where you reflect on your learning journey during the C4S course.

The due date for the essay will be September 17th, 2023.

Final Project 15% of final grade)

Your other final assessments for this course will require you to put together an application for the Kibo Fellowship. The application will require you to write a personal statement and a project proposal.

The due date for the project will be September 17th, 2023.

Late Submission Policy

All weekly assignments have a due date by which the assignment must be submitted in order to get full marks. Late submissions will be subject to at least a 25% deduction in the marks available.

For the class participation: If your reflection is not submitted by 10 pm GMT on the Sunday after the live class, you will receive a zero for that week's class participation grade.

Live Classes

This page will be updated weekly with the slides and recordings from the live classes.

Below is the live class schedule.

Introduction to the Grammar Bootcamps

📺 Watch the following video on the importance of grammar.

Discuss: Does Grammar Matter?

Purpose of Grammar Bootcamps

Good grammar allows you to communicate your ideas clearly and effectively by ensuring that your sentences are easy to understand and free from ambiguity. When reading, we rely on the correct use of grammar to help us make sense of the words on the page. If the grammar is incorrect, it can be difficult to understand the intended meaning of the text. Additionally, grammar is important for making a good impression on others, especially in academic and professional settings, where poor grammar can make you appear careless or unprofessional. Since grammar plays such an important role in written communication, you will work on improving your grammar throughout this course.

The purpose of these bootcamps is to give you practice in understanding and correctly applying grammar rules, so you can improve the quality of your writing. It is important to note that while there are a lot of rules that you can learn to improve the grammatical correctness of your writing, this course is not a grammar course, so we will not dive deeply into grammar rules. Instead, we will focus on the most common errors that distract readers and reduce the clarity of messages.

The grammar bootcamps will cover examples of the above error types rather than give you the grammar theory to memorize upfront.

In each grammar bootcamp, there are quizzes that present questions about different grammatical conventions. Each quiz ends once you get ten questions correct or you exhaust the available questions. At the start of each quiz, you will be asked to pick a number. This will determine how many questions you have available, so choose wisely!

Once you have completed a quiz for a section, you should have seen numerous examples of how to use the corresponding grammar conventions. Feel free to take the quizzes as many times as you like. If you want to learn more about a grammar convention and its correct usage, after each quiz, there are links to additional theory in video and text formats.

The grammar bootcamps are designed to be personalized to your grammar needs. So please interact with them in whatever way is most useful for you. Do as many or as few of the quizzes as you see fit. And do them as many times as is helpful. The additional resources provided also have more questions that you can use to test your understanding of the different grammar conventions.

If you encounter a question in one of the quizzes and don't understand the correct answer, post the question in the #help-c4s channel in Discord to get additional clarification from your peers or the instructor.

After completing all 6 Grammar bootcamps you will be able to:

• Apply the basic rules of grammar and mechanics that govern homonyms, homophones, commonly misused words, spelling, and capitalization.
• Apply the basic rules of grammar that govern sentence fragments and run-on sentences.
• Apply the basic rules of grammar that govern dangling and misplaced modifiers.
• Apply the basic rules of grammar that govern verb form and tense.
• Apply the basic rules of grammar that govern commas and apostrophes.
• Apply the basic rules of grammar that govern pronouns and prepositions.

Reading Well

Week Overview

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn about what you will be studying in lesson 1.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Understand your current reading competency levels.
• Identify ways to improve your reading speed and comprehension.
• Read and understand texts more effectively and efficiently.
• Utilize skimming to improve your reading ability.

Getting Focused

🎧 Before you jump into the sections of this week's lesson, use this short meditation to prepare yourself for learning.

Sections

👩🏿‍🏫 Complete this lesson by exploring each section

1.1 Grammar Bootcamp 1

1.2 Motivation

1.3 Reading Self-Assessments

1.4 How to Read Better

1.5 How to Read Faster

1.6 Skimming

1.7 Reading to Write

1.8 Reading Technical Writing

1.9 Assignment 1 - Reading and Analysing Writing

Grammar Bootcamp 1

The first grammar bootcamp includes quizes on misused words, spelling, and capitalisation.

⚠️ If you haven't already done so, make sure you read the Introduction to Grammar Bootcamps so that you understand what these are and why they are important.

Misused Homophones

Misused homonym or homophone: Using a word that sounds similar to the intended word but is spelt differently or has a different meaning.

📝 Take this quiz to see how well you can identify the correct homophone to use in a sentence.

Commonly Confused Words

📺 Watch this video on one set of commonly confused words: Me, Myself, and I.

📝 Take this quiz to see how well you can identify the correct word to use in a sentence.

Spelling

📺 Watch the following video about the challenges of spelling in English

As discussed in the video, English spelling can be challenging due to the lack of consistency in many spelling conventions. As you work on improving your spelling, here are some common spelling errors that people tend to make:

1. Single or Double Letters (e.g. accommodation v. acomodation)

2. Silent Letters (e.g. thumb v. thum)

3. Position of "i" and "e" (e.g. receive v. recieve)

4. Phonetic spelling (i.e. spelling a word the way it sounds) (e.g. receipt v. receit)

5. Similar sounding words (e.g. accept v. except)

6. Malaproprisms (e.g. taxing v. tasking)

Source

📝 Take this quiz to test your spelling skills.

📖 Read the following chapter to learn more about spelling rules and commonly mispelt words: Writing for Success - Chapter 4.2 Spelling

Capitalisation

📺 Watch this video on when to use capitalisation.

📝 Take this quiz to test your knowledge of correct capitalisation

📖 Read the following chapter to learn more about capitalisation rules: Writing for Success - Chapter 2.4 Capitalisation

Motivation

Estimated Time: 45 minutes

How We Read

Have you ever thought about what actually happens when you read?

📺 Watch the following video on the science behind reading.

One of the most interesting takeaways from the above video is that our brain doesn't process exactly what is on a page, instead it processes pieces of what is on the page and fills in the gaps with what it thinks is there. 🤯

So if you've ever taken an exam and missed a question because you read it incorrectly. Or answered a feedback survey question like the example in the image below. It might be because your brain is incorrectly filling in the gaps as it moves between words!

Note: One potential solution to this issue is to slow down when reading and use other context clues to sanity check what you think you have read!

Benefits of Reading

📺 Watch this video to learn about the benefits of reading.

Reflection: Reading

Reading Practice!

📖 Read this, then submit a 100-word summary of the reading in the pallet below.

Reading Self-Assessments

Estimated Time: 15 minutes

Reading Attitudes and Strategies Reflection

The questions in the below questionnaire will ask you to think about your current reading attitude, strategies, and habits. These questions cover several components of an effective reading practise, including previewing, taking notes, time management, prioritizing, and reviewing.

📝 Complete the following questionnaire to reflect on how you currently read (primarily in an academic context).

Source: The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

⚠️ No matter your current reading level, there are many things that you can do to improve your skills and confidence. Reading can be challenging due to a variety of reasons from inefficient strategies to diagnosed or undiagnosed learning disorders. Try to maintain a growth mindset, and remember that your current skill level has nothing to do with your intelligence or worthiness. It is important that you develop your awareness of your own strengths and weaknesses, so that you can better understand the things that might be holding you back in your reading, and find systems, tools, and technology to help manage and overcome them.

Assessing Reading Speed and Comprehension

📝 Complete the following reading speed and comprehension test: Speed Reading Test

Vocabulary Size Test

📝 Use this quiz to test the size of your vocabulary: English Vocabulary Size Assessment

Here are some ways you can improve your vocabulary:

• Read widely: One of the best ways to expand your vocabulary is to read as much as possible. Reading exposes you to new words and concepts and can help you learn their meanings.
• Use a dictionary: If you come across a word you don't know while reading, look it up in a dictionary. This will help you learn the meaning of the word and how it is used in context.
• Keep a vocabulary journal: Whenever you come across a new word, write it down in a journal along with its definition and an example sentence. Reviewing your journal regularly can help you remember the words and use them in your own writing and speaking.
• Play word games: Word games, such as crosswords and Scrabble, can help you learn new words and improve your vocabulary in a fun and engaging way.
• Use new words in conversation: Try incorporating new words you have learned into your conversations with friends and family. This can help you practice using the words in context and become more comfortable with them.
• Use mnemonic devices: Mnemonic devices, such as acronyms or rhymes, can help you remember new words and their meanings.

Reflection

🪞 Answer the questions in the padlet below.

📖 Have you've identified some challenges that are getting in the way of your reading speed and comprehension? This resource provides more details on common reading errors. While some of these may be more relevant for younger students, there are a number that are applicable to adults. For example: Consonant Cluster Errors, Attention to Detail Errors, and, Fast and Sloppy.

How to Read Better

Estimated Time: 1 hour

Reading is an important skill for success in personal, academic, and professional contexts. Being able to read allows you to access a large amount of written information. This can include everything from books, newspapers, and magazines, to instructions, street signs, and menus. Without the ability to read, you would be unable to fully participate in many aspects of modern society. Reading is also important for personal growth and development. Reading allows you to learn new things, expand your knowledge, and develop your critical thinking skills, and can also be a source of enjoyment and relaxation. Furthermore, reading is essential for academic success. In school, students are expected to read and understand a wide variety of texts, including textbooks and other written materials. Being able to read and comprehend these texts is essential for doing well in university.

While we know that reading is a critical skill, you may ask yourself, "what does it mean to read well?" To read well means to be able to read and understand written materials accurately and effectively. There are several characteristics that support you in doing so, including:

• Fluency: Being able to read smoothly, without frequent pauses.
• Comprehension: Understanding what is being read is an important part of being a good reader. This may involve being able to identify main ideas, make inferences, and draw conclusions based on the text.
• Vocabulary: A good reader typically has a wide range of vocabulary, which can help them better understand the text they are reading.
• Attention to detail: Good readers are able to focus on the details of the text and notice important information and nuances.
• Critical thinking: Good readers are able to think critically about what they are reading, questioning and evaluating the content and arguments presented in the text.
• Engagement: Good readers are able to engage with the text and become immersed in the subject matter being presented.
• Flexibility: Good readers are able to adapt their reading strategies to different types of texts and adjust their reading pace and level of comprehension as needed.

Having a high proficiency in all these, can be challenging in academic and professional settings, when the volume and complexity of the texts that you are required to read is high. Therefore. it is worth being intentional about improving your approach to reading, and in this section we will explore some ways to help you read better.

📺 Watch the following video to learn more about reading in academic settings.

Summary of the SQ3R Framework:

• S = Survey: Quickly preview the material to get an overall sense of what it is about. Look at headings, subheadings, and any other organizational features.
• Q = Question: Turn the headings and subheadings into questions, and try to answer them based on what you already know. This will help you focus on the most important information and think about how it fits into your existing knowledge.
• R = Read: Read the material carefully, paying attention to the answers to the questions you generated. Take notes as you go along to help you remember key points.
• R = Recite: After you have finished reading, try to explain the main ideas to someone else or to yourself. This will help you consolidate your understanding and identify any areas where you need further clarification.
• R = Review: Review your notes and any other materials you have gathered, and test yourself on the material to make sure you have a good understanding of it.

Although SQ3R is a useful framework, you don't need to follow it perfectly in order to get the main benefits of the approach. The general point of the framework is for you to read actively!

📖 Read the following article to learn about more ways to improve your reading comprehension

📖 Read the following article for strategies for reading better

The strategies introduced in the above articles include:

Reflection

Here are some final tips to improve your reading skills:

• Practice reading regularly: The more you read, the more you will improve your reading skills. Make time to read every day, and try to read a variety of materials, such as books, articles, and websites.

• Set aside distractions: When you are reading, try to eliminate as many distractions as possible. This will help you focus on the material and increase your concentration and comprehension.

• Take active notes: As you read, consider taking notes or highlighting important information. This will help you retain the information and better understand the material. Feel free to refer back to the lesson in Optimizing Your Learning that discussed the Create and Capture method of note taking.

• Don't be afraid to ask for help: If you are having trouble understanding a text, don't be afraid to seek help. Remember that we are #better-together.

How to Read Faster

Estinated Time: 30 minutes

Reading fast is the ability to read both quickly and accurately. This requires you to quickly process the words on the page without sacrificing accuracy or comprehension. Reading fast is an important skill that can be useful in a number of situations. For example, it can help you save time when you are reading lengthy texts or have a lot of material to cover.

Think back to your reading speed from the reading self-assessmnet in section 1.3. Imagine if you were able to increase your reading speed by 50%. If you currently read a 200 wpm, and increased your speed by 50% to 300 wpm, you would reduce the time you needed to read a 200 page book from 8 hours to around 5.5 hours! This would mean spending 2.5 fewer hours to accomplish the same task!

However, increasing reading speed by that much, without sacrificing reading comprehension, is no easy feat. In this section we will learn more about what limits our ability to read faster, and the techniques that we can utilize to do so effectively.

📺 Watch this video on the science of speed reading.

📺 Watch this video for some tips on how to read faster.

Here are some final tips to help you learn to read faster:

• Develop your reading comprehension skills: In order to read quickly, you need to be able to understand the material you are reading. This means practicing your reading comprehension skills and learning how to identify the main ideas, key details, and relationships between ideas in a text.

• Use skimming and scanning: Skimming is a technique that involves quickly reading the main points of a text, while scanning is a technique that involves quickly looking for specific information in a text. These techniques can help you read quickly without sacrificing accuracy or comprehension.

• Increase your familiarity with the material: The more familiar you are with the material you are reading, the easier it will be to read quickly. Try to read widely and expose yourself to a variety of texts, so that you are more familiar with the language and content of what you are reading.

• Practice regularly: As with any skill, the more you practice reading fast, the better you will become. Set aside time to practice reading quickly, and try to gradually increase your speed over time.

• Take a step back: Remember two important points. 1) There is a limit to how fast you will be able to read, so give yourself a break and don't try to read at 500 wpm. 2) Always keep the purpose of your reading in mind. Sometimes slowing down your reading speed will be a more effective way to achieve your goal.

Reading Practice!

📖 Read this, then submit a 100-word summary of the reading in the padlet below. Remember to use the strategies that you have been introduced over the last two sections to read better and faster.

Skimming

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Skimming is a reading strategy in which you selectively focus on the main ideas of a text. It is often used when you want to get a broad understanding of a text without reading it in great detail. Skimming can be useful when you need to quickly gather information from a long or complex text, or when you want to identify the main points or key ideas in a text.

📖 Read the following article on skimming

📺 Watch the following video to learn more about skimming

Why Should You Skim?

Skimming can be useful for a number of reasons, for example:

• If you need to quickly gather information from a long or complex text, skimming can help you identify the main points or key ideas without having to read the entire text in detail.

• If you're not sure whether a text is relevant to your needs, skimming can help you quickly determine whether it contains the information you're looking for.

• If you're short on time and need to get through a large amount of reading material, skimming can help you quickly identify which texts are worth reading in more depth.

• If you're studying for an exam and need to review a large amount of material, skimming can help you quickly identify the most important information and focus your study time on the most relevant information.

• Skimming can also be a useful skill in everyday life, such as when you're scanning a menu at a restaurant or browsing a webpage to find specific information.

When Should You Not Skim?

There are some situations when skimming is not the best reading strategy, for example:

• If you need to understand every detail of a text, skimming is not a good idea because it may cause you to miss important details or nuances.

• If the text contains complex ideas or difficult vocabulary, skimming may not be the best strategy because you may not have enough time to fully understand the ideas or vocabulary.

• If the text is not well-organized or the main points are not clearly stated, skimming may not be effective.

• If you're reading for enjoyment or to gain a deep understanding of the text, skimming is not the best strategy.

Skimming Strategies

• Strategy 1: Read the title, introduction, and conclusion of the text. These sections often provide a general overview of the text and can help you understand the main points or key ideas.

• Strategy 2: Read the first and last sentences of each paragraph. This can help you understand the main points or key ideas in each paragraph and get a sense of how the ideas in the paragraph relate to the overall content of the text.

• Strategy 3: Scan the text for key words or phrases that are bolded, italicized, or highlighted. These words or phrases are often used to emphasize important ideas, and reading them can help you quickly understand the main points of the text.

• Strategy 4: Look for headings, subheadings, and other visual cues, such as bullet points, lists, or tables, that can help you quickly understand the organization and structure of the text.

Reading Practice!

📖 Read this, then submit a 100-word summary of the reading in the pallet below.

Reading to Write

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Earlier in this week's lesson you learned that reading can be an important tool for improving your writing. Reading can:

• Improve your vocabulary
• Improve your grammar and spelling
• Improve your knowledge of appropriate writing structures for a given context
• Allow you to explore different writing styles

However, to get these benefits, you have to read with purpose. Here are some tips on what you should do to ensure that your reading is actually helping you improve your writing skills.

1 - Build your vocabulary

If you see a word that you don’t know, write it down and look up the definition.

2 - Evaluate the text's purpose, audience, and evidence

• Ask yourself: What is the purpose of this writing? Does it achieve its purpose?
• Ask yourself: Who is this text written for? How is it tailored to this audience?
• Ask yourself: What evidence and information does it include that supports its purpose?

3 - Assess what you are reading

• Reflect on the good: What worked well?
• Reflect on the bad: What didn’t work well?

4 - Deepen your assessment

Evaluate the structure, coherence, tone, and word choice of the text by asking yourself the following questions:

• How is the text structured? You can determine this by analyzing the key messages and purposes of each paragraph of the text and evaluating how they relate to each other.
• Why do you think the text is structured this way?
• Are the paragraphs ordered in a logical way?
• Within a paragraph, are sentences ordered in a logical way? And do they transition smoothly from one to another?
• Is the tone of the text formal or informal? How did you determine this? Why do you think this sort of tone is used?
• Are there any other tones that you notice in the writing? Neutral, Optimistic, Angry, Worried, Friendly, Curious. Assertive, Encouraging, etc.

Practice: Cover Letter Evaluation

Reading Technical Writing

Estimated Time: 1.5 hours

As you develop your technical skills and launch your career, you will be required to read a variety of documents that are specific to the technology industry. In this section we will dive into discussing a couple of these types of documents, and explore some tips for how to approach reading them effectively. We will cover:

• Design Docs
• Product Requirements Documents
• Technical Documentation
• Code
• Technical Research Papers

Design Docs

📺 Watch the following video of Nabila, one of the Kibo mentors, describing what a design doc is.

📖 Read the following article about design docs at Google.

Product Requirements Documents

📺 Watch the following video to learn more about product requirements documents

📖 Here is an example of a PRD for Product Hunt.

Technical Documentation

📺 Watch the following video on how to read technical documentation.

Code

📺 Watch this video that delves deeper into how to read code. This is especially useful for reading and debugging your own code. (Note: This video is long, but I highly encourage you to watch it from timestamp 03:20 - 37:30)

Here is a summary of the three types of confusion when reading code that are mentioned in the video, along with the proposed solutions:

1. Long-term memory issues - these occur when you encounter concepts, variable names, syntax, etc. that you are not familiar with.

   • Solution: STOP, look up the thing that you don’t know, practice retrieving the information.

2. Short-term memory issues - these occur when you don't have the required prior knowledge available in your short-term memory.

   • Solution: Restructure the code so that it more closely matches your prior knowledge.

3. Working memory issues - these occur when the amount of information that you need to juggle at a given time to understand something overloads the capacity of your working memory.

   • Solution: Support your working memory by using visuals like tables, or create a process that helps you decompose and step through different parts of the code (e.g. printing intermediary values to understand how the code is functioning).

📖 Read this article to learn how to read code written by someone else.

Technical Research Papers

📖 Read the following 2019 blog post by Robb on how to read research papers

Assignment 1 - Reading and Analysing Writing

📝 Complete the assignment below

Due date: Saturday, 22 July, 2023 10pm GMT

Instructions

• Review the assignment brief below.
• Complete your assignment in a Google doc.
• Download your finished assignment as a pdf and submit on Gradescope and Woolf.

Brief

• Before Reading

  • You will be reading the following article: To Make Sense of the Present, Brains May Predict the Future
  • Look over the entire article (i.e., Survey from SQ3R ) and write 2 - 3 questions that come to mind during your survey of the text (i.e., Question from SQ3R)

• Read the Article

  • Take notes as you are reading.

• After Reading:

  • Analyze the text by answering the following questions:
    • What is the purpose of this writing? Does it achieve its purpose?
    • Who is this text written for? How is it tailored to this audience?
    • What evidence and information does it include that supports its purpose?
  • Evaluate the text by answering the following questions:
    • How is the text structured? You can determine this by analyzing the key messages and purposes of each paragraph and evaluating how they relate to each other.
    • Why do you think the text is structured this way?
    • Are the paragraphs ordered in a logical way?
    • Within a paragraph, are sentences ordered in a logical way? And do they transition smoothly from one to another?
    • Is the tone of the blog formal or informal? How did you determine this? Why do you think this sort of tone is used?
    • Are there any other tones? Neutral, Optimistic, Angry, Worried, Friendly, Curious. Assertive, Encouraging, etc.
  • Write a 100-300 word summary of the article. Be sure to include at least one conclusion or new thing that you have learned from the reading.

Read this chapter to learn how to write an effective summary.

Submission

• Your submission should include all of the following in one pdf:
  • Your 2 - 3 questions about the reading.
  • Your answers to the 3 analysis questions.
  • Your answers to the 6 evaluation questions.
  • Your 100 - 300 word summary of the blog post.

Submit your assignment on Gradescope and then upload a copy to the Week 2 submission area on the Woolf platform.

Writing Well

Introduction

📺 Watch the following introduction from your instructor.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Assess the efficacy of your writing process and identify critical areas of improvement.
• Identify the purpose and process of communication.
• Use the 7Cs framework to evaluate the quality of your communications.
• Evaluate and improve the coherence of your writing.
• Perceive writing as an iterative process with clearly defined, sequential steps.
• Differentiate between the goals and tasks in each step of the writing process.

Getting Focused

🎧 Before you jump into the sections of this week's lesson, use this short meditation to prepare yourself for learning.

Sections

👩🏿‍🏫 Complete this lesson by exploring each section

2.1 Grammar Bootcamp 2

2.2 Motivation

2.3 Writing Self-Assessment

2.4 Introduction to the Communication Process

2.5 Evaluating Written Communications

2.6 Creating Coherence

2.7 Writing as a Process

2.8 The Writing Process

Grammar Bootcamp 2

The second grammar bootcamp includes a quiz that covers sentence fragments and run-on sentences

Sentence Fragments and Run-on Sentences

📝 Take this quiz to see how well you can identify sentence fragments and run-on sentences.

Motivation

Estimated Time: 15 minutes

🗣 "At the end of the day, why do we write, why do we speak? It is because there are ideas and things that we feel are important that we want to convey to someone else."

• Mehran Sahami

Writing Matters!

📺 Watch this video to learn why writing is essential for computer scientists and how writing can help improve the way you think.

There is a common misconception that writing is not an important skill for professionals in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) fields. However, as mentioned in the video, technical professionals with poor writing skills often reduce the impact and effectiveness of their work. If no one can understand what you have done, the quality of your work can become irrelevant.

This may be obvious in academia, where written articles are one of the main ways researchers share ideas and collaborate. However, it is also true in the technology industry, which is increasingly characterised by a global, distributed, remote workforce. For example, suppose you are based in Nairobi and work with colleagues in California. The 10 hour time difference means that you will rarely have meetings and will instead rely on written communications to share information, give instructions, and build relationships.

As a consequence, communication skills consistently top the list of skills employers look for in job candidates. Vivek Ravisankar, CEO of HackerRank, the market leader for technical interviews, notes that the shift to hybrid and remote work means that "writing is the most important new skill for tech workers, regardless of role." Technical professionals write every day, from sending emails to their colleagues to creating product manuals for customers to drafting technical reports that summarise the outcomes of their work. As such, writing well has become a prerequisite for success in the Future of Work.

Discuss

Writing Self-Assessment

Estimated Time: 20 minutes

📺 Watch this video to learn how to reflect on your writing experiences and grow as a writer

📝 Complete the following writing self-assessment and identify three writing development areas that you can focus on during this part of the course.

References

MindTools. How Good Are Your Communication Skills?

Introduction to the Communication Process

Estimated Time: 1 hour

Communication is a constant feature of our daily lives, so it can be easy to overlook what is occurring during the process. Therefore, before jumping into writing specifically, we are going to:

1. Discuss the general process of communication.
2. Then, once we have a clear picture of the overall communication process, we will discuss the different barriers that can lead to miscommunication.

In its simplest form, the communication process is about accurately getting the thoughts in the sender's head into the receiver's head. There are a few key terms to know (click the ▷ to see the definitions):

A simple picture of communication could look like this:

• In the above image, the person on the left (the sender) has a thought in her head about a shoe that needs to be cleaned, so she transmits a message to the receiver that says, "Clean the boot". The receiver gets the message and translates it into her own thoughts.
• But something went wrong! The thoughts in the sender's mind and the receiver's mind are not the same.

Let's walk through the steps of the communication process to see how this happened.

Steps of the Communication Process

Miscommunication

What do you think caused the miscommunication in the "boot" example above?

It might be helpful to know that the sender is American and the receiver is British, and the word "boot" has different meanings in those two countries.

This situation is a good reminder that there are many factors (called communication barriers or noise) that can impact the effectiveness of communication. Additionally, communication does not occur in a vacuum. There is always a context around communication that affects the barriers that could lead to miscommunication.

This example may seem trivial. However, ineffective communication and miscommunication are common phenomena that can have severe consequences in personal and professional contexts.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about miscommunication.

Different Types of Miscommunication

Miscommunication occurs when the message the receiver decodes does not match the original message that the sender intended. There are three general categories of miscommunication: 1) Sender-related, 2) Channel-related, and 3) Receiver-related. However, most miscommunications fall into the category of sender-related. To understand this category better, let's explore it through the analogy of two people playing catch (i.e. throwing a ball back and forth).

Sender-related Miscommunication:

✍🏿 The responsibility for effective communication sits with the sender. The sender is the one with the idea that they want to communicate and must do what is required to get the idea to the receiver as intended with minimal effort from the receiver.

⚾️ When playing catch, the person who throws the ball is responsible for throwing it so that the receiver can catch it. If the sender throws the ball over the receiver's head, and the receiver has to jump to catch it. It is the sender's fault if the ball is not caught.

✍🏿 The sender needs to know their audience to tailor the delivery of their message to match their audience's interests, expectations, knowledge level, etc.

⚾️ When playing catch, the thrower should know the skill level and habits of the person that they are throwing to so that they can throw the ball to them in a way that allows the catcher to catch it. For example, the thrower would throw the ball at a different height when throwing to someone that was 185 cm tall versus someone that was 150 cm tall.

✍🏿 The sender should avoid distractions like incoherent narratives or grammar, spelling, and punctuation errors, which might make it harder for the receiver to understand the message as intended.

⚾️ When playing catch, the thrower should avoid distractions (e.g., flashing lights, making too much noise) that might make it harder for the catcher to focus on the ball that is being thrown at them.

A note on the other two categories:

Channel-related Miscommunication - Miscommunications can also arise due to the channel that was chosen for conveying the message. The channel used can send unintended messages and influence how well the receiver can process the information and give feedback. Ultimately, a channel-related miscommunication could still be considered sender-related if the sender chose an inappropriate channel for their message. An example of this is sending an important and urgent message to a colleague via email, when it might have been better to call or text them due the time sensitive nature of the communication.

Receiver-related Miscommunication - While the sender holds most of the responsibility in communication, the receiver has a responsibility to focus their attention on the message sent to them. A receiver-related miscommunication occurs when they fail to do so. An example of a receiver-related miscommunication would be if someone gets a vital email with instructions for accessing the online content for a course, but they don't read the email due to a lack of motivation and thus are unable to follow the course instructions.

Discuss: Miscommunication

💬 Think back over the last few months at work or school. Have you been involved in a miscommunication incident?

Post a summary of this experience in the Padlet below. When summarising, include the following information:

• What were the details of the miscommunication?
• Was it related to the sender, receiver, or channel?
• What was the consequence or outcome of the miscommunication?
• What could you have done to avoid the miscommunication?

Communication Barriers

Several barriers can lead to miscommunications. These can be separated into the following categories: 1) Semantic, 2) Physical or Environmental, 3) Psychological or Attitudinal, which are presented in the image below with some examples.

Semantic barriers occur because words can have different meanings to different people. This could be due to language or culture (as with the "boot" example), but it could also be due to the use of jargon or unfamiliar words. Such miscommunications can occur in professional contexts where acronyms and buzzwords are used to communicate concisely but result in miscommunication if, 1) the receiver is not aware of what the term means, or 2) the receiver and sender have different understandings of a word's meaning. Lack of clarity in writing can also lead to semantic barriers because the receiver may not be able to decode the message's meaning at all.

Physical and environmental barriers are things like how much time someone has available to encode or decode a communication, things in the environment that cause distractions (e.g. noise, temperature, other people, spelling and grammatical errors), or the physical proximity between the sender and receiver.

Similar to semantic barriers, the root of psychological and attitudinal barriers is that people are unique. People come into every interaction with distinct perspectives, interests, experiences, culture, cognitive abilities, etc. As a result, the attention they place on different communications, their attitude and emotional state, their assumptions, and their ability to process information varies significantly. This can lead to a mismatch between what the sender intended and what the receiver interprets.

Check Your Understanding

❓ Take this quiz to see how well you understand the key features of the communication process.

References

eCampus Ontario (2018). Communication for Business Professionals. eCampus Ontario

Heller, D. (2020). Building a Career in Software - A Comprehensive Guide ot Success in the Software Industry. Springer Science+Business Media.

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

Talbot, Fiona. (2019) How to write effective business English. 3rd Edition. Kogan Page Ltd

Thomas, P., Paul, D., Cadle, J. (2012). The Human Touch: Personal Skills for Professional Success. BCS.

University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing. (2016). Communication in the Real World: An Introduction to Communication Studies. University of Minnesota Libraries Publishing

Evaluating Written Communications

Estimated Time: 1 hour

While the communication process introduced in the previous section applies to communications that use any channel (e.g., face to face, over the phone, written, etc.), the focus of the next few weeks of this course will be written communication, specifically in professional contexts. Numerous frameworks have been developed to help improve the likelihood of effective written communication. One of these, the 7 Cs of Communication, was created with the professional context in mind.

📺 Watch this video to learn more about the 7Cs of communication.

Summary of the 7Cs of Communication

• Clarity: Keep it simple

• Conciseness: Get to the point

• Concreteness: Be specific

• Correctness: Be accurate and error-free

• Coherence: Make it logical

• Completeness: Include all necessary information

• Courtesy: See things from the audience's point of view

Check Your Understanding

❓ Take this quiz to see how well you understand the 7Cs of Communication. There are 7 questions, so each of the 7 Cs will only be used once. If you think two of the Cs apply to a given description, select the one that you think is a more accurate fit.

Using the 7Cs

One of the best ways to improve your writing skills is to objectively evaluate your writing and the writing of others. In this section, you are going to use a checklist to assess some written communications.

Written Communication Evaluation Checklist

Here is a simple checklist that employs the 7Cs of Communication to help you evaluate the quality of written communication in a professional context.

- Does the message use simple language, avoiding any terminology that is not likely to be known to the reader? 
- Does the message say exactly what it means without any room for ambiguity?
- Do the individual sentences in the message contain at most 1 or 2 thoughts?

- Is the message free from unnecessary words or paragraphs that do not add to the intended purpose of the message?
- Are the conclusions and most important parts of the message easy to identify?

- Does the message avoid the use of vague or ambiguous words (e.g. "several", "very", "quickly", "usually")?

- Is the message free from typographical and spelling mistakes?
- Is the message free from major grammatical errors that interfere with comprehension?
- Does the message contain factually accurate information?

- Does the message use an appropriate organizing structure to achieve its purpose?
- Are similar ideas grouped into the same paragraphs?
- Does the message lead with the most important points?
- Does the message follow a logical order?
- Are transitions used effectively, resulting in logical connections between consecutive sentences?

- Are all arguments or claims supported with appropriate evidence?
- Does the message include all relevant information that the receiver would need to perform the intended action?

- Does the message acknowledge the reader by considering what the reader knows, what matters to them, and if they will understand the content and context of the message?

Check Your Understanding

Written Communication Examples

Check Your Understanding

Now that you have evaluated some paragraphs, let’s practice evaluating writing at the sentence level.

❓Complete the quiz below. Each question of the quiz will ask you to select which version of a sentence you think is better. This will test how well you are able to evaluate some of the 7Cs, especially Clarity, Conciseness, Concreteness, and Correctness.

After you have completed the quiz, submit your response to the reflection question on the padlet. Reflection question: What is one thing that you have learned from comparing the “better” sentences to their original versions?

Improving Your Writing With the 7Cs

If you struggle with any of the 7Cs, here are some things you can do to improve in each area:

Clarity:

• Use clear and specific language that leaves no room for ambiguity.
• Structure your writing in a logical and organized manner, with clear introductions, body paragraphs, and conclusions.
• Seek feedback from others to ensure your message is easily understandable and make revisions as needed.
• Use concrete examples and illustrations to clarify complex ideas or concepts.

Conciseness:

• Avoid lengthy sentences or paragraphs. Focus on conveying your message in as few words as possible.
• Edit your writing to remove unnecessary words, phrases, or repetitions.
• Use bullet points or lists to present information succinctly and in a reader-friendly format.

Completeness:

• Anticipate the information needs of your readers and provide all the necessary details.
• Include relevant facts, examples, or evidence to support your arguments or claims.
• Review your writing to ensure you have covered all the essential aspects of the topic or question at hand.
• Use visual aids, such as images, charts, or diagrams, to enhance the comprehensiveness of your message.

Correctness:

• Review grammar, spelling, punctuation, and sentence structure to ensure accuracy. You can use inbuilt spell checkers or AI writing tools.
• Verify the accuracy of information and cite reliable sources to maintain credibility.
• Consult examples, style guides, or reference materials to ensure proper usage of conventions.
• Proofread your writing meticulously to identify and correct any errors or inconsistencies.

Coherence:

• Use transitional words and phrases to create smooth connections between sentences and paragraphs.
• Maintain a logical progression of ideas, ensuring each paragraph focuses on a single main point.
• If appropriate, use headings, subheadings, or numbering to provide a clear and coherent structure to your writing.
• Read your writing aloud to identify any areas where coherence may be lacking and make necessary adjustments.
• Color code the ideas in your writing to see if paragraphs contain the groupings of the same idea.

Courtesy:

• Use polite and respectful language throughout your writing.
• Consider the tone and style appropriate for your audience and adjust accordingly.
• Analyse your audience to ensure that your writing is tailored to their needs.

Concreteness:

• Use specific details, facts, or examples to make your writing more tangible and vivid.
• Replace vague or abstract language with concrete terms that paint a clear picture for the reader.
• Provide real-life scenarios or examples to demonstrate your points.
• Avoid generalizations or broad statements (e.g., usually, generally). Instead, focus on specific instances or instances.

References

Romih, Tea. (2016). The 7Cs of Effective Communication Applied to Science

Creating Coherence

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

You will hear the word coherence frequently in this course, and it is even one of the 7Cs of communication. For some people, it can be one of the most challenging components to implement. However, coherent writing is critical for transmitting messages that make sense to others. In this section we will explore coherence in more detail. We will discuss what coherence actually entails, how you can evaluate texts for coherence, and what to do to improve the coherence of your writing.

Check Your Understanding

❓ Read the two versions of the same paragraph below and answer the questions in the Padlet.

Source: The Sense of Style (2015) by Steven Pinker

Methods for Building Coherence

📖 Read this article on ways to improve the coherence of your writing.

Above all else, logically ordering the sentences in a paragraph and the paragraphs in your text will build coherence that carries the reader through your writing more easily. When trying to assess if your sentences or paragraphs are logically ordered, ask yourself these questions:

• How does this sentence or paragraph relate to the previous one?
• How does this sentence or paragraph relate to the main topic and purpose of this piece of writing?
• How am I making these relationships explicit in my writing?

Check Your Understanding

Check Your Understanding

❓ Read the paragraph below, and use the tips presented in this section to rewrite it for increased coherence. Post your rewritten paragraph in the padlet below.

Writing as a Process

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Now that we have explored how to evaluate writing and what good writing looks like, we are going to dive into how you can go about creating good text.

This course takes a process approach to improve writing skills. Therefore it is worth reflecting on how you currently write and how well your current process is serving your needs.

Discuss: How You Write

💬 How do you write? Do you follow a deliberate process with defined steps? Do you use this process for all types of writing?

Reflect on how you write by answering the questions in the Padlet below.

The Flowers Paradigm

"What's the hardest part of writing?" I ask on the first day of class.

"Getting started," someone offers, groaning.

"No, it's not getting started," a voice in the back of the room corrects. "It's keeping on once you do get started. I can always write a sentence or two-but then I get stuck."

"Why?" I ask.

"I don't know. I am writing along, and all of a sudden I realize how awful it is, and I tear it up. Then I start over again, and after two sentences, the same thing happens."

"Let me suggest something which might help," I say. Turning to the board, I write four words: "madman," "architect," "carpenter," "judge."

What happens when you get stuck is that two competing energies are locked horn to horn, pushing against each other. One is the energy of what I'll call your 'madman.' He is full of ideas, writes crazily and perhaps rather sloppily, gets carried away by enthusiasm or anger, and if really let loose, could turn out ten pages an hour.

The second is a kind of critical energy--what I'll call the 'judge.' He's been educated and knows a sentence fragment when he sees one. He peers over your shoulder and says, 'That's trash!' with such authority that the madman loses his crazy confidence and shrivels up. You know the judge is right-after all, he speaks with the voice of your most imperious English teacher. But for all his sharpness of eye, he can't create anything.

• Betty S. Flowers

📖 Read the rest of this article here: Madman, Architect, Carpenter, Judge

📺 Watch the following video to learn about the four voices of The Flowers Paradigm: the madman, the architect, the carpenter, and the judge

To best utilise each of these writing voices, it is helpful to use a standard process with deliberate steps that help get the most out of the madman, architect, carpenter, and judge at the appropriate time. This is called the writing process, and we will explore its steps in the next section and then deep dive into each step of the process over the following three lessons of this course.

Note that the writing process that we will use deviates a little from the Flowers Paradigm in the use of the Madman and Carpenter. More on that in the next section!

The Writing Process

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

🗣 "Managing writing is largely a matter of managing time. Writing is a process, occurring over time, and like any process, it can be done efficiently or inefficiently. Unfortunately, most of us have a pretty inefficient writing process."

• Kenneth Davis

📺 Watch the following video on the writing process.

Note: This video uses slightly different terminology than what we will be using in this course. What is called "Invention" in the video is the same step as our "Planning" step. While what is called "Planning" in the video, is the same step as our "Structuring" step.

Exploring the Steps of the Writing Process

Similar to how communication can be broken down into steps, writing can also be decomposed into a sequence of actions. These actions allow a writer to efficiently navigate the journey from formulating an idea in their head to transmitting it effectively to an audience in written form. This writing process is made up of five main steps: 1) Planning, 2) Structuring, 3) Drafting, 4) Revising, and 5) Editing & Proofreading, shown in the image below.

1. Planning (Week 3)

   The goals of the planning step are to 1) clarify the purpose of your writing, 2) think about who your audience is and how you can tailor your writing to them, 3) gather the information that you will need to support your purpose, and 4) identify the best channel to transmit your writing; all before you start creating the content of your message.

2. Structuring (Week 3)

   The goal of the structuring step is to determine how to organise your information to achieve your chosen purpose for your specific audience.

3. Drafting (Week 4)

   The goal of the drafting step is to create the first draft of your communication.

4. Revising (Week 5)

   The goal of the revising step is to evaluate your draft to see if it achieves your purpose. If not, you can revise the content until it does.

5. Editing & Proofreading (Week 5)

   The goal of the editing and proofreading steps is to correct any remaining errors and finalise your text.

Why Use a Process?

It is helpful to separate planning, structuring, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading into distinct steps. The alternative is an overwhelming writing method in which you are trying to remedy all writing issues simultaneously. For example, trying to draft text while thinking about the most coherent logical flow and paying attention to grammar and spelling errors. Unfortunately, this often leads to doing all the writing tasks poorly, or at the very least, inefficiently. Instead, when using this process, you can focus on the task at hand in each step.

The writing process pushes you to be intentional and focused in the way in which you write. For example, how often do you ask yourself what you want to achieve with a particular piece of writing before you start? The simple act of asking this question can significantly impact the effectiveness of your writing. Or, when you want to communicate something, how often do you stop to consider the best channel for your communication? Do you take time to think about who will be receiving the message and the impact that has on the message content? Starting with a planning step can help you consider these things first and avoid the communication barriers that result in miscommunications.

While planning before you start writing is excellent for setting your intention, sometimes even the best intentions do not go to plan. Therefore, having a distinct revision step allows you to review what you have written and compare it to your intention. You can ask yourself the question: Does what I have written achieve my purpose?

Finally, saving the proofreading step to the end is a great way to be more efficient. There is often no point in proofreading your text for perfect spelling and punctuation while writing because you might end up deleting whole sections of text that you have meticulously proofed. Therefore, view proofreading as the final polishing step that you use to remove any last distractions from your text. Modern technology also means that there are a variety of tools that you can use to help with this proofreading step, further freeing you to focus on the other more critical parts of the writing process.

You may have noticed that the Flowers Paradigm aligns well with this model of the writing process.

• During the planning step, you will wear your Madman hat for some actions.
• During the structuring step, you will wear your Architect hat.
• During the drafting step, you will wear your Madman and Carpenter hat.
• During the revising, editing, and proofreading steps, you will wear your Judge hat.

It is also helpful to think about the amount of time you should be spending in each of these phases. For example, if you have 1 hour to create and finalise a written text, you should ideally spend around 40% of the time in the Planning and Structuring stages, 20% of the time in the Drafting stage, and 40% of the time in the Revising, Editing, and Proofreading stage. However, as you personalise the writing process to suit your needs, you should adjust these distributions so that they make the most sense for you.

How to Use the Writing Process: The Law of the Next Action

It is great to have a process with a defined set of steps that you can follow, but you might ask, "how do you use the process?" To operationalise the writing process, you can think of the law of the next action. This means that instead of being overwhelmed by the text that you are trying to create or the step of the writing process that you are supposed to be in, you can instead ask yourself, "what is the next thing that I need to do to get myself closer to completing this piece of writing." The nine tasks are shown below, along with the central question that guides each task.

1. Determine your purpose (Planning)
   • Guiding question: What is my purpose for writing? What do I want to accomplish?
2. Analyse your audience (Planning)
   • Guiding question: Who will read my writing, and what implications does this have on achieving my purpose?
3. Gather your information (Planning)
   • Guiding question: What information and evidence do I need to include in my writing to achieve my purpose?
4. Select your channel (Planning)
   • Guiding question: What is the best channel for me to communicate my message to achieve my purpose?
5. Organise your message (Structuring)
   • Guiding question: How should I organise the content of my message to achieve my purpose?
6. Draft your text (Drafting)
   • No guiding question. Just write!
7. Revise your draft (Revising)
   • Guiding question: Does my message achieve my purpose? If not, what changes do I need to make so that it fulfils my purpose?
8. Edit your draft (Editing)
   • Guiding question: What changes do I need to make to improve my message? Are there any errors that should be corrected?
9. Polish your draft (Proofreading)
   • Guiding question: Are there any errors left in my message that I need to remove to achieve my purpose?

You will notice that the word purpose appears in almost every task! If you are writing to communicate with other people, you must know what you are trying to accomplish. Having a clear purpose, or having multiple purposes and knowing which ones are of highest priority, is critical because it shapes every other decision you will make during the writing process. It will also give you the criteria with which to measure your work. Good writing is writing that achieves its purpose.

Finally, while the diagram above may make it seem like writing is linear. There will be a lot of back and forth between steps, especially between the organising, drafting, and revising as you try to ensure that what you have written achieves your purpose. This is also apparent with the arrows in the original diagram of the 5-step writing process.

Over the following three lessons of this course, we will deep dive into each step of the writing process to explore the goal of each step, the tasks you should focus on, typical troubles that writers have, and tools at your disposal.

🗣 "Too often, we make major communications decisions without thinking them through at all. Or we just say or write whatever first comes to mind...There are always choices to be made. The most effective [communicators] will make them quickly, but also wisely."

• Francis J. Kelly and Heather Mayfield Kelly

References

Davis, Kenneth. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication, Second Edition. McGraw Hill.

Flower, L. S. & Hayes, J. R. (1980): The Dynamics of Composing. Making Plans and Juggling Constraints. In: L.W. Gregg & E. R. Steinberg (Hrsg.): Cognitive Processes in Writing. Hillsdale. S. 31‐50.

Planning & Structuring

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn about what you will be studying in lesson 3.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Identify the purpose of your writing.
• Adapt messages to the diverse needs of individuals, groups, and contexts.
• Determine the information that you need to gather to make your writing more effective.
• Select the appropriate channel and medium for communicating your message.
• Compose well structured documents that enhance your audience’s understanding.

Getting Focused

🎧 Before you jump into the sections of this week's lesson, use this short meditation to prepare yourself for learning.

Sections

👩🏿‍🏫 Complete this lesson by exploring each section

3.1 Grammar Bootcamp 3

3.2 Motivation

3.3 Planning and Structuring Overview

3.4 Know Your Purpose

3.5 Analyse Your Audience

3.6 Gather Your Information

3.7 Select the Appropriate Channel

3.8 Organise Your Thoughts

3.9 Create an Outline

3.10 Assignment 2 - Internship Cover Letter

Grammar Bootcamp 3

The third grammar bootcamp includes a quiz that covers misplaced and dangling modifiers.

Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers

📺 Watch this video to learn about modifiers.

❓ Take this quiz to see how well you can identify dangling and misplaced modifiers.

Motivation

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Think about the last email, essay, or report that you wrote. How much time did you spend thinking about the person or people that were going to read your writing?

Like we mentioned in last week's lesson, communication is like a game of catch. As the sender, your job is not just to throw "the ball", it is to throw the ball so that the receiver is able to catch it! This requires you to think about who will be catching the ball, and to tailor your throw so that it can reach them.

Remember:

⚠️ The responsibility for effective communication sits with the sender. The sender is the one with the idea that they want to communicate. They must do what is required to get the idea to the receiver as intended, with minimal effort from the receiver.

📺 Watch the following video to learn about communicating a single idea to different audiences. The video is 23 minutes long, but you only need to watch the first 13:26 minutes.

Discuss: Adapting to Your Audience

💬 After watching the video, submit your responses to the questions in the Padlet below.

1. How did the professor discuss the internet differently with the child versus with the college student?
2. What do you think would happen if he tried to communicate the same way with the child and the college student?
3. When you are communicating with someone, how often do you think about adapting your message to them?

Planning & Structuring Overview

Estimated Time: 5 minutes

🗣 “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

• Abraham Lincoln

Planning

Planning is the first step of the writing process. The goals of the planning step are to 1) clarify the purpose of your writing, 2) think about who your audience is and how you can adapt your writing to them, 3) gather the information that you will need to support your writing, and 4) identify the best channel to transmit your writing —all before you start creating the content of your message.

Structuring

Structuring is the next step of the writing process. The goal is to determine how to organise your information to achieve your chosen purpose for your specific audience.

Know Your Purpose

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

🗣 "Knowing what your purpose is, not only makes the document better; it helps remove ego problems—because then you know what your job is, to get something done, not to make yourself look better."

• Oliver E Nelson Jr

Guiding question: What is my purpose for writing? What do I want to accomplish?

📺 Watch the following video about identifying your purpose when writing.

Selecting your general purpose

As mentioned in Lesson 2, technical professionals write all the time. However, we can categorise the writing that they do into four main types based on the general purpose:

1. Informational Writing
   • Purpose: To provide the reader with helpful knowledge and insight.
   • Examples:
     1. Product documentation
     2. Internal reports (e.g., product reports, quarterly reviews)
     3. Blog posts
     4. Meeting minutes
2. Instructional Writing
   • Purpose: To teach the reader how to do something or provide them with the information they need to complete a task.
   • Examples:
     1. User manuals
     2. Onboarding instructions
     3. Training materials
     4. Technical specifications
3. Persuasive Writing
   • Purpose: To convey information and convince the reader to do something.
   • Examples:
     1. Job application cover letters
     2. Scholarship application essays
     3. Proposals (e.g. business proposals, grant proposals)
     4. Marketing communications (e.g. sales emails)
     5. Marketing materials
4. Conversational/Transactional Writing
   • Purpose: Everyday communications to solicit some direct action from the reader or build a professional relationship.
   • Examples:
     1. Emails
     2. Texts
     3. Direct Messages (e.g. Slack, Discord, WhatsApp)

Sometimes your writing will involve more than one of the above purposes, but it's essential to identify which ones are most important for a given piece of writing.

Identifying your specific purpose

Once you have determined your general purpose for writing, it is time to get specific. Knowing precisely why you are writing allows you to customise your writing to achieve your desired outcome. For example, if you are writing an internal product report, your broad aim is to provide the reader with helpful information and insight. But beyond that, what specifically do you want them to do or think after reading your report? Determining this will make it easier for you to shape the report's content to meet that purpose.

When determining your specific purpose for writing, ask yourself the following questions:

• What do I want my audience to know after reading my writing?

• What do I want my audience to think, feel, or do after reading my writing?

• What do I want my audience to think about me after reading my writing?

Think about how your answers to these three questions are reflected in the content and structure of your writing.

Check Your Understanding

Source 1, Source 2

References

Grammarly. (2021) Understanding the Different Business Writing Styles and When to Use Them.

Davis, Kenneth. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication, Second Edition. McGraw Hill.

Analyse Your Audience

Estimated Time: 1 hour

🗣 "Most people are so engrossed in the message they are trying to convey that they forget to step out of themselves and think about the reader. The most effective communicators try to visualise the person reading and reacting to their writing."

• Mark H McCormack

Guiding question: Who will read my writing, and what implications does this have on achieving my purpose?

📺 Watch the following video on knowing your audience.

Determining your purpose and determining your audience is a chicken and egg situation. What you want to accomplish with your writing can influence who the ideal audience should be. But, at the same time, the audience you select can affect what you want to achieve. Therefore, as you are thinking about the purpose of your writing, also think about the audience.

📺 Watch the following video on the benefits of writing with your audience in mind.

Remember that you can think of communication as a game of catch, where the sender throws a message to the receiver. At the very least, the sender must know who will be receiving their message so that they can aim it at them. Additionally, recall that the sender's responsibility is to ensure that the receiver can catch their message. To do so, the sender must understand the receiver (e.g., their interests, skill level, abilities) to tailor their throw accordingly. Gaining this understanding requires intentionality and consideration before writing and can be accomplished by identifying and analysing your audience.

Identifying Your Target Audience

When identifying your target audience, you can ask the following questions:

• How big is my audience? (e.g., One person, a small group, the entire company, the general public)?
• Are there multiple audiences? If so, who is most important?
• Is there a secondary audience that may read my message and influence the target audience or be impacted by the target audience's actions?
• What do I know about my audience (e.g., age, gender, cultural background, interests, biases, or concerns), and how could these factors impact how they receive my message?
• What is my professional or personal relationship with the audience? And how does this impact the expected formality of my message?

Analysing Your Target Audience

When analysing your target audience, you can ask the following questions. Open the toggles to learn why each question matters:

Discuss: Adjusting to Your Audience

💬 Consider the following situation: You have just been accepted to a Masters program and plan to resign from your job to start the program in three months.

1. Write a message to a friend who helped you prepare your application, telling her about your acceptance.
2. Write a message to your boss, who sees you as a critical employee, telling her about your acceptance.

Use the above guiding questions as you think through your approach for the different audiences. Then, submit your responses in the Padlet below, along with a reflection on how you adapted your message.

Up until this point, we have been discussing communicating with other people (i.e. human audiences). However, in an increasingly digital world, our writing isn't only read by other humans. Depending on what you are writing, your messages might be read by computer programs that look for different things than human readers. Therefore, we will close this section by exploring how to write for non-human audiences.

📺 Watch the following video on writing for non-human audiences

References

Burnell, C., Wood, J., Babin, M., Pesznecker, S., Rosevear, N. The Word on College Reading and Writing. Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Davis, Kenneth. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication, Second Edition. McGraw Hill.

eCampus Ontario (2018). Communication for Business Professionals. eCampus Ontario

Gross, A., Hamlin, A., Merck, B., Rubio, C., Naas, J., Savage, M., DeSilva, M. Technical Writing. Open Oregon Educational Resources

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

Gather Your Information

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Guiding question: What information and evidence do I need to include in my writing to achieve my purpose?

John and Kwasi both decide that they want to start cooking to eat more healthily and save money. It's Wednesday evening, and after returning home from classes, they both decide to prepare their dinner, but in two very different ways:

John goes to the supermarket and walks through every aisle. After walking through the entire store, he finally decides that he wants to make jollof rice, so he goes back to aisles with the relevant ingredients and reads all the nutritional labels on the packages before deciding which ingredients to buy. When he returns home, he looks up a jollof rice recipe on the internet. He is only halfway through reading the recipe, when he realizes that he didn't buy all the required ingredients, so he needs to go back to the supermarket to get the missing ingredients. When he returns from the store, he continues reading the recipe. Unfortunately, when he gets to the end of the recipe, he realizes that he doesn't have all the required cooking tools. So after 3 hours of trying to make his own dinner, he gives up, and just orders takeout.

Kwasi also wants to make dinner tonight. He is running a big race tomorrow morning, so he knows that his meal needs to contain a lot of carbohydrates to meet his needs. At first, he wants to make steak, because he is craving some meat. But then he realizes that the meal wont have enough carbohydrates. So after reflecting a little more, he decides to make jollof rice. He looks up a recipe online and notes all the required ingredients and cooking tools. He checks his fridge and cupboards, and realizes that he's only missing one or two ingredients, and he has all the required cooking tools. He makes a grocery list of everything he needs to buy, and heads to the supermarket to purchase the ingredients. When he returns from the supermarket, he follows the recipe and makes a delicious dinner, which also fuels his body with the carbohydrates that he needs for his race the next day.

When you write, do you behave like John, or Kwasi?

Kwasi's process was efficient. He had a clear sense of his purpose, did his research to determine what he needed in order to accomplish his purpose, and gathered the needed pieces efficiently. On the other hand, John wasted a lot of time wandering aimlessly, he gathered his ingredients before he knew what ingredients were actually required, and he didn't even check that he had the neccessary tools to complete the task until the very end. As a result, he didn't accomplish his goal of cooking dinner.

In order to be more like Kwasi, and less like John, it is important that you know your purpose for writing, and start gathering your information before you start drafting.

Benefits of Gathering Information When Planning

There are numerous benefits to gathering required information in the planning step:

• It gives you the chance to focus on the information to ensure that it is accurate.
• It allows you to analyse the strength of your argument and evidence.
• It reduces interruptions during the drafting phase, leading to more continuity and speed during text creation.

Later on, when you draft and revise your text, you may find that additional information is needed. This is fine and to be expected. However, gathering information in the planning stage can reduce the amount of other information you need to collect later. While also helping you strengthen the content and structure of your writing.

Determining the Information Needed (Brainstorming)

• The first set of broad questions to ask yourself when gathering information for your writing is:
  • What is the main topic of my writing? And what is my scope?
  • What do I understand about this topic?
  • What does my audience need to know about this topic?
• When considering the information required to answer those broad questions, it can be helpful to ask yourself the six W/H of your topic and purpose:
  • Who?
  • What?
  • Where?
  • When?
  • Why?
  • How?
• Also, think about if you are making any claims in your writing that require supporting evidence. Using evidence and supporting information will make your writing clear and concrete.
  • e.g., You are writing a university application essay, and you want to write that you "have a passion for technology". What evidence and details could you include to support that claim?
  • e.g., You are writing a report on a new product that your team launched, and you want to write that "the launch was successful". What evidence do you need to include to support that claim?
• Finally, it can also be helpful to use the five pairs of questions shown below to determine additional information you might need to support the claims in your message. These questions will help you gather the information that aligns with some of the text organising patterns that you will learn about in Section 3.8.

• In this information-gathering step, it is ok to gather more information than you eventually need for the text that you will create. However, this informal research phase is helpful because it can also help you ensure that you understand the topic you are writing about.
• This information-gathering step will follow a more formal and systematic research approach for certain types of writing (e.g. research papers, journal articles, data analysis reports). However, since this course is focused on effective written communication in professional contexts, exploring formal research methods is beyond our scope.

Brainstorming to Kickstart Your Writing

If you sometimes struggle to come up with ideas for your writing, it can be helpful to use some brainstorming techniques to get your creative juices flowing.

📖 Read this article on brainstorming

Organising Your Information

As you are gathering your information, you can organise and visualise it using a mind map. To create a mind-map, start by writing your main topic or purpose in the centre of a piece of paper. Then, as associations come to mind, you can draw them out from that starting point. The result will be an image like the one shown below, which can be a great starting point for creating an outline to structure your text.

Source

Some great online tools for mind mapping include:

• Miro: https://miro.com/mind-map/
• Coggle: https://coggle.it/

You can also use tools like Padlet or Google Jamboard to create mind maps.

References

Davis, Kenneth. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication, Second Edition. McGraw Hill.

Select the Appropriate Channel

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Guiding question: What is the best channel for me to communicate my message to achieve my purpose?

Questions to ask yourself when selecting a communication channel:

• Is my message formal or informal?
• Will the information in my message need to be referenced in the future? Does it require a permanent record?
• Am I relaying confidential information?
• Am I relaying time-sensitive information?
• Am I communicating with an individual or a group?
• Does my message require a response?
• Has the receiver requested the information be sent through a specific channel?
• Does the receiver have a preferred communication channel?
• Is there a cost associated with the different communication channels at my disposal?

Common Communication Channels in Professional Contexts

Source

Check Your Understanding

Source

📺 Watch the following video to learn more about how the media (or communication channel) that you use to transmit your message influences how it is perceived.

📺 Watch the following video to learn how you can use a remidiation analysis to evaluate the dfferent channel (or media) options for sending your message.

References

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

Honey, M. (2019). How to Pick the Most Effective Communication Channels at Work.

Organise Your Thoughts

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

Guiding question: How should I organise the content of my message to achieve my purpose?

Whatever goal you have in mind when writing, you should intentionally shape the structure of your message to achieve your purpose. In professional contexts, there are several standard organising patterns that you can use, and they typically contain three main sections:

• Opening: The opening should be used to get the reader's attention so that they continue reading the rest of your text. For an email, it can be a greeting. For a long piece of writing, it can be an introduction that outlines the content of the rest of the document, or it can even state the important conclusions that the message is trying to communicate.
• Body: The body contains the main content of the message and is the text that accomplishes the purpose of the written communication. The body may include:
  • Background information
  • Detailed explanations or instructions
  • Arguments
  • Evidence
• Closing: The closing should wrap up the communication. If the piece of writing is long, the closing can include a summary of what was said earlier, but this isn't mandatory. The closing can also point to a "call to action" for the reader (e.g. what you want the reader to do now that they have read your message) or details about what the reader should expect next.

The main task when structuring is organising the opening, body, and conclusion of your message so that they are coherent and achieve your purpose. Several standard organising patterns can be employed, which organise content into a logical order that readers can easily follow.

The table below summarises the five organising patterns mentioned in the video, plus other patterns that can also be useful to employ. Some of these patterns should look familiar to you, as they are similar to the paired questions you can ask during the information gathering process presented in Section 3.6

Useful Organising Patterns

Source

Check Your Understanding - Identifying Organising Patterns

Check Your Understanding - Using Organising Patterns

References

Appleman, J. (2018). 10 Steps to Successful Business Writing. 2nd Edition. Association for Talent Development.

Burnell, C., Wood, J., Babin, M., Pesznecker, S., Rosevear, N. The Word on College Reading and Writing. Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Rossiter, T. (2013). Effective Business Writing in Easy Steps. In Easy Steps Ltd.

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

Create an Outline

Estimated Time: 30 minutes

An outline is a valuable tool to employ while deciding on an appropriate organising pattern that best serves your purpose. Outlines help you see the relationship between your ideas, see how your organisation pattern looks in practice, and determine if your approach creates a coherent message. However, the crucial part of the outlining stage, and what differentiates it from merely selecting an organising pattern, is the act of labelling your ideas so that you can see a systematic overview of your message before you fill in the detailed content. If you created a mind-map during the planning step, you might already have the beginnings of an outline.

You might have learnt about creating an outline for an essay in an academic context, but it is helpful in a professional context as well. When writing an email, it is tempting to jump into drafting the text, but creating a simple outline before you start can ensure that your email achieves its purpose while still being clear, coherent, and concise. Once you have an outline that conveys your information in an order that fulfils your purpose, you can fill in the content of each section to create the full text of your message.

Example: Outlining an Email

Here is an example of how you can use an outline to structure an email draft. We will start with the planning step to show how planning and structuring can work well together, even when drafting something as simple as an email.

Reverse Outlining

Creating an outline before writing your first draft might get in the way of some people's preferred text creation process. Therefore there is also an option to use "reverse outlining" to get the benefits of outlining if you have already begun writing. Reverse outlining is when you isolate the main points of a piece of writing by removing the supporting content. As a result, you go from "full text to outline" instead of "outline to the full text".

You can create a reverse outline using one of the following approaches:

• Topic sentence approach: Write down the topic sentence from each paragraph.
• One sentence summary approach: Write a one-sentence summary of each paragraph that expresses the paragraph's main idea.
• Two sentence summary approach: Write a two-sentence summary of each paragraph that expresses the paragraph's main idea and function (e.g. to compare, to propose, to persuade, to describe, to give background information).
• Idea by idea approach: Write down the distinct ideas (e.g. main idea plus any supporting or additional ideas) presented in each paragraph as complete sentences. There might be more than one idea per paragraph.

When you have finished creating your reverse outline, you can analyse the results by asking the following questions:

• Do multiple paragraphs share the same main idea?
• Do any paragraphs have multiple main ideas?
• Do any paragraphs lack a clear main idea?
• Are there any main ideas that don't connect clearly and directly back to the topic and purpose of the text?
• Do the main ideas flow from paragraph to paragraph? Or are there gaps in the reasoning and logic?
• Do the main ideas use any of the organising patterns described in Section 3.8?

You can then use your answers to the above question to determine if you need to add, remove, or reorder any content to make your writing more coherent.

Check Your Understanding

References

Burnell, C., Wood, J., Babin, M., Pesznecker, S., Rosevear, N. The Word on College Reading and Writing. Open Oregon Educational Resources.

Davis, Kenneth. (2010). The McGraw-Hill 36-Hour Course: Business Writing and Communication, Second Edition. McGraw Hill.

Smith, Jordan. Communication @ Work. eCampus Ontario

The Writing Center. University of Wisconsin - Madison. Reverse Outlines: A Writer's Technique for Examining Organization.

Assignment 2 - Internship Cover Letter

📝 Complete the assignment below

Due date: Saturday, 12 August, 2023 10pm GMT

⚠️ Make sure you complete all parts of your assignment in a Google Doc

Instructions

• Review the assignment brief below.
• Answer the planning questions listed below.
• Create an outline for your cover letter.
• Write your internship cover letter.
• Evaluate your writing using the 7Cs, and make any required changes to your cover letter. (Notes: Make sure you use the built-in spelling and grammar checker in Google Docs!)
• Download your finished assignment as a pdf and submit on Gradescope and Woolf.

Brief

1. Identify an internship opportunity you might want to apply for in the future.
2. Review the job requirements and write a cover letter to apply for the position.

Tip: To find internship job postings try googling "[Company Name] undergraduate internship application".

📺 Watch the following video on writing personal statements and cover letters

📖 Read the following section to learn about how to structure your cover letter

Planning Questions

1. Determine your purpose: What is your purpose for writing? What do you want to accomplish?
2. Analyse your audience: Who will read your writing, and what implication does this have on achieving your purpose? How do you need to adapt your writing to your audience?
3. Gather your information: What information and evidence do you need to include in your writing to achieve your purpose?
4. Organise your message: How should you organise your message's content to achieve your purpose?

Submission

• Your submission should include:
  • Your answers to the planning questions
  • Your outline
  • Your assessment of your cover letter using the 7Cs.
  • The final version of your cover letter

Submit your assignment on Gradescope and then upload a copy to the Week 4 submission area on the Woolf platform.

Additional Tips

• Complete the lessons before doing the assignment!

• Read the assignment instructions carefully and make sure your response address all the requirements. Only half of the marks in this assignment are based on the final version of the cover letter, so ensure you submit all required components of the assignment.

• Answer the planning questions thoroughly

• Create a proper outline

• Evaluate your writing with the 7Cs - use the guiding questions provided in the lesson.

• Identify coherence by using reverse outlining

• Use the spelling and grammar checker!

• Some common errors that we noticed in previous cohorts

• Wrong tone - too formal

• Wrong tone - too casual

• Not enough detail or examples - really vague description of skills and experiences

• Not tailored to the company

• Too generic

• Too long (Should not be longer than 1 page)

• Lack of coherence (between sentences and between paragraphs)

• Long sentences that combine different thoughts

• Typos, omitted words, spelling, grammar, and formatting errors

• No closing

• Overly sincere closing (e.g. “It is my honour to be considered…”)

Drafting

Introduction

📺 Watch the following video from your instructor to learn about what you will be studying in lesson 4.

Learning Outcomes

After completing this lesson, you will be able to:

• Write clear and concise sentences.
• Identify the causes of writing anxiety.
• Apply techniques to overcome writer’s block.
• Use drafting techniques to kick-start your text creation process.
• Manage procrastination when writing.
• Get into a flow state while drafting your text.

Getting Focused

🎧 Before you jump into the sections of this week's lesson, use this short meditation to prepare yourself for learning.

Sections

👩🏿‍🏫 Complete this lesson by exploring each section

4.1 Grammar Bootcamp 4

4.2 Motivation

4.3 Drafting Overview

4.4 Writing Sentences

4.5 Overcoming Writing Roadblocks

4.6 How to Enjoy Writing: Get into Flow

Grammar Bootcamp 4

The fourth grammar bootcamp includes a quiz that covers verb form and tense errors.

Verb Tense and Subject-Verb Agreement

- Add information readers need to understand your document
- Omit information your readers do not need
- Change the level of the information you currently have
- Add examples to help readers understand
- Change the level of your examples

- Change the organization of your information
- Strengthen transitions
- Write stronger introductions—both for the whole document and for major sections
- Create topic sentences for paragraphs and paragraph groups

- Change sentence style and length
- Edit for sentence clarity and economy

- Add and vary graphics
- Break text up or consolidate text into meaningful, usable chunks
- Add cross-references to important information
- Use headings and lists
- Use special typography, and work with margins, line length, line spacing, type size, and type style