Introduction
Hello, my name is Wasseem Abugosh and I am a student of Professor Lipuma’s
Eng352-003 Technical Communications Class. This Semester, I have learned a plethora
of knowledge pertaining to the different and most effective ways of sending a
message to my target audience. Some of the material I learned was how to be an
effective presenter, write various letters and memos, describe a process in
full length, critique a proposal, tailor a resume for a specific company, and
the fundamentals of making a web page. The assignments given throughout the
semester have given me these newly acquired traits. They can be seen at the
bottom of the page with a brief description.
Assignments
Process Description
The process I described was how to arrive at the Payment
Summary Page through the Campus Pipeline. I gave the procedure in four steps.
The process description started once the student signed onto the Pipeline and
ended at the Payment Summary Page. I pasted pictures with arrows after each
step to guide the student where to go. This assignment taught me to see the
task at hand from the target’s perspective and to describe the process from
every angle. It also taught me that making the right assumptions regarding the
target audience’s knowledge and experience level will distinguish the amount of
detail to put in the process description.
Resume
The resume was tailored for a summer internship at the
National Institute of Health. It is a government lab that conducts clinical
research. Unlike the earlier versions of my resume, I did not include a list of
relevant courses. Also, I added more detail in the experience section because
that is what will hopefully attract the recruiter. I wanted to make sure that I
covered a lot of the white spaces that would otherwise make my resume look
empty. This course taught me the fundamentals of building a resume and I
personally think that the final version of my resume could not be more
complete.
Cover Letter
Like the resume, my cover letter is tailored for a summer
internship at the National Institute of Health. I based my format on the NIH
website that guides applicants in writing good cover letters/resumes. The
website is found here and pages 6-7 discusses their format for a good cover
letter: http://www.training.nih.gov/student/common/appadvice.pdf
I figured it would be a crime not to take advantage of their
help because if there is one thing I could take from this course, it is to
tailor the package for the target audience.
Proposal Critique
The Proposal I critiqued was done on April 2007 proposing to
build a new Parking Deck. It was done by Mona Patel. Although there were many
parts about the Proposal I liked, there were many parts I didn’t like. For
example, even though she was clear with her message, she repeated many of the
same points over and over again frustrating me as a reader. At this point in
the semester, I was able to distinguish what was needed and what wasn’t for an
effective package. This assignment put my newly acquired trait to work
assessing what I liked and what I thought was needed to make a more effective
proposal.
Wikipedia
Memo
This assignment is based off the revisions I made on the SH2
domain article on Wikipedia. I wrote a memo to Professor Lipuma
making a case as to why I deserve an A on the Wikipedia revisions. There were
many revisions that I made to enhance the quality of the article. For example,
I added a caption under the picture that explained structural details of the
SH2 domain where before, the average person looking at the picture could not
tell what they are looking at. From this assignment, I learned how to use
proper tone and diction to make an argument.
