Blog Post 7: Reflection and Concluding

In today's world, professionals in all fields are recommended and encouraged to learn about technical writing. As a petroleum engineering student, I took technical writing class to enhance my writing skills. As a result, I have been familiar with many different strategies for technical communications. I learned about clarity of instructions, media presentations, marketing myself, teamwork and proposals, and blogging. I spent more than three months with a good instructor and classmates learning how to apply technical communication and writing at my future job. 

 

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At this point, I believe that I am ready and qualified to apply for Entry Technical Writer. I have learned how to work with a team to finish a project that is required a research. I gained skills on how to do a proposal and support a specific idea. Today, I can provide a clear list of instructions about a specific product or service. In addition, I can pick a topic and talk about it based on what I have learned at college, and give a clear presentation using a unique presentation software. 

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For all technical communicators are reading my blog, the journey in my technical writing class has come to an end. However, the end opened many doors for me for being a good technical communicator. If you are looking to improve your technical writing skills, you need to read a book called Strategies for Technical Communication in The Workplace, written by Laura J. Gurak and John M. Lannon. In addition, I recommend you to take a class at your college about technical communication in order to have more advanced assignments in technical communication.  

Finally, I wish you all the best in your future endeavors. 

Blog Post 6: Benefits of Blogging and Blog Reviews

Hello there! Today, I am going to write about a very important tool that can help organizations and other companies stay in touch with customers and readers, and explain how and why blogging can be a very useful tool for my future. Then, I am going to review three blogs that are considered to be the best in business. 

Bloggs and other Web pages can be powerful forms of workplace communication for organizations and companies. Today, blogs are used to network where people can write about their political opinions, hobbies, and other personal interests. However,  I am looking to be an entrepreneur who is networking with his customers. Therefore, I believe that blogging can be useful to help me keep in touch with my customers. 

There are three blogs that are recommended to read in order to keep up with entrepreneurship and business news. 

The first blog is called Both Sides of The Table. 

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The blog is written by Mark Suster, who is VC at GRP Partners and former entrepreneur. It is beneficial to keep up with his blog because he founded two companies and worked in consulting. Mark Suster has experienced many business situations, from startup to big corporations, and from failure to success. He understands today's business and that is why entrepreneurs should follow his blog and keep with his posts.

The second blog is called Small Business Trends.

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The blog is written by Anita Campbell, who is the founder and the CEO of Small Business Trends, along with other contributions in business world. The blog is well known as a comprehensive resource for many small business tips and news. In addition, the blog shows many research results about business world. In short, if you are a small business owner, you should keep up with the blog posts to learn more about success in business. 

The last blog is called How To Change The World.

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The blog, How To Change The World, is written by Guy Kawasaki. He is the author of many business and marketing books and managing director of early stage VC firm, which is called Garage Technology ventures. The blog is considered to be one of the best entrepreneur blogs that are worth reading because it can support small business owners with great ideas from an expert. The blog can inspire young entrepreneurs to make their dreams and ideas come true.  

Blog Post 5: Formal Research Proposal Reports and Technical Communication

In technical communication, you will have to give verbal proposal. To support your verbal proposal, you are recommended to do research and write formal reports. In general, you will give a proposal to encourage a project or to support a specific plan.

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In our technical class, I with three of my classmates did a verbal proposal based on a research. The proposal is to support building a social room at University of Louisiana at Lafayette in order to help students with stress relief. In our project, we applied the most important elements of all technical writing; finding the balance of assertiveness & politeness, and finding the balance of specificity and economy of language. 

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In the project, the balancing elements were found in many different ways. First, we tried to target our audience in order to make the proposal accepted and appreciated. In addition, we focused on the economy of language so that we can deliver our idea in an effective and easy way. However, we all have to be more assertive with each other in order to stay on task. We did not face so many troubles and did not deal with rude people. Moreover, I found myself I have to deal with one idea and tried to explain it many times with different words. 

In general, the project was a good practice on how to give a verbal proposal that is based on research, and apply the elements of good technical writing. 

Blog Post 4: Media Presentation Software Review

Technical communication is not all about helping you to be a good writer or designer; it is also about helping you to present your ideas effectively in person. As a result, you need to learn how to give oral presentation in a professional way. To give a good presentation, you need to choose a presentation software in order to make your job easy and effective. 

One of the best digital presentation software is called Emaze.
Emaze is a free software that can help you make unique slides. 

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Emaze can turn your slides to a video, which makes it easy to present. There are different templates to choose from for different subjects. In case you decide to talk about a business topic, Emaze can provide you with different templates and themes that are special for business topics. 

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I used the Microsoft PowerPoint presentation before, but after I tried Emaze, I became a fan of their service. With Emaze, you can do better and impress your audience. Overall, I recommended Emaze as a powerful presentation software that can make your presentation is better than what you can imagine.  

Blog Post 3: Marketing Yourself.

Many students do very well at college and think that a high GPA is all what they need to reach their dreams. In fact, a student who has a high GPA can struggle to find a job if he or she cannot market himself or herself. As a result, the third post is going to demonstrate how a student can market himself or herself. 

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One of the most important tool to market yourself is your resume. Understanding and learning the skills of how to write a resume is a fundamental key in marketing yourself. Therefore, here are the most important tips to write your resume. 

 Design:

It is important to have a good design so your resume can be easy to read. Here is a look at a resume sample. 

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Moreover, here are some tops to improve your design:

• Single Page.
• 200-400 Words.
• Normal Fonts.
• 9-12 Point font ( I prefer 12)
• Bold, Caps, or Italic.
• Consider small amounts of color.
• Lists and headings (Avoid complete sentences)
• No more than 7 bullets per category.
• Include white space.
• Remember eye movements on documents.
• Don't use templates. (Try to be creative with your design)
• Cut repeated words or use synonyms.
• Cut excess use of dates.

There are the most important tips to follow in order to have a good design. However, the most important point is that your resume can be read easily. 

Rules:

There are certain rules you should pay attention to when it comes to writing a resume. Here is a list of the most important rules:

• Digital copies should always be submitted as PDFs.
• make sure your file name is appropriate.
• Each job should get a unique resume.
• Cut information irrelevant to that job.
• Cut most information from over 10 years ago. 
• Lying is never okay.
• Spell check, and then get 3 others to review your final resume before you submit it.

It's necessary to follow these rules in oder to make a good impression and be considered for an interview. 

In addition, it is recommended to mention organizations that you are involved with. 

Organization and volunteering work:

•  Always start with name, correct information, but you don't have to mention more details about organizations.
• If you add your volunteering work, specify what types of work is.
• Always end with references.
• Always order in reverse chronological order.
• Order Middle sections by weighing both how strong the section makes you look against the main qualifications expected for the job.
• Try to focus on eye movement, the lower or more right on the page, the less likely it will be read.

Organization is important to make your resume easy to read. Therefore, pay attention to everything is written on your resume, and remember that your resume should be your powerful marketing tool.

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Finally, understanding how to market yourself is a very important step toward your next job. Your resume can be your effective tool while you are marketing yourself.