Chapter Reading

This week’s reading assignment started out with chapter 4, Planning for Usability. It talks about how to plan out the structure and organization of your paper to make it easy to read, as well as easy to refer to. It covers how to create a table of contents to make it easier for readers to go directly to the information they need, reducing the extra frustration that can go along with not being able to find what they are looking for. Also, grouping information that is similar or pertains to the same topic in the same portion of the report will make your writing more user friendly. The chapter also mentions that you want to "Give the bottom line first" this goes for your overall paper as well as each section, whatever point needs to be made with that section, should be stated right up front to make for easier perusal.

Chapter 5 covers persuasion; it explains the goals, strategies and approaches to writing a persuasive paper. Persuasion can be used as a tool to reverse your reader's stance on the topic at hand, reinforce a current opinion held by your reader or shape their opinion on a subject that they have no previous knowledge or feelings about. In order to do this you need to plan ahead, you must know what your reader’s feelings on the subject is. Are they supportive or oppositional? What objections would they have? What is your reader's interest in the subject? Once you can answer these questions you will be well on your way to writing a solid paper that can sway them to your side of things. If you know that what you are proposing will be a costly investment to the reader, you'll want to be able to assure them that it will be worth the money. By the end of your paper the goal is to have laid to rest all concerns and apprehension, leaving your reader feeling confident in your proposal.

Chapter 16 is all about building effective communication and productivity in a team setting. Working by yourself may be hard, but working with a team can prove to be more difficult at times. Organization and planning are key to be successful in group related business and professional ventures. This chapter tackles how to get a team set up and keep it running on task through the duration of the project. First off you want to structure the team, pick a team leader, organizers, researchers, and so on. Everyone should know what the team's expectation of them will be. Once this has been decided a clear statement of the team's goals should be laid out. This is open for revisions as the scope may change during the process of the project, but this outline should always be available to refer back to in order to keep the team on track. Create a schedule of when tasks should be done and stick to it as much as possible. Throughout the term of the project meetings should be organized to keep the team up to date on the progress of the team as a whole as well as individual's progress. This will aid in keeping the project moving forward as well as providing a place for members to voice any issues they are having that someone else in the group may be able to help with. The book also gives pointers on how to conduct meetings as well as how one should act while in these project meetings.

Chapter 23 is about reader-centered instructions and how to write them. The four basic points the book uses are:

1. Writing clearly and succinctly
2. Use plenty of graphics
3. Design usable and attractive pages and screens
4 Test your instructions

The chapter covers how to organize your instructions in a well thought out and logic manor. Don't make assumption about what your readers may or may not know. Assume that they have never done this task before and write in a way that is clear and easy for them to understand. Use of graphics is helpful if not vital in helping your readers along the way. This was they don't have to try and interpret what exactly you are trying to write about and allows them to see what they are suppose to be doing. Make the layout of your instructions easy to read and navigate, not to cluttered or overbearing, your reader should be able to easily follow one step after the other to finish the task. In the end, you want to test the instructions on someone who has no previous knowledge of the task at hand. As a writer who already knows what you are doing, you may have left out some processes that you do naturally, but your readers may not have to experience or knowledge to do it without being told so. The rest of the chapter gives examples and details of how to go about doing this.