1. Select your “Beginning Document” from writing you previously submitted for another course (research papers and/or reports work great, but feel free to consider other documents after you have read the instructions for revising the content and design of your “Beginning Document”).
2. Identify a company, organization or public official that might be interested in the information from your “Beginning Document” and identify an appropriate person you would likely communicate with, as well as the full mailing address (street address, city, state, and zip code). Note: Assignment 1 is a hypothetical situation, so you will not actually be sending documents to the institution.
3. Analyze the audience for this original document so you have a clear, well-articulated sense of the audience for the original document. You will need to do some research on your new target audience, and the Audience Planner will assist you in analyzing the new audience. Email a copy to yourself and include a copy of the Audience Planner with your final Assignment 1 submission at the end of this project (see Assignment Drop Boxes link on Blackboard’s left menu).
4. Write a 1½ to 2-page Rhetorical Analysis memo describing your understanding of the rhetorical situations of your “Beginning Document,” as well as the new document you will create for the new audience and the changes you intend to make to achieve the foals for your new, “Revised Document.”
5. Edit your “Beginning Document” for technical style, including organization of ideas, clarity and conciseness of thoughts, sentences and paragraphs, and appropriateness of word choices and level of detail for audience and purpose. Remember your “Beginning Document” is the foundation if your “Revised Document,” but you will likely want clarify ideas. Although you will be weeding out excessive and/or unnecessary wordiness for more direct, concise, and succinct phrasing (hallmarks of technical writing), consider adding a word, phrase, or sentence to clarify your ideas throughout your document. Note, however, the text of your final document must contain approximately 70% of the “Beginning Document” text.
6. Use the CRAP/HATS principles (see readings) to redesign your “Beginning Document”: Make sure to use:
• Styles in your document
• Effective headings and subheadings (see readings)
• Bulleted and numbered lists