This Portfolio is a collection of some of the best work I have done over the time in W50E. This class, in my opinion, was very focused on exposing us to many different kinds and styles of technical writing. From writing about ourselves in our cover letter and resume, to the instructional set, where the focus was really on clear communication, the diversity of the texts really stood out. Projects such as the Ink Game really challenged me, as I feel like storytelling is not my strong suit, but other papers like the above mentioned cover letter were a lot of fun to complete from a forward looking perspective. As the last non elective writing course I will ever take, I think that writing 50E has given me more tools in my arsenal for when I must use technical writing in my next job.
Professional Portfolio
The professional portfolio and cover letter were one of my favorite projects to undertake. Although most of my resume was already written, the fun part came from exploring and writing a conversation letter for any job of our choosing. I chose to write my cover letter as though I was applying for Apple's design team, and I think that this project really helped me understand how to take the skills and limited experience that I already have, and morph it to apply to whatever job I would like to get. I think that for a fun follow up, it would be interesting to see how my cover letter/resume change over the period of several years, and to see how my experiences shift my presentation and application of skills.
resume.pdf | |
File Size: | 35 kb |
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cover_letter.pdf | |
File Size: | 23 kb |
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Technical Document
I feel as though this document was the one that I was most prepared for, as working in a lab and having a strong scientific background mean that I have written or worked on close to a hundred research and experimental documents over the past two years. I chose to write about sintering affects on additive manufacturing processes and their application to small job shops/hobbyists. At first my paper did not have enough personal conclusions drawn from the material, and to address this the second draft had considerably more personal input and calls for future research/application. My accommodation was written as a magazine article centered around the affects of sintering. I was hoping to convey the same information in my article as I did in my technical document, but in a way that hobbyists or makers like the ones who would be reading such an article could understand. The focus was on how this future technology could benefit those hobbyists, but how the it had not progressed yet to a point where it was quite ready for them to take full advantage of.
w50e_technical_paper.pdf | |
File Size: | 76 kb |
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techpaperacomidation.pdf | |
File Size: | 138 kb |
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MMT3 Personal Ink Game
For this project I attempted to take what we have learned in class, and apply that knowledge in a slightly unorthodox manner. My goal was to take as many different logical fallacies and persuasive measures as possible, and apply them with little regard for moral or persuasive responsibility. At the same time, I wanted to make the game entertaining, informative, and perhaps to make the player question broader political agendas. I felt as though the market for snarky games was thoroughly demonstrated by Cards Against Humanity TM, but has been left mostly alone sense they entered the scene. This game does make use of the bifurcation fallacy as well as the false dilemma fallacy by presenting true, but partial information in conjunction with limited options to increase the appeal of the desired choice. I think this game also makes good use of keeping it real, with the outcomes (although hyperbole) making reasonable sense based on inputs.
MMT2 Fusion 360 instructional set
Talking with many of my fellow engineering students, one of the inevitable things that tends to come up is my overwhelming use of Fusion 360 over the more typical CAD package afforded by SolidWorks. Having used both Fusion and SolidWorks, I find myself jumping into Fusion for many personal or spontaneous projects, only resorting to SolidWorks for collaborative or large projects. Therefor, to prove the programs simplicity, I decided to create my own introduction to Fusion 360. My original idea for the project originally came from instructional hand washing pamphlets found in bathrooms; if someone were to take 2 minutes every day reinforcing the same basics ideas, the information is bound to be absorbed through sheer repetitiveness alone. Sense this information appeals to a much more unique selection of people, placement of this pamphlet would need to be much more targeted than many other sorts of popular media.
mmt2_final.pdf | |
File Size: | 3489 kb |
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MMT 1 This Website
Look around, smell the flowers, you're already here! For MMT 1 we were supposed to create a website about ourselves, and our interests/hobbies, and here that website is! Being truly passionate about design and manufacturing, I attempted to allow some of my work and passion to help express myself as a person rather than simply listing information about myself. As the main audience for this assignment is engineers (this is writing for engineers after all) I felt like many of my fellow classmates and instructors would be able to understand and relate to design and ideas, as apposed to just music or art. Having said that, I did take the time to include some of my art and favorite music, as having many different forms of communication, whether through word, song, or images, allows my website to connect with a much broader audience, appealing to different types of people from all different backgrounds.
Conclusion
My main take away from this class is that though technical writing may take many forms, the key concepts behind all of them remain the same. From our privileged position as a scholar and engineer, we must use our knowledge of ethics, structure, persuasion, and creativity to produce coherent and honest works. Whether it be writing an instructional manual, or a project progress report, the tools that we have learned in this class are all applicable to creating a better piece of content. I look forward to seeing how my style of writing will change over time, and how I can take what I've learned and apply it to things that I am passionate about. My hope is that over time this website can become not just a portfolio, but also begin to show progress into writing more technical and research documents as my area of research progresses.