Picture Perfect Ponderings

December 23rd

Hi all! I just finished all my Christmas wrapping for this year. I’m in much better shape than last year when I waited until Christmas Eve. Staying up all night the day before a holiday is no fun when you look dead tired in all the photos and video recordings taken for the occasion. But it is now officially the day before Christmas Eve and it is time for us all to focus on what Christmas is truly about: finishing our week one Technical Writing assignments!

Chapter five in the ETW text is all about having an aesthetically pleasing page design for technical documents. I never noticed the importance of headings until pages 50-51 demonstrated how much easier documents are to read with the addition of headings. It was also helpful to know the different types of heading choices there are such as questions, short sentences, single words and phrases. The chapter also goes into detail about the two categories of type faces: sarif and sans sarif. I never understood why it mattered so much that I use Times New Roman in my essays at school, but since sarif fonts such as Times New Roman are easier to read it makes perfect sense why that font is required for most professors. I also didn’t know white space was something technical writers should be striving for in their documents. Emails were the first thing to come to mind during the sections about white space. I always struggle with how far down I should space my electronic signature when I write an email, but now I know not to dear white space within my documents.

Chapter six is all about adding meaningful graphics and pictures to one’s technical documents. One of the most interesting tidbits I found within this chapter was figure 6.4. The photographer, or maybe the person who edited the photo, expertly focused on the fungus growth on the strawberry and kept the other parts of the photo out of focus. (Always rinse off your fruits and veggies kids!) This is how to draw the audience’s attention to the aspect of the image that is of most importance to the subject at hand. I see this in many professional wedding photos as well. The photographer blurs all the dancing family members in the background of the photo in order to draw attention to the dancing wedding couple.

My Cousin and her Husband Example Pic

Chapter seven encourages readers to write ethically. I can see how this chapter can be very important to a teacher in training. Although a high school teacher may enjoy having a particular student in class, if the student receives a low grade on a test, the teacher cannot simply smudge the grade book to give that student a higher grade that they didn’t earn. This would be unethical in that the teacher is hiding the true score of that test. Plagiarizing is the same thing as stealing which is a very unethical thing to do. (On a semi related note, my car was recently broken into, nothing was taken because I keep nothing of value in my vehicle. Remember to keep your doors locked this holiday season to avoid Grinches who want to steal all the Bloom University apparel you bought for your parents!) The chapter emphasizes the importance of crediting all of your sources while writing so that you don’t accidentally plagiarize someone else’s work. The citation examples provided are extremely useful and make for a great reason not to return this book after our course ends. I could use this handy section for the rest of my undergrad career and beyond!

These chapters were very informative and got down to the nitty-gritty of technical documents. We have finished half of the book already. Keep reading and absorbing folks!

-Anna J.