TCOM 2010 – Technical Writing Technical Letter Assignment
The purpose of this assignment is to give you practice with formal communication in a technically-oriented workplace. This assignment requires that you respond appropriately to the scenario described below. Keep in mind your audience and purpose when you establish the tone of your responses.
Deliverables (2)
1) Technical Letter
For this assignment, you need to think about what you want to do after graduating from Southern Polytechnic. Choose a realistic career option, and then think of a realistic problem/situation in that job that would require you to write a formal letter to someone in another organization.
Here are some general scenarios based on the Knoy reading assignment:
- seek cooperation from another organization on a technology-specific project
- provide information to see if another organization is compatible with yours
- suggest ways to start a cooperative venture
- suggest/set up a visit from your organization to another organization (or vice versa)
- request that your organization be included on a vendor's list
- set up details of a training program for outsiders involving technological matters
- request information about another organization's technology
- provide information about your organization's technology to an interested outside party
- report project status to a client who contracted your organization to run a project
Write a formal letter (minimum one full page; maximum two pages) to a person in the other organization who can help you, and request a specific action. Your letter should be fairly detailed concerning the scenario and specific technology you're writing about.
2) Reflective Memo
Write a 300–400 word reflective memo, addressed to the instructor, in which you address each of the following elements:
- how you adapted your letter to the specific characteristics of your letter's audience;
- ethical issues that you encountered (there is always at least one potential ethical issue);
- the course goals (see the course website home page) you encountered in completing this assignment.
Explain your answers. You can write about other things, too, but these are the minimum required elements.
Submission Requirements
Hard copy (printed on paper) is required; do not send assignments via email unless specifically requested. Don't come to class expecting the printer to work or the classroom to be stocked with paper.
Bring hard copies of the letter and the reflective memo to class. Place the memo on bottom and staple the documents together in the upper left corner.
Helpful Hints
Before submitting your deliverables, ask yourself the following questions:
- Are the contents of my documents ethical?
- Do I show awareness to audience and purpose?
- Are the document lengths appropriate?
- Does the letter's first paragraph set up the purpose, issue, and context?
- Do I use details in the letter to justify my suggestions/requests?
- Does the letter's concluding paragraph contain a call to action?
- Is my language clear and direct?
- Is my document design good (including typography, color and whitespace)?
- Are my documents free of grammatical and spelling errors?
If you want help on formatting the memo, please use this Sample Memo as a guide.