Week 10 Instructions: Using Graphics

• Time Required
• 7–8 hours, including reading time

The design of your Technical Description matters just as much as the words and sentences you compose. Your goal is to make the object or process you are describing visually understandable for your reader. This week’s work asks you to begin your draft of the description and to think about the rule that visual elements will play in your project.

Optional Reading Activities This Week

This week’s optional readings focus on infographics, which are one format you can choose for your technical description. The design tips in the readings and videos include tips that can help with any format however, not just infographics.

To find the optional reading activities, check the “Canvas Announcements & Course Advice” on the Course Home. The posts show up in the Twitter feed for @HokieTengrrl Links to an external site., which you will find on the course home in Canvas. If you read them and watch the related videos, be sure to note the time in your Weekly Work Log.

 

Objectives for this Week

By completing this week’s activities, you address the following course objectives:

• Analyze the rhetorical situation and determine the appropriate audience or users of written communication, considering the needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 1]
• Conduct research appropriate to workplace problem solving, such as literature review, evaluation of online resources, interview, and site inspection. [CLO 2]
• Interpret research findings with understanding of ethical and human implications. [CLO 3]
• Use conventions of various workplace genres, such as proposals, instructions, correspondence, reports, and slide decks, with understanding of how the genre conventions can be used as heuristics and as principles of arrangement. [CLO 4]
• Collaborate with classmates in planning, researching, writing, revising, and presenting information. [CLO 5]
• Apply principles of effective visual design for print and electronic presentation, including hierarchical, chronological, and spatial arrangements. [CLO 6]
• Identify and apply the principles of effective style in the composing of usable, reader-centered written communications. [CLO 7]

 

Activities for this Week

📚 To Read This Week

• Markel & Selber, Chapter 12: “Designing Graphics”
• Characteristics of an Effective Graphic
• Technical Description Criteria 

📝 To Write This Week

• Choose ONE of the two Introducing Your Description activities below (only one will count):
  • Introducing Your Description of an Object
  • Introducing Your Description of a Process
• Complete the Technical Description Draft activity.

💬 To Discuss This Week

• Follow the instructions in the Technical Description Draft Feedback Discussion to share what you have created with your group. As a group, work to ensure that every person in the group gets at least two responses.

📓 To Track This Week

• Track and reflect on the work you have done for the week in your Work Log for the Week of 03/22, reviewing the Weekly Work Log Guidelines as needed.
• Complete the Week of 03/22 Self-Assessment to claim the points for the work you have done this week. You have an unlimited number of times to complete the self-assessment. Your points will be recorded automatically when you submit your quiz.
• Complete the Self-Assessment of Optional Reading Activities from March 22–26  to claim points for your optional reading.

🎯 Optional Work Available

These links provide more information about the optional work for those working towards a grade higher than a B:

• Optional Activities Overview
• Optional Reading Activities
• Optional Writing Activities Instructions