Business Case Analysis

In this business case about communicating with employees, I examined the case of General Electric's Jack Welch and his management and communication techniques that supported a successful organization. I conducted research in business journals, websites, and books to analyze how internal communications with employees can be successful. Business case format was used to write this analysis.

Symantic Web Report

It's important as a writer to keep up with technology trends that may impact technical communication in the future. I wrote this report about Symantic Web, as it may be something that we see in the near future for writing and development.

Proposal Writing

Writing the grant proposal, First Responders and Grant Writing: Providing Solutions Through Technology, required that I research the problem the proposal sought to solve. To do this, I conducted research and interviewed a member of a local first aid squad about the issues these community organizations have with obtaining funding. These organizations rely on grants, but there is very little grant-writing experience in these organizations. To resolve this issue I sought a grant from the American Red Cross to support emergency medical service (EMS) workers by developing a grant-writing website that provides instruction on writing grants for equipment and operating costs, as well as an online community forum that provides ongoing support from other members of the EMS community and volunteer grant writers.

In support of this proposal, I developed this podcast. The purpose of this podcast was to present the proposal to the team of people I sought grant money from. I developed this podcast using MS PowerPoint, which I then converted to an Adobe Captivate file. I wrote a script and recorded it using the audio recording and editing features of Adobe Captivate.

Examining Environmental Issues

I conducted research on ways to reduce dependence on foreign oil in this research paper for the Communication and Environmental Problem Solving course. In an effort to examine ways of reducing the United States’ dependence on foreign oil, I gathered and evaluated information about both alternative fuels and alternative vehicles. In the paper, I provide support for particular technologies for a cleaner environment and reduced dependence on foreign oil.

Professional Editing Wiki

As a member of the Professional & Technical Editing class, I worked on a section of the Editing Guide. I created section one, "Professional and Technical Editing in the Twenty-First Century." To create this, I researched the subject matter, wrote the text and submitted several drafts to my team members for review. I incorporated their feedback and suggestions to make this a collective effort that now provides a useful reference to other students.

Website Analyses

In this analysis I evaluated how audience age impacts web design. I selected two active websites: one for an intended audience age 15 or under; the other intended for adults (age 22+).  For this assignment, I did the following:

1. Examined these sites and focused on how research into pedagogy/andragogy and learning styles in general may have influenced the site's design.
2. Selected elements (roles, goals, culture, knowledge, etc.) that seemed applicable to these sites to organize this study.
3. Included screen captures from the websites to illustrate the main points.

For another assignment, I analyzed the website for the company, Stablex. As a result, I wrote this memo to management at Stablex (academic purposes only), suggesting ways to improve their website for international audiences. This was an exercise in using Simplified English. Note: Stablex's website is no longer available as it appeared for this assignment.

Technology & Cultural Change

I wrote this research paper, as an assignment for the Cultural and Technological Change course. (Note that this paper was written during the primaries of the 2008 U.S. presidential election.) The paper examines how one of the Web 2.0 technologies, social networking, is playing a critical role in political campaigning. This paper presents supporting evidence that only those presidential candidates who use this technology effectively will have a chance of getting elected.