Revision letter

AWD Unit 2 Reference Document Checklist On Non-Technical Documents (concerns some students) As the assignment asks, if you’ve written a reference document whose topic seems removed from your professional interests and academic training (as in guides to cooking or car maintenance, for example), please write a paragraph offering your strategic thinking on why the writing of this reference document is professionally useful to you. Cover Document (letters, memos, email—as appropriate, in your judgment)

• Make it as easy as possible for addressee to be persuaded by the value of your reference document and persuaded to help you present it to the desired audience. Addressee should know exactly what you want, why you write, what is your document, what is the use and value of your document, what he or she (addressee) should do, when he or she should do it.

• Proper spacing throughout; letter centered on page (follow proper block or semi- block style for letters)

• Return address or letterhead • Date • Proper addressee information (do the extra work, if possible, of identifying a real

addressee with a real function and take her true concerns into consideration) • Memos and emails should have proper To: and From: lines (include professional titles in

memos); properly informative and pithy Subject: or RE: lines • Use the honorific properly (Dr., Mr., Ms.) • Colon or comma in salutation? • Who are you? Expertise? • Purpose of document specified • Specific need document meets/specific value of document • Specific approach it presents, in relation to existing documents/technologies/services

and/or specific advantages of your approach • What do you want addressee to do? • Provide full and useful contact info (phone, email, post, text—what works for

addressee?). Will you contact addressee? When? • Appropriate closing • Signature (in fifth line after closing, in letters) • Typed name • Your title • Indicate enclosure or attachment in text and with signal line at very end: Enc. (#);

Attachment (#)

Reference Document • Audience always certain of what it should know/do/feel while reading, upon completing

document • Size, colors, format, white space: appealing, compelling, and appropriate for audience? Take

some risks here—think of what you find attractive and useful in a reference document. Let me suggest that a stapled bundle of black-and-white typed pages is appropriate to a term paper for school. But this would rarely be the best format for use by an audience in the field, lab, home, etc. Of course, your document shouldn’t be garish; aim for a functional elegance. If you need to experiment with your document physically, beyond what is possible with your software, do so. You are welcome to hand in a physical document, instead of an electronic document. Possibilities: brochure, reference card, booklet of special size, bound document, electronic document, poster, video, etc.

• Title/title page, attractively presented (if necessary and appropriate to genre, audience, purpose)

• Table of contents (if appropriate; think of audience’s needs, conventions of your genre) • Date, if appropriate • Your name, title; company name and information (if appropriate) • Pages numbered • Headers—consistent (no orphaned headers) • Bill of materials, assembly drawing, if appropriate • Figure captions below figure, table captions above tables • Boxes or other consistent, noteworthy design for special ideas, comments, warnings, tips,

special expertise • Illustrations, figures, tables should follow text describing them; refer to such visual elements

in text for maximum clarity (we discussed Jake’s document, whose consistent, step-by- step pairing of text and illustration obviated the need for figure captioning and textual reference, but we don’t all have such step-by- step content)

• Labels, arrows, other marking of illustrations clear and attractive (if appropriate) • Information clearly, logically ordered or “batched” • Instruction sequence (if applicable) coherent, balanced, consistent from step to step; action to

perform in each step, in sequence overall, clear and precise • Visual and textual elements balanced in function, balanced in presentation on the page

(illustrations of consistent size and placement, for example, if appropriate) • No visual clutter, good use of white space • Complications, tricky moments, audience questions, audience failures anticipated (bring in

your expertise)