WK8 FINAL EN361 MATERIAL UPDATE

Introduction

It is quite evident that the business organization is experiencing a significant reduction in productivity due to a poor website. The website has become quite irrelevant to the extent that it can hardly meet the customer's expectations. This being the case customers will seek alternatives. The reputation of the Company is destroyed a great deal. Consequently, the firm begins to have a financial crisis. What follows is a massive employee turnover as they fear that they may not be paid. The company's debts start accumulating as the capacity to pay the creditors is no longer there. The threat of liquidation becomes imminent.

Research Plan

In this case, the problem needs to be researched. Two ways are research plan methods are appropriate for finding the root cause to a poor website system in the organization. The use of questionnaires is one good method. The other one entails and experimental study. For the questionnaire questions regarding the website ought to be well written and given to all the members of the organization. This includes even the directors and managers. Some of the questions to include ought to be; what do you think is the rationale for a poor website? Do you think that the problem lies with the management? Is the IT department at your firm competent?

The other research plan should be an experimental study. The researcher ought to imagine themselves as a customer and try and purchase goods and services from the firm using the website. This should be done by a group of 5 to 10 researchers who should come up with their results. In addition, the researchers ought to observe how the IT guys at the firm are working. They also need to examine and assess their qualifications. In some cases, problems at business organizations are usually a result of the negligence of the workers.

Research Results

In the research, several findings were observed. Firstly, it was realized that the website had unoptimized images. These are images that can be reduced in size without any visual impact to the user of the website. This is one of the main reasons making the website slow. Another thing observed was excessive fancy flash. As the saying goes, too much of anything is poisonous so does to much flash. It works a great deal in slowing down the website. The rationale here is that flash, being the sumo wrestler of software, its usually large and bulky (Hiitola, 2010).

Another thing discovered in the research was the existence of an external embedded media. These entails unnecessary videos or information on your website. The external site embedded on your website determines the speed of your website. It was also realized that there is the existence of a bulky code. This causes a major hindrance to the website. The last finding was that the IT department in the organization consisted of incompetent persons. The people employed by the company are young people with very little knowledge about the websites. This leads to a department void of experience and expertise (Hiitola, 2010).

Discussion of the Results

The findings revolve all around having a deficient IT department. The other thing that is realized is that the company is not ready to spend on competent and experienced IT experts. This, however, can prove detrimental to the overall performance of the company. The problem of unoptimized images, for instance, can be easily solved. The IT guys only need to consider changing the images formats which reduce the fill size hence making the images optimal. Another solution is enabling HTPP compression (Hiitola, 2010). This reduces the size of the download page. Nevertheless, this cannot happen with incompetent workers.

Recommendations

Firstly, the company ought to have a complete overhaul of the IT department. The company then should hire IT experts who can steer the firm to glory. Business outsourcing can also be an option instead of hiring. These should be from a well-known IT company. Such measures will enable the upgrading and optimization of the website to meet the customer needs. The company should also purchase new computers to replace the obsolete ones and facilitate the installation of the best software. There also ought to be a program to teach all members of the firm on how to go about the upgraded website once it is in place (Hiitola, 2010).

Conclusion

In this modern day and age, there is a lot of completion in the business world. As such, most firms are using technology in a bid to achieve a competitive edge. Poor technology can be quite costly. Consequently, firms should always strive to have the best technology.

Application Letter for Technical Writer’s Position

Model Street

North Point

12343 New York

Phone: 497680877

E-mail: [email protected]

22nd Feb 2017

Mr. William Chiera

Human Resource Manager

Limoux Consulting Agency

3432 NY

Dear Sir,

RE: APPLICATION FOR TECHNICAL WRITER POSITION

I am writing in regards to the vacancy published for the position of a technical writer in your organization. I am a qualified senior technical level writer. I am in charge of medium size technical publication firms in my current organization. I am looking for a more fulfilling position, which I am confident that I will achieve by working in your organization. I am searching for a position in a publishing house with greater potential for expansion, where I could personally demonstrate my writing skill set, and learn from others for the purpose of career development.

I have a four-year experience with Adobe applications. I can correctly and comfortably use Adobe applications such as Acrobat, Frame maker, and Illustrator, Paint Shop Pro; Macromedia DreamWeaver; Microsoft applications. I am also very proficient in the exploitation of other programs such as Word, Excel, Project, PowerPoint, Outlook, Visio, SharePoint, Help Workshop, and HTML Help Workshop; Lotus Notes and Typing. My exposure to numerous technological organizations has made me develop a lot of interest in basic applications which I believe, are bound to help me deliver at your company.

I began my career in technical writing with journalism and reporting. At that stage, I was not very keen on concepts which would help me in the long run. I have grown to be very ambitious, and I develop an interest in anything which may have an impact on my career in future. My bachelor's degree in journalism played an imperative role. I involved myself with education and mass communication subjects, which I majorly based my opinions on. I have initially worked in computer software and telecommunication industries, which have helped me, grow a lot in my career.

My job description included documentation and essaying thesis as well as dissertations on education and mass media concepts. I am totally adept at writing complex technical materials into simple, easily understood language. My writing focuses on reading the audience with information. I am considerate of different audiences who may want to review my content; hence I provide quality and relevant information which is credible and can be used for reference purposes. I am very proficient and take my work extremely seriously, due to my major ambitions in regards to my career goals.

My job duties and responsibilities include; composing reports, articles, educational content, and research documents. I am also in charge of mechanical, electronic and other equipment maintenance. I consider myself a performer, and I can never let your organization down, especially when tasks are delegated to me. I am good at working both in teams and individually, and I believe in the spirit of collaboration and coordination for the purpose of efficiency and organization productivity.

I am looking forward to your positive response.

Thank you in advance.

Yours Faithful,

(Signature)

(Name)

Portfolio Project Proposal for Gatekeepers

In the course of human lifespan, at one point or on several occasions, we have stopped to ask the most critical question; is reading really important? The answer to this question is limitless and unlimited. Reading is so fundamental to a normal functioning in today’s world. While there are millions of adults in the world who cannot read or write there is a significant rise in the number of children and teenagers that know how to read and write. Take for instance, the simple tasks such as filling out forms or even a questionnaire; it is basic but it is a learning skill that is sharpened by reading and more reading. While this is the most primary role/benefit of reading; research over time has proven that a mere fact that someone can read has enabled them to land a better job, they have been able to develop their minds, they can discover new things in life, their imagination is stimulated and the list is endless.

Now having confirmed that reading is vital, now comes the most begging question; what and how to read. This is the point at which Haven Readers steps in with confidence. The category of gatekeepers is a demotivated lot who see no benefit in readership; in fact they perceive such to be a total waste of time in relation to other economically/socially viable duties such as working hard in their workplace for adults and excessive play for children. Basically, they do not rely on books for knowledge or education for that matter!

While they appear a difficult pack to be turned on insofar as reading is concerned, Haven Readers has a specific solution for them. With technology, books do not get published in a physical form only; there is the e-reader form, audio form and most important of all for this category is the visual-book format. This segment will, therefore, be targeted purely the visual format of the books and secondarily by the audio books.

In order to create and relay a programed system of reading, the gatekeepers will be subscribed for Haven Readers “gatekeeper package” which will be offered at only $60 per year subscription. In order to ensure they are attracted and fascinated at the idea, they will be supplied with two online-version of both audio and visual-books of their interest per month. Once they start developing interest in the reading, they can now join the community/secondary readers at the rate of $110 per year subscription with many more books and if they nurture their interest using our tools, they will have bonus of life membership at only $500 and will never have to pay anything for the rest of their life yet they will access all scholarly privileges in both treatment and readership.

The package above is principally meant to stir an interest in reading and nurture it all the way to scholar levels. Haven Reader’s mission is not only to get subscriptions but also to see growth in scholarship and that is why it will offer a life membership with all benefits to this category at the lowest cost possible.

References

Al-Ali, M. N. (2004). How to get yourself on the door of a job: A cross-cultural contrastive study of Arabic and English job application letters. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development, 25(1), 1-23.

Spinks, N., & Wells, B. (1999). Trends in the employment process: Resumes and job application letters. Career Development International, 4(1), 40-45.

Wang, H. (2005). A pragmatic genre analysis of job application letters. Sino-US English Teaching, 2(12), 76-81.

Reference

Hiitola, B. (2010). Inkscape 0.48 essentials for web designers (1st ed.). Birmingham, U.K.: Packt