This workshop offers an opportunity to practice sentence-level editing strategies. More specifically, this workshop challenges you to revise an existing document to make it more readable and more effective at meeting its audiences' needs and expectations. Your revision strategies may also include refining the design of the document to better support the visible organization of content.
This workshop requires you to assess and revise an existing document that is poorly written and poorly designed. You may work alone or with a partner to complete the assignment.
Your challenge is straightforward. Read, revise, report on your revision strategies, and post your work to Canvas Discussions. More specifically, revise the document so that the resulting new memo is readable and clear in the specific details, but still complete.
The workshop has 3 stages.
You may complete this workshop independently or in collaboration with up to 2 classmates. If you choose to work with others and also to work remotely, I recommend that you use Microsoft Teams or some other live chat / video conference tool to conduct the workshop.
Retrieve the working document for the workshop from SVSU Canvas (see Workshop Support). The document is a memo (Baines_ServiceCallMemo). I recommend that you print the document so you can annotate it as you work. However, this is not required.
Before you assess the memo, consider what (in general) you would expect of a memo that directs you to act or complete a task? What kind of information do you need to be able to follow through? Reflect as well upon who you think the audiences are for this specific memo, and the purpose(s) you think it serves. How many different audience categories can you think of for this memo? What are the expectations of each audience category?
Then consider the following question: What has the author done so far to meet the needs and expectations of audiences? Identify any strategies the author uses that you think are successful. Identify content that you think is presented well. Identify places where you get confused by the meaning or the intent of the information. Identify as many content areas as you can that you would argue could be improved, and discuss the changes you would make to improve those trouble spots.
Think about design as well. Does the visual logic support the organization of the content on the page? Does the memo look professional? What recommendations might you offer the author to present content more effectively and more professionally?
Revise the memo. That is, make changes to the content, wording, organization, layout, and design that you think improve the document. You may add headings or new text (e.g., explanations, clarifications). However, be careful not to add or remove too much content. Do not remove any essential content or make revisions that change the meaning or intent of the original memo.
I recommend that you work in Microsoft Word to create your revised version of the memo. (You may open the TXT file directly in Word, or you can copy the text from the TXT file and paste it into a Word document.) You may submit your revised document as either a .PDF file or as a .DOCX file.
Once you have revised the memo, submit your summary report. That report should include the following details.
Think about design as you construct your report. Write your report directly in the Canvas Discussion forum designated for the workshop. Doing so limits your design choices, but still highlights the need to use basic design principles to make your content more accessible to readers.
Present your report in 4 separate sections that correspond to the report description above. Within sections, separate individual ideas/discussion points into their own paragraphs or list entries. Signal the beginning of each discussion section with an appropriate heading.
Post your summary report to the forum dedicated to this workshop on Canvas Discussions.
Attach your revised memo (PDF or DOCX format).
Note: I provide some visual guidance in the discussion forum for determining how long your report should be. However, as it has been with similar assignments, the real standard you seek to meet here is that of sufficient appropriate detail. In general, summary reports ask you to provide enough detail to demonstrate to peers and to me that you understood the activity on which you report, and that you completed the workshop as described. If your report is too brief, or if it lacks concrete, specific detail, expect to earn fewer than 50 points for your submission.
This section describes the standards by which your work will be evaluated for this workshop. Attend carefully to these details. If you do so, you will earn full credit for the workshop.
There are 50 possible points for this workshop. I will award points according to this standard.
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