The Reader's Blog

First Reaction

Information surrounds us everywhere. The longer I live, the more information there is to consider and organize. We probably wouldn’t be able to survive and avoid confusion, without proper techniques for organizing different kinds of information. This is the reason why chapter 17, as every chapter that I’ve read so far in this textbook, proved to be very useful and informational.

I’ve never written an Incident Report or a Field Report, but I am very familiar with Meeting Minutes. I’ve learned first about minutes years ago, right after finishing high school. I had to take a Professional Development course and somewhere along the curriculum, we had to practice taking minutes. It was a very weird experience. There were no strict guidelines or specific structure, but just general outline on how to record what everybody said during a meeting.

Seeing very strict guidelines and specific, very detailed example in the book, was very surprising. I like structure  in everything  and specific directions for everything that I am doing. I am sure that detailed information provided in this textbook will be very useful in the future, even when I will complete English 402.

I also  found that  information on writing Directives is very fascinating. First, I could dream about a future job, where I will be able to apply this knowledge and actually write Directives to the staff in my department. Secondly, I was and am excited about learning proper techniques for writing something in a way that would allow me to reach my goal and receive what I aim for.

Real Life Connection

I receive Meeting Minutes at my work place regularly. It is interesting for me to see that they are written in a very free-style,  that is very different from the one presented in chapter 17.  I hope that some day, I will be the one writing proper Meeting Minutes for my department.

I found it very interesting, seeing how the tone of the Directive can be very different and so much more influential when written with delicacy and tact. I could identify with  real life situations when I had to write letters or requests. When I wrote smoothly, politically correct to every letter and comma, I easily received a positive reaction. When I’ve written in haste, without thinking, there were often misunderstandings and confusion in replies from my readers.

The chapter was very engaging and easy to read. The first part of the chapter seemed to be pretty standard  However, the list of eight techniques on expanding definitions was interesting and might prove to be very useful in my future work. There are multiple occasions in my professional life that happen even know, where I will use tips described in the first part of the chapter.

However, it is the writing instructions and manuals part of the chapter that really kept my attention and interest. I’ve always wondered why different manuals include some pretty basic instructions that seem to be naive and unnecessary. I know that I cannot dry my cat in a microwave or wash it in a washer. Why tell me that? Another example of unnecessary instructions  are directions for use on the pack of  shelled roasted sunflower seeds. It seems hillarious that someone needs to tell me how to open my mouth and crack a sunflower seed!

Reading this chapter, I realized that there are multiple safety precautions and legal regulations that have to be followed. And after realizing that there is a potential danger in the use of any object or product, funny instructions, don’t seem to be so funny anymore.

Several days ago I  began reading “1984″ by Orwell. From the very fist pages I discovered vague, uneasy familiarity with the literary taste of the novel. Being born in the former U.S.S.R., I am sadly, personally familiar with, oh so many details.

After performing a quick research, I only discovered that U.S.S.R and Stalin were real prototypes for this work of fiction.

Looking forward to finishing the novel soon.