1/29/08

The writer’s opening paragraph is clearly influnced by feedback from the instructor on an earlier draft of the cover letter. In his feedback, the instructor told the writer that the opening paragraph needed a stronger argument to convince the employer that the writer was the worthy candidate for the job. As a result, the final draft has a much more confident tone. For example, in the early draft, the writer says, “I have completed two and a half years at West Virginia University as an undergraduate in civil engineering.” However, in the final draft, he says, “I will bring with me the strong foundation of engineering concepts and principles that I have learned in two and a half years at West Virginia University as an undergraduate in civil engineering.”

The instructor proposes adding an “X,Y,Z” list to two sentences in the writer’s second paragraph. This results in the writer adding more detail to his account of his education in civil engineering. For example, instead of “I have purposely taken a variety of civil engineering classes…”, he writes, “I have purposely taken a variety of civil engineering courses such as transportation engineering, structural analysis I, and fluid mechanics.”

Following the instructor’s advice, the writer strengthens the opening sentence of the third paragraph by making it more confident: “Throughout my work experience I have learned many skills such as hard work, teamwork, and reliability.” Finally, the writer adds several sentences concerning his Mylan Pharmaceuticals internship as a result of the instructor’s advice to do so. This helps emphasize the success of the writer in his previous internship.

To participate effectively in what Faigley describes as the "continuous process of communication," it's important to avoid limiting yourself to one particular type of discourse or style. Faigley's point is that a professional writer has to be in touch with everyone that he or she is communicating with. This includes factors such as dialect, age, or even technology (as shown in the example where the biologist uses an electronic pie chart to display information).

Selzer gives plenty of evidence to back up his descriptions of Kenneth Nelson's work. Selzer organizes the information logically by four different aspects of Nelson's writing: planning and inventing, arrangement, drafting, and revision. He provides enough examples to make it clear that a good amount of observation was conducted for the article. He observed Nelson's notes, memos, drafts, and his finished work. He also kept track of how much time Nelson spent working on different parts of the writing process; he found, for instance, that Nelson spent only 20% of the project development in the composition stage. Selzer also describes Nelson's minimal revision procedure, for example, where Nelson's secretary transfers his handwritten draft into a word processor, so that he can then move on to the editing process.

There are several different kinds of professional writers. Some writers create original material, such as novels, textbooks, film scripts, songs, etc. Other writers, called "technical writers", specialize in translating technical concepts and jargon into something easier to understand. Someone who creates an instruction manual for a bulldozer would be a technical writer. "Copy writers" specialize in marketing a product; they are responsible for the conceptual and technical details of whatever they've been assigned to publish. Editors oversee the writing process, and make necessary changes in the product where they see fit. In many of these fields, technology is becoming an increasingly important factor. Many employers require at least some knowledge of the Web and how to use a computer effectively. Of course, writing, research, and editing skills are critical in any writing job.

I'm very interested in freelance writing as a source of supplementary income. I keep a look out for small job postings on the Internet. A lot of start-up websites look for people to contribute to their site just to get it up off the ground. I'm interested to learn more about copy writing, because it seems like a creative position, but also one with a lot of responsibility. More than anything else, I'm interested to learn what skills are most important for someone who wants to be a writer.