Critical Thinking, Analysis, and Research
Understand a variety of theoretical approaches to technical communication
Understand relationships among language, knowledge, and power
Recognize, analyze, and understand the contexts within which language, information, and knowledge are produced, managed, organized, and disseminated
Integrate previously held beliefs, assumptions, and knowledge with new information and the ideas of others
Understand ideological perspectives regarding research methods and research design
Read, interpret, and evaluate research studies
Identify and apply appropriate methods for investigating particular research questions
Observation Microstudy
TWC 505 Research in Tech and Appl Comm
The elements assignment required me to analyze a website based on Garrett’s five planes. I selected the home page of a local bakery’s website. Analyzing the site in relation to the five planes was challenging as I had to view the site from a different perspective than I would have as a visitor. This perspective gave me insight into who their customers are and what message they are trying to communicate to them using various techniques.
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MSTC Outcome: From this observation, I learned how language, knowledge, and power can give one person control of a group. Throughout the meeting, the leader maintained control while at the same time giving others a chance to speak. As a participant in this meeting, I realized how much the ideas that leadership and my peers were sharing was shaping my own beliefs and assumptions. I then saw how powerful critical thinking could be in improving myself.
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Keep it Simple: Work with the tools and situations I have available.
Future of Libraries
TWC 554 Information Tech and Culture
The white paper assignment asked me to sell a product to a group of people for whom the product was technically challenging and outside of their comfort zone. I struggled with this assignment because my perception of the audience and the perception implied in the assignment were polar opposites. In order to complete the paper, I had to first determine how the audience as described might perceive the product and determine the best information to use to persuade them to buy it. This was not easy.
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MSTC Outcome: : Due to the challenges of this report, I learned how to read, interpret, and evaluate the research of others. Nothing about this was straight-forward. I was forced to take a lot of information and synthesize that with my own thoughts and experiences so I could make sense of it for my audience and help them to understand the conclusions I came to after doing the research.
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Keep it Simple: First understand the information myself, then put it in simpler terms for the audience.