Online Media Kit

The press kit I'd like to use as an example comes from the website of Game Developer's Conference 2010. It's highly relevant to my group because we are also designing a game software summit. The company which handles PR for the conference also had a really interesting website which I'm linking to beneath the link for the GDC kit.

GDC Press Kit

47 Communications

Review of Justin Ard's Exercise

I randomly selected Justin Ard's technical writing exercise as the one I would review.

On first inspection, I found it to be very well-done. It really helped to clear up the instructions, the original of which had me confused, to be honest. Even though I know how to set up a shared drive on a Windows OS, the original instructions were horrible enough to make me forget. I thought that Justin's instructions were extremely clear and concise, and they were good enough to make me want to go re-write my own in shame. I think he decoded the originals very well and translated them into basic English which would be easy-to-follow even for the inexperienced operator.

Read Justin's version here.

Creating Shared Drives under Windows 95 Network Multi-Users

Please click here to be redirected to the document.

On Rhetoric

The subject of rhetoric is one which I could talk quite a bit about. In the last semester alone, I had two classes on rhetoric: one concerning writing conventions and another on its presence in databases and information systems. It was really fascinating to experience the classes simultaneously and see the juxtaposition of ways in which rhetoric is used. I had known the basics about rhetoric for several years, but I had never thought about the extent to which it is used in day-to-day life. Its applications in computer and information science were even further out of my comfort zone. I feel that I learned a lot, and I'm eager to apply what I studied to technical and professional writing.

I think that my background in rhetorical devices will help me in this class as well as in my future career. I have already started brainstorming methods of persuasion for the media kit that my group will be preparing in the coming weeks. Still, I know that there is always more to learn, and I'm excited to do so. I hope that rhetoric is a topic we continue to discuss as the class moves forward, because I find it fascinating, and I enjoy seeing the ways and styles in and with which people embrace their own ability to move others.

On Writing

Writing has always come naturally to me, at least in my own opinion. I’ve never really struggled with the blinking cursor on a white screen the way I know some people do; I just start typing, and then I revise as needed. Where I have to spend my time laboring is much more in the realm of mathematics, which in't difficult for me but can begin to feel tedious, as there are definite correct answers. One of the things I love most about writing is that at its most basic level, it is about communication, which is always as much about personal style as it is about strict rules. Some of the most famous poets and authors in the history of English language have turned the laws inside out and successfully run without things like capitalization or proper sentence structure (e. e. cummings and Virginia Woolf come to my mind). In this way, I find the delicately constructed nuances of writing to be a lot like art, and in so being, the process of writing to be a very freeing and expressive one. I’ve always written a lot of stories and poetry, ever since I was a child, and I love whiling away hours that way.

I also have lots of experience with academic writing, having taken classes in English and Spanish since high school, and adding Italian to my repertoire in college. I really found that trying to create beautiful writing in a foreign language added to my value as a writer in my native tongue. Likewise, I find that writing for the sciences, where the goal is to say as much as possible in as few words as possible (and where they’d get a good laugh over my “delicately constructed nuances”), to be a really cathartic experience and to somewhat help cleanse me of my tendency toward arbitrary vocabulary. I’m hoping this class will help in the same way, although I know it will be a difficult experience, because I do so love my flowery language. Still, I’m excited to learn how to be more professional in my writing, and look forward to understanding more about my own writing style and how to make it as correct as possible in business situations.