Employ the vernacular

Christmas wish list

2008-11-20T10:31:00.011-05:00

In no particular orderBeautiful handmade items from Etsy, in order to support crafty artists:*A beautiful 2009 desk calendar***Moleskin plain book (to sketch and draw)***Moleskin graph book (to design patterns)Camera:Nikon Coolpix S210 PlumCasio Exilim EX-Z77 BlueAny nice P&S camera under $150A new battery for my HP cameraKnitting supplies:*Lint shaver ($4.99)***A knitting tube to hold my

Australia

2008-08-28T16:18:00.004-04:00

My daily routine is sensitive. When something disrupts it, everything else fails to sit right. Tim is leaving for the Outback for work while I'm left alone. I'm not alone though -- I have friends from work, friends from Facebook, other random friends, and parents. It's great.Why do I need someone to be by my side at night? Why can't I fall asleep and feel peaceful and at ease when I'm alone? Are

Reflections

2008-08-16T11:23:00.004-04:00

Sitting in my den, I have so much to say, but nothing to write.***The soft light bounces back to me.I like how the light falls through the cracks of the blinds, revealing greys, blues, purples, and creams. The soft light bounces off the glass doors and shelters me in my fish bowl. Behind me is my full length mirror, still not hung on the wall because of the concrete that hides behind it. I turned

Books to read and some updates

2008-03-11T13:47:00.001-04:00

Good afternoon, team.I have four piece of news (you have all been sent an email about this as well).News Bulletin 1I found one more book, where two of the chapters are going to be useful for our user/task analysis and creating personas. I've only glimpsed at it (I'm at work you know, busy woman HA!), but this might be helpful. I'll try to photocopy this some time today.Source: User Interface

Class of March 6th: Notes

2008-03-09T14:12:00.001-04:00

Class schedule: Topics March 6th Task analysis Instructions March 13th: Structure March 20th: Jamie away on vacation March 27th: Document plan due April 3rd: Project discussion: Jamie will answer questions about the project April 15th: Project due Task Analysis While you build the audience matrix, you are beginning to tell stories about the user of the

Mid-Term Notes

2008-02-27T20:57:00.003-05:00

Hi all,Here's what I have down concerning what will be on tomorrow's mid-term. Happy studying, ladies!What To Study:-handout(s) > see website-“Understanding Readers”-graphics-audience-persuausion-textbook chapter 7 (charts & graphs) and chapter 10-the structure of the 2 main types of reports (evaluative & investigative)-material from Feb. 21 lecture (research methods, audience analysis/audience

What's on the midterm?

2008-02-26T14:28:00.000-05:00

° Midterm organization Ø Read required articles: § Graphics overview – typography § Impact chapter 7 on charts and graphs, informal reports § Evaluation/

"For sale: baby shoes, never worn."

2008-02-19T12:56:00.002-05:00

As legend has it, Hemingway was once challenged to write a story in 6 words. His response was "For sale: baby shoes, never worn."The technical analysis assignment looks more like a riddle to me.How much do we include in 500 words? I'm not complaining that we don't have enough to write, but what kind of detail do we need? Are the few readings on writing/graphical analysis enough to help up write

Alas, another week will begin

2008-02-19T01:11:00.002-05:00

Ladies,I'm still awake and need to run off to sleep ... as soon as I get the last half of my lunch made.I've had one of the busy months in my life, and no signs of slowing down. I have put some thought into the assignment (one due on Feb 21). Instead of having a nervous breakdown (joke), I'll probably email him the goods the day after or something. I'll see. I just want to get this term done!I

Hi everyone!!!

2008-01-21T09:08:00.001-05:00

Hello ladies, Thank you for the invite. Hope everyone's weekend was not as short as mine!See you gals on Thursday.

Photography? Ok. Why can't we see it? I'm curious!

2008-01-17T00:23:00.000-05:00

Here is the course web site.http://private.james-roberts-photography.com/courses/4310/Guess what?! If you go to this site, you can see his photography. Not bad! I'm no longer curious.http://james-roberts-photography.com/

Brainstorming -- class project

2008-01-08T12:11:00.000-05:00

I've decided that working on an "open source" project and creating documentation for a piece of software is the way to go. Not only can we contribute our documentation to a team when we are done with the course, but we can put on our resumes that wrote documentation and it's out there for the world to see; it's a publication!A great place to look for open source software is:http://sourceforge.net

Innovative minds don't think alike ...

2008-01-01T22:38:00.000-05:00

... that's why were are all good friends because we collaborate well. Here's an article that caught my eye that is relevant to communication studies. The New York Times has really good articles that appeal to thirsty minds, read this one here.Wishing all my friends a healthy and joyous New Year in 2008! I can't wait to see everyone in a few days. Let's kick ass!

We all want to know about the origin of language

2007-12-19T15:57:00.000-05:00

Here is a good read about this topic, albeit not tech writing, but still the nyt (New York Times) always has good stuff to read here.

Get together...for relaxing time enjoying good food :)

2007-12-05T12:21:00.000-05:00

Sitting pondering life-longing thoughts...and then it hit me.... I cant believe the semester is practically done!.....and so Chrismas gets here.... I was wondering if we could all get together to enjoy some good talks, laughs, and yummie food this week!Let me know what are your thoughts, availability, and ideas for eating-out!I miss u all! :(xoxo

3 a.m. til I come ... down from the caffeine!

2007-11-29T02:39:00.000-05:00

Note to self: Do not drink a Grande Tazo Chai Latte at Starbucks unless you are fully prepared to be wired.100 mg of caffeine, check. Time is flying by, check.Can no longer focus, check.Don't get me wrong, I love chai lattes. Not. At. 8 or 9 p.m. at night. I'm fine with it now. It's cool. No trippin'. Ok, a liTTle biT of Trippin'. Chill, Linda. Breathe!In the short number of hours I've been home,

Why I Don't Write Fundraising Letters

2007-11-26T12:59:00.001-05:00

Dear ColleaguesWhat would you do if you had no money to buy food? What if you couldn’t pay your child’s medical bills? Where could you turn if you were the victim of an abusive relationship?Right now, many of our fellow Torontonians are asking themselves these very questions. Thanks to the United Way, many will get the help they need to make a fresh start, but the demands keep growing:oOne in

Linda's A4: fund-raising

2007-11-26T08:09:00.000-05:00

This is the final letter I gave Sabine. Enjoy!Dear colleagues, As the winter winds chill the air, you can feel extra warm this holiday season with a tax-deductible donation to the United Way during our year end gift matching campaign. Your contribution can go a long way -- a donation of at least two dollars a day, every day, seven days a week, will help us reach this year's goal of $1

From your filching friend, to Prisci!

2007-11-23T13:30:00.000-05:00

Prisci, as she is affectionately known as, is a wonderful person because she is so accepting of other's faults, for example, when I pilfered her textbook (not on purpose! I swear!).Prisci also has talents that I'm still learning about. Did you know she can dance and performs? She was my first friend in class too! Every time I came to class I got a big Prisci bear hug (trademarked and all) that

Linda's Hidden Talents

2007-11-22T22:33:00.001-05:00

I'm telling you, this girl can do it all! She can hail cabs out of nowhere (with her specially honed cabbie radar), she can make up a song and dance routine about penguins while still looking cool (and feeling warmer while waiting for that darn #124!!), she knows things (like random facts about why men's and women's zippers are on opposite sides, and the difference between "topic" and "

A stronghold of wordsmiths

2007-11-12T10:55:00.000-05:00

Let's form a study group! Yes, it's that time of year. "The e-word" is around the corner. We all are busy with school/work, but if we can meet a few times before the exam, we will feel more prepared and that will lessen the stress of "the e-word".I strongly urge all of you to comment to this post with your availability (and avoid putting the days you are unavailable).Priscila mentioned that she

Latin and why I (and Kate) love it dearly.

2007-11-09T11:00:00.000-05:00

"Abutebaris modo subjunctivo" - You've been misusing the subjunctive.This cracks me up. As a linguist, I know I'm the only one laughing, but I thought I'd share.There's more! It's been over a decade since I've uttered these sentences."Grumio delectat ancillam." - Grumio 'pleases' the slave girl."Ancilla delectat Grumionem." - The slave girl 'pleases' Grumio.Back story:Kate and I share the Latin

Bad email from real-life

2007-11-09T04:04:00.001-05:00

Since it's 4 AM and I'm still awake, I thought I would post the following for your reading pleasure. Don't even get me started on the circumstances surrounding these emails... It was not pretty. All "incriminating" details have been Xxx-ed, Yyy-ed, or ###-ed out so you don't know to whom this email was written, or when. It doesn't matter, really. It's just that bad. Let me know if you think I

Important Update - Assignment still due!

2007-11-08T23:21:00.000-05:00

In case any of you didn't receive the latest email from Sabine, here it is. Hope this finds you in time! (Thanks for mentioning it, Arvindi - otherwise I wouldn't have known!)Hello everyone,I have unfortunately come down with a nasty throat infection and have to cancel class tonight. I hope you get this message in time. Since we still have a bit of content to cover, I need to schedule a make up

Class Cancelled!

2007-11-08T14:05:00.000-05:00

In case you check the blog before you check your email, I just received the following from the TRAN dept:Attention Students of TRAN 3310 3.0(En) Section B - Problems in Technical & Professional Writing Please note that your 6:30pm class for tonight, Thursday, November 8, has been cancelled due to illness. Mrs. Sabine Lauffer, the instructor of this course will contact you to find a suitable day

Bad News Is Bad News. Period.

2007-11-08T13:30:00.000-05:00

Here's my best shot at our bad news email assignment. There are a million and one ways I can pull it apart, but unfortunately I can't figure out a better way to say it, so I think this is about it. Comments are still very much welcome, though! Good or bad - I want to know what you think!Dear Professor Smith,Thank you for your patience with our department as we have been working to recover from a

Assignment 3 .........first draft

2007-11-08T12:38:00.000-05:00

My goodnesss this assignment wow!!.....it took the air out of me!..Anywhere here it goes, any constructive criticism is welcome ;)Thank you for taking the time to write to us concerning your website. We are in the process of finishing setting up most of the university websites after the unforeseen crash of the hardware-server last week. After carefully investigating the situation with your

Linda's Assignment 3 - Draft 5 and final

2007-11-08T12:08:00.000-05:00

I appreciate all of the encouragement and support Priscila and Kate gave me last week. It was a hard week, personally, but with your help, you really showed me that there is always an upside.Draft 5 *************Thank you for telling us that your Web site is still unavailable. We posted a notice on the university main page to inform the community that all course pages were offline due to the

Victory and emotional detachment

2007-11-07T06:25:00.000-05:00

I need a pep talk because I'm avoiding assignment 3. Bad news sucks and would rather give it in person. This is so challenging for me because I need to detach myself from this at a certain level so that I can deliver it. I'm taking this assignment to be real. I've also had some bad news to deliver at work where I had to be very objective in my writing. I know this is a weakness, but I will

...an example of bad, bad email.....

2007-11-03T22:12:00.000-04:00

I was sitting here, thinking how bad...or mean...or sarcastic I wanted to be writing this email.....but in the end....I came up with this: Enjoy ;)I regret to inform you that on the last major server hardware failure, your website failed to be backed-up in our system and therefore it cannot be recuperated. We apologize for all the inconveniences this may have caused.Cheers,P.P.K.IT Technical

Dear Hugh

2007-10-18T15:27:00.000-04:00

Linda can appreciate the hours of anguish and toil that went into choosing a name for my customer sales rep, only to discover we had picked the same name! (Who knew "Joanne" was so popular?!) So I have reverted back to my original name. I know that's a minor detail, but names are so fascinating... in any case, I digress, and without prolonging the agony, here is my version of a letter of claim to

To whom it may concern (Attn: Assignment 2)

2007-10-18T06:21:00.000-04:00

I welcome any comments you have on this. I think I'm having writer's block! Ah! The ending is proving difficult for me. Note: I've left out the addresses and other formalities for easy reading.So let's look at what I wrote. I haven't touched it since Sunday -- work is taking up my spare time -- so this will be 'fresh' to me too.The Letter [part 1]Attn: Joanne CarterMy cellphone has a ongoing

Time to get active

2007-10-10T23:43:00.000-04:00

I figured it was high time I write an actual post as opposed to just commenting and letting everyone else do the work, so here it is, folks. Prepare to be amazed. (Er...in all likelihood, probably not...)I found this week's homework assignment pretty straightforward; if only all our assignments were a matter of changing passive verbs to active ones! I don't have my sentence in front of me, but

Homework: was it harder than I thought?

2007-10-10T23:15:00.000-04:00

Page 62, #16 j16. Identify any passive verbs in the following sentence and change them to active verbs. Rewrite the sentence using active verbs and eliminating any unnecessary wording so that each sentence is clear and concise.j) Accusations were made by several female employees who made the statement that overtly threatening remarks had been made to them by Mr. Harrison, but the charges were

Aha!

2007-10-10T14:05:00.000-04:00

I finally managed to log in! I have now become a part of the "blogging"community. I must say, I feel quite accomplished. For anyone who doesn't know, I can be technologically challenged at times. That's pretty much all I have to say.See you all on Thursday.

Ambiguity

2007-10-07T15:36:00.000-04:00

Well I've been having issues with this thing... for sure it reflects ambiguity in the sense that I don't know in what sense are they stating this i.e. in a legal sense or just or as in a morale sense....I think that the part of "in accordance to managerial policy.... i think that is already implicitly stated.... I dont know if I am making sense.... It helps to focus on the main

Thoughts and attempts

2007-10-04T15:38:00.001-04:00

I tried. I included some thoughts about what I'm working on. From Page 34 #4a) There will be considerable cause for concern if the billings are screwed up by the Accounting Department with respect to our most important client.i. If the accounting team doesn't pay attention to the billings' details, our most important client may be concerned.[This doesn't work because the cause for concern part

Strutting my skills on the runway

2007-10-03T22:19:00.000-04:00

I've had my fabulous dinner with the models from Top Model on TV. I'm a little brain dead from spinning and work today. My coworkers noticed how verbose [or long-winded] I was; not getting to the point of my stories, plain tired. I'm just off today and I blame the weather. Ah. Let's get back to what's important.I've cycled through a few proposed answers for our assigned homework. I'm so

Why are we here?

2007-10-02T12:33:00.000-04:00

I ask myself this question all the time. I'm inviting anyone from Problems in Technical and Professional Writing to join in and complain all they want about the homework and we might even learn something. This space is meant to be a forum for TRAN 3310 homework discussion, but feel free to talk about the weather. Remember, this is homework discussion, not a copy and paste session. Writing is