Extra Credit

Assignment #5: Portfolio

Due: April 30^th

Pre-Assignment: Create a proposal for the setup of your portfolio. We will have our conferences on either April 16^th or April 18^th, and you must come prepared. Your proposal will be your ideas on how you’re going to create your portfolio, and what will be included in it.

Portfolio Contents:

1.     Cover Page

2.     Table of Contents

3.     Introductory Reflection

4.     Textual Piece with Revisions

5.     Textual Piece Reflection

6.     OVE Piece with Revisions

7.     OVE Piece Reflection

8.     Closure

This work can be contained in a binder, a two pocket folder, or anything else that looks professional.

Cover Page: Your cover page should be something that looks neat, and professional. It must convey the title of your portfolio, as well as, the author of it.

Table of Contents: This should be your typical table of contents. It must include each section of your portfolio with the page numbers.

Introduction: Your introduction should be a reflection over the English 250 course. You should consider the question that we have focused on, “How does communication work in your field?” Talk about what you have learned from each assignment, and how it has allowed you to become better at communication within your field of study, and how WOVE is incorporated. This should have an introduction, a body, and conclusion.

            Note: These questions are something to think about:

            Communication Habits/Processes:

·         How have your composing processes become more sophisticated since you began the course?

·         How do you go about generating initial ideas for pieces you’re composing?

·         How do you accommodate different audiences when you communicate?

·         How does your audience then affect your communication style?

·         How do you draft and revise your compositions?

·         How do others assist you in your revisions?

·         How have you improved your editing process?

·         What are some common problems with your writing mechanics and how have you improved?

·         Which of your composing habits have remained?

Communication Development:

·         Writing (context, substance, organization, style, and delivery)

·         Oral (interviews, large group discussions, small group discussions, and presentations)

·         Visual (Power Points, Posters, Pictures, Maps, and Diagrams)

·         Electronic (word processing, e-mail content, ethical use of the Internet and electronic images)

·         What talents or strengths do you possess in the following areas?

·         What are some discoveries you have made in these areas?

·         In which areas do you wish you’d been able to do more?

Textual Piece with Revisions: In this part of the assignment you need to find a piece of your work that represents the writing side of communication. You will want to make sure that you can add a significant amount of revisions. These revisions should not just be a little “touch up” job, but instead you should see your assignment, and work through a new mindset. Make sure you keep your audience in mind.

            Planning and Drafting:

·         Which areas need the most improvement?

·         Where have I changed my mind about what I have previously written?

·         Where can I offer additional clarification?

·         What doesn’t seem to belong?

·         Can I see a better way to arrange the ideas in my new version?

·         What other issues do I need to address to make this piece more effective?

Textual Piece Reflection: Write a paragraph or more about why you have made the changes you have made to your writing piece.

                        Note: These ideas might help with the process:

·         Describe additions made to the piece and explain their benefit.

·         Describe some areas you deleted and explain why.

·         Explain why you chose to leave certain pieces.

·         If there was some reorganization explain why you chose to do so.

Oral/Visual/Electronic Piece with Revisions: In this portion of the portfolio, you will want to pick a piece that demonstrates oral, visual, or electronic communication. You will want to take this piece and revise it so that it is now your best piece of work. Once again keep in mind that you will need to do whatever revisions necessary to make this piece great.

Oral/Visual/Electronic Piece Reflection: This is the same idea as the written reflection. Include your thought process on why you made the changes to your OVE piece.

                        Note: Here are some ideas to consider:

·         Why you chose this piece as evidence of your best work in the oral, visual, and electronic modes?

·         What, if any, changes you made to the original version so that it is now your best work.

·         What you believe the piece demonstrates about you as an oral, visual, and electronic communicator?

Closure:  This should be a paragraph or two that wraps up your portfolio. It might be something that focuses on what you’ve learned from the course, or something that seems to draw your portfolio to a conclusion.

Portfolio Evaluation Criteria

ü Includes all required parts from above.

ü The reflection pieces accomplish these things:

o   Includes specific references to prior work to provide support for your decisions.

o   Demonstrates a thoughtful, honest, thorough and coherent analysis of your progress.

ü The written and OVE revisions satisfy these criteria:

o   Substance: demonstrates a thorough rethinking of your subject

o   Context: contains additional material appropriate for audience and propose

o   Organization: achieves improved focus, structure, and coherence.

ü There are no errors distracting to the reader.

Simple Reflection

            I decided that this piece needed quite a bit a revision, especially from the organizational standpoint. At first glance the original piece looks like a journal article that I certainly don’t want to take the time to read. It wasn’t necessarily the length of the assignment, but rather how many words seemed to fit on the page itself.  The first thing I changed up was the format, and I broke the assignment down into each major topic. This way you can get an overall idea of each portion you have to do. This is different from the original, because although the original head different topics, they were sort of combined and mushed together which made them really hard to interpret. After I had broken it down into each topic, I then gave a brief, overall description of what the purpose was for this part of the portfolio. I believed this allowed the reader to get a quick general idea, and then create their own thoughts. I then decided to follow each description with further ideas/questions if I felt that the description was not enough information to get the point across. Now, these extra questions/ideas are pretty much the same as the original wording because I know that Mrs. Mallory wants to get the descriptions across, and Mrs. Mallory is very good about including thought provoking ideas and being very detailed. Overall, I changed quite a few things from the original assignment, but I left the main points and concepts in place so that the reader would have an excellent idea on what was expected.

Friday Presentation

Speaker: Feng Biao
Major: Mechanical Engineering
Modeling and Simulation in Strain-Induced Phase Transformations in a Diamond Anvil Cell

I was honestly super confused during this whole presentation. What I understood was that the speaker was testing the strain and yield strength of plastics-strain-enhanced reactions in rocks. They would use diamond anvil cells to create high amounts of pressure by having one on each side of the plastic. I understood the diamond anvil cell as an extremely hard anvil. I understood the testing to be difficult to interpret because they had to look at the nano-indentation. I kind of thought this presentation was cool due to how advanced the technicalities of this presentation were. It showed me how advanced engineering can be, and how there is always more to look into. It was almost a little overwhelming how advanced the material was, and I don't know how I would ever be using these concepts, but there is potential I suppose.

Homework for March 25, 2014

My research paper is important to me because it allows me to get a good grade in English 250, and a good grade in English 250 means a better GPA. A better GPA means getting a better job, and getting a better job means more money. Honestly, it seems like it is just another hoop to jump through. I may learn more about how communication is important within engineering, and this might give me a one up on my competition, but it also could have no effect on me. Who knows maybe I’ll discover the key to successful engineering by means of communication, and the whole world will be affected by my unique ideas and insight. I would say it is important to the world whether or not it is a successful piece or not do to one thing. It is someone’s idea that will be a contribution to history. I may spark the interest for a researcher later on, and they may use my ideas to create something great. Maybe someday my ideas will become famous but right now the idea seems pretty unrealistic. I guess anything is possible though.

            The hardest part for me about writing my research paper is I find it extremely boring. I have no motivation to sit down, and write it. I’m struggling to find the time, and the focus to organize my ideas and try to put them into a masterpiece of writing. I think if I didn’t have other classes to worry about I could bear through the pain and just get it done, but as of right now I feel like I have so much more important stuff to worry about. Physics is definitely at the top of my priorities right now, and that seems to be taking up every waking second. I think if I can just find a good chunk of time to sit down and work on it I’ll be good to go. 

Proposal

Michael Wuestenberg

Mrs. Mallory

English 250

11 March 2014

Proposal

I.                   Introduction

a.       Start with a broad statement of Communication and Engineering

b.      Address my research question

c.       Give supportive topics

II.                Engineering Communication in General

a.       Communication is actually a crucial part to the engineering process

b.      Stats from “Communication Patters of Engineers”

III.             Professors Opinion

a.       Idea of feedback within communication.

IV.             Communication Ideas in Engineering

a.       Support from “Patterns of Communication among marketing, Engineering, and Manufacturing: A comparison between Two New product teams.”

b.      Support from “Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process.”

c.       Support from “Quantifying Producer and Consumer-based Eco-efficiencies for the Identification of Key Ecodesign Issues.”

V.                Current Day Engineering

a.       Visual Communication

                                                              i.      Support from “Mike Rowe - Ford F-150 C-123 Braking Demo.”

                                                            ii.      Support from “Volvo Trucks – The Epic Split Feat. Van Damme (Live Test 6).”

b.      Textual Communication

                                                              i.      Support from “John Deere Announces 2014 Gator™ Product Updates.”

                                                            ii.      Support from “New Crane Cab Creates a Safer Job Site.”

VI.             Conclusion

a.       Restate research question.

b.      Review the details of support.

c.       End with an overall broad statement.

I am a very visual learner, so I decided making an outline of my research paper would be best. With an outline I am able to organize all of my ideas, and then put the organization and structure together from there. A research paper over the effectiveness of communication between consumer and producer is something that doesn’t have an argument, but it does provide opportunity to research the methods of current day engineers. My research paper would start off with a very broad introduction that narrows down into my specific research question. After that I would go in to the body which would be my topics, and the research support within each topic. There is where I would use most of my evidence that I have found on the communication of producers to consumers within engineering. As you can see in the outline I have specific topics in mind for each portion. The conclusion would be the reverse of my introduction starting with a restated version of my research question, and then I would end with a broad statement that sums up the entire article. 

Annotated Bibliography

Michael Wuestenberg

Mrs. Mallory

English 250

11 March 2014

Annotated Bibliography

1.

Griffin, Abbie, and John R. Hauser. Patterns of Communication among Marketing, Engineering, and Manufacturing: A Comparison between Two New Product Teams. 3rd ed. 38 vols. Cambridge, MA: Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 1990. Management Science. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/stable/2632480?seq=2>.

            This article was rather interesting from the fact that it gave a diagram of success rate and percent of company sales from new products. Within this diagram it plotted marketing and technology integrated as the highest success rate, and percent of company sales from new products. The other points consisted of technology driven, focused but weak technology, and high budget, and low budget. None of these compared to the effectiveness of the combination between marketing and technology integrated.

2.

Miles, Raymond E., Charles C. Snow, Alan D. Meyer, and Henry J. Coleman, Jr. Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process. N.p.: Academy of Management, 1978. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/stable/257544>.

            The article talks about three main approaches to organization adaptation, with one of them being the engineering problem. The author talks about how as an engineer you choose the specific products to form new information, and then you must communicate this information. The communication example is of the Porter Pump, and how the company went from a purely mass producing company, to a small-batch technology company, and the communication involved in such a transition.

3.

Park, Pil-Ju, and Kiyotaka Tahara. "Quantifying Producer and Consumer-based Eco-efficiencies for the Identification of Key Ecodesign Issues." Journal of Cleaner Production 16.1 (2008): 95-104. Print.

            The article in general was not about communication in engineering as a whole, but rather focused on the emphasis of communicating using eco-efficiency. This allowed for me to analyze the structure of such communication and how it can relate to other forms. The main point when talking about eco-efficiency is using logos to capture the audiences logic and reasoning.

4. - 6.

Montazami, Reza. "Communication in Engineering." Interview by Michael T. Wuestenberg. 9 March 2014.

            This interview was rather short and sweet, but it allowed me to think about a piece of the communication process that I had not previously considered. Dr. Montazami explained that a huge piece in communicating effectively to the consumer is hearing their feedback. When communicating in general people communicate based on their audience, and the same applies with engineering. There may be a general audience, but each specific company or consumer is a different audience so you may need to communicate to them in different forms.

7.

Miceli, Marybeth. "Say What?: The Importance of Effective Communication in Engineering." 63.12 (2011): 25. JOM. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

            This article by Miceli offered some great insight into the general communication of Engineering. The main point of the piece talks about how in order to effectively communicate your ideas/product you must first understand it inside in out. Engineering is often complicated thereoms and mathematics, but in order to simplify such complexities to communicate to the audience one must know the complexities in detail.

8.

"New Crane Cab Creates a Safer Job Site." Altec. Altec Industries Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

            This article by Altec combines visual and textual communication. The writing is such that it gets the point across in few words, but still allows the consumer to understand the ideas behind the improvements and enhancements to the Altec crane. Each description has a picture that goes along with it. This is perfect for reading the words, creating a visual in your own mind, and then comparing that to what the real product is.

9.

Tenopir, Carol, and Donald King. Communication Patterns of Enngineers. N.p.: Wiley-IEEE, 2004. Web. 11 Mar. 2014. <http://site.ebrary.com.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/lib/iowastate/docDetail.action?docID=10114126>.

            Often in engineering there is a misconception that they don’t need to know how to communicate. This piece deals with this misconception from fact based evidence. A study by Hertzum and Pejtersen shows that engineers spend on average 40 to 66% of their time communicating. The numbers don’t lie, and this article is perfect form of logos support.

10.

"Volvo Trucks - The Epic Split Feat. Van Damme (Live Test 6)." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.

            The visual communication is emphasized in this piece. There are hardly any words, but the scenes allow the consumer to almost feel the smooth ride, and the precision of steering from the two Volvo semi-trucks. It allows the audience to see the engineering at work, and not listen to the theories and math behind it without actually knowing what it does in real life.

11.

"Mike Rowe - Ford F-150 C-123 Braking Demo." YouTube. YouTube, 10 Oct. 2007. Web. 12 Mar. 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qa3U8u-c63E>.

Here is a perfect example of visual communication between the engineers and the consumers. This video is a short clip of an F-150 truck stopping a 30,000 pound C-123 aircraft. Nothing can emphasize the greatness of their brakes than using exaggeration to do so. In real life you would never have to stop such a machine with a truck, but it provides a perfect visual to the consumer using ethos. It allows the consumer to see the full potential of a specific product.

12.

Rubeling, Kyle. "News Releases." John Deere Announces 2014 Gator™ Product Updates. John Deere, 10 Mar. 2014. Web. 11 Mar. 2014.

            This article provides a great example of current day marketing, and communication to consumers. John Deere is a company that has seen success throughout the decades, and they continue to prosper. The way they communicate to their consumers must be working. In this specific piece the author talks about the new improvements to their utility vehicle line the Gator. The author goes through specific enhancements, as well as telling the audience that its adjustments come from the feedback of its audience the consumers.

Research Topic/Question

How do engineers of today effectively communicate their product to the consumers?

(Sales/Marketing)
(Efficiency/Concise)
(Design/Pictures)
(Charts)
(Solidworks?/CAD)
(Language?)
(Videos)
(Readings)

Interviews are worth three citations.
Interview Uncle Mark.
Interview Advisor.
Interview Dr. M
Interview Dr. Feve


Scholarly Articles:

-Examples of Engineers communicating their product.
     -A specific product

-Example of research on marketing in engineering? (communication of product)
     -Guidelines of communication
     -General Patterns of communication
     -Effectiveness of communicating

-Example of Professor's view on communicating product.
      -Interview a professor

-Real Life Example
      -Interview/Email someone in the field

Audience: Approach of Marketing Consultant for Engineers to come or for the students who must perform the same research.


Source 1: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/stable/2632480?seq=2

Patterns of Communication among Marketing, Engineering and Manufacturing-A Comparison between Two New Product Teams

Abbie Griffin and John R. Hauser

Management Science , Vol. 38, No. 3 (Mar., 1992) , pp. 360-373

Published by: INFORMS

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2632480

Source 2: http://www.jstor.org.proxy.lib.iastate.edu/stable/257544

Organizational Strategy, Structure, and Process

Raymond E. Miles, Charles C. Snow, Alan D. Meyer and Henry J. Coleman, Jr.

The Academy of Management Review , Vol. 3, No. 3 (Jul., 1978) , pp. 546-562

Published by: Academy of Management

Article Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/257544

Source 3:

Quantifying producer and consumer-based eco-efficiencies for the identification of key ecodesign issues

Park, Pil-Ju ; Tahara, Kiyotaka

Journal of Cleaner Production, 2008, Vol.16(1), pp.95-104 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Source 4:

Say what?: The importance of effective communication in engineering

Miceli, Marybeth

JOM, 2011, Vol.63(12), pp.25-25 [Peer Reviewed Journal]

Source 5:

Communication Patterns of Engineers

Carol Tenopir Donald W King; Donald Ward King

Hoboken John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 2004

Pg. 30 in specific for stats of communication.

Source 6:

"New Crane Cab Creates a Safer Job Site." Altec. Altec Industries Inc, 18 Feb. 2014. Web. 06 Mar. 2014.

Source 7:

            "Volvo Trucks - The Epic Split Feat. Van Damme (Live Test 6)." YouTube. YouTube, 13 Nov. 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2014.

Source 8:



Interview 1:

Montazami, Reza. "Communication in Engineering." Interview by Michael T. Wuestenberg. 9 March 2014.

Interview 2:

Textual Rhetorical Analysis Final Draft

Engineering is more than design and innovation. There is a marketing side in which the engineers must be able to communicate their ideas to the consumers. They must convince these people that their product is better than the previous one, and that it is the best design, surpassing the competition. Altec is a company that designs the equipment and vehicles that many electrical or construction companies use. This article by Altec explains their new idea of adding a front entrance to their cranes. The author shows that engineers must be able to communicate their innovative ideas to their cliental so that they are aware of the advancements they are making. 

The author uses safety and convenience as the backbone of communicating Altec’s new and improved design. This article states that Altec is the first crane designers to ever include a front entrance on a crane, meaning they are the first ones to have both a side entrance and a front entrance. When I read that I was actually quite shocked. It makes sense to me that a crane would need to have entrances available in both location due to safety hazards of debris or materials falling and blocking an entrance. The cranes cab also has a tilt feature that can be tilted up to 20 degrees which maximizes viewing. In my mind this seemed like something unnecessary because 20 degrees isn't much. However, as I thought about it more these people knew what they were doing. A crane operator needs to be as to see the end of his crane and what is being lifted or placed and this 20 degree tilt added to his line of vision is probably all the operator would need. Without that additional 20 degrees I am sure the operator would have to strain and move awkwardly within the cab just to see what he's controlling at the end of the crane. Another design feature includes Plexiglas windows so that if debris were to fall on the cab the glass wouldn’t shatter and potentially cut up the operator. It makes sense that the author includes the specific improvements, because if he or she just talked about how they made improvements to the crane, but never got into detail about the specifics of the improvements the audience would, in my opinion, just consider it a bunch of fluff. I believe the author did an excellent job at using his evidence of improvement to show the audience how they are making advancements. These few examples also show how the details that the author uses appeal to the consumer’s logic. Since the audience is primarily engineers and engineers are known for their logic and reasoning, I believe the author was smart in choosing to appeal to the logical side of the audience.

The author uses an approach that is very efficient in the way he or she communicates to the audience. Efficient can me different things throughout various fields, however, in this instance I would consider it to be giving the information to the audience with as few words as necessary, but still being able to get their ideas across. I would consider this textual approach to be “classic” in engineering writing. I mean that the strategy of using short and concise statements within their writing is something that engineers have been using since the beginning of its existence. This simple idea of efficiency shows that the writer was only including the most important parts of this new innovation in the article. It also shows that he or she was writing for an audience of engineer type consumers. He or she knew that they would communicate in a similar way, and would appreciate the short and concise article. The author breaks down each of the most important parts of the new design and writes a quick detailed description of how this helps consumers, and why Altec felt it would be an important feature.

The author uses a common way of delivery within engineering. He or she uses a numbered list format. I personally would shy away from lists when it comes to writing, but I actually think this works well for this article. As I talked about earlier the article is constructed in a very short and concise way, and I believe that the numbered list format coincides with this use of efficiency. It allows the author to communicate his ideas with ease, and the audience is able to break down each specific idea. Another reason why I think the list is a good idea is the fact that this article includes pictures. It has a picture demonstrating to the potential consumers how each specific feature works, and the author has a picture to go with each number in the list. I would say that including pictures in this article is genius. Pictures are worth a thousand words, and I think most engineers are visual learners and would prefer to see a picture of something than a detailed article about. The author does a fantastic job at using the combination of pictures and the list to deliver his or her ideas.

As you can see the author does an excellent job at communicating the new advancements of this crane to the audience in a very appealing way. The audience is primarily going to be engineers or engineer types that love being able to read through articles that are short and sweet. The author does a swell job at using efficiency throughout the context of this article, while still including supporting details to provide evidence to the potential consumers. The author also designed the layout of the article to appeal to the engineering consumers, so that they could incorporate a visual with the text. In my opinion marketing within engineering is not exactly easy. However, this author does a fantastic job at proving to the audience that this advanced product is the best.