Deadlines. Other deadlines. And some more deadlines to sprinkle on top. This week was full of them, with the finalised team charter, refined grade complaint email, and our very first team memorandum too. The first task was easy, our group had already discussed everything, and it was simply a matter of confirming the document's contents. The second was task also went by smoothly, making some slight changes to sound less condescending (as was implied in the given feedback during a previous class, where Dr. Naqaa went over every pair's emails and left some helpful advice). However, the third task was an adventure, both the good and the bad. As a group, we had already pretty much known our top 3 problems to choose from following our jam board session, with the issues of the lack or arable land, single-use plastic bottles, and car overuse pretty much standing out from the start. However, the challenge lied in translating rough ideas into a cohesive memorandum, something none of us have ever written before in the context of technical writing (lab memo's were much simpler and more direct). We had a mini-brainstorming session for the criteria after a class, writing our notes on the whiteboard and taking a picture for later. Though a bit (very) messy, our ideas shine through in the sense that we wanted to be as holistic as possible in choosing each criterion, covering all the aspects that can be considered when choosing the problem as the topic and central focus of our project. As such, we also brainstormed some rough general solutions for each problem, in an effort to see if it is worth going through with the problem (no viable solution would make our efforts futile, in the long run). We ended our meeting with dividing our roles, and ended our week with submitting the memo. Our decision matrix ended up quite nice; we've come a long way from our whiteboard meeting notes.
0 Comments
This week, things got serious. Gone were the days of showing up to class empty-handed and leaving as I am (armed with a little more knowledge, though), replaced by the starting of our project, introduced through a series of DWC workshops on team work. I missed the first of them, and as a result was doubly invested in the next one. Our task involved preparing a breakfast for a family; multiple dishes were required, each with their own preparation time. Working with my group was really fun, going back and forth to agree on how to prioritise the food (cold eggs are not particularly delicious, but neither is burnt toast) and which tasks could be done simultaneously. We also got the opportunity to both share our view of the task and listen to other groups in class, which became an interesting lesson on perspective shaping our decisions. I would like to say that my task agreed on the order rather smoothly, as we all seemed to be open-minded when someone was making a good point, easily changing whatever was there initially.
Any newly discovered skills carried on into our actual assigned work, which started with our perusal of the Qatar National Vision to find our problem. We were all pretty much set on pursuing the environmental pillar, given that it overlapped all of our individual interests. As such, we generated quite a few, working on jam board to collect our ideas and assess them later. This week marked the beginning of our group work, something I was feeling simultaneously excited and apprehensive about, but thankfully leaned towards the former when finding out who my teammates for the rest of the semester were going to be. Our first order of business was selecting a team manager. Before coming to class, I had relegated myself to not pursuing the position, as although I felt like I could do a good job of it (I refuse to give less than 100% on any task, especially if it involves other people), I didn't want to overwhelm myself this semester; my extracurriculars were piling up and showed no signs of slowing down. Nevertheless, sitting in that chair, surrounded by that group of people, and in that classroom, I felt at ease, and thus found myself volunteering to fill the position. I still had some doubts, of course, as procrastination is practically a character trait of mine, and I knew that if I dared to slack off once, I might never go back to a routine, but sharing these concerns with my group and having them assure me that they would do their parts in handling the responsibility and not hesitate to tell me if I'm acting irresponsibly really did set my fears to rest. After settling that issue, we got started on the team charter. I will admit that I was a bit clueless at first, but quickly skimmed the guidelines in the book (Fig. 3.2) and got to work. My group took turns expressing some negative past experiences with collaborative work, and we agreed that we would do better than that. We also talked about our personal goals and concerns regarding ourselves. For example, I felt like I can be too pushy sometimes, and that my presentation skills need work (memorising doesn't come easy to me), Haya was worried about the research aspect, Racha was afraid her nerves may get the best of her when presenting, and Abdellatif stated that although his presentation skills have improved, he still needs to work on them. I believe this type of honesty is crucial for any team, as the whole point of group work is to work together; where team members can support each other's strengths and weaknesses alike. We ended our mini-session with discussing communication logistics and conflict resolution, two things we were all (thankfully) on the same page about. Over the past month, ENGL-210 has been an interesting walkthrough of what technical communication is, can be, and why we should even be learning about it. Starting with an article and supplementing it with two videos, I've become significantly more knowledgable on my future career path and how I can plan to achieve it, in regard to both the sector I want to work in (industry vs. academia) and how communication can facilitate this objective. More specifically, I've realised that I'm much more interested in hands-on experiences, that written and oral communication can quite literally make or break my career, and this is where technical communication comes in. While technical communication is defined as 'written and oral communication for business and industry', its scope extends far beyond that. I came to learn about the benefits efficient technical communication provides for me and my workplace, along with the repercussions of neglecting such a skill. Some points of interest that stood out to me were:
I was happy to finally put a name to some repeating experiences I've encountered in most groups I've worked with in the past. These three points summarise my priorities when working collaboratively (though not in this order, necessarily), and it was enlightening to see them recognised outside my own personal perception. In class, we then followed up by discussing the differences and similarities between emails and memos, and then followed up by actually applying what we learned in an email to Dr. Naqaa complaining about a a fake scenario concerning a bad grade. This task was honestly fun, as I got to brainstorm excuses with my partner to make our story seem as convincing as possible. Finding an excuse that didn't result in either our demises or permanent multination was challenging in the best of ways, and I am glad to say that I now pay much more attention to the emails I'm sending than ever before. I've event started paying attention to my subject lines, something I considered a waste of time before. The last week, we also had Ms.Betsy from the Division Writing Center (DWC) to give us a crash course on e-portfolios and how to make them as professional as possible. A good guideline to follow would be the CRAP principles. Considering that we've already started working on our e-portfolios (theoretically), they've been very useful with helping me organise the required elements on any given page, serving as a checklist to make sure I haven't neglected anything, and helping me figure out what is uncomfortable to the eye on any given page. For my website, I've decided to go with a minimalist style for easier working and a more professional image, maintaining a neutral colour scheme with calm accent colours. I considered using my ENGL-104 site, but in hindsight it was probably way too colourful to actually work in a more professional context. Nevertheless, I plan to continue developing this site for the duration of my study at TAMUQ, and hopefully it works out!
|