Memorandum: English 424
[return]

To: English 424: Technical Writing Class
From: Professor Benninghoff
Date: 12 February 2006

Re: Introduction Memo Trends & General Feedback

Overview: The Trends across the Set of Memos and Suggestions for Development
Overall people have made considerable strides in developing their Introduction Memos--there is clear structural development (though three levels of headers is probably overdoing it), and work at selecting more  relevant topics (though the connections are often still implicit)--but there is still some room for solid growth. This memo explains the main trends across the memos of the entire class. While you will each be getting an individual "audio feedback" file as well, it will reference the common issues explained here. So look this memo over first, compare it to your own, and see if you already know what the audio file will say.

Articulating Purpose 1--Overviews: Introducing successfully means 1) Connecting via Concepts/Activities and 2) Strengthening with Concrete Examples
Few final versions have overviews, and few of those that do actually spell out what the purpose of the memo is--some say "introduce," but none take the time to explain what it means to introduce well, or explain how this particular memo is going to do it (forecasting). As the talking head above spells out, successful introductions typically not only find areas of common interest, but share some concrete example that makes the link tangible, and so easier for people to remember. Having such an overview with more specific and detailed purpose explanations really help readers understand what this particular communication is, and what it's going to do, of course, but they also really help the writer through the processes of problem-solving, planning, and staying on track in drafting. 

In addition to the overview's overtly stating of the purpose and method of the memo, it (the memo) also has the purpose of trying to begin a useful/beneficial/positive relationship between you, the rest of the class, and of course your teacher.  

Developing Audience Concept: Writers, Teachers, Coaches, and People with various Expertise
One key obstacle that many still seem to struggle with is recognizing you know more about how to connect to your classmates than is initially obvious. As the heading of this paragraph suggests there are a number of pretty general sorts of experience that can link well -- common areas of experience link to what the class is going to be about. 

For example, you all could bring up some kind of specific learning experience from a past writing class--a time when you really learned something. Generally when we learn, something happened that changed way we "saw" or understood writing; our perceptions were shifted/widened/opened, but certainly changed. Well don't think you are the only person who ever came into a writing class with those assumptions. People can easily connect with your experience either because they shared similar ones, or because its point is useful, or both. And however such an example plays out, it is a lesson about understanding how writing worked in a particular circumstance--that is, it is about seeing your experience as rhetorical (having to do with particular "speakers", audience, and "text", in a particular situation), and as an example of technical writing (designing a "tool" for such a situation). 

But the choices of topic areas to use to connect can be wide ranging as well. Anything you have experience with, that you've ever had to explain/teach/coach can work just as easily, with specific situations and tactics to communicate effectively in them. And as we said before, bad examples can be instructive as well, as long as you can present them in a useful, non-bitter manner. Furthermore, when selecting your own experiences to share, be sure not to assume your classmates or teacher already know about them. We may know what X activity is or entails, or what its purpose is, or why anyone would want to do it--but it's just as likely that we won't. So remember that introducing yourselves well also means introducing your activities/pasttimes/experiences well too, sharing an explanation of what the activity is, what its purpose(s) are, and why you like doing it, or some sort of mixture of these.

Articulating Purpose 2: "Arguing" & Creating a Positive Working Relationship
In the end each of these sections in the body of the memo are trying to create a positive and useful relationship between you and the rest of the class. In part, at least, that means making good "cases," good arguments, for what you're saying. Claims that are broad and unargued, simply asserted, do very little to develop your credibility. Well articulated and qualified claims, even if only in a couple of narrow examples, about how your experience can relate to the class's purpose and you and your classmates's goals, more or less literally spell out a foundation for a good working relationship through support (evidence), warrant (reasoning/explanation of how the evidence backs up the claim), and claims that do what they're supposed to, and that are qualified/conditioned so they don't overreach.