For the reading pleasure of my fellow classmates, I, Caitlynn Hawks, would like to present to you some observations and opinions formed while creating this blog, and delving into the world (or maybe ocean is more accurate!?) of technical writing.
This Is the Foundation upon Which I Stand
As I had mentioned in my introduction, my current career is very heavily saturated with technical writing. One of the major things that makes technology continue to move forward is collaboration. While a lot of this will be done with people in your office, the beauty of the internet is that you can also engage with people all over the world. In order for this long distance communication to be successful, the intent, actions, and philosophy of each party has to be laid out clearly. Technical writing plays a huge role in facilitating that clear communication.
A key element to continued advancement in technology is collaboration.
Source: http://comps.canstockphoto.com/can-stock-photo_csp9328253.jpg
Collaboration is also key in continuing to improve the quality of the technical writing used within the industry. By having multiple contributors, it is easier to produce well rounded and accurate documents.
One of the most interesting, at least to me, examples of this, is a website called GitHub (https://github.com/). GitHub was originally created as place for people to store large amounts of programming (mostly) code that could be accessed anywhere (think very early cloud storage). However, as the site grew in population it became obvious that really what the community had was a place to advertise, show off, and discuss their current projects. It is now not uncommon to find a GitHub profile listed on a portfolio under examples of work. I myself am not a programmer, but I have an account anyway because the papers and forums have grown into an extremely valuable informational resource.
The Leader of the Pack
If you decide to get completely literal about it, since I work in the technology field, all writing done in my sector is technical writing. I, however, like to operate outside of the literal sometimes, so instead I would like to draw your attention to one of the more interesting forms of technical writing used by my career sector.
Unique and interactive is the best way for me to absorb information. One of the most versatile resources I’ve found, that fill both of those needs is Code Academy (codeacademy.com). They offer several free courses on various programming languages and other technical tasks. The lessons are taught using dynamic models, with instructions on one side, and an interactive, real time computer screen module on the other side to input “answers”. The instruction panel is also in real time, and check marks appear next to successful tasks, giving you a visual high-five with every successful execution. You also get achievements and stickers as your progress through lessons which keeps you engaged and excited about moving forward through all of the course.
A screenshot of a lesson on Consoles, showing a completed task.
Source: CodeAcademy.com
This site has a very engaging design. The colors go well together, are easy on the eyes, and break the page up nicely. It is very easy to navigate and the text is in a clean and easily readable font. The large bodies of text are kept to a minimum, which makes each pages easily digestible in a small amount of time.
Does This Theme Make Me Look Readable?
Color contrast provides for an easy reading surface.
Source: https://www.viget.com/articles/color-contrast
My blog has gone through several revisions, and I can’t promise it won’t change again. I finally settled on the theme that I did because it provided a clean surface for the reading area while providing me a background area to customize a bit. I also liked how it created tabs for the pages, which I have yet to create, but will definitely utilize soon. There was another theme that I actually preferred visually, but it didn’t have sidebars, which I really like. Sidebars are important to me because they provide information at a quick glance and can be used to draw the reader to parts of the blog they may otherwise not visit.
If It’s Sink or Swim, I’m Going to Need a Life Jacket
Dealing with any new technology can be a bit of a patience tester, and I grew most befuddled setting up the class blog widget. I was relieved to find that I was not the only one. Going through the student-to-student forum was very helpful, and I learned that there was an approval waiting period before the widget showed up as an option. Once the widget appeared I was able to place it on my blog with no problem, but it took me a while to figure out how to display the entire list of classmates. A few of the other things I learned by a bit of trial and error was how to set categories and how to navigate the dashboard.
Despite the fact that it took some time and going over the instructional documents, overall I found learning about the setup and utilizing of a blog rather enjoyable. This tends to fall in line with the fact that I find most things relating to technology pleasurable and engaging.
Since I am surrounded by technology daily, I sometimes forget that it can be a bit baffling to other people. What are some of the areas of technology that you find the most confusing? Are there any that just seem like plain magic to you?
Gandalf the IT guy.
Source: http://weknowmemes.com/2013/04/the-wizard-will-now-install-your-software/
Caitlynn, I appreciate your outstanding blog performance, and your humor. I really enjoyed how you sectioned off this post, with bold headers and catchy phrases. Not only were they eye-catching, but very well written in great detail. The placement of your pictures were on point and with fitting captions and attributions. They were also very engaging and colorful. The code academy site was a real eye-opener for me. I never knew there was a place like this (for free) where you can learn how to do such things. Thanks for sharing that.
I like how you talked about changing your theme. It is a never ending process, and things set in concrete can be mundane. Our liking to things can change over time, and I think you explained that well. Collaboration is key in technical writing, like you said, and I can’t agree with you more about that.
I just upgraded to an iPhone, from a flip-phone (of 5 years) and I’m totally lost. I try to think that ” I don’t need technology”, but really, it’s my fear of the great unknown why I reject it. I really appreciate technology more and more each day though, and I just need to take it one step at a time. Frankly, when I heard the internet was made of kittens, I didn’t doubt it one bit. This last term I took a Computer Science class, and found out the internet is most certainly not made of kittens. Thanks for asking about my position on technology. I know I’m not the only one who feels a bit overwhelmed at times.
Meredith,
While not made entirely of kitties, I would say that it is probably 74.3% kittens, so you weren’t entirely off. Thank you for your kind observations, and I’m glad that you found it informative. It is always nice to hear that people find the things you find interesting, neat as well. Getting used to new technology is a little tricky for everyone I think. I remember when I first started reading about cloud computing, I didn’t trust it one bit. I just pictured all these digital files flying around in the air, naked to the human eye, reeking all sorts of havoc on electrical systems. I instantly went to end of world, SKYNET type situations. I was pleased to find out that not only where my fears utterly fanciful, but also that cloud computing actually made working remotely and keeping documents synced a so much easier.
Caitlynn, thank you for an informative blog. I enjoy the way you broke up the paragraphs with your photos. It made it easier on the eye and gave my brain a chance to rest. Straight reading is hard to stay focused on. Your headers help me understand when the subject was going to change (wish I would of done that on mine draft) I also think your personality comes through in your writing and you don’t fit what use to be the “Techy” stereotype of no humor :-). Times have changed. Also knowing you struggled with the blog setup makes people such as myself feel better about their struggles. Thank you for your enjoyable blog
Erin,
I am more than happy to share my tale of tech woes, so that others may take comfort in shared technology exasperation. Knowing is half the battle, and now that you’ve realized that you like how headers look, I bet you’ll think to use them next time! I find keeping a sense of humor in this industry is important. Especially when it comes to things that should work and are not, or things that shouldn’t work but miraculously do. I’ve seen lots of both situations, and all you can do, laugh, shake your head, and hope that it either starts working, or never stops! I’m glad that the pictures were a nice distraction, that was exactly my aim. It is something that I’m currently working on for my instruction blog revision – its a very solid block currently, and I’d like to separate it a bit more.
Caitlynn,
Your blog was full of lots of interesting information! It is cool to hear about the different majors in this class. Seem like a lot of computer technology and dental hygienists!
I like the theme of your blog because like you said, it is very simple and easy to follow. As well the subtitles that you included, they make your blog a little easier to read. Your pictures directly correlated to your text as well.
I totally agree that this class is so confusing! Seems like we are all pretty lost.
And to answer your question, I think that the most confusing thing about technology is that there is just so much to it. It may be plain black and white to a person that is majoring in something with technology but to someone that isn’t I feel like I have no clue what I am talking about and I knowing nothing about computers. Props to you girl! I wish you luck in your studies 🙂
Caitlynn, I like the way you have your blog set up, looks good. I agree that student blogs widget was confusing and difficult. Most technology isn’t too hard for me to understand how to use, with a few exceptions. Apple products are a little difficult because I am a Windows/Android guy. Everything just seems backwards and counter intuitive. The worst part of technology in my opinion is printers. Like seriously, how do they work? It must be black magic or something because anytime you try to fix one it’s like summoning a demon. Everything else is cake.
Caitlynn, I think your blog is really informative and I like the reference to Codecademy. I use that site often and found it to be really good for learning different computer languages! Another good one is TeamTreehouse. I really like that site but it has a fee. The way you organized the information was easily accessible and easy to read. I’m glad I wasn’t the only having issues with the edublogs site. It seemed really difficult to get used to. I think your blog looks great!
Cailtlynn,
It’s hard for me to improve on all the good things your peers have accurately said.
Just to nitpick, “periods and commas go INSIDE quotation marks, and there are no exceptions in American English.”
Make sure to hotlink your image attributions.
I am glad to have your blog as an inspiration to others, although I must say, a majority of the students in this class are really getting on board with the blog platform concept and are producing wonderful blogs. For me, that makes all the crazy angst I heard at the beginning worth it 🙂
Super great work–thank you so much!
Sandy