Gabrielle took an English technical writing course to improve her communication skills. Through various assignments on resumes, proposals, instructions and presentations, she learned how to communicate more effectively for professional purposes. She particularly benefited from creating a resume, learning proper proposal guidelines, and conducting usability tests on prototypes. While public speaking is still a challenge, she has gained confidence through practice and recognizing that communication is an important job skill, especially for her desired career in occupational therapy.

1. Personal
Development
Project
Gabrielle Wohead
English 2311

2. Meet the Technical Writer:
Gabrielle Wohead
The purpose of this presentation is to inform of my
experiences & major growth as a communicator
through my English 2311 course.
Hello! My name is Gabrielle and I am a
sophomore at Texas Tech University. I am
majoring in Human Development and Family
Studies and aspire to one day practice
Occupational Therapy. This semester I took
English 2311, which is all about Technical
Writing.

3. Communication Growth
Throughout the semester in English 2311, I grew abundantly in many different
areas of my communication skills. In order to compare my skill level at the
beginning of the semester to my present abilities, I have comprised these lists
to compare and contrast.
My Skills Prior to English 2311
•I have always been confident in
my skills as a writer. Some
things
•Decent presentation abilities &
confidence due to former speech
classes
New Skills
•Resume Building
•Knowledge of formal proposal
guidelines
•Ability to use less words to
simplify the point
•Greater cultural understanding
•Conflict resolution amongst team
members
•Understanding of importance of
Technical Communication

4. Unit 1
▧ Examining real/current job ads:
This was very helpful in gaining a greater understanding of ads for jobs post-
college will look like, and what will be required upon responding to them.
▧ Cover Letter
Writing the cover letter was important to understand how to introduce yourself
to a possible employer. I had never written one before, so I was glad to
learn about it.
▧ Resume
Before this class, I have no formal resume of any sort in existence. It was
very beneficial to me to get all of my job experience, volunteer work, and
other positive qualitites written in one place. This helped me gain
confidence on how qualified I will be post-graduation.
▧ Thank you note
Writing the thank you note helped my gain perspective into how to
professionally address your superiors in the business world. It was
enlightening to know what a long way a short note can go in gaining the
respect of potential bosses.

5. Unit 2
Formal Proposals
In writing our proposal, the JCG design
team really began to blossom. We had to
begin to think about and discuss what we
really wanted to do with this project, and
how we were going to make it happen. We
had big plans, but had to eliminate a few
things when actually writing out our
proposal due to limited time and resources.
Teaming Worksheets
We split up the team roles in order to make sure
all tasks were taken care of and also that
everyone had a specific task at hand. Although
my role as Record Keeper may have not been
my first choice, I made it work well. As shown in
the diagram, all of our team’s roles were equally
important- if one was missing, we could not
function.
JCG
Design
Team
Team
Leader
Record
Keeper
Designer
Editor

6. Unit 3
Paper Airplanes-
When we started this unit, we had a
team paper airplane contest which
involved us using instructions with
pictures included in order to make a
complex paper airplane. This made
me realize just how important
instructions can really be.
Progress Reports-
This allowed us to reflect on
how we felt we were doing
personally and also how we
were getting along as a group.
I was thankful for the
opportunity to give feedback.
Usability Reports-
The biggest purpose of Unit 3
was creating and conducting
Usability Reports on our fellow
classmates. Because this was
such a large
portion of the chapter, it will be
discussed further on the
following slide.

7. Unit 3: Usability
Create Paper
Prototype
Test on
college
students
Make
changes if
neccessary
With Usability, the task seemed
simple: Test out our design and
see if it was helpful to the
average college student or not.
However, the options of how to
conduct the test were endless,
and I struggled a bit with picking
just one option. This chapter
tested my decision making skills
greatly. We used tools such as
the Five E’s to perfect our
usability test. The method we
found best fit for us was Paper
Prototyping.
The Five E’s
Effective
Efficient
Engaging
Error Tolerant
Easy To Learn
Types of Usability Tests
Think-Aloud
Protocol
Card-sorting
Heuristic Evaluation
Paper Prototyping
Technical Testing

8. Unit 4
Cultural Memo
We analyzed the significant differences of the
Texas Tech campus in Lubbock and the one in
Spain.
The areas we took into account were:
•Power Distance
•Individualism
•Masculinity
•Uncertainty Avoidance
•Long Term Orientation
Instructional Documents
We experienced a group workshop with various
types of instructional documents. The one I found
most challenging was a document with pictures
displaying how to fold a shirt. I found the pictures
very misleading and without words I was
completely lost. It was good to see what not to do
for our instruction set.
Meeting Minutes
I kept track of everything we discussed at
out meetings. I turned the notes of one
meeting in particular into formal meeting
minutes. I feel like this is a really helpful
skill not just for college, but for life in
general. There will always be value in
keeping track of what happens at meetings.

9. Unit 5
Group Practice/Presenting
While I personally would have liked to
have practiced our presentation more
than we were able to, I definitely am
confident in the fact that the practice we
did do was the reason for our success.
Our presentation was overall successful,
although if I had to do it over I would
have set practice dates early on! I feel
like I gained the ability to compromise.
Discussed Biggest Fears
The purpose of this was to see some of the
common fears amongst classmates and
recognize that most of them are in some way
related to death. The positive in this situation is
that no matter how bad public speaking may
seem… it’s much better than death!
Learned how body language effected our
presentation:
This was a confidence builder for me, because I do tend to use
my hands way too much in presentations. It’s good to be
conscious of body language and understand that it is normal to
worry about it as well as possible to fix.
Created a Visual Aid
For this we used a powerpoint and screencast.
Looking back, I wish we would have just used a
powerpoint considering the screencast seemed to
bore the audience a bit. However, it got the
information across well.

10. Place your screenshot here
The Finished Product!
PAY CITATION HERE

11. So What’s Next?
The skills I have learned throughout the semester
will without a doubt help me in the real world. I
want to be an occupational therapist, and a huge
part of this job is writing reports on patients. This
class has really improved my ability to be
conscious of the words I choose to write and to
make sure they will be beneficial and
understandable to a diverse audience.

12. Thanks for a great
semester!
Any questions?
You can find me at:
gabrielle.wohead@ttu.edu

13. References
▧ Baehr, & Cargile Cook. (2015). The Agile
Communicator. Kendall Hunt.
▧ Jacobsen, K. (2015).
▧ Slides Carnival, Pixeden, Unsplash. (2015).