Technical Writing Class: 06/15-25/09

Synthesis: June 15, 2009

It was our first meeting with Mrs. Manzano and we really have no idea what we will be doing this day. Surprisingly, she asked to sing the Philippine National Anthem, Lupang Hinirang, and called us one by one randomly and sing in front of the class. It was kinda weird because I was wondering why she let us sing such. But, whatever it is, I think she wanted to know if we fully know how to sing it. Unfortunately, some of us forgot the lyrics and didn’t know what would be the next line. Suddenly, it was Jayson’s turn and that was the time I discovered that Jehovas’s Witnesses don’t sing the Philippine National Anthem because, according to their religion, it is like worshiping the Philippine flag. So, it’s like making the flag an idol.; that’s how I got it. I can’t blame Jayson; that’s their belief. So, he just sang it for the sake of singing without any right-hand-on-the-chest. After that weird and enjoying activity, Mrs. Manzano reminded us of her rules. She said that we are already NOT new to her, so there’s no reason for us to be defiant. Turning on the overhead projector, she placed the acetate with the prints that she will be discussing – about eagles. She asked us to read the texts about eagles; it’s a poem and paragraphs. Through these texts and with her art of questioning, we were able to distinguish the differences between creative writing and technical writing. We characterized creative writing as expressive, judgemental and imprecise. It only contains opinions and impressions where the writer writes base from his own state of mind. On the other hand, technical writing is precise and factual. It is based on figures, exact facts and verifiable evidence. Non-technical writing expresses the writer’s feelings and imagination and can have various meaning while technical writing is defined not by its subject but by its author’s purpose and the needs of the reader. After the discussion, Mrs. Manzano gave topics in technical writing and errors in writing to the first 14 students for the next day reporting.

Synthesis: June 16, 2009

“Who the readers are?” was the first topic reported by Macy. She shared that technical writing conveys a particular piece of information to a specific audience for a specific purpose. Readers may be managers, supervisors, secretaries, engineers, or technicians. They may come from any discipline or professional area. The Concept of Audience is reported by Jimwel. He discussed the concepts that form the basis of effective technical communication – clarity, conciseness and consideration of audience. I really won’t forget these lines from his report, “Say a lot in a few words,” and “The higher the person’s rank is the lesser he knows about the specific terms.” He even tackled the levels of technicality which are non-technical, semi-technical and highly technical. Then, Magel distinguished the difference between primary readers and secondary readers. The primary readers, according to Burnett 1997, are the persons to whom a message is directed. They are the readers who have requested the report. Secondary readers, however, are the readers who not necessarily requested the report but who will benefit from it or understand it. After the concepts related to technical writing, the errors in writing were also emphasized. We had a test on fragments; we divided a sentence according to what phrases we see in it. We only reached reporting about run-ons, so we will be expecting more individual presentations next session.

Synthesis: June 18, 2009

I was really expecting that there would be a “benggahan” session today, and I didn’t make a mistake. Mrs. Manzano was angry with us because our class has not been firm with the decision to stay in our original schedule in Earth and Environmental Science subject which is 2:30pm-4pm. We had a lot of complaints against the Science professor but then we were not able to fight for it. Instead, we decided to have the class at 7am-8:30am. Knowing that our Science professor would give 20 min.-allotment from 7am, we did not protest that we only have 1 hour and 10 minutes to learn Science. And that’s one of the reasons why Mrs. Manzano didn’t feel good about it because she doesn’t want our time to be wasted learning nothing. Another thing, she was so disappointed because we didn’t consider her essence of being our adviser. We were just making decisions and having our choices without consulting her, without asking comments and advice from her. We were not even united as a class because we just tolerated the decisions of others without even questioning whether it will be a boon or a bane. The entire meeting revealed our real attitudes.

Synthesis: June 19, 2009

We had a surprise examination about ways in forming sentences. I haven’t heard the directions for test 1 because I went out to photocopy the test 3. I just asked the directions from my seatmate but I can’t really understand it. I really don’t know what I’ll do. But, what I did is I put the given sentences into one. When we already checked our papers, most of us got zero over fifty and unfortunately, I’m one of them. It was too disappointing but the good thing there was I was able to know the correct answers, jot it down for review. At least, I could still study and master it. After checking test 1, Mrs. Manzano gave an objective type of test all about the things we discussed about technical writing. I forgot several terminologies that’s why I got 20.5 over 55. We were expecting another difficult exam next meeting so we got to review more.

Synthesis: June 22, 2009

“Hindi pa nga tapos ‘yung isang problema niyo, heto na naman kayo, anak!”

One of the Earth Science reporters asked Alester to get the overhead projector from the English Department because their group will be using it for their Rocks and Minerals report in HRD 103. This was the reason why “again” we got into Mrs. Manzano’s nerves and even into Prof. Karaan’s. It is a rule that overhead projectors and other instructional materials owned by the department should be used only by the department and within the department’s vicinity. So, again, we have been so defiant; we were doing our own thing. Mrs. Manzano asked why there’s no concerned person in class who will stop them. She gave back our class cards because of our stubbornness. She said she can only accept us if we will prove that we deserve to be an English major. She even questioned why Alester was the only one who will beg an apology to the department head when it was the concern of the whole class. Before the conversation ended, we made it up to her. We sincerely apologized for our stubbornness, wrong attitudes, and wrong choices. We humbly asked her to give us another chance to do our part as her advisees. Thank God because He touched her heart and accepted us again.

Synthesis: June 23, 2009

This day, we continued test 3 – the three levels of technical writing. We distinguished the level of technicality per paragraph and cited bullets why we identified it so. Quickly, Mrs. Manzano asked us to exchange papers. Sorry to say, I’m not done answering yet and I have so many blanks. We discussed our answers. We compared the three levels. After that, she gave us an assignment that we will make our own piece of technical writing (per level) which is relevant to our field. It was challenging and from that moment I’m already thinking about my topic yet I think it would be very difficult. Before we end our class, she dictated rapidly the topics in the syllabus. I got the other topics but I missed some. We really have to listen carefully and we should have the ability to remember things promptly in terms of dictation. Oh! Everyday is a challenging day. We got to have loads and loads of energy daily.

Synthesis: June 25, 2009

Unexpectedly, classes were suspended because of the A(h1n1) virus. There were Music majors suspected to be carriers of the contagious disease. Assignments in the three levels of technical writing were passed at exactly 1pm. We still have enough time to rest for this day.