2.2 Constructing a Learning Environment

One thing technical communication professors hear often from industry professionals, and something reflected in the job advertisements across different industries, is that companies want to hire people with important “soft skills” such as problem solving abilities and the ability to collaborate with colleagues on a variety of tasks. Because technical and professional writing are inherent in these efforts, (think of the volume of organizational email communications, research efforts, and critical thinking tasks!), developing these soft skills is one area of focus in this course. And, yes—we expect this might be a bit uncomfortable at first.

We are attentive to the stresses that come along with a major project like the one you are working on, but we also know that the processes you’ll go through to succeed at this project will provide you experience and transferable skills for your future work environment(s). Often, these work environments are self-built and understood only after you have spent some time with an organization. For example, you’ll get a sense of how your company communicates internally (e.g. is it normal to reply to every email, even if its only informational? Is it common to ‘cc’ supervisors on benchmark emails to clients?) and what expectations they have for how employees meet deadlines, address critical feedback, and incorporate increasingly sophisticated responsibilities with existing tasks.

In a community-engaged project, we encourage you to actively reflect on matters related to your learning environment. You have limited time to work on a specific project with individuals and/or organizations with which you may be unfamiliar. Therefore, a foundational task that can contribute to your success on this project is the purposeful design and the ongoing development of a learning environment. Here’s the catch: all too often, we either don’t have the time, or are not prompted, to reflect on what sort of learning (or work) environments are most effective for us, and, alternatively, what resources we may need in order to adapt to new environments. We are not often asked to overtly articulate (write down or verbalize) these things. Part of your practice of technical and professional writing in this course is determining what sorts of strategies and best practices support you in achieving your goal. Many students encounter experiential learning opportunities for the first time in this course, meaning it’s a great environment to test some of your preconceived ideas about how to manage a project from start to finish.

Whether you’re working in a team, a pair, or individually on a community-engaged project, there are strategies that can help you achieve your learning goals. While you cannot always control the partners with which your course works or the scope of the project you’re assigned (note: in some classes, you do have control over these things), there are some components of the project that are within your control. Before you conduct more research and begin writing, and after you’ve researched the organization and/or met with partners, consider some of the following components of building an effective learning environment:

Project Management

Strategies associated with project management will serve you well beyond your time in this course. Documenting professional tasks or technical projects is one strategy for conveying progress and also exhibits for your boss or colleagues what resources—including time, funding, personnel, software, equipment, etc.—that are needed to successfully complete projects.

In industry, missed deadlines by competent individuals are typically a result of some barrier to successfully completing a task. Therefore, as soon as you know your deadlines and resources, you can work backward, mapping out a timeline of when you’ll have deliverables prepared for revision, determine when and how you’ll receive necessary data, and clearly articulate any needs to your supervisor (who, right now, is your instructor and your community partner). There are a number of workflow and mapping strategies you can explore. Perhaps take a look at two you’re not familiar with and see if they may be useful for you during this project:

• Methodologies like waterfall or agile techniques
• Tools like Trello, Airtable, Asana
• Visualizations like Gantt Charts, timelines, Kanban boards

Composition and Revision Tools

Your instructor may have provided you opportunities to research a variety of software and tools like or including the ones mentioned above. In addition, as you begin your writing process, it may be helpful to consider what tools best suit your purpose for the project. There is merit to using a tool that’s familiar and comfortable to use, but at the same time, this course is designed to encourage you to stretch your comfort zone and learn new tools and techniques that will help make you a more marketable professional. Additionally, when you are working in teams, it is critical that you collaborate in an environment that is sufficient for your teams needs. As you consider how you’ll collect research materials, compose drafts, conduct internal review, and do final revisions, here are some tools to consider/research:

• Composing softwares that allow multiple users to engage with a document simultaneously such as Google Docs, OneDrive, and Dropbox
• Revision strategies that make edits and feedback clear to authors such as Google Docs’ ‘suggesting feature’ and the Microsoft Suite’s track changes and comments features
• Composition management tools such as MadCap Flare and Central
• Support from external readers such as your local Writing Center consultants, peers from another team/project, or your instructor
• Editing support such as Writing Mentor

Self Reflection and Care

Your instructor is keenly aware of the energy this project demands because they work alongside you and have observed how your predecessors have tackled this work. They are mindful that experiential learning is different from coursework that could be contained to the class, like lectures, library research, and writing a term paper. With all the variability of this project, we’ve found that students who get the most from this project recognize the deeply collaborative nature of the work and trust that their faculty member honors the complexity of the project in their evaluation of drafts and final deliverables. With this in mind, as you proceed through the project be realistic about what you can tackle and manage in the time you have. Even if your best intention is to go above and beyond for your community partner, both your partner and your instructor recognize you are a community member yourself with many competing demands on your time. Don’t be surprised if your instructor encourages you to scale back your project in the early stages; they want you set up for success. And if you find yourself confused or concerned, communicate clearly with your instructor about what you need. A good professional knows they can’t keep doing the work if they are unwell or overwhelmed; be transparent with your colleagues (teammates) and boss (instructor/partner) if you need specific support such as time or other resources to succeed.

Teamwork

If you’re working in a team, your instructor has provided resources and recommendations for establishing your team and determining strategies for completing the assigned tasks. These include:

• readings from books like Team Writing by Joanna Wolfe
• team roles statements and
• a team charter.

As you review these materials and craft team management documentation together, it is critical that you are honest with team members early in the project; sometimes team members have different goals (grades, time commitments, outputs) and almost everyone has a different schedule. This makes it difficult to find times to work synchronously together. There are many effective ways to manage and participate in team efforts in workplaces, and if you are working in a team in your technical writing course, it is because teamwork is a learning objective as a preparation for the workplace. One strategic procedure for managing teams is establishing team documentation, which are ultimately a sort of ‘policies and procedures’ genre. This form of documentation is, too, a type of both professional and technical communication. While these documents may be used for internal purposes, be aware of any secondary or tertiary audiences.

Reflection

Before continuing on, take a moment to reflect on the following:

• Take a moment to map out the project deadlines and compare those to your personal/professional/academic calendars.
• What challenges do you expect as you complete this project?
• What resources do you need to successfully complete the tasks at hand?
• What question do you have for your community partner/instructor about the project requirements?
• What resources are available to you — through your academic program or course enrollment– that could facilitate your success on this project?