Agenda: Organizing a Document

*Pages 128-136 will help immensely as you look to organize all of your data for the interview (and to come back to for all technical documents [and essays] you write.)

The main goal for today's class is to begin organizing your questions in a way that seem appropriate for the interview. What is deemed appropriate? Well, that depends on what you, as a group, want to focus in on in the interview.

Perhaps you've found lots of data on the company -- its business success in regards to similar companies, its public relations issues, its company motto and core company values. Or perhaps there is other material you've found. Or perhaps, you will find this kind of material between now and Monday's deadline!

As a group, you must evaluate together all of the information you found in your individual research. (Again, grades of the assignment depend partly on your interpersonal communication within your group. In other words, I will hand out team-member evaluation sheets on Monday.)

To Organize Questions: Make a choice for how to order of each question...

1) Do you want to perform your Interview starting out with General questions on the position and the candidates skills and then order your questions to be more company-specific?

2) Do you want to ask question that start out with the most important questions about the job (also the most company-specific/duty specific), and then filter towards questions that may not be as important in terms of getting the job. These "less important" questions might be questions that have to do less with company, then, and more about resume details, etc.

One important thing: As a group, how do you decide which is more important, and which is less? Make sure to discuss this amonst the group.

3) You may also use any of the other methods of organization charted on pages 130-131 and explained in better detail in Chapter 7 -- but the above two choices are most likely the easiest ways to structure your script. You may borrow some of the techniques of structure from the other organizational patters, though. 

One example: cause and effect might be an interesting pattern use for the questions -- since many of the questions in a successful interview seem to play off of each other.

Consider Your Answers in final organization:

1) Depending on your example answers, which are required to be included in the script, you may feel that some questions are more connected to each other once you've gone through and looked for patterns in your answers.

2) You may even want to re-word a couple of your Interview questions to include previous possible answes to other questions!

Final Form of Script: like all technical documents, the final form should be consistently formatted, and aesthetically-pleasing to the eye (aka: readible and presentable).

1) Are you using numbers to organize questions?
2) Are you using sub-headings for different sections/ lines of inquiry?
3) To bold, or not to bold? Italics? Indenting? These are usually some of the last things inexperienced technical-document writers conside, but they should be decided on amonst the group.

You want to the document to be professional-looking, with no errors.

The Interview Script Assignment

The Interview Script (50 points)
Due: Monday, May 4, 2009

Explanation:

For this assignment you are putting yourself in the position of INTERVIEWER. More specifically, you are a Human Resources employee that is assigned to put together an “interview script” by the Human Resources manager; one that (s)he can use to evaluate potential candidates for a position in Public Relations/Marketing.

Further explanation of the kinds of questions and answers you will put together will be listed below. Also, for this assignment, you will be working in small groups of 2-3 people, as you would in the workplace.

You are allowed to choose your own company, which we will do during class time, once small groups are formed.

First steps:
1) First, exchange contact information for communicating outside of class time.

2) As a group, choose an easily researchable company; one whose product each of you is familiar with.

3) To begin your research, search/go to that company’s website and start looking for relevant information on the company’s history and its company goals/motto/beliefs/ core values. The website is usually starting reference point, and sometimes there is an “about” or “history” section where this information is located. Make sure to record this information so you can evaluate and use material for your Interview Script.

4) You will also want to do outside research using the school and public libraries, using interlibrary loans, periodical indexes, and other secondary source material (refer to Chapter 6 of Technical Communications for a refresher).

5) Start creating an agenda for the group to follow in the writing process.

Goals/Requirements:

1) The Interview Script includes both:

a. specific questions appropriate to be asked based on the company and the position being interviewed for, and:

b. exemplary answers that are specifically related to company and to Public Relations/Marketing position, but also to the current economic climate of 2009!

2) The script should be approximately two complete pages, single-spaced, with a minimum of six questions.

3) The script should include researched (and cited) material, both from primary and secondary sources. 

4) Each student will get evaluated both on group work and individual part in putting the script together. (There will be an evaluation form filled out by group members.)