Reporting on an Issue

Posted on July 25, 2012 by johart1

Introduction

Just as with all the other written work you have done you will need to structure your Current or Environmental Issue report to make sure it contains all the information that the task asks for. Again in common with your other work you will need to do a draft first.

Your report

There are many different types of report and many different ways of structuring reports, it is important to have a title that tells you what the report is about and a clear structure with relevant headings. Make sure that you include:

1. An introduction.

a clear identification of the issue;
why the issue is significant.

2. A section that describes the issue in YOUR OWN WORDS – please do NOT copy/paste from websites, make sure that this section includes:

3. A section that states the main facts of the issue in YOUR OWN WORDS – please do NOT copy/paste from websites, this should include:

who are the key players;
who, or what are affected (area, place, stakeholders, groups, individuals);
why the issue has arisen (reasons).

4. A section for your opinion on the issue in YOUR OWN WORDS – please do NOT copy/paste from websites, remember to include:

your own opinion on the issue
reasons why you have that opinion (you can use some data to support your opinion – you must include the source of the data)

5. A conclusion which sums up what you have written.

6. A bibliography, this must be a list of all your sources of information including books, newspapers and website links where you have used information from the Internet.

There is a template here that you can use to help you plan your research and your report. Click this link Research Planning Template to download the template.

An example report

The amount you need to write and the depth/amount of information you need will differ with the Certificate level you are completing. At the higher Certificate levels you will need to write in much more depth and detail than in this example. Please check with your lecturer if you are not sure.

Credits: Basket image: Vilseskogen, link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/vilseskogen/3781517030/
Underwater image: photohome_uk, link: http://www.flickr.com/photos/photohome_uk/1495438762/.

Report on the impact of shark attacks on the underwater basket weaving industry

Introduction

This report considers the issue of shark attacks on workers in the underwater basket weaving industry. It will consider the facts and give an opinion about the issue.

Shark attacks on underwater basket weavers

There is a long history of occasional shark attacks on workers in the underwater basket weaving industry. However these are becoming more common. The attacks are significant because of the economic effect on the industry – they:

increase staff turnover due to deaths so new staff have to be trained;
lead to the loss of half completed baskets as they become soaked in blood.

The facts

The weavers, the industry managers and of course the sharks play a part in this continuing issue.

There are many effects from the attacks. The main effect is from the death of individual weavers in attacks. This affects the families of the dead weavers and reduces the profits of the industry who then have to replace and train new staff. There are also impacts in the wider community as regular shark attacks make tourists less willing to visit the area.

This issue has arisen because of a change in the variety of seaweed used by the underwater basket weaving industry. In the past they used the species Fucus weavicus however a decline in the availability of this has meant the industry changed to Laminaria smellicus. Unfortunately, when this is cut underwater, sharks are attracted because it smells to them like fresh blood.

Opinion

This issue is very important to the industry. They need to search for a solution to reduce the number of underwater basket weaver deaths resulting from shark attacks each year. Because the industry is offshore it does not have the same health and safety controls as it would if it was land-based.

This my opinion because of the economic and human impact of the increased shark attacks since the introduction of the new seaweed in 2008.

Deaths of underwater basket weavers from shark attack 2006 to 2011

There was a large increase in the year of introduction and a continuing steady rise since. This needs action before it makes the industry completely uneconomic.

Conclusion

There has been an increase in the number of underwater basket weaver deaths from shark attacks each year since the introduction of the new seaweed weaving material. This has had many impacts on the industry. For the industry to continue a solution needs to be found.

Bibliography

Website of the Underwater Basket Weaving Industry. “Economic effects of shark attacks on the industry” Peter Profit. http://www. UnderwaterBasketWeavingIndustry.htm Posted June 2011 Accessed June 2012

Underwater Basket Weaving Monthly. “A new seaweed for underwater basket weaving.” G. Economi. Weaver Publishing Co. July 2007

Website of South African Centre for Underwater Basket Weaving. Underwater Basket Weaving – Basic Information http://www.saunderwterbasketweaving/info.html Updated Jan 2009 Accessed June 2012

Website of Unsafe Work Australia. National Standard for Underwater Basket Weavers. http://www.safeunderwaterbasketworkaustralia.notgov.au/SafetyInUnderwaterBasketWeaving /NationalStandard.aspx Standard Updated 2010 Accessed June 2012

You can use the report above as a guide for how to put together your own report as a draft blog post.

Creating publicity leaflets

Posted on June 24, 2012 by johart1

Introduction

A well designed publicity leaflet can make a very large impact on the people you are trying to reach. Your leaflet should look professional and convince the reader that the organisation, product, service or event is of very high quality.

Below are some design ideas that will help you in creating a high quality product.

Content and Purpose

Keep the content limited – choose only one or two main purposes for a single leaflet. Some possible purposes for your leaflet are to:

highlight an aspect of a business,
canvas for members,
introduce a new aspect of an organisation,
present products/services,
publicise an event.

Decide on the audience. For example, if you are publicising/seeking members for a sport club for children will your audience be the children themselves or their parents? The audience will affect the words you might use in your leaflet and might also have an effect on the images you choose.

“Audience” Image by:drewm Drew McLellan Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC 2.0)

Write the content next. Keep it simple – use short sentences, simple vocabulary, and short paragraphs. This will make your message more effective and easier for your audience to remember the main points.

Design, Organisation and Layout

Choose a size that allows you to include your content without it looking overcrowded but also avoids too much empty (white) space. The size should also suit your purpose.

Organise the text with headings/sub-headings. These headings are very important – they need to contain the whole message because many readers will skim read these to get the gist (overall idea) of the content. The text below the heading should expand on your message.

Contrasting colours are good for catching attention but take care not to overdo the colours. Make sure that text stands out from the background and the headings also stand out from the rest of the content.

Use images (graphics) that support the content. Don’t use them just because you like them. Emphasise your message by using text and graphics side by side. Images are good for making an impact. Colour images have been shown to hold the attention of readers. If you have a logo then use it to add more impact.

Information

Contact information is vital and must be accurate check the phone number, company name (spelling), full contact information, emails, websites etc. NOTE if you are making a leaflet as part of your studies you can invent contact details but be very careful that you do not accidentally use real details belonging to someone else.

Make sure that if other information is necessary that you include it – for example: opening hours, prices/costs, regular meeting times, regular match/game/coaching days and times.

Conclusion

Publicity leaflets need to be eye-catching, they also need to keep the attention of the reader once it has been “grabbed”. Knowing your audience, using the strategies you have already learned for visual texts and planning your layout carefully will help you achieve this.

Using images to make instructions more helpful

Posted on May 22, 2012 by johart1

Introduction

Simple instructions don’t always need images to make them more effective. For example recipes often don’t have images, and if they do they may often just have a picture of the finished item. However to make your instructions more effective it often helps to include one or more diagrams or other images.

How can images help?

Instructions are more effective if the number of words used can be kept fairly small. The old saying that “a picture is worth a thousand words” is very relevant for writing instructions because using an image with labels can remove the need to write long descriptions. For example the labelled picture of a chain saw below would save many words in instructing how to find the “fuel filler cap” and fill the saw with fuel.

Including the picture and referring to it from the instructions saves writing a detailed description of the “fuel filler cap”, where to find it on the saw, and how to distinguish it from the “oil filler cap”.

It is possible to make instructions even more visual especially if you are writing a “how to” that involves a computer application. This can be done with numbered steps on screenshots as in this one for positioning and inserting an image in your blog.

Visuals are particularly helpful for anything that requires the user to:

locate something on a piece of equipment or a toolbar – particularly one unfamiliar to them
move something in a particular way
see that changes that should result from their actions at each stage in a series of steps

The “techie” bit of making and adding visuals

My own preference for adding visuals to instructions is to use PhotoFiltre and Powerpoint as described in the Slideshare below. I create and save my labelled/annotated images, these can then be inserted directly into: blogposts, presentations or documents with the mimimum of effort.

Instructions images for

View more presentations from Jo Hart.

I use this process because I find it:

simple and quick to do;
easy to edit later if needed
provides me with portable visuals that I can use in other applications because they are saved as images

Audio-visual instructions

Audio-visual instructions are becoming more and more common using screencasts and/or video. However these have a major disadvantage in that it is difficult to refer back to one point somewhere in the middle of the instructions without having to replay the entire sequence to find the bit you want! Using audio-visuals is therefore best kept to VERY short activities such as this screencast on attaching files to emails.

Conclusion

There are many different ways of preparing visuals for inclusion in instructions. The one described above is the one I use because it works for me. Please comment on whether you think it will work for you – why or why not?

About texts!

Image

Introduction

This post is about texts and how we can understand their “messages” better if we consider more than just the words that are used.

Written texts

You will find that there are lots of different types of text. When we look at written texts it is useful to look at the features and think about why those particular features have been used. The use of different features can make texts more fit for their purpose by affecting how we understand them.

The Prezi shown below on “Text features and purposes” is a reminder of some important text features and text purposes.

Text features and analysis on Prezi

Here we are talking about written texts but visual texts, that we will look at in the next section, share features and purposes with written texts.

You will see lots of other descriptions that apply to texts the Wordle below includes some of them.

Visual Texts

Visual texts are those that rely a lot on images to get their message across. This doesn’t mean they have no words! Some visual texts don’t have any words but many are a blend (mixture) of words and image – the Prezi you have just looked at is one of these. The words don’t have to be written – a video is an audio-visual text.

This Voki is a very simple audio-visual text.

Some texts may be wholly visual – these include symbols, icons and logos. However most visual texts are a mixture of text and images (graphics).

Visual texts have some special features that can help us understand their meaning (the message they are sending).

Layout – the position, size, colour and shape of both text and images on the page. Checkout this student project at LinkQuest for a look at colour and its effects on us.
Images – what sort of images are included: symbols, pictures, other graphics. What feelings do they give us.
Text – what font is used, where is the text placed, what do the words say, what feelings do the words give us.

When we look at a visual text we often have an instant “feeling” about the meaning, but we need to be able to put this into words so that we can describe the effect the text might have on other people.

Conclusion

The words used in any text and they way the text looks – including visuals is very important to understanding the text. Knowing some of the “tricks” that creators use in their texts helps YOU to understand what the creator is trying to say. It also helps YOU not to be “fooled” by the creator who is secretly trying to make us think the same way as they do.

Another useful thing about understanding how the words and look of a text make YOU feel is that this helps YOU to create your own texts that can make people feel how YOU want them to feel.

Writing a post – the “writing bit”

Posted on April 4, 2012 by johart1

Introduction

A “good” post is really one that does what you want it to do! While it is always exciting (and sometimes a bit scary) to discover that others are reading your posts, the important thing is that they work for you!

Posts for different purposes will be very different. For example if you are writing or using video or images to showcase something that you are good at this will be very different from a post where you are writing to share information. Both of these will be different from a post where you are giving instructions on how to do something.

This post is about some of the ways you can make your posts easy to read, effective and interesting.

Structure

It is important that you have some sort of structure for your post. Clear structure is very helpful for anyone reading your post – reading online is much harder when there is no structure. The structure is like a series of signposts that show you where you are and breaks the post up into manageable “chunks”.

You will see that most of the posts on ELFADA are split up using headings. We usually have an “Introduction” that tells you what the post is about. The middle part of the post has one or more headings for the topics or sections covered. Then we finish with a “Conclusion”, often this includes questions to help you write comments on the post.

Under each heading there will be one or more paragraphs. Checkout this link for a short look at paragraphs with a quiz and this one for a more detailed look at writing good paragraphs. The course website also has more on paragraphs and how to write good ones. The paragraphs are made up of sentences – short paragraphs work better than long ones in blog posts. You will find more on writing good and correct sentences on the course website.

As well as paragraphs we often use lists to make something easier to read. “Bulleted” (dot point) lists are good when you have several examples to give. Numbered lists are good for the steps in instructions explaining how to do something.

It is best if you can organise your post with information in a sensible order, this is easier if you have a structure in your mind when yuo write.

The words

The words that you use and the way that you use them are important in making your blog easy and interesting to read.

Remember you have no idea who might read your blog post (it could be a future employer) so it is always good to take great care with your writing. Draft your post first and expect to edit it at least twice before you publish. Proofread your work carefully – it sometimes helps to read it out to yourself. Use the spell check but also check that you have the right words in the right places – if you are not sure then look up the word! Spell check won’t find a mistake if you have used a real word in the wrong place eg “there” instead of “their”. Read your sentences carefully to make sure that they are correct well written sentences that make sense and that you have capital letters and punctuation in the right places.

Take great care that you do not copy/paste text from elsewhere – using other people’s writing except under particular conditions is theft! It is very easy for someone to check online to see if their work has been stolen, so use your own words and refer to the source of your information – in a blog post it is usually easy to link to that source if it is online.

When you first start writing posts it is a good idea to ask your lecturer to check the post over and suggest any editing before you publish. Login to the course website for more help with spelling, punctuation and grammar.

Media and links

One of the great things about blogs compared to printed pages is that you can include other “stuff” and so make your posts much more exciting! It is a good “rule of thumb” to include at least one of the following:

image
audio/audiovisual/visual
interactive activity (such as polling)

in every post – more than one if the post is long! These can be included as uploaded images, links or embedded code or a blend.

Once you have got started with writing posts we will be looking at some of the ways of including different media in posts. This is particularly useful for any posts where you are showcasing your skills and want to include pictures or audio.

Conclusion

Writing blog posts is just like any other type of writing. You write different posts for different purposes. As with all writing drafting, proofreading and careful editing are the keys to good posts.

Add a comment to this post. Is the post helpful for you in thinking about writing your own posts? What do you think will be the most helpful item in the post for you personally?