Thoughts on Technical Writing Class

As a college student taking technical writing I honestly feel overwhelmed. The course is more involved and detailed than I had expected but I am learning quite a bit which is the point. I feel stressed at times due to the amount of time and preparation that must be spent on the projects/assignments. The toughest part for me so far has been managing the time to complete the assigned tasks and still performing well in my other courses and working full time. I am taking this course as a requirement towards the fire science associates degree. I feel that this course will not yet benefit me where I am in my career at this point but do think it will be beneficial to me as I hopefully promote some day. After just two weeks of being in this course I am becoming nervous since we will begin working on an e-portfolio soon along with several other tasks. Technical writing has been a tough course so far due to the required time that must be spent in completing the different assignments and projects. I feel that because it's an online course it makes it a little more difficult than it would be in a traditional classroom setting.

Audience is Key

In last week's class, "audience" was discussed. Before you even begin to write you must take time to pre plan and decide the tone, view point, audience whom you are presenting to etc. Half the "battle" is determining the audience and how you should present the information to that particular person or group of people. In a short amount of time I have already realized how beneficial this course will be in regards to my career and feel that many people would agree with that. I am currently a firefighter and do not deal with much administrative paperwork currently but do feel that will change as I hope to promote through the ranks eventually. In the 2 years that I have been in the fire service I have already noticed that the lower the rank you are the less paperwork and decision making is involved and vice versa. Although I do not see the immediate benefit this course will provide me now, I believe that the skills I am learning will serve me well at some point. Technical Writing class covers a wide range of material and has helped to get me more knowledgeable with technology and different software already.