Journal Entries – Advanced Professional Writing

JOURNAL TASK #8 (5 points)

In this Journal Task, the goal is to analyze how good presenters develop connections between visual and oral communication for a larger communicative effect.

Find a Ted Talk on a subject that interests you – anything (as long as they use visuals!). As you enjoy the talk, reflect on how the speaker strategically uses visuals to make meaning in combination with their oral presentation. In about 250 words, outline some examples of effective use of visuals to support oral delivery, linking back to principles from the coursework and resources.

Provide the URL for the TED Talk you’ve watched
You needn’t answer all of the questions below; rather, use them as prompts for reflected on what you watched.
- Overall, what function do the visuals play? Do they align with or restate the verbal ideas? Do they elaborate on or enhance them? Do they provide additional commentary or resonance to the meaning?
- Do you find the visuals helpful in understanding the talk? What would change if you listened only – for example as a podcast episode?
- Through either spoken word or visuals, how does the speaker include signposts to help you follow along?
- To what degree does this Ted Talk apply the 5 Design principles from the Phillips talk?
  Explain how it does or does not use the principles and whether it has an impact on overall effect.

Submit in Moodle. Due Thursday, November 26

JOURNAL TASK #7 (5 points)

To practice thinking strategically about the use of visual communication, and to get familiar with the best practice techniques for developing Infographics, your task is to analyze and compare 3 sample Infographics.

Alas, while there are some good elements in these samples, each of these infographics have some problems in design and overall effectiveness. By filling in the table provided, please evaluate the different aspects of each infographic, indicating whether it is effective or not, and why.

Sample 1 – Coffee vs. Tea
Sample 2 – Tea – a bit about our beverage of choice.
Sample 3 – Tea vs Coffee – A never ending debate.

	Effective? Yes/No and Why
	Sample 1	Sample 2	Sample 3
Title: Is it catchy with a clear indication of the topic?
Introduction: Concise summary of what we get in the infographic?
Sources: If used, listed clearly at bottom?
Structure: Effective structure to match the story they want to tell? Is the relationship between the chunks of information clear?
Content: a clear scope and message? A manageable amount of information for the form? Achieves its goal?
Text/Visual balance: Text is used appropriately to enhance the visual story, not for new info
Visual choices: selection of visual devices (icons, images, charts, graphs, colour, etc) make sense and lead to increased clarity and transparency of information.

In roughly 200 words, reflect on what. you saw in the three infographics on tea/coffee and describe what choices you will be making to avoid problems that you see in them or to apply good design choices.

Submit in Moodle. Due Thursday, November 19

JOURNAL TASK #6 (5 points)

Note that this Journal task must be accompanied by the following checklist (please cut and paste it into the top of your journal entry):

Use of AI Tools
[ ] I’ve used AI tools sparingly and appropriately (e.g., brainstorming, refining questions, final editing).
[ ] I’ve made sure that my own thinking and analysis are clearly shown.
[ ] I’ve not copied AI-generated content without reviewing and adapting it to my project.

The purpose of this task is for you to begin to think about ideas for the knowledge dissemination of information from your Policy Brief. At this stage, don’t worry too much about connecting audience, message, intent and channel together. Just begin to identify information for audience, intent and message. Then, using these ideas, you can start making the connections when completing your Communication Package for the assignment.

All together write about 500 words.

Question 1: Audiences
Try to be very specific here and think of advocacy groups, organizations, government ministries, networks
• Who could benefit from knowing information in your Policy Brief?
• Who is in a position to act on the recommendations in your Policy Brief in some way?
• Who would you like to share specific information from the Policy Brief with because it may benefit you, either by strengthening your network or by linking you with a group with more power?
• Who would be in a position to continue to distribute your Policy Brief findings to wider groups?
• Other audience ideas?

Question 2: Audience Disposition
• Pick 3 audiences you’ve defined above. For each one:
o Explain why you think this audience will be interested in information from your research (or why you think there is benefit in them receiving information).
o Consider how the audience may be disposed to receiving the information (excited, wary, indifferent?)
o Consider how each audience may want to engage with the material and/or be part of the knowledge mobilization. Will they want to simply receive it? Continue to share and disseminate it? Act on it in some way? Be persuaded by it to change?

Question 3: Main messages.
• Overall, what are three main messages that you think emerge as important out of your policy brief research/findings?

Submit in Moodle. Due Thursday, November 13.

Rubric for Journal Task 6

Excellent (4.5-5 points)

Your response shows that you have done some strategic thinking about knowledge dissemination. You identify 5+ specific and diverse audiences (named organizations, ministries, or advocacy groups) and show that you wi understand of who can act, benefit, amplify findings, or strengthen your networks. When you analyse the 3 selected audiences, you demonstrate why each would be interested and you consider their emotional disposition (excited, wary, indifferent). You show your understanding of how they will engage with the material (receive, share, act, be persuaded). Your three main messages are clear, distinct, and substantive. They emerge logically your policy brief findings and you express them concisely and convincingly. Your writing is clear, professional, and well-organized with approximately 500 words (450-550 acceptable) and minimal errors.

Good (3.5-4.4 points)

Your response shows that you have spent some time thinking about the 3-4 specific audiences you identify and you are aware of the different roles they could play. Your analysis of 3 audiences is detailed, and you give clear reasons for each audience’s interest/benefit, their readiness to receive your message, and their engagement preferences. Your three main messages are reasonably clear and relate well to policy brief findings, but they could be sharper or more distinct. Your writing is generally clear with good organization, within reasonable word range (400-600), and few grammatical errors. Your response demonstrates you understand the task but may still need to work further on understanding your audience and selecting messages.

Satisfactory (2.5-3.4 points)

Your response demonstrates that you have basic understanding but need to develop your ideas more fully.. You identify 2-3 audiences, but provide miniimal detail about them or give only generic descriptions. You don’t indicate how these audiences are strategically positioned to receive and/or share your messages. You analyze 3 audiences but superficially, with basic reasons for their interest, limited consideration of their emotional interest in the messages, and minimal exploration of how they might want to receive the messages. The three messages you identify may be vague, overlap significantly, or have weak connections to your policy brief findings. Your writing has clarity or organizational issues, may be significantly over/under word count (less than 400 or more than 650), and contains multiple grammatical errors that sometimes make it difficult to understand your ideas. Overall, your response shows that your thinking on this task needs some more time and attention.

Needs Improvement (0-2.4 points)

Your response demonstrates that you have put in minimal critical thinking or understanding of the task. You have identified fewer than 2 audiences, or your descriptions are vague and generic with no strategic consideration. Your analysis of audiences is extremely superficial, missing, or covers fewer than 3 audiences, failing to adequately address interest, disposition, or engagement. Your provide fewer than 3 messages, or your messages are extremely vague, irrelevant, or lack clear connection to policy brief research. Your writing is unclear, difficult to follow, far from word requirement (less than 300 or more than 700), and contains numerous errors that impede comprehension. Your work requires substantial revision.

(I generated this rubric using Claude and the following prompt: “Create a holistic rubric out of 5 points for this task.” I then revised it to be student facing and to clarify the obscure language generated by Claude.

JOURNAL TASK #5: Produce a Storyboard for your Policy Brief

Using the lessons and the readings, produce a Storyboard for your Policy Brief.

When producing a storyboard, consider including the following kinds of cues:

Headings/Sub-headings;
Content cues to indicate what content and its function in the story;
Transitions;
Relationships between ideas;
highlighting of key info/resources;
visuals.

Here’s how:

Begin by brainstorming to get all your ideas out on the table first, just for yourself. Write out or collect all the information, quotations, ideas, etc. that you have so far.
Then, work on organizing all the content into categories of information that you have identified as relevant. This would include identifying information for the introduction, for the sections of the development section, and even information for the recommendations. What are all the different categories of information? (Remember the synthesis work? Try to identify core categories of information from all your research)
Now list all your own ideas about what you want to say or key points you want to make, and match these with your groups of information.
Finally, put your categories of information in the order you want them for your paper. To do this, you need to think about the story you want to tell your readers. What’s the best place to start? How will they anticipate the information? Where is the emphasis going to be? Where will they end up at the end?

Transform this brainstorming into a Storyboard to help you refine the shape of your story using the model provided in class lessons. As you map out your story, you can think about some of the ways you can highlight and emphasize information. Leave your self annotated notes about any visuals or examples you’d like to use when you get writing.

To produce your Storyboard, you can make a table in Word, or use an online template like this one: https://www.storyboardthat.com/ (no need to pay any money). There are tons of these online to choose from.

Submit in Moodle. Due Thursday, October 30.

JOURNAL TASK #4: Produce a Research Strategy and Annotated Bibliography

Note that this Journal task is a little different in that it must be accompanied by the following checklist (please cut and paste it into the top of your journal entry):

Part A: Research Strategy
[ ] Identify: I’ve outlined the specific types of information I need and described areas of the discourse community I’ll explore.
[ ] Write: I’ve written original, focused research questions that guide my search for relevant information.
[ ] Search: I’ve listed useful search terms, organizations, and publications to begin my research.
[ ] Document: I’ve documented key information about each source I’ve found, including relevance and citation details.

Part B: Annotated Bibliography
[ ] I’ve included at least 3 sources that support my policy brief. These have all been published in the past two years
[ ] Each source has a correct APA citation.
[ ] Each annotation explains:
[ ] What the source says
[ ] Why it’s helpful to my project
[ ] Why it’s credible and connected to my discourse community

Use of AI Tools
[ ] I’ve used AI tools sparingly and appropriately (e.g., brainstorming, refining questions, final editing).
[ ] I’ve made sure that my own thinking and analysis are clearly shown.
[ ] I’ve not copied AI-generated content without reviewing and adapting it to my project.

Initially drafted using Co-pilot. (Original prompt “a checklist for students to complete and submit with assignment”) Subsequently edited for more specific requirements related to this task.

Journal task: In this task, the goal is to set up your research strategy to ensure that you find supporting material for your policy brief that is focused within a clear discourse community and is relevant to the perspective and issues you’ve identified for your project.

Produce a Research Strategy which includes:
- Identify.
  - Outline the conversations you are mapping: Identify the different kinds of information and knowledge you need to support your policy brief; what are some areas of the discourse community you might look for useful voices and ideas?
- Write.
  - Write a list of research questions that are as focused as possible to help you find the information and knowledge you need. What do you need to know?
- Search.
  - Based on your questions, make a preliminary list of search terms, and organizations or publications where you might begin looking for your research. As you find things, use clues to help you find more sources related in the same conversation.
- Document.
  - Document the key information about each source you find both so that you can assess its authority and relevance to your project, and, if you end up using it, so that you have the information needed for citation.

Produce a preliminary annotated bibliography.
- Find a minimum of 3 sources (you can change them later if your project evolves).
- For each source, produce:
- The proper APA citation
- A brief (2-4 sentences) statement about what information or argument the source contains, why it will be helpful to your project, and why it’s a credible or useful voice to include with connections to your discourse community.

If you need help with APA citation, go here: https://libguides.tru.ca/apa

Submit in Moodle. Due Sunday, October 26.

JOURNAL TASK 3

I ask that you do this, and all other journal tasks without the assistance of generative AI except for final editing.
Write approximately 300-500 words.

Reflect on the discourse community for your own project. You should already have a sense of the perspective and focus of your project, as it was developed in the proposal.

Now, it’s time to refine this and make it more concrete. This will help you set goals for your in-depth research.

Based on your initial research and thinking about your project, ask yourself the following questions. These are adapted from Christian Pulver’s graphic “Mapping the Discourse of a Problem or Controversy” in your reading. Refer to the reading for more detail as needed.

What problem are you investigating? How is this problem discussed within the perspective (or discourse community) that you’re working within? What assumptions are made? Are there key words that are often used?
Who are the key figures in this conversation you are engaging? Are they obvious key people or organizations? Or are there key sides or positions in a debate around your problem?
Why is this a problem? What are the informing needs or urgent consequences? (This is exigence again… as you work on your topic, try to develop this in more detail than you had before).
How is the problem you’re focused on discussed in the research and public debate? What kind of language is used? What kinds of rhetorical appeals are used (where does the evidence come from? what emotions are evoked?) What assumptions are made about how things are or how they could be?
How have you positioned your Project in relationship to this problem and discourse community? Will your policy brief focus on illuminating and substantiating a significant problem or challenge, or will it assume shared knowledge of the challenges, and emphasize research into specific solutions?

As you begin to plan and extend your research in the next section, continue to ask these questions to make sure you’re on track to finish your research and build your paper.

Submit in Moodle. Due Thursday, October 16.