Finished!

I cannot tell you how good it felt to turn that project in. I think it's a solid piece of work and it's complete, which is by far the most satisfying feeling. I haven't quite started preparing for my exam. I'm trying to think of a way to approach it, and though I have a few ideas, I haven't quite yet thought them through to their entirety. My guess is, is that my participation (regarding the blog posts) could have probably been better, but like I said at the very beginning, I was never very good at keeping up with a diary. I really have enjoyed the class and the experience to work with and among graduate students. It pushed my own abilities and forced me to possibly work harder than I would have if it had just been an undergraduate class.

The rest of today will be time spent fixing the visual appeal of my paper. I just want to make this thing as close to perfect as a possibly can. I want it to be utilized by Family Connection, and I am looking forward to handing over the finished project. Not to mention I went from knowing nothing about grants to feeling as though I have a firm concept what the process and what it takes to write a successful one. I'm not going to lie, I feel a little rushed at the end here, considering my paper has been completed for the past two weeks. I know there are time constraints, and it gets to crucnch time and you just have to deal with it; it's just frustrating when you're under the impression that you just need an absract, table of contents and reference page, to find out you need to sit down and rethink the visual appeal. But such is life. So, yeah for 24 hour computer labs! =)

Progress Report #3

Date: 12/05/2006
To: Dr. Homlevick
From: Katie Goergen

Introduction
I am writing two references guides for the Anderson Family Connection. These two manuals will cover what a grant proposal is and how to locate potential grants, as well as address the process of grant writing itself. Both of these manuals are made for the same audience.

Work Completed
At this point I have completed all of my typing and I am just waiting for feedback. I feel confident that I have produced a good piece of work and I'm looking forward to putting it in its final form.

Next Steps
All I have left to do is put it in it's final form. It will be a booklet that consists of two sections, a part 1 and a part 2. This will differentiate between the lay and expert pieces.

Conclusion
I feel comfortable with the information I have presented and feel as though it will be helpful in the future. I also think I created a document that will be useful to the organization, and something that they will be able to utilize.

All of this talk about reader-centric, writer-centric, and writing to a lay audience has been really helpful. Not that I understand in great depth the rhetoric behind it all, but the surface information that makes the most sense to me is pretty solid information.

At first, I did not think that most of it would apply to what I am doing, but as it turns out, as I continue to add the finishing details, I am including more and more tactics. I feel comfortable with the information I have researched and I am pleased with my product so far. The hardest part to write thus far has been the introduction, so that is constantly being revised and critiqued.

Throughout this process I find myself in the awkward position of not being anything of a true expert on the matter, and that fact that I am an undergraduate student, and not say a master's student, I think is kind of a snag in the credibility issue. I only say this because I don't have that "real world" experience and I'm trying really hard to find that level ground so that my paper comes across as resourceful tool for them and that it was created for the intended purpose of assisting in making the process easier. I think I have achieved that in a lot of aspects, but I know there are few places throughout that need some re-editing.

In all honesty, I am so excited that I took this class. I see the potential of this document and how it could later benefit me, and the experience has been outstanding. I almost considered dropping the course in the beginning because I wasn't sure if technical writing was my thing, or even something that interested me, but I am so glad I didn't make such a foolish decision. At any rate it has improved my writing skills and I have learned a great deal of information that I know will be useful. It also got me interested in technical and business writing and I wouldn't mind exploring it a bit further.

Progress Report #2

Date: 11/09/2006
To: Dr. Homlevick
From: Katie Goergen

Introduction
I am writing two references guides for the Anderson Family Connection. These two manuals will cover what a grant proposal is and how to locate potential grants, as well as address the process of grant writing itself. Both of these manuals are made for the same audience.

Work Completed
At this point I have completed my expert paper. The research and information is finished, and I have all of the information I will need. I have finished this paper early so that I can go back and proof read and change any errors within the document.

I have started my lay paper at this time. Again, I have all the research I will require to complete this portion, now it is a matter of typing it into the document. By the start of next week this portion will also be completed.

Next Steps
Upon finishing typing the lay paper, I will then need to complete the attachments and create the index page. The next steps will be organizing both of the papers into one complete document. I am confident that it will be completed ahead of schedule, but I am still determining which program to use in creating the document in the essence of time and my own availability to certain software.

Conclusion
This is a relativley short progress report, but I have a good handle on the project and it is coming together nicely. I am very confident that this project will be completed fully at the end of this month. This will allow me to once again look over my project and make any last adjustments and/or corrections.

Progress Report # 1

Date: 10/17/2006
To: Dr. Homlevick
From: Katie Goergen

Introduction
I am writing two references guides for the Anderson Family Connection. These two manuals will cover what a grant proposal is and how to locate potential grants, as well as address the process of grant writing itself. Both of these manuals are made for the same audience.

Work Completed
As of now, I have completed most of my research. There are two other women I would like to contact, one who works in the Anderson library, and another that writes grants for the Greenville Family Connection. Beyond these two sources, most of my research has concluded. I have started a very rough outline of how to go about starting my manuals. I am starting with the expert manual first, the one that explains the writing process because it will be in depth and the most time consuming. I feel by starting and completing this one first, if I set reasonable deadlines than I will be done with it ahead of schedule. This will leave more time to complete the manual about grant writing.

I need to sit down with it one more time to get a better sense of the deadlines I would like to achieve. This however can and will be done this week. My next progress report will have dates that I would like certain components completed. The better organized I am and the more goals I have to accomplish in a short amount of time the more motivated I become to complete all of the tasks at hand.

Next Steps
I will contact my last two sources which will fully complete my research for the reference guide conerning what a grant proposal is and where to locate one. I will continue drafting out the sections for the expert manual. I had started at the beginning, but I think I will more than likely skip around because the way in which it is divided, the different "chapters" can be approached differently. I had gotten stuck at first, but I think by skipping around I will find that I am completing the chapters a lot more quickly than if I tried to start at the beginning.

Conclusion
I feel very comfortable with what I am doing. I would appreciate any feedback on my proposals because they are the foundation for which I will create these papers. I feel confident that they will serve as a guiding tool for me and enable me to stay on task and follow through with my goals. I am ready to start these papers full force and feel confident that I can finish them in a timely manner and produce a solid project.

All of the workshops we have been doing in class I find to be extremely helpful. It is nice to have a second and third opinion to review my proposal and offer suggestions that could make it clearer. I know that just because what I write makes sense to me doesn't always resonate with others, so it is a good way of judging how well I am conveying my thoughts and ideas.

As of now I feel as though I know exactly what I need to do. I have started preparing my documents. I will type out the pages first, than create the table of contents and begin formatting the layout. With time being a huge factor in all of this I may just use Microsoft Word and Publisher to create the booklets. If I am able to produce the pages in a reasonable amount of time I will try to work on the overall apperance by using InDesign to create the different pages. I have already started to draft out certain sections of the booklet and will continue to refine this process.