Ch. 6: Additional Case 1

Organizing Information for Different Audiences

This case is best for groups.

Background

Your technical-communication teacher has been approached by Dr. Dimitris Lagoudas, a professor of aerospace engineering and Director of the Shape Memory Alloy Research Team (SMART) at Texas A&M University. SMART is a major research center for shape metal alloys, a “class of alloys which are able to ‘remember’ their shape and are able to return to that shape even after being bent.” Shape metal alloys are used in a wide variety of consumer products and industrial and medical applications.

Dr. Lagoudas has asked your instructor for help. He would like a group of technical-communication students to help him outline several new descriptions that will be added to the SMART website.

Your Assignment

To complete this assignment, perform the following tasks:

  1. Study Chapter 4, on audience, and Chapter 6, on patterns of organization.

  2. Go to the SMART site for an overview of shape memory alloys. (To find additional information on the subject, enter the term “shape memory alloy” in a search engine.)

  3. Write three different outlines, each with 15 to 25 entries, describing shape memory alloys and the work of SMART. Address one outline to the general reader, one to an undergraduate business major, and one to an undergraduate engineering major. For each outline, draw on information from the SMART site and other relevant sources. Introduce each outline with a paragraph describing the organization of the outline and explaining how the outline presents appropriate, interesting information to its audience.

  4. Submit your work to your instructor.