Find a professional article online written for people in your field. Identify the intended reader and purpose. Write description of the article describing the elements in the article that helped you identify the reader and purpose. Be sure to include the URL of the article.
Study your school’s Web site. Imagine you are a potential transfer student looking for a new school. Analyze the usefulness of the information available and how easy it is to locate information about various majors and directions about applying for admission. Identify 2-3 features of the Web site you would change in some way. Support your answer with citations from the text.
The following bulletin at a large manufacturing company provides guidelines for the plant security supervisors in assigning duties to the plant security guards at five separate plants. Revise and reorganize to make the bulletin easier to read and more useful to the supervisors. All supervisors must be conscious of the need to reduce costs and properly use available security guards in the most effective manner. Consider staggering the start and quit times to ensure a larger force during the peak demand hours. Every effort should be made to eliminate nonsecurity service functions, such as airport pickup, mail runs, drives to banks, drives to medical centers, parcel pickup. The supervisors should regularly review the schedule to be sure the coverage meets the needs of the plant. Guards assigned to gates should advise the shift supervisors whenever they leave their posts, including for lunch break. Nonsecurity service functions should be contracted out if possible. Drives to banks should be performed by the responsible department, but a department may request a security guard escort. Guards assigned to patrols, shipping and receiving docks, and special surveillance should tell the shift supervisors when they leave their assigned task, even for the lunch break. Supervisors should consider combining spot checks with regular duties of guards. For example, if a guard must open a gate and passes the trash center, the guard can spot check the trash pickup on the way to or from opening the gate. Supervisors must know about outside employment of guards. These outside activities should not adversely affect the security arrangements at the plant. In general, security guards should not also work at racetracks or casinos, or any places associated with gambling. Guards also should not be in partnership with co-workers since that relationship could negatively affect plant security. Supervisors need to check attendance records regularly. Frequent illness may indicate the guard cannot do the physical tasks appropriately. Questionable illness reports should be checked. Guards who operate small businesses may resist the normal rotation because it will interfere with their outside employment. Security requires a 7-day operation.

Find a real-world letter, memo, bulletin, pamphlet, or report online. Identify specific style problems. Evaluate the style and clarity of the document, and identify specific areas where revision would help readers. Support you answers with citations from the text. Be sure to include a url to the document you are evaluating.

Find a Web site you use frequently and analyze how you use it. How easy is it to find the features you want to see? Has the home page changed since you began using it? Can you recall which features were redesigned? How consistent is the placement of navigation links on the pages you use? How informative are the headings and page titles? Are there any distracting elements? Are the graphics helpful or simply decorative? Are there moving graphics or text? If so, do they enhance the usefulness of the site? Write a memo to your instructor, analyzing the design of the Web site. Support your answers with citations from the text. Be sure to include the url.

Find the home pages for the following: a) Ford Motor Company, b) Chrysler, and c) General Motors. Analyze the design features of these home pages in terms of users who are seniors or have problems making precise movements with the mouse. Report your findings to your instructor in a memo.