In ENL 266, we start off the semester by seeing how technical communication is all around us. It’s not just in manuals or long instruction guides, but technical communication is found within emails, presentations, and other forms of everyday communication. This semester, I have been especially focused on continuing this “it’s all around us” message throughout the modules,  emphasizing the transferable skills and showing how this work continues past the assignments.

Earlier this semester, I read Chalice Randazzo’s “A Framework for Résumé Decisions: Comparing Applicants’ and Employers’ Reasons,” and this article reinforced some of the ideas I had been envisioning. The article was about teaching resumes in a more nuanced way, and making students aware of choices and reasons when composing. For example, teaching resumes is not just about saying, I will include this experience because that’s what you do on resumes. But, saying, I will include this specific experience because of these specific reasons, or I will not include it because of these specific reasons. The result is a more-flexible and tailored resume for each position.

After reading this article, I shared the information with my students. And, whenever they asked me if they should include something in their resume or cover letter, I asked them to consider the questions the article laid out: Is it relevant? Does it show value? Is it recent? Could this be something an employer might discriminate against? (Randazzo, 427).

These strategies result in, not just one resume for this class, but, resume-making skills they will be able to use in future resumes. I’ve had conversations with a few of my students who are freshmen and feel that they don’t have a full resume because of limited experiences, and we’ve talked about how they can learn the skills now, so that when they do start getting experiences, they will know how to include that information in their resume.

Now, some of us instructors might be saying, of course we teach students to think about the choices they make and not just the formal features of a resume (such as seen through the justification memos), but Randazzo showed an interesting finding in the article. Randazzo interviewed instructors and students about resume instruction, but even when instructors thought they were emphasizing making nuanced choices, students still thought the main point of the lesson was the formal features of a resume.

This got me thinking that we sometimes need to be really explicit with what we are teaching. This involves looking at the big picture and asking and discussing with students why are we learning these skills and how can we use these skills on other projects? For example, when reviewing cover letters, my students and I talked about how we have to write about ourselves, and that is not a common thing to do. During this lesson, I brought up scholarship essays as something similar because those also involve writing about ourselves. This also tied into showing my students the UMassD scholarship site and encouraging them to apply.

When we move on to Unit 2 and the infographics, we will discuss ways that these new skills will be useful. I’ll explain that whatever topic they choose to base their infographics on, the skills can be transferred to other projects, and they will probably encounter projects which will require them to use these skills and technologies in the future.

In our ENL 631 discussions, we’ve occasionally brought up that our students sometimes feel like they’re doing busy work. Showing the students that the work they do is important outside of this class and outside of school helps to alleviate this concern.

Here are some points you can consider sharing with your students at the start of each class, module, and/or unit. I’ve been discussing points like these at the start of each of my Zoom classes, and I have been including the information in module overviews.

• What skills are we working on?
• How do these skills play a role in the unit project (or in the class)?
• How do these skills compare to other skills we’ve learned in this class?
• How can these skills be used in other classes?
• How can these skills be used outside of school? (career-wise and just outside of school in general)
• Is there a specific example of another project that uses these skills? (such as the scholarship essay example I used)
• Is there a source that shows how important these skills are? (such as an article about ethics in the workplace)

-Nicole