Chapter 14 Case Studies

14.1 Using the Measures of Excellence in Evaluating a Résumé

14.2 Focusing on an Audience’s Needs and Interests

14.3 Revising a Questionnaire

14.4 Revising a Document for Nonnative Speakers and for Translation

14.5 Creating Appropriate Graphics To Accompany a Report

14.1 Using the Measures of Excellence in Evaluating a Résumé
Background
It is the first day of the semester, and the instructor in your
technical-communication class, Robin Shaftsbury, has asked for your assistance. Prof.
Shaftsbury is planning to invite five guest speakers to the classroom during the
semester to discuss topics such as the role of graphics in business documents, ethics in
the workplace, writing effective proposals, and delivering oral presentations.
“What I’d like your help with,” Prof. Shaftsbury says to you after class, “is the
presentation on job-application materials. The speaker is Matt Ito, the Director of the
Career Center.”
“How can I help?” you ask.
“I know that Matt has a standard presentation that he delivers in classes about the
process of preparing job-application materials, strategies for looking for work, and so
forth. But I spoke with him on the phone last week and asked him if he wouldn’t mind
tailoring the presentation to our course. He said he’d be happy to. So I’d like you to
meet with him and help him see what we’re doing in Chapter 1 of our text. Can you
figure out some way he can key his remarks to the ‘Measures of Excellence’ section
of the chapter?”
“How long do you want his presentation to be?” you ask.
“He said he could do 20 minutes, focusing on résumés, but if you’ve got ideas
for some kind of class activity after he leaves to fill out the 50 minutes, that’s fine.”
You tell Prof. Shaftsbury that you’ll get right on it. Later that day, you realize
that if you created a form for evaluating résumés, based on the measures of excellence,
you could show that to Mr. Ito before his presentation so that he could discuss it in
some detail. Then, if you had a representative résumé, you could develop a class
activity around it. You email Prof. Shaftsbury, who sends you a job ad (Document
14.1-1) and a student’s résumé sent in response to that ad (Document 14.1-2).

Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents,
complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like
you to submit your work.
1. Using a word processor, create a form, based on the measures of excellence
discussed in Chapter 1, that you can give to Mr. Ito to discuss and then to class
members to use in evaluating the résumé. Be sure the form is itself a model of
effective technical communication and that it prompts students to evaluate the résumé
according to each of the measures of excellence, that it gives class members space to
write comments, and that it enables students to use a numerical score to measure the
effectiveness of the résumé.
2. Using this form, evaluate the résumé.

Reflecting on Your Work

Once you’ve completed your assignment, write a reflection about your work
using the prompt below.
How effective was the evaluation form you created? Did it enable you to critique
the résumé as you wished? Exchange forms with a few classmates and critique the
usefulness of their forms. Then, using the text box below, write a paragraph or two
about the strengths and weaknesses of your form and about how you could improve it.
List at least two specific aspects of the form you would revise in order to make it a
better résumé evaluation tool.

Document 14.1-1 | Job Notice for Technical-Support Positions in Boise

Tech Support Positions (Boise)

Date: 2015-03-23, 2:40PM MDT
Hiring for Technical Support and Customer Service positions! VisionPerformance is
now hiring for Technical Support Representatives! Full-time positions are available.
Requirements:
 BA or BS in Computer Science or appropriate experience.
 Excellent communication skills.
 Attention to detail.
 Working knowledge of TCP/IP, LAN/WAN, VPN, TCP IP, and Network
environments
 Basic PC and Mac knowledge.
 Type 55+ wpm
 Customer service skills, call center experience a plus.

We offer medical, dental, and vision insurance just 30 days after employment, with
competitive wages, referral bonuses, 401(k), and lots more!
Apply online at <www.visionperformance.com/USA/Careers/Default.aspx> and click
on Apply Now!
Location: Boise
Compensation: $17.00 per hour
Document 14.1-2 | Résumé for Corey S. Kendall
14.2 Focusing on an Audience’s Needs and Interests

Background
“You’ve seen this?” Adriane Carpenter asks you.
You look at a report she has on her desk. “I haven’t,” you say.
“It’s a Pew survey on senior citizens and technology. Listen to this. More than
half of adults age 65 or older are online. A third use social media like Facebook and
LinkedIn. Seven in ten seniors own a cell phone. That’s up from 57 percent in 2011.”
Adriane is your supervisor at Genie Cellular, a cell-phone service provider,
where you’re a marketing intern. “How can I help?” you say. You’re still getting used
to Adriane’s style. She doesn’t come right out and tell you what she wants. She starts
talking and works toward it.
“Look at this,” she says, turning on a projector, which displays a screen from
the website of Great Call, a competing cell-phone provider. “And this,” she says,
pulling up another Great Call screen.
“I see,” you say, nodding your head, although you’re not exactly sure what
you’re supposed to be seeing.
“ These guys are clobbering us. Every market segment except seniors is
saturated. And these guys,” she says, her hand waving at the images projected on her
wall, “the stuff they’ve got for seniors—the phones, the apps, the plans, even the …
even this site—what are we going to have to do to get some of this?” She stops
talking, which means it’s time for you to figure out what she’s asking.
“Would you like me to take a look at the site, see what they’re doing?”
“Yeah, that’s a good idea,” Adriane says. “Get back to me, then. Okay?”
“Absolutely,” you say.
You go back to the office you share with a couple of other interns and start
looking around GreatCall.com. Adriane was right: everything about the site—from
the phones to the calling plans to the apps and the site itself—is designed to appeal to
the needs and interests of a single population: baby boomers, now in their sixties and
seventies. You send Adriane an email letting her know that you will send her a memo
about Great Call in a couple of days. She says that would be fine.
Explore GreatCall.com before beginning your assignment.

Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents,
complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like
you to submit your work.
Write a 800-word memo to Adriane Carpenter presenting your findings. What
techniques for appealing to the needs and interests of its audience does the Great Call
site demonstrate? Discuss the organization and design of the site, its use of graphics,
and its writing style.
14.3 Revising a Questionnaire
Background
You are the Director of Marketing for Yakima Properties, a real-estate company
that employs 18 agents and advertises approximately 100 residential properties at any
one time. The company advertises in the Saturday real-estate supplement in the local
newspaper and on its own website, presenting photographs and a description of each
of the properties. In addition, for properties that are advertised at a price of $750,000
and above, the company presents virtual 360° tours on the website. When Yakima
Properties began offering the virtual tours on its website two years ago, it contracted
with Edelson Custom Photography, a high-end photographic supplier, to provide both
the virtual tours and the traditional photographs of all the company’s properties.
Yakima’s contract with Edelson is about to expire.
In an attempt to determine if it is possible to cut costs, you have asked one of
your agents, Rachel Stevens, to research whether it would be possible to have the
real-estate agents take their own photographs of the properties they list. You ask
Rachel to sketch out how she would research the topic: “Write me an email listing the
questions we need to answer to know whether this idea would work, and how you’d
answer them.” Two days later, she sends you an email (Document 14.3-1).
You leave her a phone message: “Thanks, Rachel. Good to know that the
hardware is available and cheap. What I’d like you to think about now, however, is
what our agents would think about being asked to take their own pictures. How many
of the agents are experienced with taking digital photos? Do they have any
preferences about the kind of camera to get? Would they consider it an imposition to
have to take their own photos, or do they think the ability to shoot just what they
want—and have the photos available right away—outweighs the extra work we’d be
asking them to do? And keep in mind that, with 18 agents, you’re going to want to
choose types of questions that let us quantify the responses effectively.”
Rachel sends you an email saying that she’ll get on it, and the next day you
receive her response (Document 14.3-2). After studying it, you realize that you are
going to need to become more involved in carrying out this research. You know that
Rachel is a good worker who has a bright future with Yakima Properties, but she has
little experience writing questionnaires. You ask her if she would like you to critique
her five questions. She says yes.

Your Assignment
 Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and documents,
complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like
you to submit your work.
1. Write an email response to Rachel in which you thank her for her work but
explain the major flaw in each of the five questions.
2. Rachel receives your critique of her questions and asks if you wouldn’t mind
showing her how you would frame the questions. Write her an email in which you
present five questions meant to gather easy-to-quantify information about the agents’
experience and expertise using digital cameras and their attitudes toward your idea of
having them take their own photos of their properties. For each of the five questions,
include a one-paragraph statement explaining why the information the question is
intended to elicit is important, and why the question is likely to gather the necessary
information and be easy to quantify.

Reflecting on Your Work

Once you’ve completed your assignment, write a reflection about your work
using the prompt below.
Did you alter any of the new questions you wrote for Rachel after you started to
write your one-paragraph explanation for it? In the text box below, provide a few
specific examples of the ways in which your questions changed as you were forced to
explain the logic behind each of them. If your questions didn’t change, write a
paragraph reflecting on how, exactly, you developed the questions.

Document 14.3-1 Rachel’s Response to the Request for a List of Questions That Need to Be
Answered

To: [yourname]@yakimaproperties.com
From: [email protected]
Subject: camera research
I’ve had a chance to speak with Jill in Production, who said that it would be pretty easy to have our
agents do the stills. Almost any level of digital camera would work. We already have the image-editing
software, so that wouldn’t be a problem.
I checked online, and there’s all kinds of cameras at less than $200 that we could get. For instance, for
about $110, we could get a Nikon Coolpix 20-megapixel, with the following features:
• 20 megapixels, for pics up to 16 x 20 inches
• 5x optical/4x digital/20x total zoom
• 3.0-inch high-resolution LCD
• High ISO sensitivity (80-1600)
• Digital image stabilization
• 27 MB internal memory and three digital media card slots (SD, SDHC, SDXC)
There’s a good dozen companies offering similar products. And there’s no shortage of sites that sell these
packages.
Let me know if there’s anything else you need. I think we’re good to go.
Rachel

Document 14.3-2 Rachel’s Email Proposing Questions About Agents’ Skills and Attitudes

1. Do you feel comfortable using a digital camera? Why or why not?

2. Do you feel that it would be productive to send out the agents with digital cameras to take pictures of
the featured property?
A.) Strongly Agree B.) Agree C.) Neutral D.) Disagree E.) Strongly Disagree
3. What direction should the company go in terms of use of the digital camera for agents?
A.) The company should equip the agents to take pictures of real estate.
B.) The company should do more research on the cost effectiveness of every agent having a digital
camera.
C.) It would be a waste of resources to have the agents take pictures.
4. Do you feel that we should be having the agents take the pictures for our clients? Do you feel that it
would make the selling process more or less professional?
5. Please explain in a few paragraphs your usage and understanding of digital cameras.
14.4 Revising a Document for Nonnative Speakers and for Translation

Background
You are an assistant to Lucinda Emeretto, Division Manager for the U.S.
Transportation Security Administration (TSA) Office of Traveler Information. Ms.
Emeretto is in charge of communicating TSA policy to the public. She has an
assignment for you.
“Now that we’ve revised the policy for screening people with special religious
and cultural needs at airports, we need to turn the policy into clear information for
people abroad, as well as the millions of U.S. residents and citizens who are nonnative
speakers of English.”
“So we’re going to translate it?” you ask.
“Yes, we’re going to do about a dozen languages, but first we want to make it
as simple and easy to understand as possible. Translation is very expensive, and we
want to make sure we present the information as concisely as we can.
“It sounds as if we need to rethink the document in terms of who will be
reading it and how they’ll be using it.”
“Yes, that’s a good point. The original is a mix of policy statement and traveler
information. What I want you to do is make it a consumer guide. We’re talking to
people with special religious and cultural needs—and those who travel with them.
We’re going to put the information on our site for them to study before they travel,
and we’re going to have brochures at security checkpoints in the airports.”

Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and document,
complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like
you to submit your work.
1. Read the original statement Document 14.4-1. Then write a memo to Ms.
Emeretto explaining how you plan to approach the project and asking for her approval.
In light of the new audience and purpose for the information, should you delete any of
the information in the document? Do you need to add information? Is voice handled
appropriately in the information that you think should be retained? Which aspects of
sentence structure and word choice should you address?
2. Revise Document 14.4-1 according to the ideas you presented in your memo
to Ms. Emeretto.
Document 14.4-1 | Policy Statement Regarding Religious and Cultural
Needs

Religious and Cultural Needs

Our general security considerations for religious or cultural needs allow you
multiple options. If you do not want to go through the metal detector you may
request a personal search (pat-down inspection) as an alternative. You may also
ask the Security Officer for a private area for this personal search and will be
provided a Security Officer of the same gender. If you refuse appropriate
screening you will not be allowed to pass the security checkpoint and you will be
unable to board your plane.

Loose Fitting Garments

You are permitted to wear loose fitting or religious garments during the screening
process. You may be directed to additional screening if your clothing (religious
or otherwise) is loose fitting or large enough to hide prohibited items. If you are
directed by the security officer to proceed to additional screening, then you will
undergo a combination of hand-wand screening and/or pat-down inspections that
could include any portion of the body and head area that requires further
examination.
At any time during the screening process, you may request that screening of your
person or property take place in a private screening area. It is our policy that
passengers should be screened by a Security Officer of the same gender.

Head Coverings
On August 4, 2007, TSA implemented revisions to its screening procedures for
head coverings. TSA does not conduct ethnic or religious profiling, and employs
multiple checks and balances to ensure profiling does not happen.
All members of the traveling public are permitted to wear head coverings
(whether religious or not) through the security checkpoints. The new standard
procedures subject all persons wearing head coverings to the possibility of
additional security screening, which may include a pat-down search of the head
covering. Individuals may be referred for additional screening if the security
officer cannot reasonably determine that the head area is free of a detectable
threat item. If the issue cannot be resolved through a pat-down search, the
individual will be offered the opportunity to remove the head covering in a
private screening area.
TSA's security procedures, including the procedures for screening head
coverings, are designed to ensure the security of the traveling public. These
procedures are part of TSA's multi-layered approach to security screening.

Religious, Cultural, or Ceremonial Items

Religious knives, swords and other objects similar to the one on the right, are not
permitted through the security checkpoint. We advise you to place such items in
your checked baggage.

You may request a hand-inspection from our Security Officers for your religious,
cultural or ceremonial items. If the item is prohibited from the cabin of the
aircraft you will be asked to place the item in your checked baggage. If the item
is delicate, fragile or special handling is otherwise required please let the
Security Officer know so that he or she can handle the item accordingly.

Source:U.S. Transportation Security Administration, 2012: www.tsa.gov/traveler-information/religious-and-cultural-needs.

14.4 Creating Appropriate Graphics To Accompany a Report
Background
In the last year, three young drivers in your state have been killed in car
accidents caused in part by the drivers’ use of cell phones. Two of the three were
texting at the time of the crashes. The news of these three deaths has prompted Harold
McInness, a member of the state legislature, to introduce legislation that would
restrict cell-phone use while driving. Specifically, Rep. McInness wishes to ban
texting by all drivers and to ban the use of handheld cell phones by all drivers who are
not yet 21 years old.
You work as an assistant to the Insurance Commissioner of your state, Felicia
Ortiz. The Insurance Commissioner has a number of responsibilities, including
overseeing the insurance companies that operate in your state and advising the state
legislature on legal matters related to the insurance industry. Ms. Ortiz has received a
call from Representative McInness, requesting research assistance in support of his
draft legislation.
“Representative McInness called me because the insurance industry has been
very active in conducting research into all aspects of traffic safety,” Ms. Ortiz tells
you. “I would like you to get some current data on how using cell phones while
driving affects driving ability and relates to accident statistics. Representative
McInness wants to be able to use these data in a report to the Transportation
Subcommittee, which he chairs.”
You spend an afternoon on the web, searching for information. You find a lot of
good information from federal government agencies, reputable polling organizations,
and insurance researchers. You present this information to Ms. Ortiz (Document
14.5-1).
“Okay,” she tells you after she has had a chance to look at your draft. “Thanks
very much for gathering these facts. Two things I want to point out right away. One, I
think the top-10 list sends the wrong message. This is a serious subject, and we want
to be sure to show that we take it very seriously. And two, you’ve got 11 facts here.”
“I understand,” you say. “I’ve got an extra one in case you want to drop one of
them.”
“I want to make sure we’re giving Representative McInness the data he needs.
It’s better to have good data than a lot of data. So you might want to pare this list
down to facts that relate clearly and directly to the dangers of using a cell phone while
driving. Second, I’d like to think about whether it would be easier to understand if
some of the facts were communicated graphically rather than in words.”

Your Assignment
Once you’ve familiarized yourself with the case background and document,
complete the assignment below. Your instructor will tell you how he or she would like
you to submit your work.
1. Thoroughly revise and edit the list in Document 14.5-1. First, eliminate any
facts that do not clearly relate to the specific topic. Second, arrange the items in a
logical sequence by grouping them appropriately . After each item in your new list,
write a paragraph on whether the item should be communicated in words or in one or
more graphics. If you propose that an item be communicated in a graphic, indicate the
type of graphic (such as a pie chart, table, or line graph), and justify your decision.
Your final list should include at least seven items and recommend at least five types of
graphics.
2. Present to the class the list of facts and formats you prepared for Assignment
1.
Document 14.5-1 | Top 10 Facts About Cell Phones and Driving
1. Of all adult drivers who own a cell phone, 10 percent say they talk on the phone
while driving “all the time,” 62 percent say “sometimes,” and 28 percent say “never.”
2. An Australian study showed that cell-phone use while driving was associated with
slightly more than a fourfold increase in crash risk (odds ratio 4:1).
3. Talking on the phone while driving differs depending on the age of the driver. Of
the Echo Boomers (age 18–32), 83 percent report that they at least sometimes talk on
the phone while driving. Of the Gen X (age 33–44), 85 percent. Of the Baby Boomers
(age 45–63), 70 percent. Of the Matures (64+), 42 percent.
4. Sending and receiving text messages while driving is relatively rare: only 5 percent
of all drivers who have a cell phone report that they do so “all the time,” 22 percent
report “sometimes,” and 74 percent report “never.”
5. A review of 84 studies of the impact of cell-phone use on driving performance
concluded that whereas cell-phone use has only a small or moderate impact on
driving-performance measures such as driving speed, lane position, and various other
measures of vehicle control, it significantly slows the driver’s speed of reaction to
critical events (by 0.23 second).
6. In 1990, there were 5 million wireless subscribers. Today, there are more than 270
million wireless subscribers in the United States.
7. Of those drivers who use cell phones while driving, most think that doing so is
dangerous (26 percent “very dangerous,” 24 percent “dangerous,” 33 percent
“somewhat dangerous,” 16 percent “slightly dangerous”). Only 2 percent think it is
“not dangerous at all.”
8. The #1 outlandish multitasking episode reported by a driver (a Gen Y female from
Texas): she reported that she had shaved her legs, eaten a taco, put on make-up, and
drunk alcohol at the same time as driving.
9. According to an insurance poll, 78.8 percent of people said they have been a
passenger in a car that was being driven by a driver who was not giving his or her full
attention to driving.
10. The states of California, Connecticut, New Jersey, New York, and Washington,
plus the District of Columbia, outlaw the use of handheld phones while driving.
Alaska, Louisiana, Minnesota, New Jersey, Washington, and the District of Columbia
prohibit all drivers from text messaging while driving. Seventeen states also have
laws that prohibit young drivers—drivers under the age of 18 in some cases, drivers
with learner’s permits or provisional licenses in other cases—from using any kind of
cell phone (whether handheld or hands-free) while driving.
11. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimated that at
any given time, 6 percent of drivers nation wide were holding a cell phone to their ear.