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Joseph Stanchek

ENG 202
11/16/2018
English Final Project

Interview Questions

1. How did you get involved with electrical-engineering?


-I grew up in a town called Forty-Fort Pennsylvania which is just outside of Wilkes Barre
where there is nothing to do so I used to play with electronics and work in my workshop on
new projects that I could do. It was an easy transition on earning a degree at King’s College
up where I lived.
2. What communication types do you use throughout the day?
-I usually spend most of my day in meetings, emails to the manufacturing factories of
Technicolor in Thailand. Mostly everyone speaks English that I talk to. I also Have learned
some other languages while visiting on jobs. Even though the majority speak English you do
see the way the speak come out differently through their written communication. You tend to
sometimes see broken English sentences due to the way their sentence structure changes.
You tend to get used to it though pretty quickly with constant communication.
3. What type of emails do you receive from your coworkers?
- I receive a ton of memos and written plans to my coworkers. I am a manager of electrical
engineers who works on projects for comcast and other audio-visual needs through
making processor chips and wireless Bluetooth modules for my company. These large-
scale projects need constant updates on what is being completed to make sure the
timelines are being met for these multi million dollars contracts with other companies.
4. How does communication now differ from 20 years ago within a business?
You saw a huge change through the access of a cellular device and also the invention of
instant messaging and Emails. Being able to communicate without having to call or fax
someone information allowed us to work more efficiently on a day to day basis. Also, being
able to use a smartphone to communicate at any time also allows use to communicate at a
more efficient rate.
5. How did your communication style change when you moved to higher positions within a
company?
- With higher positions you tend to write less documentation to people below you. You
tend to write more often about progress reports. Response to issues and to other
businesses becomes more prominent. The lower in the company you are you actually tend
to be doing more of the actual work for the company. It is very important though to
higher up management to oversee and communicate with the teams though about changes
to plans, project deadlines and contract information on what is needed. You also need to
be more polished when writing higher up employees.
6. How do you tackle hard businesses issues when the majority of communication is
written?
- You first need to see what the problem is. Is it something contractual or is it something to
do with the manufacturing and dev of the products. If it is bad news to a company
contracting us, you need to be extremely polished and communicative about what is
going on. Leaving them in the dark is going to help anyone. If it is to my team, you can
send a laxer email about what is going on. You don’t have to coddle the reader of your
email.
7. What type of documentation is made for contracts with other businesses?
We create a lot of service license agreements for other companies and us. We sell a lot of
pieces that going into things like cable boxes and cell phones so these legal documents are
important. We also Have patenting done for the A.V. work we do for our products. It is
important to do this as no one can steal your products.
8. What problems do you deal with that require written communication to someone?
I tend to need to talk to the manufacturing plants in Taiwan and China to fix what is going on
and to create plans with chief engineers through emails and also actual schematics being
mailed to them about how to make changes to the process. I also need to talk to my bosses
who direct the development department to talk about what is going on to see if changes to be
made in timelines.
9. How far globally do you communicate with people for business?
Besides Taiwan and China, I have also done business in England, New Zealand, and Japan
for work over the years.
10. How did your communication in the workplace change when you switched from
Panasonic.
- At Panasonic the company was so big and on a globular scale, you needed to make sure
that you were on your A game for emails and even the time of responding to emails? At
Technicolor, it is more about resolving issues as I have a more hands on team. I talk to
about twenty usual people per day within the company through messaging and emails for
the company.
Metacognitive Essay

After reviewing the audio and interview context I have come across a couple patterns and
moves that made a big difference to how the interview was performed. Because this interview
was with someone, I have only met through an email conversation before the interview, I wanted
to make a great first impression to him. This was achieved by dressing nicely when going to the
interview and also starting off with a firm handshake with the interviewee.

The beginning of the interview started off pretty smoothly and I decided to start of asking
Mark about his who he was and his background in Electrical Engineering and also where he
grew up. This was a little off script as I wanted to jump straight into the meat of the interview but
thought that breaking the ice would result in laxing him and also creating a better answer. He
went on for about five or so minutes about talking about his time in forty fort and also how he
decided to get into engineering. I thought I did a good job of transitioning form talking about
himself into electrical engineering by asking his schooling. This made him very comfortable to
talk about the information about his job and more open about the questions next to come.

I believe I struggled a little bit with time management as I tended to ask a lot of small
questions about his life which resulted in spending around ten minutes of a thirty-minute
interview on questions not related to the subject at hand. I made a slight move to pull out my
question sheet with my pen pad which was a slick way to make him feel like the real work was
about to start with the interview. I felt like the first question “What communication types do you
use throughout the day?” left more to be desired from him from his response. I felt like I
transitioned it better though when I thought of the question to ask specifically about his
communication with people who speak English but is not their first language. This brought out a
true response that a lot of times that the people he is in contact with don’t always know perfect
English which changes the way he must approach speaking to these people.

When talking about emails throughout the workplace, I thought the interviewee did a
great job of giving me a diverse understanding of the types of textual genres he used in a day. I
now wish I had prodded more about them though and spent more time on these specifically. He
tended to drag on about memos as if they were a necessary bother to him in the e workplace s, he
is a man who fixes many issues within the workplace. I decided to make a memo in response to
this as one of textual genres for the project.
One of the major moves I like to do when interviewing someone is to ask a question and
see how the interviewee responds immediately to the question. You can see how excited they are
about the subject once you talk to them about it. This will lead me to keep this question short or
to drag it out to hear some useful information about the subject. The major question I ended up
spending a good amount of time was when I asked him about “How does communication now
differ from 20 years ago within a business”. The interviewee really enjoyed this question as he
started to talk about his original job with IBM in which faxing was a main source of textual
communication within and to other companies.

I decided to role with this question and branch off by transitioning to cell phones and how
they have changed the landscape of how communication is done within the workplace. This was
a good question to ask specifically to the person I was interviewing because he has been in the
same business through the different technological eras in the past three decades. I would have not
asked this question if I did not do any background research about him and knowing that he was
very tenured.

The question I felt that kind of ended up flat was when I asked a question was “9. How
far globally do you communicate with people for business? I felt if I were to redo the interview, I
could have used this as a move earlier when talking about the different ways he needed to talk to
others in different countries. This was a result of not using my whole playbook and sticking to
the script a little bit too much.

All in all, I felt like the interview was very positive. The person I interviewed was
extremely happy to help and also thought my questions were thoughtful and showed that I did
my homework about him. I feel like I accomplished my job in the interview in talking about
different types of communication in the workplace without diverting too much from the task at
hand.
Contextual Genres

1.

Exigence: The company who is expecting a shipment of Bluetooth modules for their speakers is
late and Sara is requesting information about why they’re late and when they should expect to
get them in for their products. Sara and Mark know each other from working with each other as
contacts for both companies.

Writer: Sara from Bose Speakers. She works in distribution and development for the company to
make sure the components they need arrive on time

Primary Intended Audience: Mark from Technicolor. His job is to resolve manufacturing issues
of internal components.

Secondary Intended Audience: NA

Author’s Purpose / Goal: To communicate with the company who produces these chips so they
can get them for their speakers before the Christmas season.

Context Background: The companies work together to manufacture electronics and for
Technicolor, this contract is a huge portion of their business and keeping them happy is very
important to financial success for them. It is also important to know that Sara and Mark are
familiar acquaintances between the two companies when they need to work with each other. Commented [ZDP1]: Ah ha, so they DO know each other!
A couple of thoughts

1, Why didn’t you state this as context/background info in


TG1?
Subject: Bose Bluetooth Modules Delayed Shipment 2, They don’t seem to be communicating with each other
like they’re familiar colleagues. I’d expect to see a quick,
Hi Mark, opening “catch up” line to start off on a positive note.

E.g.: (for TG1)


We are a little concerned with the delayed shipment of our Bluetooth 2.0 modules and not
Hi Mark,
making out new release window for the smart speak we are releasing next month. The item is
I hope your production team is successfully processing
releasing December 15th this year and we need these chips three weeks before for the orders in the lead-up to the holiday rush.
construction of the product. If you can send me a report on the status of the production of the
Bluetooth modules that would be much appreciated. I am also going to look over the
ramifications that may need to be taken if the shipment times do not match the Service License
Agreement.
I hope to hear from you soon with an answer to our problems. The situation usually is not an
issue but due to our tight window and having delayed shipments from your company in the past,
I need to make sure this is taken care of. This is an urgent matter so if you can contact me
through email or by phone by the next business day, it would be greatly appreciated.

Best,

Sara Broccoli
Production Manager | Bose Sound Corp.
321-456-6542 | www.bose.com | sarabroccoli@gmail.com
1234 Bose Ave. Philadelphia Pa, 19027

Reflection:
I wanted to bring out a calm but pressured tone for the larger company that needs a
Technicolor’s products desperately. This company has all the power in this relationship due to
the massive orders the purchase and their market share. To bring out a sense of urgency I tried to
incorporate words like “tight window” and “urgent matter” this helps the target audience feel the
sweat from the company and the reliance on Technicolor. I also wanted to make sure that
specific dates were given through the email to better put in writing what here expectations will
be to resolve her issues. I decided to bring up the service licensing agreement to show that this
matter is urgent even though these is s slight buffer added to the SLA.
2.

Exigence: This is a response letter to Sara from Bose about how the shipment issues will be
fixed. This is the second shipment issue that has happened so mark from technicolor needs to be
extra outgoing to resolve these issues within the work.
Writer: Mark
Primary Intended Audience: Sara
Secondary Intended Audience: Bose Employees

Author’s Purpose / Goal: Clear up any issues Sara may have about their order and to give
information about when they can expect these items to be shipped to the company.

Context Background: This is the second times there has been a manufacturing issue for the
company Technicolor. It is also important to know that Sara and Mark are familiar acquaintances
between the two companies when they need to work with each other.

Hi Sara,

I am sorry about the issues you are having once again with Technicolor and our shipments of
products. First things first, I want to assure you that we will be able to meet your deadlines for
what you are asking. Our main issue was that are 10 nanometer processor factories in Taiwan
recently had an awful hurricane and caused large scale damage to the machines that make the
wireless connectivity chips we create for your product. We have had staff working diligently to
get the full factory operational again to produce the delicate environment necessary for the
production of these electrical components.

We are expected to be running up again within two days which would be Tuesday November 7th.
If you refer to the Service License Agreement we created together, there is a one-week buffer
period added to the normal deadlines for any arising issues. Because of this buffer your product
will be shipped within your target period and you will hopefully have the hottest items coming
this holiday season.

I will be sure to email you with any new information about our production status as necessary. I
also wanted to say I am very sorry that this is your second time dealing with a delayed shipment.
I hope you will return to us after our contractual obligation to do more business between our
companies.

Thank you for your business,


Mark Lollipop
Electrical Engineer Manager | Technicolor Corp.
987-654-1234 | www.technicolor.com | marklollipop@gmail.com
8432 Street rd. Abington Pa, 19010

As the writer, I wanted to come out early and assure the representative of the company that this
issue is being resolved as quickly as possible. I used words like “first things first” to set the
mood straight into business as this is a major business email. I wanted to make sure the reader
felt disarmed from any possibility this is a major issue right away. Next is to explain the issue at
hand and to make sure you can give specifics on timeframe for the company that is spending
millions of dollars for your products. I also wanted to bring out the idea that these products are
extremely hard to produce by talking about the conditions necessary to make the products by
using words like “delicate environment”. Throughout the whole time I thought it was important
to be sincere and show that the company was doing everything in their power to fix the situation
and to regain the company and the readers trust in them.
Memo

3.

Exigence: There is an urgent issue with the metallurgy plant who sends the gold plating over for
the electronics manufacturing to be done. They need to find a metal with enough conductivity to
be able to replace gold at a similar pricing. The vice president needs to send out a memo to let
everyone know of the issue so that a fix can start to be worked on.

Writer: Rick Sanchez VP of Technicolor

Primary Intended Audience: All development employees

Secondary Intended Audience: NA

Author’s Purpose / Goal: To resolve an issue of not having enough gold to manufacture the chips
necessary to meet deadlines

Context Background: Most wiring and electronics have gold plating on them to create higher
possible transmission speeds through a cable the conductivity allows it to be really good for
electronics.

Subject: Potential Gold Shortage for Production

Issue: The Taiwan team has informed us that the hurricane that recently hit the area has called
gold shipments to the metallurgy plant to halt. There is a need to find a suitable gold alloy
replacement with a similar conductivity that will allow us to continue creating cables for 4k
passthrough. All work will be currently halted and we need all hands-on deck to find the best
solutions as quickly as possible. If you have any suggestions of what can be used please let one
of your supervisors know so we can fix this issue before we start missing deadlines.

Thank you again for all your hard work,

Rick Sanchez,
VP Of Technicolor | Technicolor Corp.
789-654-1231 | www.technicolor.com | ricksanchez@gmail.com
8432 Street rd. Abington Pa, 19010

Not knowing how to make a memo left this hard to create. I did some background research with
using one of the memos I was given from the interviewee to generally base my work on it. I felt
like a memo should be relatively short in all and would leave a more face to face approach to get
most of the work done for this project. There will also be follow up emails with information to
and fro about how to go about replacing the plating on the cabling.
4.

Exigence: A small customer who has received his processors is not happy with the replacement
of gold to silver plating on his high-end HDMI cords he purchased from Technicolor. He is
looking to either return the items or get the products described that he paid for.

Writer: Johnny Applebottom

Primary Intended Audience: Mark Lollipop

Secondary Intended Audience: Customer Support

Author’s Purpose / Goal: To resolve an issue of receiving a product that is not as described and
also inferior to the one paid for. He is looking for a refund or the correct product to be sent to
him. This is a general claim.

Context Background: Most wiring and electronics have gold plating on them to create higher
possible transmission speeds through a cable the conductivity allows it to be really good for
electronics. Cheaper metals tend to leave a grainy picture on the screen when using high end
televisions.

Subject: HDMI Cable Return/ Replacement Request

Dear Mark Lollipop,

My name is Johnny Applebottom and I recently purchase three of your high-performance HDMI
cords for my 4k television. I was extremely excited for them to arrive only to be disappointed to
see the plating on the cables has been changed to a cheaper silver plating. For the price I paid for
the cables, I expected these to be as described.

I turned to your company after hearing great reviews of your products but am sincerely
disappointed about my experience so far with the company and what I was sent. After trying to
find someone within the company who actually has an answer about my issue you, I found your
name online and you are head of production so I wanted to figure out why these are now made
cheaper than before. I would like to request the product I paid for or return these items if
replacing them with the correct ones is not possible.
The order number was order number:987654321654 and was ordered on 11/10/2018. If there is
any other information you would like me to send over please let me know.

I look forward to your answer,

Johnny Applebottom,
Technician | AV Tech Solutions
465-321-6532 | www.avtechsolutions.com | johnnyapplebottom@gmail.com
999 Brooklyn Ave. New York, NY 86543

As a disappointed customer, I wanted to convey my displeasure for not receiving what I paid for.
I felt like there is a fine line from losing your shit on the company and being informatively pissed
off. In dealing with a lot of returns through my normal job, I thought it was important to leave
details like the product information, transaction number and date ordered. I also wanted to start
with showing my enthusiasm for the correct product by using words like extremely excited and
high-performance to show that I have a real interest in their services. I also wanted to talk about
how I was looking for real help as I researched the company to find this man, Mark to actually
know why the products is not as advertised. If I went through the normal customer service, I
probably gotten a fluff bs answer.
5.

Exigence: A formal adjustment to the complaint of the change in quality of the HDMI cables
purchased by the customer. It is necessary to calm the customer down, try to resolve his issues,
and also try to pull him in as a reoccurring customer.

Writer: Mark Lollipop

Primary Intended Audience: Johnny Applebottom

Secondary Intended Audience: NA

Author’s Purpose / Goal: To resolve an issue of receiving a product that is not as described and
also appease the customer any way he can. It is important to resolve the issue and also try to
make him a customer that trusts your brand.

Context Background: Due to manufacturing issues the plating on HDMI cords has been
temporarily replaced to silver until the gold plating is able to come in once the factory is able to
ship it to them.

Subject: HDMI Cable Return/ Replacement Request

Dear Johnny Applebottom,

I am sorry that you are not happy with your recent purchase of your 4k HDMI cord of order
number# 987654321654. We at Technicolor have had to make some temporary changes to silver
plating until our gold distributor is able resolve their metallurgy issues. This is not a normal
occurrence and had to make some changes to keep our deadlines in order. We plan to change
back to our normal cabling as soon as we are able to obtain the products necessary to fix the
issues at hand.

The change in picture quality is minimal when changed to silver but an aficionado as yourself
demands and deserves the best from our company. We have some leftover stock from before the
change occurred to silver plating on the wires and would be happy to ship you out replacement
cables as soon as possible. You are also allowed to keep the originals to create as little work
possible to you to correct the issues with your product.
Technicolor also would like to give you a promo code for twenty percent off any future order to
hope you will use our product. If you have any other concerns please let me or any other staff
member on our customer service team know and we will be sure to help out as much as possible
for our loyal customers.

Thank you for your business,

Mark Lollipop
Electrical Engineer Manager | Technicolor Corp.
987-654-1234 | www.technicolor.com | marklollipop@gmail.com
8432 Street rd. Abington Pa, 19010

This email to an angry customer is a tough piece to write. My main goal in this email was to
retain the customer while also fixing his current issue. Right off the bat, I try to disarm the
customer by saying that I am sorry for his issues. This helps in my mind make the reader feel like
his voice is being heard. When talking to the interviewee, He brought up a lot of his time is spent
fixing messes with the company with large customers and also businesses. This is very important
to convey in the message to make it authentic as possible. I also thought adding a promo code for
a discount is a great way to attract the buyer from leaving the company and to purchase from
technicolor again.
6.

Exigence: Request to upper bosses for an additional employee to add to his staff. They are
currently over their head in projects without additional support.

Writer: Mark Lollipop

Primary Intended Audience: Rick Sanchez VP OF Technicolor

Secondary Intended Audience: Other Major Bosses

Author’s Purpose / Goal: To request an additional associate for the development team

Context Background: six months before the company lost an employee and has yet to fill a
position within the company. The company bosses do not realize the position not being filled is
causing delays in productivity due to the staffing being shorthanded. The manager of the
production, Mark, is asking for an additional employee to help spread the workload out for
everyone.

Subject: Technicolor Production Team Employment Request

Dear Mr. Sanchez,

I Am Mark Lollipop from your electrical engineering production team here at Technicolor. I am
writing you to request the permission to seek a proper replacement for Tom Deflator, an engineer
on my team who left six months ago to move the New England area.

After the unfortunate departure of Tom, we were lucky to have a smaller plate of projects to
work on six months ago, but recently we have been working on some very large-scale projects
and are becoming over encumbered with the duties presented to us at the moment. With the help
of the HR department, I would like us to possible find a suitable replacement for Tom so that
Technicolor can work at full efficiency.

With the type of work Tom was working on, it would be important to have someone with at least
five years of experience and an intern would not work for the type of high-level projects we are
taking on now with our larger clients like Bose and Samsung. To keep these larger companies
happy, our deadlines need to be met to keep Technicolor as financially successful as possible.
After considering all of our options, I believe this to be the best course of action and hope you
and your upper associates will too. Please let me know if there is any other information you may
need and I hope to hear from you soon about your decision on the matter.

Thanks again for your time,

Mark Lollipop
Electrical Engineer Manager | Technicolor Corp.
987-654-1234 | www.technicolor.com | marklollipop@gmail.com
8432 Street rd. Abington Pa, 19010

With something such as a request to upper management, I wanted to come out and formally say
who I was to the boss. Within such a large company it is hard for someone who deals with so
many people to know every single person he staffs. I wanted also to explain the issue about tom
deflator leaving. I felt if I showed that we were technically understaffed at the moment, the boss
would understand why there were production issues and that these issues are not being caused by
a poor current staff. I also wanted to show my loyalty for the company by talking about how I
want the company to succeed and be financially successful. I thought this was kind of important
as to not seem like I just want less work to do day to day. I in the last paragraph wanted to make
sure that I would like to help with the process as much as possible. I also brought up HR as to
make this seem more realistic as it is usually a tandem effort of team leaders and HR who
actually make hiring decisions.
Z. De Piero
202D Business Writing, F’18
Joseph Stanchek

Rubric for 202D Final Project


Rubric for Rhetorical Situations

Did Not Meet Met Exceeded


Expectations Expectations Expectations

Company Profile

Have you you provided relevant background information


to help bring your organization to life? What’s the name
of this organization/company? What’s their field,
industry, or “line of work”? Where are they
located? Who is their clientele?

Exigence

What prompted the writer’s need to communicate? What’s


the urgency behind the need to enact this particular
genre? Why this, why now?

Writer

Who is the writer? What’s their name, what


organization/company are they affiliated with, and what’s
their role/position?

Audience (Primary and Peripheral)

Who is the intended/primary audience for this


genre? What’s their name, what organization/company
are they affiliated with, and what’s their position/role?

Additionally, what other peripheral/secondary audiences


might play a role in how we can understand this
genre? Might other people be interested in the message
that’s being communicated? Could the writer have
additional people in mind beyond the specific person(s)
that they’ve contacted?

Purpose
What’s the writer’s goal? Is it realistic? Have they
identified a concrete, actionable outcome that they’re
hoping to achieve?

Context / Background Info

What additional information is necessary to make the


most sense of this rhetorical situation? Do the writer and
their audience have a “history” of sorts? Is there an
upcoming deadline? Has a company’s policy or personnel
recently gone through changes? Is there a current “hot
topic” that’s circulating throughout the news cycle that
makes this communication more urgent?

Notes and Score (X/7.5)

Rubric for Textual Genres

Did Not Meet Met Exceeded


Expectations Expectations Expectations

Genre Identification

Did you (accurately) name/identify each unique genre


that you enacted?

Alignment with the Rhetorical Situation

Does the genre that you created/enacted accurately


reflect the rhetorical situation (for each genre) that you
laid out?

Genre-Specific Conventions

To what extent did each textual genre include its most


important conventions? Remember: when we think of
“conventions,” we think of the unique characteristics,
features, patterns, or ingredients of a particular
genre. (e.g. a sspecific subject or an e-signature line for
an email)

Rhetorical Strategies
Has the writer used various rhetorical strategies to
persuade their reader/audience in the most effective
way possible? From jargon (technical terminology), to
particular details (e.g. the specific amount of $ due for
a claim; timelines for a call to action), to
communication with internal vs. external audiences,
have you (the student) brought each genre “to life” in
realistic ways with your language-based decisions?

Organization/Structure

Is the writer’s communication organized/structured in


a clear and logical manner? Does the organizational
strategy best suppor the writer’s goals of each particular
genre?

Mechanics + Punctuation

Have you demonstrated a control of mechanics and


punctuation? Are you using complete sentences (unless
intentionally avoiding them for stylistic reasons)?

Notes and Score (X/15)

Rubric for “Metacognitive Moves” Reflection

Did Not Meet Met Exceeded


Expectations Expectations Expectations

Focus on “Moves”

What writerly decisions did you make in this project? Did


you identify numerous, conseequential “moves” that you
made for this project? Did you articulate what you did
and why you did it? (Or didn’t do it?) do that

Examples of “Moves”
Is your analysis of your moves connected to your
language? Have you quoted yourself to provide concrete
examples?

Learning and Insights

The whole point of engaging in a metcaognitive reflection


(like this) is to better understand what you’re learning and
to communicate that with others. What insights are you
gaining about written communication? About language?
About rhetorical situations? About genre? Ahout
organizational structures?

Interview

Think back to your interview. How/when/where/why


did you draw from insights that came out of your
interview? Indicate how your interview informed this 202d
project.

Connection to Assigned Readings

Per the syllabus, did you make specific connections to


our assigned course readings? What ideas, concepts, or
strategies informed your project? I’d like to see you
paraphrase and “quote” at least 5 different times from at
least 3 different readings/chapters.!

Notes and Score (X/15)

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