{"id":19027,"date":"2019-02-13T10:19:59","date_gmt":"2019-02-13T15:19:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/community.macmillan.com\/community\/the-english-community\/bedford-bits\/blog\/2019\/02\/13\/inspiration-in-letters-of-note"},"modified":"2019-02-13T10:19:59","modified_gmt":"2019-02-13T15:19:59","slug":"inspiration-in-letters-of-note","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/2019\/02\/13\/inspiration-in-letters-of-note\/","title":{"rendered":"Inspiration in Letters of Note"},"content":{"rendered":"

This week, I have a short post on a great resource (and one related class activity) that I found on Twitter as I was reading through messages with the #womeninTC hashtag<\/a>. The TC<\/em> stands for Technical Communication. The hashtag is a great source of ideas, articles, and support for those of us who teach technical writing.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s the Tweet from Dr. Amelia Cheley (@plaidsicle)<\/a> that inspired this post, with a transcript following:<\/p>\n

\"Image<\/a><\/p>\n

Transcript, with capitalization consistent with the original:<\/p>\n

\n

dr. amelia chesley (@plaidsicle): for the first day of class this week, I had my tech com students analyze several random, real memos (including this one lettersofnote.com\/2010\/08\/star-t…<\/a>) and then each compose a random, imaginary memo themselves. I am loving what they’ve come up with so far! #womenintc [3:26 PM 16 Jan 2019]<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The activity sounded like fun, so I immediately clicked through to see the STAR TREK\/Casting<\/a> memo. Not only did I find an entertaining memo, but I was sucked into the website\u2019s assortment of letters, memos, and other notes from the famous, the infamous, and the unknown. It is a rich collection of primary material that could be used in many classes, not just in technical writing.<\/p>\n

My imagination is spinning with the options. I\u2019m sure I will have some specific writing activities to share in the coming weeks, but for now, I\u2019m going to end with a list of ten favorites from the site:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. SEVEN LITTLE MEN HELP A GIRL<\/a><\/li>\n
  2. Subject: Toilet Paper<\/a><\/li>\n
  3. SPECIAL INSTRUCTIONS TO PLAYERS<\/a><\/li>\n
  4. Gee whiz, that master alarm certainly startled me<\/a><\/li>\n
  5. On bureaucratese and gobbledygook<\/a><\/li>\n
  6. IN EVENT OF MOON DISASTER<\/a><\/li>\n
  7. Is there a space program which we could win?<\/a><\/li>\n
  8. The Tiger Oil Memos<\/a><\/li>\n
  9. To All Potty-Mouthed Inbetweeners<\/a><\/li>\n
  10. I was ready to sink into the earth with shame<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    As you wander through the site, I am sure you will find something entertaining. Let me know what you find, and share any ideas you have for using the site. Just leave me a comment below.<\/p>\n

    This post originally published on the Bedford Bits blog.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    This week, I have a short post on a great resource (and one related class activity) that I found on Twitter as I was reading through messages with the #womeninTC hashtag. The TC stands for Technical Communication. The hashtag is a great source of ideas, articles, and support for those of us who teach technical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[561,37,560],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-19027","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-activity-idea-english","category-bedford-bits","category-technical-writing"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pqzI8-4WT","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19027","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19027"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19027\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19027"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19027"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tengrrl.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19027"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}