Luke Blackney Professor: Dana Cox ENGL 2116 9/4/2011

Getting Acquainted
Introduction: This report will detail what I have learned about my group members and how that experience is useful. During this report, I am going to explain how our expectations and hopes for this technical writing course compare with each other and other aspects of our professional experience. Following that I will discuss the variety in our personal lives. Finally I will explain in what ways we have discovered that we are similar. There is much to accomplish throughout the term of a semester, not the least of which is to get to know your peers and foster a good working relationship. As the semester has progressed since the first couple of weeks of school and through this getting acquainted project, I have learned a lot about the members in my workgroup. What I have learned deals with the personal as well and the professional aspects of their lives but it can be summed up by saying that all three of us are very different and diverse, but there are also many similarities between us. Our Professional Experience: On the first day of class, we were challenged to determine the various expectations and hopes for a technical writing class. Not surprisingly, my team members and I came up with very similar responses. We expected that the class would cover how to compose and how to deliver many forms of professional writing and also that resume writing would be involved. We all expected to be writing a great deal of material, thereby providing a means to accomplish one of our collective primary hopes for the course: to become a proficient technical writer. Although our interests in implementing this writing ability spanned different fields of specialization to include engineering and health communication, the ultimate goal was the same. Our Personal Experience: In a more personal sense, my group is very diverse in many areas including background, interest, and aspirations. Though my group has only three members, it represents a great crosssection of the student population at UNCC. For example, I am a traditional student, born in Charlotte, who is pursuing a civil engineering degree, while my two other groups members are non-traditional students, born in Haiti and the United States, who have had careers in culinary arts and construction general contracting, respectively. To illustrate the differences between our group and as well as a portion of the class, I have conducted a simple poll of favorite colors which is shown in figure 1-1 and figure 1-2:
Color blue green yellow fuschia Total Number 1 2 1 1 5

Figure 1.1

Luke Blackney Professor: Dana Cox ENGL 2116 9/4/2011

Favorite Colors
3 2 1 1 1

2
1 0

blue

green

yellow

fuschia

Figure 1.2 What It Means: It is shown that among five students polled, four different colors were given. This is interesting that it displays a small microcosm of the truth that we have many differences but also many similarities, as shown that of five people, still two people have the same favorite color, as opposed to all five having a different one. Similarities: Despite all of our differences, it is true that we found many similarities amongst ourselves. We all seem to have a penchant for food and love indulging in (and in some cases preparing) various cuisines. Another common interest among us is that we all love to travel and hope to someday be able to travel across the country and also the world. We are all very invested in our college careers and are excited to learn and apply everything we can in our studies especially in the context of technical writing. Conclusion: Throughout the course of this project, I have come to know my group members better and can appreciate the differences and similarities that make us who we are. We can use this knowledge to understand how best to work together and accomplish our most basic and primary common goal of earning an A in this technical writing course.