Image: Stylized circuit board.
I am Adam Kincaid, I am 20 years old and have lived in Eugene for the last 15 years. I am pursuing an electrical technician degree at lane and am just over 1 term away from graduating. I currently work for USNR testing lumber scanning equipment. USNR is a large international company that produces a wide range of equipment for lumber production from saw blades to scanning equipment to gauge the quality of the lumber.. I run into technical writing at work a lot on design documents, travel papers for products in testing and test documentation. I also use technical writing in my personal life when filling out taxes and working on my personal budget. I am hoping to become a better technical writer with this class since technical writing is very important in my current job. I am taking this course online to open up make room in my schedule to go to school and work.
After I graduate I am planning on getting an electrical engineering degree. I am not sure were I want to get it from as far as universities go but I have a bit to figure that out. As far as what I will do after I get my degree I’m unsure what specific area I want to go into. Digital electronics are interesting and popular, analog electronics are always a puzzle, and communication electronics are a merging of analog and digital. Even deciding between those doesn’t really narrow it down because there are many sub-categories in each of those areas to decide between.
Image: http://www.psdgraphics.com/backgrounds/circuit-board-background/
Adam, great job on being so close to graduation. I would think that your career will be full of technical writing. It sounds like your current job is very close to your chosen career path. As a mother of a college age son, good job for having a vision and seeing it through and seeing a stepping stone to your next adventure.
I also noticed you have lived in Eugene most of your life, where did you live before here?
Hello Adam, my name is Meredith. I really like the picture you provided, is it a circuit board? Perhaps you could add a caption to tell what it is. Congratulations on being so close to obtaining your degree; I bet that feels very relieving. What kind of work do you want to once you get your degree? Great job on your blog.
Adam,
The work you do sounds like it could be very challenging but enjoyable because its new everyday. What does your work process look like? Do you know what specifically you want to do for work or does anything in the field of electrical engineering interest you?
I am also one term away from graduating! I am excited to move on to a university and pursue a business degree. Its funny I always read about people starting blogs and using them for business yet I never took it seriously. Now this writing is challenging to me and I see the value. What do you think?
Brandon
Hi Adam, my name is Ryan. Could you please clarify what USNR is? Electrical engineering is a very good choice of degree. I have several friends who are EE’s for companies in the northwest and they seem to enjoy their job. My apologies, but I was unable to view your pictures…
Hello Adam, it’s nice to meet you! My boyfriend is trying to do an apprenticeship to be an Electrical Journeyman, is this similar? What made you choose to be an electrical technician? Have you always been a bit tech-y? Good luck with the blogging, looking forward to hearing more from you!
Adam,
Great intro post. Very informative. I myself have been flirting with the idea of going into electrical engineering, from mechanical currently. There are clearly a lot of sub-specializations in each. I might like to pick your brain regarding the field sometime.
Hello Adam. Your job sounds very interesting. My step-dad works in heating and air conditioning and one of his clients is a major lumber mill in my home town. I have gone with him a few times to the site, and I find the inner workings so interesting. The scanners, and monitoring software and machines used were so sophisticated! How did you get into that line of work? Have you always been interested in electronics?
Adam,
I have been an industrial electrician for over ten years and even worked on some USNR equipment early on. There are so many places this can take you. Hang on because the technology is always changing, especially for the OEMs. Some new equipment I bought last year has blue tooth communication and uses lasers for positioning. Ten years ago, that was only happening at NASA. It is an exciting field, enjoy it.
Hi Adam, nice to meet you. I liked your blog page, it is very cool. Congratulations and making it this far in school. Battling school and work can be quite a challenge but it appears like you have good time management. Do to my busy schedule I felt like this class being online and all would help free up some time for me. Boy was I wrong, this technical writing class has consumed more time than my anatomy and physiology class. Good luck on becoming a better technical writer.
Hi, Adam!
Good job getting your blog up and running! I have a few more tips for running it on a daily basis that you can include in your revisions for this assignment:
1 Make sure you don’t leave the line “ Just another Edublogs site.” From your dashboard, toward the top middle, look directly below “Choose your theme“ and click on “Customize the look of your theme.”
A panel will open on the left. Look for “Site title, tagline, and logo.”
Click on the arrow, and you can change the name of your blog if you want to, but definitely add a tagline. That is a “subtitle” and can be anything catchy from “This Titan Does Tech” to “My time to shine.” Feel free to be appropriately creative.
2. No blog post should be left “uncategorized.” You can go to your dashboard and find “All pages” on the left. Select the one you want to categorize and click on “edit.” Assuming you have set your “categories” as I outlined in my blogpost http://jensens.edublogs.org/2016/04/02/how-to-use-tech-talk-online-magazine/
All you have to do is click on the right category and click on “Update.”
3. Every blog post is required to include at least one image (which I see you have), and that image should refer to the content of your blog post (see Fig. 1) and be correctly attributed. Include a source caption for every image. That information is here: http://jensens.edublogs.org/2016/03/13/how-do-i-attribute-blog-images/
The “hyperlink” image on this page is an example: http://jensens.edublogs.org/2016/04/09/how-to-hotlink-a-url/
4. You should also go into your dashboard and update any class blog requests you may have.
Okay, that was general blogging feedback; now on to content!
1. One thing I noticed is that your paragraphs are not on one topic; you have more of a “free-write” approach, which is not really appropriate for technical writing. Here is some information about writing effective paragraphs for technical writing:
http://wssa.net/wp-content/uploads/Writing-Effective-Paragraphs.pdf
2. Keep sentences short and clear. Ditto paragraphs.
3. I notice that you are pretty hazy on where your commas go and have a tendency to write run-ons. Here is a video to refresh:
Learn four major comma rules. This video covers the following comma rules: 1) Using commas in a series, 2) Using commas with coordinate adjectives, 3) Using a comma with a conjunction, and 4) Using a comma after an introductory phrase. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxcTsvkuyhs
Or you can work with a tutor: https://www.lanecc.edu/llc/english/writing-center
Close editing is essential.
That’s about it (I know, I know! It was a lot! Just remember what you’re paying me for! 🙂
Sandy
PS I forgot to add this:
I post feedback on your blog and your grade on Moodle where you can see it by clicking on “grades.” You are welcome to revise within seven days for a higher grade, although you can’t earn an A if I don’t feel you have made a “good faith” effort to begin with. Make sure to Moodle message me when you want to to return to take a second look at your blog, okay?
Adam,
I really enjoyed reading your second post. It was interesting, educational, and new to me. I appreciated that you took the time to describe your work in detail. Most of the information listed in your first two paragraphs was new to me. For example, although I know what a data sheet is I would neither know what information I would find on one or what it would look like as it pertains to electrical technology. Great job on making the material simplified for your reader.
After viewing datasheetcatalog.com I can see why you would like that design. For someone who does not have experience in electrical technology I was still interested in the page. The same goes for your images. One of my passions is investment banking so I feel comfortable looking at and interpreting datasheets.
After reading your post t is obvious you took some time to think and write about it. My only suggestion is to add a question at the end of your post to involve your reader. Other than that it was nicely done and a fun read. Thanks.
Brandon