April 6th, 2016

Dear Michael Flores,

Prior to Project Two, the Recommendation Report, my experience with analytical writing largely
pertained to essays. Over the years, I had refined my analytical writing skills primarily through
writing effective analytical essays - so I was confident I would not have much trouble with this
assignment. However, through this project, my researching and analytical writing skills were
tested and expanded in a few ways. I found that while there are similarities in approach and
content, there are enough structural differences in analytical reports compared to analytical
essays that I had some difficulty in relaying the information. Analytical essays are textual all the
way through and therefore require more elaboration and forethought to make a coherent
argument. Also, while there is a general format for writing an essay, the author is usually allowed
to arrange the information in whatever manner seems the most logical to him. In an analytical
report however, there is a set structure that must be followed and cannot be rearranged. When we
first looked at the Student Examples of analytical reports, my first thought was that the
information was arranged similarly to a science project. With the exception of a hypothesis and
recommendation, the report is similar to a science project by including an abstract, table of
contents, introduction, methodology, results, analysis, and conclusion. I liked that the report was
more straightforward, though, writing the Results section was the most difficult for me.
The researching process was also somewhat different for me because in the past, I used books or
a search engine like Google to search for reliable information. Instead, for this Recommendation
Report, I used the UNM library site to find scholarly articles that pertained to my subject. This
was more beneficial because the articles were from respectable journals on health and
adolescence which made the information more credible. However, the articles I found were
formatted similarly to the report I was writing which made it difficult to procure the information
without repeating what the author had written. It was particularly difficult with the two studies
because they followed the same format exactly.
In Project One, we discussed cognitive load and need to execute the Five Elements of Design in
order for a document to be credible and useful. If the document is organized in such a way that it
looks sloppy or it is difficult to read, the reader will not find the source trustworthy and will stop
reading. Since the purpose of the Recommendation Report is to inform, it must be arranged in
such a way that it is useful. When I created my report, I used Microsoft Words report template to
arrange the headings in a way that distinguished between sections. I also chose a colorful graphic
for the title page of a social media tree to show some of the different types of social media that
are available. The color scheme I used for the headings was actually the color that the template
used and I decided to keep it because it went with the title page graphic. Then, I used a darker
font on the title page so that it would contrast with the bright colors of the graphic.
I placed the two statistical figures in the beginning of the Results section because it provided
additional information and further supported my statements. In our class discussions about
infographics, we discussed how it was important for the graphics to be supplemental to the

textual information. Additionally, the placement of the infographics were about the middle of the
entire report. By placing them in those positions, it broke up the text to give the readers eyes a
break. For the same reason, I used bullet points in the methodology section so that it was easier
for the reader to pick apart the actual steps from the surrounding text. Bullet points are also a
way to unclutter the information.
As always, the Student Learning Outcomes were employed in various stages of this assignment.
Analyzing Rhetorical Situation was first utilized in deciding what subject I would research and
write about. Once I decided that I wanted to research the negative effects of social media and
technology on adolescents, I had to think of a situation in which it would apply and how wide or
narrow my search would be. I decided to be specific about the negative effects by searching for
relations with depression, well-being, or self-esteem. Since the Results section of the
Recommendation Report required the information to be from the major findings, I had to sift
through the information and pull out the most relevant or important information.
Finding and Evaluating Information required researching scholarly articles in UNMs library
and sifting through the articles that did not further my research. Also, in finding my infographics,
I had to check the site in which they were derived from to see if the source was legitimate. In one
instance, the site where the infographic was derived contained plenty of information but the
design of the site made it seem unreliable, proving once again the importance of proper use of
design elements.
The SLO Compose Documents was used in each of the pieces we turned in. Each piece of the
assignment had a different function and it was important to make sure that my writing was in line
with that function. I particularly used this SLO when determining which sources to pull my
information from as well as taking notes on these articles. As I stated before, since the sources
were formatted similarly to my report, I had to be vigilant in my citations as well as my own
wording.
We used Presenting Documents by peer editing in class and then making corrections before
turning in our final drafts. My main corrections were rewording, formatting, and adding a second
infographic to my text. This project did not Compose in Various Modes for the most part
because of the defined format of a Recommendation Report. The only areas in which I used this
SLO was the difference between the textual information and the infographics.
Overall, writing a Recommendation Report was a learning experience and gave me information
that I may use in my field of study in the future. I think some of my difficulty came from my sole
use of secondary sources. I discovered it is beneficial to use primary sources as well if possible.
Sincerely,

Jessica Roseman