Project SCRAWL

Persona 1: Jessica

 

Background. Jessica is a 43 year old custodial supervisor of African American descent. Growing up, she completed 10th grade but then dropped out of high school because she was struggling in school and no longer interested in completing her education. Four years ago, she enrolled in a GED program. Jessica’s major challenges in completing her GED program were that 1) it had been several years since she had last attended high school, 2) she was anxious with the process of test taking, and 3) she was embarrassed that she had waited until she was almost 40 to take her GED. After three years of study and lots of hard work, she completed her GED. Due to Jessica’s outstanding leadership skills, she was quickly promoted to a supervisor position (at the department, a high school education is required to be a supervisor).

 

Attitudes and Motivation. During school and during the GED program, Jessica did not enjoy writing. Many of the writing assignments focused on readings that were not of interest to her. She is still fearful of writing because she does not want to appear “stupid” or uneducated.

 

Jessica is very loyal to her employees and her department. She wants to do a better job with writing so that she can improve the quality of her team’s employee evaluations. Jessica is very mindful of how she comes across to her supervisor and to her employees and wants to be seen as professional.

 

Jessica is very supportive and interested in continuing the development of her skills. She is a hard worker and expects her staff to find ways to improve their skills.

 

Jessica has a basic understanding of how to use the computer and can access websites and email without too much difficulty. Being a supervisor, she spends more time on the computer each day than her employees and so she is relatively comfortable in using online systems as long as they are straightforward and easy to use.

 

Current Challenges. Jessica has trouble with spelling, grammar, and using examples in her writing. She sometimes struggles with coming up with what to write. Jessica sometimes has difficulty in using different vocabulary words to make her writing more interesting. She tends to write large paragraphs without much thought to organization and structure, mimicking the way that she talks.

Goals and Aspirations. Jessica’s main goal in improving her writing is improving her work on her employee’s performance evaluations. She wants to better communicate in order to do a better job. Jessica eventually wants to move up to the rank of Superintendent, which requires much more fluency in writing than her current supervisor job.

 

Persona 2: Rob

 

Background. Rob is a 25 year old maintenance worker of Caucasian descent. He completed high school and then went into a carpenter apprenticeship program. After completing the apprenticeship program, he was hired by the department. During school, he enjoyed his English classes and did fairly well, but the rural school that he attended was not very vigorous academically. During his day-to-day job, he does not have to write very much except for short comments in the department’s work request system. He occasionally sends e-mails to other staff members to check on the status of supplies and projects.

 

Attitudes and Motivation. Rob expects to be treated as an adult and does not like doing busy work. Rob is very busy with his job and has to travel 45 minutes before and after work to commute from a small community in the rural part of the county. He is sometimes suspicious of training programs as they take away time that he could spend on his work. Rob wants to know why things are important and why they are relevant to him. He is very proud of the furniture that he builds and sees his job as being a core part of his identity.

 

Rob has a basic understanding of how to use a computer but might need some assistance if he gets stuck or does not know what to do next. For Rob, navigation is important and he expects things to be laid out in a clear, logical order.

 

Current Challenges. Rob does not do any writing or reading outside of work, and very little of it while at work. His spelling and vocabulary are not good, and he frequently confuses homonyms (rec and wreck; to, two, too). His writing does not logically “flow” and much of his writing lacks structure and variety. Rob does not currently understand the difference between facts and opinions (i.e., claims) in his writing and does not spend anytime thinking about what he is going to write before he starts writing.

Goals and Aspirations. Rob is ambitious and is looking to move to a supervisor position soon. He wants to develop a resume and cover letter but does not spend much time thinking about the kinds of writing he would have to do as a supervisor (e.g., more e-mails, reports, employee evaluations).