English 305: Technical Communication

Fall 2002

Instructor: Carolyn Nelson Class times: 8:30/10:00 TR

Office: 329 Stansbury Office Hours: 10:30-11:30MVVF;

Phone: 293-3107 x413 and by appointment

Email: cnelson2@wvu.edu

Required text: Judith S. Vanalstyne & Merrill D. Tritt. Professional Writing Strategies. (1999)

Introduction

English 305, Technical Communication, introduces students to the kinds of tasks and situations technical writers are responsible for in a professional context. Technical writers are the employees responsible for connecting the technical expertise of the programmers, designers, or engineers to the needs of the consumer. A company may have the perfect software program, but if no one can successfully show the consumer how to use it, it will fail. The technical writer is also an advocate for the user, for making things easier, more accessible, and more available. The technical writer thus has to straddle two purposes: to advocate for the user and to support the company and its products. At its best, technical writing helps to advance company interests by making it user friendly and thus likely to last.

Although the course will be focusing on the specific documents written by technical writers, the skills and the insights generated are equally appropriate for anyone writing within a professional context. A foundational assumption of this course is that writing is rhetorical; that is, all writing emerges out of and responds to a particular purpose, audience, and situation. Accordingly, this course will focus on exploring the strategies and choices writers can make to craft their documents for these situations.

The purposes of this course are:

• To emphasize the importance of writing for a specific reader.

• To provide strategies for accommodating specific and implicit audiences.

• To familiarize students with the common genres and tasks of technical writing.

• To introduce issues of visual rhetoric, including document design.

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Make conscious and appropriate choices in your writing process and product.

• Design usable, clear, persuasive, accessible documents.

• Analyze the needs of the user.

• Use visual strategies as well as textual ones.

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Requirements

Attendance: You are expected to attend class every day with the textbook, a disk, and all materials on which you are working. An occasional absence is understandable, but habitual absence is inexcusable. If you have more than three absences, you will have 3 points for each absence subtracted from your final grade. Missing a scheduled conference will count as 2 absences.

Expectations: Much of your work will be done in class. Many classes will have specific assignments to be completed and handed in by the end of the class period. Your work on, and completion of, these assignments will be an important factor in your participation grade. You are expected to work until the class period has ended, complete all reading assignments on time, help your classmates learn by your responses to their writing, choose projects that require significant research and analysis, spend significant time outside of class working on your writing and class preparation, and be courteous and considerate.

Peer Review of Drafts: It is particularly important for you to attend, and be prepared to participate in, in-class workshops on drafts of your papers. Although your drafts need not be "polished," in general they should be substantially completed in order for you to receive help from your fellow students. Under no circumstances will I accept a final paper unless I have seen a rough draft.

Assignments

In this course, I will try to hold you to the professional standards that prevail in your field. For example, of the requirements listed below, your employer will take some completely for granted, such as promptness, neat appearance, and correct mechanics.

• Promptness: In this course, as in the working world, you must turn in your work on time. A11 projects are due at the beginning of class on the dates indicated on the syllabus. If you cannot be in class, your project is due in my mailbox by class time. Assignments turned in late will be penalized one full letter grade unless you have made other arrangements with me in advance.

• Appearance: All work should be neatly typed, using standard margins and spacing in a word-processing program. Whether it is a literature review, proposal, or report, your communication should exhibit a complete and appropriate format. All writing for the course should be prepared on a computer and printed clearly.

• Grammar, Spelling, Proofreading: At work, even a single error in spelling, grammar, or proofreading can jeopardize the effectiveness of some communications (depending on the rhetorical situation). Grading will reflect the great seriousness with which these matters are frequently viewed in the working world. I expect you to proofread your work carefully and to pay attention to the mechanics of your writing. If you would like special assistance with any of these skills, please ask.

• Back-up Copies: Always prepare two legible copies of each major assignment. I will grade one copy and hand it back; the other copy will be for your own safekeeping and permanent records. I occasionally use student work in class to illustrate a point but I would never do so without the student's permission and only after removing all identifying marks.

• Revisions: You will receive feedback on your writing at various stages of the writing process. You should try to apply the comments to improve not only the particular paper you are working on at the time, but also your strategies for writing in general.

Grades

When grading each of your assignments, I will ask one overriding question: "Does this paper do its job successfully?" That is, would your communication have the intended effect on the reader you are addressing? I will, of course, recognize the difference between a competent performance (a "C") and good and excellent performances ("B" and "A"). A competent performance is one that stands a chance of succeeding; an excellent performance is one that seems assured not only of success but also of winning praise.

• A, superior: the work is of near professional quality. The paper meets or exceeds all the objectives of the assignment. The content is mature, thorough, and well suited for the audience; the style is clear, accurate, and forceful; the information is well organized and formatted so that it is accessible and attractive; the mechanics and grammar are correct.

• B, good: the paper meets the objectives of the assignment, but it needs improvement in style, or it contains easily correctable errors in grammar, format, or content, or its content is superficial.

• C, competent: the paper needs significant improvement in concept, details, development, organization, grammar, or format. It may be formally correct but superficial in content.

• D, marginally acceptable: the paper meets some of the objectives but ignores others; the content is inadequately developed; or it contains numerous or major errors.

• F, unacceptable: the paper does not have enough information, does something other than the assignment required, or it contains major errors or excessive errors.

Your final grade will be determined by the grades you receive on written and in-class assignments, according to the following weighting:

Resume & Cover Letter 10%

Description of a Mechanism 15%

Instructions 15%

Process Analysis 20%

Proposal 25%

Participation/Daily Work 15%

Plagiarism

Talking over your ideas and getting comments on your writing from friends are not examples of plagiarism. Taking someone else's published or unpublished words and calling them your own is plagiarism, another name for academic dishonesty. When plagiarism amounts to an attempt to deceive, it has dire consequences, as spelled out in University regulations.

English 305: Readings & Assignments

Fall 2002

Text: Judith S. Vanalstyne & Merrill D. Tritt. Professional & Technical Writing Strategies. (1999)

Week 1

8/20 Introduction to course

8/22 Chapter 2: The writing process: tone, style, and language, pages 39-63

Week 2

8/27 Chapter4:DesigningDocuments,pp. 115-138

8/29 CompleteChapter4

Week 3

9/3 Chapter 13: Resume, 423-33

9/5 Chapter 13: Cover Letter, 433-39

Week 4

9/10 Paper #1 due: Cover letter and Resume

Chapter 3: Using Graphics & Visuals, 72-107

9/12 Work on graphics and visuals

Week 5

9/17 Chapter 9: Describing Mechanisms, 278-303

9/19 Begin work on description paper.

Week 6

9/24 Chapter 6: Documenting Research, 194-224

9/26 Bring draft of description paper to class.

Week 7

10/1 Paper #2 due: Description of a Mechanism

Chapter 10: Giving Instructions, 310-25

10/3 Begin work on instruction paper.

Week 8

10/8 Student Conferences in my office

10/10 Student Conferences

Week 9

10/15 Student Conferences

10/17 Paper #3 due: Instructions

Chapter 11: Process Analysis, 331-51

Week 10

10/22 Work on process paper

10/24 Bring draft of process paper to class.

Week 11

10/29 Chapter 15: Proposals, 492-531

10/31 Paper # 4 due: Scientific, Mechanical, or Organizational Analysis

Begin work on proposal paper.

Week 12

11/5 Continue work on Proposal

11/7 Student Conferences in my office

Week 13

11/12 Conferences

11/14 Conferences

Week 14

11/19 Conferences

11/21 Bring draft of proposal paper to class

Thanksgiving Break 11/23 to 12/1

Week 15

12/3 Revisions of proposal paper

12/5 Paper#5 due: Proposal