Scott DeShong
Quinebaug Valley Community College
Spring 2008
English 202: Technical Writing
Sec. 1, CRN 1130—3 credits
Mon/Wed 5-6:25 p.m., room E238
Office: E234C, 412-7252
Office hours (also by appointment):
MW 4-4:30 in E234-C
MW 3-4 in W107 (Career/Advising Center)
Required text, available from the campus bookstore:
Lannon, John M. Technical Communication. 11th ed. New York: Pearson-Longman, 2008.
Catalog description: This course prepares students for writing in the workplace. Students will individually and collaboratively develop reports, proposals, manuals, memos, and other workplace documents in paper, electronic, and oral forms, to include a major project. Students will learn to distill research and analysis in documents that are clearly organized, concise, readable, well edited, and carefully focused for their audiences.
The course assumes you have passed English 101 (or its equivalent) with a grade of C or better. English 202 requires you to pay serious attention to improving your writing skills, working toward a refined sense of the mechanics of standard written English. Among other things, the course involves critical reading, research, oral presentations, formal and informal writing assignments, careful revising and editing, solid attendance and participation (including one-on-one and group work on exercises and projects), basic computer skills (including word processing and electronic communication, and thus an e-mail account), photocopying, and above all a good deal of time and effort. You will need an e-mail account with the facility of sending file attachments. The semester schedule below gives more detail on course objectives and format.
Attendance: Any more than two absences may begin to affect your grade because of missed participation. This is true even when you have a good reason for not being in class: only in very rare cases will it be possible for you to make up any in-class work. Think of missing class as you would think of missing a day on the job.
Note well: This course will be conducted in a modified hybrid format. During the italicized class periods on the schedule below—some of the Mondays, that is—the class will not meet in the room, although I will be available by e-mail and in person in my office (or in the classroom) during class time. Note also that class will not meet on two Wednesdays, Feb. 13 and March 12. Assignments listed for the italicized days are due as if the class met, at the beginning of the period; electronic versions are acceptable on those dates. Always consult the syllabus to be aware of which days we will meet in the room and to see whether a paper version of an assignment is required. I may need to modify the schedule in some circumstances; modifications will be announced in class and/or through e-mail.
Notes on preparing assignments: Think of your teacher as you would think of a supervisor in the workplace: I do not like to accept late assignments. Because extra time gives a student an unfair advantage over others in several respects, I may reduce the grade of late work, and typically I will not accept an assignment more than two weeks after its original due date. Give yourself plenty of time to get things done. You must assume that any writing assignment can run into difficulty. I expect you to begin assignments early and plan your time well. You will probably need to complete all the major assignments to pass: it will be difficult to earn a passing grade if you have any zeros (as it would be difficult to hold onto a job if you did not do all the work).
Before preparing the final printed version of any assignment, you should already have carefully edited it numerous times for errors in spelling, punctuation, and so on. Read your work aloud to catch errors. I may turn back, unread, any work that has been poorly prepared. An indispensable aspect of workplace communication is the ability to produce clear, cogent, well edited, printed text on fairly short notice—that is, text on good paper with good print, without wrinkles or smudges, with your name, the date, and so on in the proper places. In short, I require professional looking work. Since the course requires word processing and other basic computing, you can use the equipment in the computer labs to do your work. Always keep a copy (electronic or otherwise) of any work you hand in.
Grading components:
Summary assignment—about 10%
Audience and use profile, resume, and layout exercise—together about 15%
Annotated bibliography, progress report, oral presentation, and
proposal—together about 20%
Group work, in-class assignments, and other class participation—about 15%
Analytical report, final version—about 35%
Final exam—about 5%
Revision policy: You may revise some assignments, and I may require some revisions. A revised version will earn a grade that does not replace the original grade (except in rare cases); instead, the two grades will blend so that the overall grade is halfway between the two. To get credit for any revised assignment, you must turn in the original graded version along with it and do so within two weeks after receiving the graded paper back from me.
Grading evaluation: Students earn their grades, or more accurately their work earns grades; it is a mistake to think that an instructor “gives” grades. Grading in this course will not follow a class curve, but established standards, the center of which—as you probably know—is about C+. Different assignments require different evaluative standards, and the course textbook provides good models and specific descriptions of the requirements for most assignments. I will hold every assignment to the standards of good writing that you will have learned in English 101 or its equivalent (and these standards are made clear in the relevant sections of the textbook, also). Here are some general descriptions for the basic grade categories:
A Work that is outstanding and fully polished, in every way head and shoulders above most work at the course’s level.
B Solid, competent work, better than most at the course’s level; perhaps work that is outstanding in some respects, but only adequate in others; work that could use some revision.
C Adequate work, meeting the assignment’s basic requirements, perhaps strong in some respects but weaker in others than most work at the course’s level; typically, work in need of more drafting.
D Work that is weaker than most at the course’s level, or a partially fulfilled, short, or sloppily prepared assignment, perhaps exhibiting basic difficulties with language.
F Very weak work or a largely unfulfilled assignment.
0 A missed assignment or any assignment that contains willful plagiarism.
Remember that plagiarism is a serious offense, in which you cheat by presenting something you did not do while claiming it is your work. If you do this, I have the prerogative not only to fail the assignment but to fail you for the entire course. Plagiarism is commonly either a case of quoting from sources without identifying them (even paraphrasing is plagiarism, not just exact copying) or a case of turning in an assignment all or part of which has been written by someone else. When you work together, you will often take advice from each other, and this is not plagiarism as long as one of you does not specifically give another whole sentences or more. As a rule, ask me if you are ever uncertain about how to use borrowed material.
Extra help: Students who want extra help in English skills (or other skills) may get it at the Learning Center at the Danielson campus or from tutors in Willimantic. E-tutoring is also available. I urge anyone who needs these facilities to use them, and I may recommend you for tutoring during the semester.
If you are a student with a disability and you believe you will need accommodations for this class, it is your responsibility to contact either Jim Grimord, Director of Learning Services or Chris Scarborough, Learning Disabilities Specialist, and complete a self-disclosure form. To avoid any delay in the receipt of accommodations, you should contact either Mr. Grimord or Mr. Scarborough as soon as possible. Please note that I cannot provide accommodations based upon a disability until I have received an accommodations letter from either of these individuals.
Tentative schedule of assignments: Review the paragraph above on page 1 labeled “Note well.” Assignments below that are your responsibility are listed in bold and are always due by the date listed. When assigned a chapter to read, you might check over the exercises after it; however, you do not need to complete any exercises that are not specifically assigned in class or on the schedule. Most assignments—reading, writing, and others—are reflected below, although some additional work may be included. Not reflected in full detail below are the sections we will work on in Technical Communication that concern fundamentals of writing, such as paragraph and sentence structure. Please note that in the past, students have referred to Technical Communication as the class “Bible”: I do not cover every aspect of its chapters, so it is up to you to make good use of the book for your own research and writing.
Wed Jan 23 Overview: workplace writing (chapter
1), including audience considerations
and levels of technicality (chapter 3)
Review of the stages of writing (chapter 2 plus pp. 698-734) and the basics
of good writing (chapters 12 and 13 plus pp. 670-97)
Audience and use profile assigned (due next week)
Mon 28 Reading: chapters
1, 2, 3, and 12
E-mail to sdeshong@qvcc.commnet.edu—development of e-mail roster
Review of
organization, paragraphing, critical reading, annotation, etc.
Memo format (chapter 16) and in-class “introduction” memo (page 12)
Wed 30 Audience and use
profile due, pp. 46-47 (profile sheet plus statement of purpose),
2 paper copies (workshop); see also page 70
Mon Feb 4 Reading: chapters
24, 7, and pp. 698-734 (see especially pp. 593-96 and also 355).
See
http://garts.latech.edu/jhardie/303/techreport_topics.htm
http://www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook
Wed 6 Discussion of analytical reports,
with preliminary discussion of topics
Demonstration of research tools
Optional reading: chapters 19-22
Mon 11
Reading: chapters 11 and 17-18
(Note: the following words are missing from the end of page 191:
“other times of the day.”)
Summaries, kinds of correspondence, resumes (including review of
parallelism)
Wed 13 No classes—Presidents’ Day observed
Mon 18 Reading: chapters 8, 9, and 10, plus see pp. 634-54.
Preliminary topic selection due for analytical report, e-mail acceptable
Wed 20 Summaries due,
descriptive and informative abstracts—#3 on page 189,
double-spaced, 4 paper copies (workshop—see page 187)
Mon 25 Final version of
both summaries due by class time
electronic version required (Word file attachment)
Wed 27 Resume due (see pp. 393-402), 4 paper copies (workshop—see page 422)
Mon Mar 3 Preliminary
version of parameters for analytical report due
(memo items 1-5 for March 12), e-mail acceptable
Reading: chapters 15 and 16
Wed 5
Final version of resume due, one paper copy
Document layout, kinds of memos and reports
Preliminary research, synthesizing information; documenting sources
Wed 12 due in electronic format by the end of the day Friday, March 14:
Annotated
bibliography for analytical report, Word file attachment
minimum of 6 citations in MLA format (or another standard format),
with descriptive abstracts (see sample annotated bibliography handout)
Plus e-mail
cover memo—see memo
format (page 329) and detail these items:
(1) the report’s topic
(2) the specific audience for the report
(3) the audience’s use of the report (that is, specific decisions)
(4) the (invented) request by the audience for the report
(5) your (invented) role in submitting the report to the audience
March 17-22 No classes—Spring break
Appointments with instructor by request
Mon 24 Bring 2 paper
copies of the annotated bibliography to class (workshop)
Reading: chapter 6, plus see pp. 698-734
Formation of working groups
Wed 26 Layout exercise due—#4
on page 323 (except only 2 pages or so of revision),
2 paper copies plus the original (workshop—see page 321),
including memo listing changes
Sunday, March 30—last day to withdraw from any course
Mon 31 Research
progress report due, emphasizing sources, 2 pages minimum
Clarify which sources are most significant for the analytical report
project,
evaluate all sources, say how the research needs expanding, etc.
see pages 334-35 for the general model (dates optional)
one paper copy or Word file attachment required
Wed Apr 2 Reading:
chapters 14 and 26
Demonstration of oral presentation technology and incorporating visuals
Sign-up for oral presentations
Mon 7 Proposal for
analytical report due (see pages 531-32),
including audience and use profile (emphasizing audience’s prior
knowledge),
Word file attachment(s) e-mailed to instructor and all members of your group
Wed 9 E-mail responses on proposals to group members due (with cc to instructor)
(see page 556 on evaluating proposals)
Reading:
chapters 4 and 25
Document supplements
Wed 16 Oral presentations, with group feedback
Wed 23 Oral presentations, with group feedback
Mon 28 Consultation day/TBA
Wed 30 Full draft of
analytical report due, in enough paper copies to workshop
with the group—see pp. 594-95
Wed 7 Final version of
analytical report due, one paper copy
Equivalent of 8 full pages of text, minimum, with supplements:
cover page, identifying audience
letter of transmittal
table of contents
informative abstract
major sections of the report
(including intro, body/data, conclusion, and recommendations)
bibliography
plus other supplements, if
required by the material
Final exam: Reports returned, plus quiz and collaborative activity
Date TBA, 5-7 p.m. in the regular room.