Midland College Syllabus ENGL 2311 Technical Writing Course ...

Midland College Syllabus ENGL 2311 Technical Writing

Course Description: A course designed to enable students to organize and prepare basic technical materials in the following areas: abstracts; proposals; technical descriptions; instructional processes; informational processes; technical definitions; progress reports; formal technical reports; graphics; and, business correspondence; also, to enable students to analyze audience and report orally. Prerequisite ENGL 1301. Course fee. Required text: Dobrin, Sidney I., Christopher J. Keller, and Christian R. Weisser. Technical Communication in the Twenty-first Century. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Prentice Hall, 2008. Course Goals/ Objectives: Upon successful completion of the course, the student will know how to 1. Think critically about the standard elements of a given writing task so that the content of the product responds appropriately to the varied elements of the task. 2. Analyze all the elements of a writing task in order to select the most appropriate form, style, document design, and graphical elements. Analyze the style of written technical materials by both professional and student technical writers. 3. Read technical material in order both to understand models of varied technical forms and styles and to incorporate paraphrased and quoted material into researched reports. 4. Write varied technical forms employing appropriate modes and using a technical style which meets professional standards. 5. Research and document a technical topic, presenting the information resulting from the research in both a written formal report and an oral presentation to an audience. 6. Present orally technical material in a clear and professional manner. 7. Use a word processor to create both PowerPoint and Word documents, utilizing a variety of wordprocessing formats to create rhetorically and visually effective documents. 8. Create documents using MLA or professional format appropriate to type of technical document. 9. Navigate the internet effectively and use e-mail for clear communication. 10. Submit course work electronically as required. Course Policies and General Information: Class activities and assignments. This is a writing course, focusing on those techniques and strategies that are useful in producing technical documents such as letters, memoranda, manuals, instructions, and reports. This class will give you plenty of opportunity to improve your writing in the best way possible: by writing. In each of the

learning units for the class, you will complete practice exercises, share these with other students on the class Discussion Board, complete case studies, and most of all, you will write. Document Format. Your final copies of all documents that you submit must meet professional standards. That is, they must be typed, with 1-inch margins all around and must use 12-point font. Include a complete heading on all papers, along with your last name and the page number in a header on all pages. When you are asked to write a memo, start it on a new page in your file. Naturally, it goes without saying that spelling, grammar, and mechanics must be correct. Papers with many spelling or mechanical errors will not receive higher than a C. Enrollment in this class assumes that you have already mastered conventions of written Standard English and that you use them in your writing. If you feel you need help with the mechanics of writing, you have several resources available to you, including: • Any handbook of writing • Purdue Online Writing Lab http://owl.english.purdue.edu/ • Other online writing labs • Internet resources (See External Links on Blackboard) • Attendance. Attendance is important in this class. In an online course, attendance refers to logging in to the course website on Blackboard and completing the assignments. The class is divided into two “class periods”: Monday to Wednesday midnight (CT) and Thursday to Sunday midnight (CT). You are required to log in at least once during each “class period”; that is, you will log in at least twice a week. Learning units. This course will consist of 15 learning units. You will have one to two weeks, depending on the length of the learning unit, to complete each one. The learning units are due no later than 11:59 p.m. on the due date. Each learning unit will consist of various activities, including readings from the textbook and Internet sites, PowerPoint presentations to view and respond to, written exercises from the text, case studies, and other written assignments. Submission of assignments. Save your work in one file. Attach your Word or rich text file to the learning unit assignment link in the Turn In folder on Blackboard. Name it (notice periods, not underscores). Do not send zip files or Works files. The instructor will not attempt to unzip a file. The instructor cannot open Works files. If you use Works, you can save your work as a Rich Text File (.rtf) and send that. The instructor will not attempt to grade a learning unit that is in several files or in Works or is zipped. If you send multiple files, a Works file, or a zipped file, you will get a zero on that learning unit. The instructor will deduct points from an assignment that is not named correctly. If you do your work in WordPerfect, save it as an rtf. also. You can check to make sure your file was submitted correctly by looking in the gradebook. Simply open the gradebook and look for an exclamation mark in the

appropriate space. If you see a red exclamation mark, your paper is there, waiting to be graded. Check the key in the lower left screen to interpret the other symbols. Please don’t email me and ask me to check for you; this is a simple procedure that you can do yourself. I will read and grade your work as quickly as possible, usually within a week, although it may take longer. You can check the online grade book for your grade on each learning unit. It is very important that you read the comments that the instructor writes on your papers so that you’ll know what you did well and what you need to improve on. To do this, just click on the score in the grade book. This will open the assignment link. You can read my comments in the box provided. The instructor will also return your file to you, and you’ll see it attached below the comment field. Click on the link and your file will open, and you can read my inserted comments. Quizzes and Tests. You will take a quiz for each chapter. These are open book quizzes, and if you and a study partner want to work together on them, this is acceptable, too. The results of the quiz will be available immediately to you and also will be posted in the gradebook automatically by Blackboard. You have fifteen minutes to complete each quiz; if you go over that time limit, the instructor will deduct points from your score. You have one chance to take each quiz. Your final exam is an objective test covering a word list of frequently misused word pairs. This list is available in the Final Exam folder of Blackboard. You should acquaint yourself with these words at the beginning of the semester and study them throughout the semester. No paper that makes an error involving one of these words will receive an A. The instructor will make the final exam available to you early in the semester so that you can take it any time before the deadline on the course schedule. It will be available that day until 11:59 p.m. E-mail Correspondence. The instructor will respond quickly to all e-mails. However, if your e-mail doesn’t have this required information, the instructor will delete it unread. If you don’t get a response from me within 48 hours (excluding holidays and weekends), the instructor probably deleted it. Check your subject line. Also, e-mail is a less formal method of correspondence than more traditional forms. However, sending an e-mail to a professor does not descend to the same level of informality as IMing your buddies. Please observe conventions of Standard English in your correspondence. Use capital letters, punctuation, conventional spelling, and so forth. Don’t use IM abbreviations such as “b/c”, “IMHO”, “LOL”, and the like. If your message is indecipherable because of careless punctuation or spelling, the instructor probably won’t try very hard to figure it out. You might not get an answer. Students enrolled in this course must be aware of the fact that the very nature of electronic communication is not private. If a student and the instructor discuss his or her progress or grades in the course via email, the student accepts the responsibility for the lack of privacy. The instructor recommends that all students enrolled in this course have

their own individual email addresses and that they not use other people’s accounts to communicate with me or with other students. Café. When you have questions about procedures, policies, or course work, you can post these on Discussion Board in the Café forum. Either someone from the class can answer or explain, or the instructor will. Keep this is mind: if you have the question, there’s a good chance someone else does, too. If you post your question, then everyone will get the answer. Technical malfunctions. Neither the instructor nor Midland College is responsible for late work due to any technical malfunction that is not caused by problems with Midland College technology. If your system cannot deliver what you need to complete this course, or if your system continually malfunctions so that you cannot do the work, you need to consider dropping the course. Computer or Internet connection problems will not excuse late work. If you don’t have access to the Internet or a working computer at home, go to the public library, your school’s library, or a computer lab on campus. If that fails, use a friend’s computer. The instructor will not extend deadlines because of computer malfunctions. System Requirements. Midland College Distance Learning web page has a link to system requirements for distance learning courses. Access this by navigating to the Midland College homepage at http://www.midland.edu Academics>Online courses/Distance Learning>Hardware and Software System requirements. Please read this and become familiar with the system you are using. If you do not have access to the correct kind of system or software, you need to consider dropping the course. If you do not have regular and ready access to the Internet, you should consider dropping the course. Computer Literacy. Since this is an online class, you need to be very familiar with your computer and with computer applications. You will need to have access to and the ability to use a word-processing program (preferably Word) and PowerPoint. You must be able to use the features in these programs, including creating graphics. This is not a computer applications course, so these teaching these skills will not be included in the curriculum. If you are unsure of how to use your computer or software, you can find a tutor or work in the computer lab at your school where you can ask for help. Otherwise, you need to consider dropping the course. Evaluation of Students: Learning units 70% Discussion Board 10% Quizzes 10% Final 10% I use this grading scale:

90-100% 80-89 70-79 60-69 59-

A B C D F

I do not give estimates of final grades, but the instructor will discuss your work on individual assignments or the class generally at any time. Grading of writing Writing will be graded for content, organization, grammar, usage, spelling, and technical competence (use of MLA form and wordprocessing skills) according to the following criteria: The A Paper: Superior--exceptional work that uses imagination and actually does more than the assignment calls for. It is clear, concise, and free of errors of logic. It is well-organized and largely error-free. Handling of sources, MLA formatting, and research techniques are superb. The B Paper: Excellent--exceptional work with a minimum of difficulties of thought, expression, organization, and formatting/research techniques. The C Paper: Good--work which fulfills the assignment and has an acceptable number of technical difficulties. The D Paper: Unsatisfactory--but with some redeeming features. D's will be given very rarely. The F Paper: Failing work--superficial treatment of subject, with lack of focus, garbled prose, frequent grammatical and mechanical errors, weak organization, unacceptable formatting/research techniques. The R Paper: To be re-written--Paper has many redeeming qualities but has serious deficiencies which would result in lower than expected grade. Paper must be re-written and is due within one week. The 0 Paper: Unacceptable work--Assignment completely misses the boat or is a half-hearted attempt or is plagiarized. Paper must be re-written and is due within two class days.

Course Schedule: A detailed list of topics, assignments, and due dates may be found in the course documents folder.

Instructor Information: Name: Office phone: Office hours:

Office location: E-mail address: Division secretary: Lula Lee, Allison Fine Arts, Room 141 Division telephone: 685-4624 Note: Students are encouraged to contact me at any time; however, making an appointment will guarantee that I’ll be available at a specific time.

Academic Dishonesty Plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as the appropriation, buying, receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any means another’s work and the unacknowledged submission or incorporation of it in one’s own written work offered for credit. A student commits plagiarism if he/she: 1) Fails to acknowledge the sources of any information in a paper which is not either common knowledge or personal knowledge. A student can acknowledge a source through in-text citations, attribution lines, footnotes, or other forms of documentation approved by the instructor. (Common knowledge is the basic information within a field or discipline, as well as most historical dates and facts, and many ordinary observations.) 2) Fails to acknowledge direct quotation either by using quotation marks or (for longer passages) indentation. Without the quotation marks or indentation, passages copied directly from a source might be considered plagiarized even if it is followed by an in-text citation or a footnote. The citation or footnote acknowledges that there is a source, but it does not indicate that the writer has borrowed someone else’s exact words. If a writer uses the language of a source, word-for word, he/she must use quotation marks or block indentation. 3) Merely paraphrases the original words of the source. Some students think they can avoid a charge of plagiarism by changing a few words in each sentence they copy or by rearranging the shape of phrases or the order of sentences in a paragraph. This is not true. When taking notes students must be careful to put ideas in their own words or to use direct quotations when relying on phrases directly borrowed from a source. 4) Borrows the ideas, examples, or structure of the source without acknowledging it. A student can be guilty of plagiarism if he/she systematically borrows the ideas and organization of a source even if the language of the piece is on a major news event by using exactly the same ideas in the same order as they appear in an article in any popular news magazine. 5) Takes, buys, or receives a paper written by someone else and presents it as the student’s own.

6) Uses one paper for two different courses, or re-uses a paper previously submitted for credit, without the prior approval of the instructor or instructors. Plagiarism will result in a failing grade on that assignment.