Descriptions of major course projects are listed here.
To familiarize themselves with the scene of Professional Writing @ Purdue University, students are asked to research and report on the professional writing major and an instructor in the professional writing program. This project asks students to work individually and in groups in describing and profiling their major. Students will compose both memos and a formal report in mapping their discipline for themselves.
Following discussion during the first week of class, students will produce 600-700 word memos defining professional writing. The memo should describe their major and its goals, what students expect, as well as describe opportunities they expect will open for them.
Memo Due: 1/15 (post to blog and select category as "What is PW? Memo")
During the first two weeks of class, students will talk with professional writing instructors at Purdue (students will be assigned an instructor). Students will compose a short memo (700-800 words) describing who this teacher is, what their interests are, and how they came to be at Purdue. Memos should be organized into coherent sections (headers should be used to arrange the document) such as "Introduction," "Background," "Perspective on PW," and "Conclusions." Remember to include, at the end of the memo (like an Appendix), a list of your interview questions. Through this project component, students will gain experience interviewing an SME, or subject matter expert.
Memo Due: 1/27 (post to blog and select category as "Who Teaches PW? Memo")
During class, in groups, students will compile a collaborative report that describes (or “maps”) a typical professional writing instructor at Purdue. Students will be writing an audience-centered document; that is, they need to figure out how this report might be used, and tailor it for the intended reader. Consider: how would posting the profile to the professional writing website change it?
Report Due: 1/29 (in-class)
The Professional Writing @ Purdue Project accounts for 15% of the total course grade. Individual components of the project are worth the following:
Portions of this project and its guidelines adopted from Michael Salvo @ Purdue University
Fully exploring the course themes of decision architecture and mapping, this project asks students to map a campus issue @ Purdue. “Mapping” here means the purposeful selection, arrangement, and presentation of information in a usable, primarily visual format for a specific audience. This project seeks to position the creative and constructive work of professional writers as important and necessary. “Mapping” here is not to be understood as the passive mirroring of “reality,” but the active creation of meanings and knowledges. In concert with a primary theme of this course, mapping of this sort productively combines theory and practice in requiring students to frame and define both their audience and their object in specific ways (theorize) in planning and composing their map (practice). Additionally, this project stresses document design and primary research in the form of observations, interviews, and, perhaps, surveys, as well as secondary research.
Examples will be provided and discussed in class, but several are available online @:
Students will compose a 500 word proposal document in order to inform the instructor and gain approval for their map. The proposal should be polished, professional, and persuasive, and it should address the following:
With this document, students will need to persuade the instructor that their map will be relevant, that it will meet the goals of the assignment, and that it is feasible given the context and constraints of the course.
Proposal Due: 2/10 (post to blog and select category as "Project Proposal")
Building on the proposal document, this deliverable asks students to review other “maps” or representations associated with their issue. Students will locate and analyze at least two visually oriented documents which address the same or a similar subject. Students should produce a polished and professional document (750-1000 words) that analyzes the following elements in terms of the documents’ strengths or weaknesses:
This deliverable should allow students to more accurately gauge the context of their own map, as well as consider what they want to do, why they want to do it, and who they want to use it.
Analysis Due: 2/17 (post to blog and select category as "Analysis Document")
Students should post a blog that informs the instructor of progress they have made towards completing their rough draft. This report should include a discussion of primary and secondary research done, design decisions made, and portions of the map completed. This report should be between 250 – 300 words.
Report Due: 2/21 (post to blog and select category as "Progress Report")
Students will complete a draft of their map for an online workshop. Students will post an electronic version (most likely a pdf file) as an attachment to their blog (and categorize appropriately). In addition to posting their map, students will compose a 100 – 150 word description of their map, including its subject, audience, purpose, and rhetorical situation.
Good drafts are rough in terms of polish and fullness, but all major components of the map should be present. That is, to count as “drafts,” maps must be in need of revision, not completion. In terms of the workshop, students should review and comment upon at least two drafts. Critiques should be constructive, specific, and designed to help fellow students improve their maps. Comments like “this is cool” or “this sucks” are equally unconstructive and unhelpful, and are not sufficient in and of themselves. Students will also receive feedback from the instructor at this stage.
Draft Due: 2/27 (post to blog and select category as "Draft"). Comments Due: 3/1
Students will submit a final, polished draft of their map both electronically (as a pdf file emailed to the instructor) and in hard copy (as it would appear in actual use) in a manila envelope. The instructor will make allowances for practical constraints with respect to the physical production of maps, but a reasonable attempt should be made to produce the document as intended. Students can negotiate this with the instructor on an individual basis. Additional grading guidelines are provided below.
Final Draft Due: 3/6
Near the end of the project, students will be asked to briefly share their final draft with their fellow students in a semi-formal presentation. Students should discuss the rhetorical situation, audience, and purpose of their map. Students should also reflect on the relative strengths and weaknesses of their map. The ability to clearly articulate and honestly assess work done is an important component of professional communication. Additionally, students should consider the use of handouts and/or a presentation software.
Presentations on 3/4 or 3/6
Related but distinct from the presentation, this two page (single-spaced) documents requires students to reflect on their map and their process. Students will discuss how their map fit the rhetorical situation, addressed the audience, and achieved its purpose. Students will also reflect on their composing process, focusing on what practices they found productive and what practices they would alter next time (i.e., how they would do differently). Students should conclude their project assessment with a general discussion of “lessons learned” with the respect the course at large. Incorporating in-class work, course readings, and online discussions is a good way to fully flesh out this part of the project assessment.
Project Assessment Due: 3/18 (post to blog and select category as "Project Assessment")
The Mapping Project accounts for 30% of the total course grade. Individual components of the project are worth the following:
Portions of this project and its guidelines adopted from Jeremy Tirrell @ Purdue University
In order to explore the work of professional writers and to learn of career opportunities in the field, this project asks students to first locate a professional writer, secure an interview, prepare a set of interview questions, and develop an interviewing strategy. Students will then conduct the interview and write-up a formal document reporting their findings. Students will engage readings, primarily Weiss’s Learning from Strangers, on the practice of interviewing, learning the principles of successful and ethical primary research. While in several ways this assignment stands apart from the others, the same underlying theoretical framework is at work. In the planning stages, students will create the interview as an architecture for guiding and shaping the responses of their subject. In the report document (and in the subsequent presentation) students will then map out the findings of their interview, selecting, arranging, and presenting the information for several different audiences.
Using Weiss as a guide, each student will find a professional writer in the Lafayette area to interview (I will provide some leads for interview subjects), write a set of interview questions, contact the person, perform the interview, and then write up the interview findings in a final interview report. Evaluation takes place at four stages of the interview report project.
The proposal is a shorter (2-3 page) document stating who will be interviewed, describing the organization with which the subject is affiliated, and announcing when and where the interview is scheduled to take place. The proposal must include a draft version of the interview questions. Students will work together to improve interview questions and tips, but each student conducts their own interview.
Proposal Due: 3/25 (post to blog: categorize appropriately)
The progress report is a longer narrative written immediately following the interview. Transcriptions of questions and answers are required. As we discussed in class Thursday (March 27), you are required to transcribe at least eight question and answer exchanges. Be sure to provide contextual information for each exchange so that they will make sense to the instructor. Additionally, please indicate how these exchanges are integral to the final report as you see it now. At least four items additional should appear: 1) an extended account of the interview, including location, time, and circumstances, 2) description of the interaction between interviewer and interviewee, 3) impressions of the interview, as well as 4) ideas for improving interview technique. Each student may want to revisit the site of the interview for contextual information, ask follow up questions in email or by phone, and/or conduct further research. Articulate these plans here. Be sure to incorporate headers in this report. It is good professional practice to make accessible documents and headers a part of that.
Progress Report Due: 4/1 (post to blog: categorize appropriately)
The report should be complete and ready for final delivery with all content determined and designed. The Interview Report is the major project for the semester and should be a substantial document containing multiple sections with materials developed throughout the semester, including the interview transcript. Also include contextual information regarding where your interview subject works, and reflect on your sense of becoming a professional: is this someone to emulate?
Draft Due: 4/10 (post to blog: categorize appropriately)
The final interview report is a long formal report, and must include a detailed description of the interview and at least two appendices. These appendices include the original question list and the interview transcript. The report should include both a description of the interview as well as an analysis of the interview. The interview report is written primarily to be read by other members of the class. Students are expected to “repurpose” materials from the proposal and progress report. More information regarding the interview and report will be given in class. No student will receive a grade for the class without submitting a complete final interview report.
Final Draft Due: 4/18 (submit hard copy to instructor in a manila envelope - there will be a box outside HEAV 414 until noon - and post to blog as pdf: categorize appropriately)
After reading 5-7 interview reports, students will prepare five minute presentations defining professional writing as a major, a profession, or as a course of study. Examples of professional writers can be drawn from interview reports, mentoring, and course readings. Student should define the role they are most likely to play in an organization as a professional writer. They should prepare their remarks with two audiences in mind: classmates in 306 as well as for the next class of 306 students: what should prospective professional writing students know about the major, and how will both audiences make the most of the opportunities made available to them at Purdue and beyond? Presentations should contain five minutes of material and a visual for sharing in class. PowerPoint is a good program to use, but students shouls not feel limited to this one tool: the visual may be but does not have to be digital. The class will compile a final collaborative profile of professional writers during the last two classes.
Presentations Due: 4/22 or 4/24
The Interview Report Project accounts for 30% of the total course grade. The Presentation accounts for 10% of the total course grade. Individual components of the project are worth the following:
Portions of this project and its guidelines adopted from Michael Salvo @ Purdue University