Course Description

Instructor and Course Information

English 421Y, "Technical Writing Online" Dist 03 - 01
Ryan Weber
(Online) Office Hrs: 11-12 noon daily
Office: Heavilon 414
Ph: 765.494.3762
Fax: 765.494.3780
E-Mail: rpweber@purdue.edu

Overview

English 421 helps students become better technical communicators, whose work is characterized by the presentation of technical material in written and visual formats that are user centered and aware of audience and context. The course and its principles are grounded in rhetorical theory and informed by current research in technical communication.

Communication across multiple audiences and for multiple purposes continues to be a desired skill set in technical and professional fields. Beyond field-specific knowledge and experience, successful and ethical communication drives the professional world. This class, in content and form, models these successful communication practices. Working individually and in groups, students learn effective strategies for communicating about and with technology, particularly in networked workplaces and through usability testing. To achieve success in this course, students must display the ability to succeed in their future workplaces by developing a variety of informative and visually effective print and electronic documents. To that end, projects will only receive A grades if they meet the quality standards of real world, professional environments. This is a high standard, but it is one you will be held to by employers in the very near future.

This course attempts to find a middle space between the daily assignments, F2F discussion, and interaction of an onsite course and the self-pacing student may expect of distance education courses. This course uses three modules to work through each project. Keep in mind that this course is not completely self-paced, but students can work ahead on a several assignments and, ultimately, can have more flexibility and responsibility within the course structure. See below for a more detailed description of the project modules and self-pacing.

Required Texts

Course Goals

These are general course goals outlined by the Professional Writing Program. Instructors will articulate how each specific project incorporates the course goals.

Writing in Context

Project Management

Document Design
Make rhetorical design decisions about technical documents including

Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork, such as

Research
Understand and use the research methods and strategies necessary to the production of professional documents, including

Technology
Use and evaluate the writing technologies frequently used in the workplace, such as emailing, instant messaging, image editing, video editing, presentation design and delivery, HTML editing, Web browsing, content management, and desktop publishing technologies.

Project Modules and Self-Pacing

This section of 421Y finds the half-way point between the course goals of improving your writing process and collaboration skills while also meeting your expectations as a distance education student. After the first week, our only due dates will be Wednesdays and Fridays for most assignments, and on other days you will be reading, conducting peer review, and working on your projects. Each student should be responsible and flexible in completing each week's work since you have some, but not complete, freedom to pace yourself. In other words, you may always work ahead, but responses and projects not turned in by due dates are considered late.

The course is broken down into three modules centered around the course's three major projects. Here are some guidelines to help you understand how self-pacing, peer review, and collaboration will work:

Course Projects and Activities

3. Instructions Project (Client-Based Service Learning Project)

Project 1 asks you to create usable, clear, comprehensive instructions for a device, piece of equipment, or software you know well. The instructions should serve as a guide for setting up, using, and trouble-shooting your object. Instructions must consider audience, context of use, appropriate terminology, and usability. Components of the project will require evaluation of common household instructions and small-scale usability testing of your instructions. The final product will be a comprehensive and visually sophisticated set of instructions ready to ship with the product. (Individual; 20% of course grade.) 

2. Employment Project 

You will be asked to locate a job for which you are qualified and apply for it. Step 1 of the project asks you to learn about and use various web-based resources for job seekers and ultimately to select one job to pursue. Step 2 asks you to prepare the all-important "Job Application Letter." Step 3 asks you to prepare a resume suitable for such a position. In Step 4, you will provide peer feedback to other students. In the process of completing each step, you will work closely with your peers and me to shape your writing so that it represents you and your experience fully and effectively, given the rhetorical circumstances. You will also study and respond to examples from the textbook. (Individual; 20% of course grade.) 

3. White Paper Project

The focus of Project 3 is the white paper, a common report genre in the professional world. White papers are used in business, industrial, and governmental contexts to sum up the gist of what’s known about a subject. During this project you will learn about

All group members will keep a project log and submit Collaborative Project Evaluation forms.

(Collaborative: 30% of course grade.)

Weblogs

Much of your writing for this class will be posted publicly on the Internet to your individual weblog or our community weblog home page. Weblog posting assignments will include drafts, project logs, and research notes, among others. See posting to your weblog for more information. The calendar specifies what you should post to your weblog and by when, so let that be your guide.

Reading Responses

Although we will have many readings each week, you are responsible for writing one, 300-word blog post each week. The reading responses will function to synthesize the readings and your reactions to them, much like class discussion. I expect reading responses to be thoughtful and sophisticated, referencing the readings specifically and analyzing their application in and beyond the classroom. Please refer to guidelines on how to post a reading response.

Comments and Replies

You are required to post five (5) comments and replies (e.g., follow-up responses) each week to the blog posts (reading and other responses posted by others) appearing on our course's front page. Additionally, you will post a comment to each instructor blog which furthers, discusses, or challenges the ideas in the blog. Your comments and replies should be spaced out over a few days. Each should be, at minimum, 100 words each.

All comments and replies to another's blog post should follow effective rhetorical strategies for networking with others on the Web. Please reference something specific in the previous readings or comments and then elaborate (don't simply say "I agree!" or "I disagree.")(Readings from the course text provide guidelines to follow.)

Our activity online substitutes for in-person discussion in interesting (and sometimes deeper) ways. Of course, you are always welcome, and encouraged, to post beyond thsese minimum requirements. Quite frankly, the biggest thing that separates A students from others in the class is their continued and productive participation in class. The course calendar includes reminders about meeting this ongoing obligation for participating in class discussion.

The format and focus of your weblog comments and replies is described fully in these Guidelines for Posting Comments and Replies. Please bear in mind that your online interaction is the glue that holds the course together, makes collobaration possible, and helps you achieve the course goals. For these reasons--and because we are not meeting F2F--your engagement in these online discussions will require serious and consistent attention throughout the course. It won't be possible to make up missed postings later since the discussion will have already moved on.

Grading

Instructions Project

20

Employment Project

20

White Paper Project (collaborative)

30

Weblogs, Reading Responses, Project Logs, etc.

30

Total

100%

The three major projects in the course will be comprised of several components, each of which will be worth a percentage of your final grade. For the collaborative project, students will complete the required Collaborative Evaluation Form.

All major assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale: A=100-90 B=89-80 C=79-70 D=69-60 F=59 or below. 

Students must participate in all of the three major projects and complete a majority of the required weblog posting assignments in order to pass this class.

Class Participation, Reading Responses, Peer Reviews

This portion of your grade will be based on

Technology Requirements

In order to participate fully in the course, you should already be able to use the technology platform and applications listed below. 

Technology Responsibilities

Because the exchange of information and documents in this class will be entirely electronic, familiarity with certain technologies is crucial for participation and success in the course. If you need any assistance now or at any point during the semester, please do not hesitate to ask.

During the semester, you'll need daily access to the Internet and email. Because the course home page is the main locus of the class community, you are responsible for reading and keeping current with all weblog postings on the home page, including those submitted by both the instructor and your fellow students. You'll be responsible for configuring your system to access course materials, to read course email and participate in online discussions, and to submit your work. Very early in the semester, you will be asked to demonstrate that you can meet these responsibilities:

If at any time you have problems accessing the Internet from home, you'll need to find a public lab or connection point. Problems with computers will not be an excuse for falling behind or failing to complete required assignments. If your Internet goes down, use another computer. If your computer breaks, use another computer. In other words, find a way to complete the assignments on time. Because computer problems are a fact of life, always work to complete your assignments early and make frequent backups to multiple media.

Course Technologies

Collaborative Work

Collaborative work is a required component of the course. You and your project team members are responsible for updating one another and me about assignment development and progress. In addition, you also are responsible for negotiating together all aspects of your work, including planning, drafting, revising, file managing, and scheduling of assignments. When a collaborative project is assigned, you will receive explicit guidelines for successful collaboration. Individual group members will complete Collaborative Evaluation Forms. For more information about good principles of collaboration, see the brochure, Group Work and Collaborative Writing <http://dhc.ucdavis.edu/vohs/>. 

Attendance

Since this is an online course, your attendance at a physical location is not required. However, you will need to demonstrate active involvement in the course activities by keeping up with reading responses, project logs, and other coursework. You will also need to respond to course email promptly to ensure that good communication flows in all directions. More than one continuous week of absence from course activities is grounds for failure of the class. If you disappear for a few days here, another few days there, and some more later, then your final grade may be lowered, and you will likely see your class participation suffer and your collaboration fail. In addition, if you are frequently "absent" from the online discussions (i.e., you fail to post for several days at a time), your final grade may be lowered.

Academic Integrity

Purdue students and their instructors are expected to adhere to guidelines set forth by the Dean of Students in "Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students," which students are encouraged to read here:

http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/services/gradeappeals.htm

The preamble of this guide states the following: "Purdue University values intellectual integrity and the highest standards of academic conduct. To be prepared to meet societal needs as leaders and role models, students must be educated in an ethical learning environment that promotes a high standard of honor in scholastic work. Academic dishonesty undermines institutional integrity and threatens the academic fabric of Purdue University. Dishonesty is not an acceptable avenue to success. It diminishes the quality of a Purdue education, which is valued because of Purdue's high academic standards."

Academic dishonesty is defined as follows: "Purdue prohibits "dishonesty in connection with any University activity. Cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the University are examples of dishonesty." [University Regulations, Part V, Section III, B, 2, a] Furthermore, the University Senate has stipulated that "the commitment of acts of cheating, lying, and deceit in any of their diverse forms (such as the use of substitutes for taking examinations, the use of illegal cribs, plagiarism, and copying during examinations) is dishonest and must not be tolerated. Moreover, knowingly to aid and abet, directly or indirectly, other parties in committing dishonest acts is in itself dishonest." [University Senate Document 72-18, December 15, 1972]"

Put simply and directly, if you have another author's words in your writing without accurate quotation marks and citation, you have committed plagiarism whether you meant to or not.

If you have any questions about this policy, please ask.

In Case of a Campus Emergency

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances. You can acquire updated information from the course website, by emailing me, or by contacting me through the English Department at 765-494-3740.

Late Work

The instructor will stick closely to the course calendar -- it is important that you keep up. When possible, you may certainly complete assignments early, but you must complete them on time. Much of what you do for this class quickly leads to another assignment. And often, your postings and comments are part of a larger discussion that will not wait for you. It will also be difficult for you to do your part in group projects if you miss assigned deadlines. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact your instructor by email prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted. Late work will result in a one letter grade penalty for every 24 hours it is late.