English 421 Technical Communication
Instructor: Josh Prenosil
Section: 003
Office Hours: I check my email several times a day, and I am frequently in Heavilon Hall. Email me and we’ll set up a time to meet posthaste.
Office: Heavilon 207
E-Mail: jprenosi@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.
Required Texts
Course Readings (posted on the website and available through www.scribd.com)
Course Goals
Writing in Context
* Analyze the invention, manufacture, and distribution of technologies in context and use writing to communicate these attributes in a variety of media and genres.
* Write to the different levels of technical expertise of a range of audiences and stakeholders to foster technical understanding.
* Describe the ethical implications of working within the nexus of technology and culture.
Project Management
* Develop and deploy various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents both individually and collaboratively.
* Select and use appropriate technologies that effectively and ethically address professional situations and audiences.
* Build professional ethos through documentation and accountability.
Document Design
Make rhetorical design decisions about technical documents including
* adapting to genre conventions and expectations of a range of audiences including both technical and non-technical audiences
* implementing design principles of format and layout
* interpreting and arguing with design
* drafting, researching, testing, revising visual design and information architecture
* ensuring the technical accuracy of visual content
Teamwork
Learn and apply strategies for successful teamwork, such as
* working online with colleagues to determine roles and responsibilities
* managing team conflicts constructively
* responding constructively to peers' work
* soliciting and using peer feedback effectively
* achieving team goals
Research
Understand and use the research methods and strategies necessary to the production of professional documents, including
* working ethically with research participants, subject matter experts, and technical experts
* locating, evaluating, and using print and online information selectively for particular audiences and purposes
* triangulating sources of evidence
* selecting appropriate primary research methods such as interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to collect data
* applying concepts of usability research, such as user-centered design
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.
Course Projects and Activities
1. A Guide to Technology
For this project, you will produce a technical document that an end-user can use out-of-the-box to construct, operate, attune, configure or install a particular technology. Call it a "user's guide" "user's manual" or "tutorial," your job will be to use (the technology of) writing and/or visual and aural media to provide end users with access to a specific functionality. Your document will be tailored to a defined population with a particular competence. In other words, your job will be to make an otherwise unsuitable technology amenable to a necessary context.
As a precursor to composing this document, we will read a few philosophical pieces on science and technology that will provide some background information on how folks in technical communication view their job and the work they do selecting media and crafting messages. After we read precursory texts, we will consider how bodily interaction affects end-user reception of media, and we will run several exercises that require you to apply the knowledge gained from the readings to real-life contexts.
Finally, we will build technical competencies through computer-based exercises that will build toward your final deliverable, a hard copy of the document. In addition to producing the document, you will give a short presentation to the class explaining how you came up with the document and how your end-user shaped the composition and revision of the document. (Individual; 30% of course grade.) Due Wednesday, May 27 by the beginning of class.
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 or internship to pursue. Steps 2 and 3 ask you to prepare the all-important "Job Application Letter" and a resume specifically designed for the job or internship you've selected in Step 1. In Step 4, you will assess your experience in a "Project Assessment Document." In the process of completing each step, you will work closely with your peers and your instructor 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; 15% of course grade.) Due Tuesday, June 2 by the beginning of class.
3. Usability Study and White Paper Project
For Project three, you will work collaboratively in project teams on a client-based service-learning project that teaches you to manage complex writing challenges in real contexts that matter. You will learn principles of project management, collaboration, document cycling, usability testing and study, and client-based research. Because you will work with real clients--either in the community or online, you will also learn important principles of professional and ethical communication.
You will begin the project by thinking of and contacting clients who may benefit from having such your report. After you locate a client, you will do research on the product/software they produce and the features of the company's interaction with the public. Then, you will conduct usability tests on that product or software with research participants. Finally, you will gather your information into a white paper report that describes the usability of the software/product and that provides suggestions for how to make the software/product more usable. As this is a collaborative project, the outcomes of your Collaborative Evaluation Review will impact your grade. (Collaborative; 30% of course grade.) Due Thursday, June 11 by the start of class.
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 other types of content. The calendar specifies what you should post to your weblog and by when, so let that be your guide. (Individual; 7.5% of course grade)
Reading Responses
You will be responsible for writing a 300-word blog post as a reading response, as assigned. The reading responses will synthesize the readings and your reactions to them, much like class discussion. Note: You must complete at least N-1 assignments, where N is the total number of weblogs for the class, in order to earn these points. (Individual; 7.5% of course grade)
Comments and Replies
All comments and replies to another's blog post should follow effective rhetorical strategies for networking with others on the Web. (Readings from the course text provide guidelines to follow.)
Keep threads alive and relevant. Follow-up comments with further discussion. Think of your comments and replies as part of a lively class discussion in which everyone participates.
In-Class Discussions
A key feature of this course will be the discussions we have at the beginning of each project regarding the philosophical grounding for our operations. These discussions are important as a preface to the kind of cultural investigations you will undertake as you proceed through the assignments - and as a means to understand what rhetoricians, technical writers, and liberal arts folks generally mean when they say "science and technology are constructs."
The difference between this course with readings and this course without readings is the difference between Bill Nye the Science Guy and your thermodynamics class. Both are interesting, but one will be more useful by far. (Individual; 10% of course grade)
Grading
A Guide to Technology
30%
Employment Project
15%
Usability Study and White Paper Project
30%
Weblogs
7.5%
Reading Responses
7.5%
In-Class Discussion of Texts
10%
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 final project, students will complete the required Collaborative Evaluation Form.
All major assignments will be graded on the standard plus-minus letter-grade scale: A=100-94, A-=93-90, B+==89-87, B=86-84, B-=83-80, C+=79-77, C=76-74, C-=73-70, D+=69-67, D=66-64, D-=63-60, 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. Students with questions about final grades should review university policies regarding grade appeals, which are outlined by the Dean of Students here: "http://www.purdue.edu/ODOS/services/gradeappeals.htm.
Class Participation, Reading Responses, Peer Reviews
This portion of your grade will be based on
* How well you implement the guidelines and best practices for posting comments and creating reading responses, as presented on our course site and discussed in the textbook.
* The degree to which your your peer reviews and responses offer insightful feedback and suggestions on your classmates' drafts.
* The degree to which your reading responses and comment posts demonstrate learning of the course content.
* The degree to which your reading responses and comment posts engage with and contribute to the learning of others in the course.
Technology Requirements
In order to participate fully in the course, you should already be able to use the technology platform and applications listed below.
* Mac OS X or Windows XP or Vista
* Microsoft Office for the PC or Mac (Word, PowerPoint, Excel) or Apple counterparts (Pages, Keynote, Numbers)
* Web Browser (e.g., Firefox, Safari, or Internet Explorer)
* Email Program (e.g., Purdue Webmail, Outlook, Thunderbird, Gmail, etc.)
* Adobe Acrobat and Reader (for PDF documents, collaborative review)
Technology Responsibilities
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 regular 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 content posted there, including what has been 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:
* Register for the course website and complete your profile information.
* Post a message about yourself and your interests
* Read the course description and calendar, then ask questions when you are uncertain about requirements or activities.
* Set up your @purdue.edu email or an alternative that you can access regularly and reliably
* Become proficient sending and receiving email attachments, resolving file compatibility issues, and following email decorum.
* Check the course calendar before each class meeting.
* Become proficient participating in the class Drupal space.
* Become more proficient with unfamiliar computer technologies and applications, including Web editing software, document cycling systems, desktop publishing applications, and graphics programs.
* Maintain back-up copies of all assignments via your home directory, disks, USB drives, or CDs.
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 service goes down, find another connection point. If your computer breaks, use another one. 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.
Collaborative Work
Teamwork 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 collectively negotiating 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 .
Attendance
Attendance is required at all scheduled electronic and face-to-face (F2F) meetings. Since you will be working in project teams much of the semester, you also will be required to attend any scheduled out-of-class meetings with your team to complete course assignments. Two absences may result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than two absences can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences may be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you make a written request to me no less than two weeks in advance and that you complete any required work before the due date. Being excessively or regularly late for class or team meetings, both electronic and F2F, can also be counted as an absence.
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/osrr/integrity.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]
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 majority of missed class assignments cannot be made up. If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me in writing prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted.