NOTE: This is an advance copy of the syllabus. Please refer to this document for general information and for pre-ordering textbooks. A final syllabus will be available on the first day of classes.

ENGLISH 225: Technical Literature and Communication

Professor: Dr. Andrew Smith
Office hours: by email and scheduled chat sessions
email: asmith@hcc.mass.edu

PREREQUISITE: English 102

Required Texts

Textbooks are available at the HCC bookstore immediately preceeding the semester or students may acquire textbooks now through Amazon.com or other online textbook merchants.

Suggested Texts

Objectives of the Course

Technical communication is written and oral communication for the workplace. This course introduces you to the major concepts of technical communication (including audience analysis, ethics, collaboration, graphics, and design), the major kinds of documents (letters, e-mails, memos, instructions, proposals, and reports), and presentations.

There are six learning objectives for the course:

1. to help you become familiar with the kinds of writing common in the workplace, and how it's often tailored for a more general audience
2. to help you understand theories that inform professional communication
3. to help you learn to write effective documents
4. to give you experience working collaboratively
5. to give you practice delivering presentations
6. to give you experience using the Internet as a resource and a communication medium 

The quizzes and formal written assignments and presentations are the principal means by which I will evaluate your success in achieving these objectives. See the detailed descriptions of each assignment for more specific statements of the learning objectives.

Attendance

Attendance is required, even though this is an online course. Be prepared to check the course every day or at least every other day, even on the weekends. The luxury of online learning is that we can learn in our pajamas; however, the course is perhaps more intensive in terms of its structure, keeping up with each other, and being fully involved. If you miss a bulletin board posting for some reason, or if you've not logged on for 2 or more days, you are expected to stay current by getting in touch with another student. If you do not login to the course for more than 5 consecutive days, I wil have the college registrar issue you an "AW," and you shall be blocked from the course. If you know you will have to miss a short block of time, contact me beforehand.

Portfolios

Although a portfolio is not a formal part of the course, you should maintain one, for you might need some of these documents when you take another course or apply for a job. Therefore, make backup files--on a different disk--of everything you write, and keep all the edited assignments.

HCC Writing Center

If you need help with a writing assignment or general help with your writing, contact the Writing Center. Although tutors in the Writing Center do not "correct" your papers, they help you learn how to improve your own writing by offering assistance with planning, drafting, and revising. To meet with one of the tutors, make an appointment.

Grading Criteria

If you are like most students, you have two goals in taking this course: to improve your technical-communication skills and to get a high grade. My editing of your documents is critical to both of these goals. For you to improve your skills, you must write frequently and have your documents edited. As the semester progresses and you write more and study the annotations on your documents, you should start to see significant improvement in your writing.

My job as an instructor is to give you clear and informed commentary on your writing. I will not mark or comment on every problem in your writing, because part of the learning process is to learn to identify and correct problems yourself. But I will comment in detail on portions of each assignment.

As I review your documents, I will be assessing your success in meeting the criteria of excellence outlined in Chapter 1 of the text: honesty, clarity, accuracy, comprehensiveness, accessibility, conciseness, professional appearance, and correctness. The best way to interpret your grades is to pay close attention to the comments I make throughout the document and on the comment sheet attached to it. 

One other note: if you are concerned about the grade you received on a document, it is a good idea to go home, let it sit overnight, then study the relevant portions of the textbook that discuss the issues I raise. If after studying the text you do not understand what I am getting at, or you don't see how the comments apply to your document, of course you should get in touch with me, and I will try to help you understand what I wrote.

The following table describes in general terms what the five letter grades from A to F represent for written assignments in this course. Please see the detailed description of each assignment for the grading checklist that I will use in evaluating that assignment.

Class Participation

Class participation is critical in a course such as this because technical communication is a craft that is practiced differently in different contexts. Many of you have had experiences that I hope you will share with the other people in the class. Contribute constructively to the course, even if by simply asking good questions.

The course bulletin board is the primary means by which we will communicate with each other. There will be several mandatory communiques. However, in order to achieve a superior class-participation grade, you will need to take the initiative in interacting with other members of the course. Do not wait around for an assignment to come along; instead, engage yourself in the life of the course.

I will distribute to you twice--once halfway through the semester and once in the last week--a form on which I have commented on your class participation. The form that I distribute halfway through the semester will not be used in calculating your grade. It is meant to help you see how I assess classroom participation. The form that I distribute at the end of the semester covers the whole semester and is part of your grade.

Quizzes

There will be ten 5-minute closed-book quizzes on the day's reading. For instance, a quiz question on Chapter 1 might be a prompt such as "Define the word accessibility as it is used in technical communication." If you have read the text carefully and taken good notes, mastered the online flashcards, and taken the self-study quizzes, you should have no trouble with the quizzes. The quizzes will be given at times announced in the coruse calendar and in bulletin board messages from me to you. If you miss a quiz, you may not make it up.

Drafts

Good writing is rewriting. I invite you to submit drafts of major assignments for my comments and suggestions. I'll let you know which assignments will carry the option of rewrites. On a note attached to the draft, or in the e-mail to which the draft is attached, please state clearly what you would like me to do with the draft. For instance, write, "Would you please review the introduction to this memo? We have omitted any discussion of the methods because we think the readers would not be interested in this information. Do you agree?" You may ask as many questions as you like. Please do not submit a draft and simply ask for suggestions or feedback. Direct very specific questions to me so that I will know what your particular concerns are.

Please give me several working days to return the draft to you, and give yourself at least a few days to revise the draft before you submit it for a revised grade. Note that in order for me to return any assignments to you in hard (printed copy), you must submit sufficient postage and a mailing envelope with your address.

Collaboration

Much of the work in this course will offer you the option for collaboration. Because people in business, industry, and government often work collaboratively, I want you to have the experience of learning how to work effectively and efficiently with other people. You will have the option to contribute to a number of assignments in small groups and submit a single assignment.

Collaborative projects tend to be easier on the collaborating individuals involved because there is a division of labor; it's not a one-person undertaking. Group members can rely on each other for instinct, insight, effort, and editing. Group projects always tend to be much stronger than individual projects.

If this course were an on-campus, "bricks and mortar" course, I would require collaborative assignments, but in the online environment, I realize that collaboration is not always as practical. Still, in the electronic age, document sharing and distribution are quite easily accomplished via email.

When I grade a collaborative assignment, I will first read the assignment and assign a grade to it. Then, I will determine a grade for each person in the group. (Unless I give you a separate statement indicating a grade, your grade will be the same as that assigned to the assignment.) I will base your grade on the following criteria:

Your self-evaluation form. Submit the self-evaluation form. On this form, you describe and evaluate your own contributions to the group's project.

The other group members' evaluations of your contributions to the project. Submit the group-members evaluation form. On this form, you evaluate the contributions of the other people in your group. If there is a consensus that a particular student's contributions to a project were less substantial or less constructive than those of the other students, that student will receive a lower grade on the assignment than the other students will.

Any materials you submit to me in a separate folder with your name on it. You are invited, but not required, to submit a folder containing any working materials--drafts, outlines, e-mails, etc.--that you want me to see. Include a memo to me describing the contents of the folder and explaining what you wish me to learn as I look through the folder. Submit a folder if you want me to see that your own work differed significantly from that of the rest of the group, in terms of strategy or quality or quantity. On the basis of his or her folder, a student can receive a higher grade than the assignment itself received.

Please put some thought into filling out these forms. If you fill them out quickly, you are less likely to think about techniques for working effectively and efficiently in groups.

If you do not submit both required forms, I will lower your grade on the assignment by 10 points. Please assemble all the materials from your group--the document, the evaluation forms, and any individual folders--in an envelope or folder with the group members' names and the number of the group on it. You might choose to include your own evaluation forms in a sealed envelope so that other group members do not read them.

Collaboration is described in more detail in Chapter 4 of the text. The following table indicates whether the assignment is to be completed individually or collaboratively.

Submission Requirements

To receive credit for the course, all assigned work, whether it is to be graded or whether it is required but not graded, must be satisfactorily completed.

• Number all pages at the top, either in the center or at the right-hand side.

• Although I am normally on campus, I will be in Virginia Spring 2005. Send all assignments to me in HARD (printed) COPY at the following sabbatical address:

 

Dr. Andrew L. Smith
290 Gold Leaf Drive
Christiansburg, Virginia 24073


• Word-process all assignments. Leave at least one-inch margins on all four sides, and attach sheets with a staple -- not a paper clip. Submit all assignments in hard (printed) copy.

• For individual assignments, use your last name, as in Smith.

• For collaborative assignments, use the group number, as is Group2.

• Papers are due on the date specified in the Syllabus (or on a new date, if that date is changed).

• Late work is penalized severely:

• All assignments must be completed in the order in which they are assigned.  

• All ungraded assignments, including the initial topic sheet and the note cards, must be turned in at the assigned times in order to get credit for the course.

• Assigned work must be submitted in the order it was assigned and covered in the course.   "Bundled" work, work in which more than one assignment is turned in for the first time together, will not be accepted, unless I specifiy that certain assignments may be group together in order to save on mailing costs and efficiency.  Otherwise, each assignment ordinarily must be turned in separately, graded, and returned before the next assignment can be turned in, as is outlined below:
  
  
  • The PROPOSAL must be satisfactorily completed, graded, and returned before the outline can be submitted.  This process must be followed so that needed corrections can be made in the outline. 

   

  • The SENTENCE OUTLINE must be satisfactorily completed, graded, and returned before the LONG REPORT can be submitted.  This process is necessary so that needed corrections can be made in the LONG REPORT.

   

  • The NOTE CARDS, SOURCE CARDS, and PHOTOCOPIES must be submitted, checked, and returned before the Long Report is submitted.  If the NOTE CARDS are not submitted before the LONG REPORT is due, there is a point deduction from the grade on the LONG REPORT.

   

  • The LETTER OF APPLICATION and RESUME must be submitted at the time the FINAL EXAMINATION is taken.  A point deduction will be made if it is turned in later.

Deadlines

Assignments (both electronic and hard copy) are due at the start of class on the date listed on the Calendar. Late assignments will be penalized severely, as stated above.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism will usually result in automatic failure of the course. You are responsible for understanding the definition of plagiarism. If you have questions, please ask me. Plagiarizing, which is defined as the taking and using as one's own the writings or ideas of another (definition adapted from the American Heritage Dictionary) is unacceptable. The course's teacher administers discipline for the first offense. Please see the HCC plagiarism policy in the college catalog under "Academic Integrity." There is a particular danger to students in having so many new resources available on the Web. It is easier than ever to copy someone else's work. Please be very careful that all ideas and quotations of others are properly documented in your papers. I will know when you have taken information that is not your own. If such an event occurs, I will give a student an "F" for the assignment, and may exercise the option of removing the student from the course with an "AW" or "F." If the offence is particularly egregious, I may seek judicial action through the College's administration.

Modification of Syllabus

I reserve the right to modify the syllabus at any time. You are responsible for staying current with the syllabus, even if you did not attend the class during which a modification was announced.

Point Values of the Assignments

Assignment	Points		Assignment	Points
Ethics exercise	05		Instructions	10
Web exercise	05		Completion report	25
Proposal worksheet	05		Oral presentation	05
Proposal	10		Class participation	10
Job-application materials	10		Quizzes	15

I invite you to download the Excel spreadsheet that I will be using to compute your grades in the course. On this spreadsheet, I have entered 100 for each data cell. When you receive a graded assignment back from me, substitute that grade for the 100 in the appropriate data cell. The Total column will automatically show the maximum possible number of points you can earn in the course.

Students with Disabilities Policy

Every effort will be made to accommodate those students with special needs. Students who need assistance should contact the Office for Students with Disabilities before beginning their first semester so that services can be provided in a timely manner. Please call the campus switchboard (413-552-2600, then 0) for information, AND contact me immediately.

Calendar

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