Report & Technical Writing

ENC. 3211, Spring 2005

                                                Instructor: Halfhide

                                                Text: John Lannon, Technical Communication, 9^th Ed.

                                                Additional Reading: Sunday and Tuesday Miami Herald      

                                                Office Hours: Mon. & Wed.12:45-1:45 & by App.

 

The course assumes that you have already mastered the skills covered in English Composition. This means that you are conversant with mechanics (which include grammar and punctuation) and familiar with various rhetorical strategies that would help with paragraph development and essay organization. The course will focus on the application of specific principles of composition to the writing produced in and for the workplace. Special attention will be given to your ability to mold technical information into structures that will achieve their individual objectives, be they proposals to the city commission for the construction of a bridge in a particular location or a recommendation to your office manager that the office furniture be arranged differently.

Assignments: 

Jan. 10      : Course Introduction. Diagnostic. Chps. 1, 2, 18, 19 

Jan. 19      : Letters and memos. Chps. 3, 4, 5, 6.

                    Recommendation Report. (GW 5). Due Jan. 19. 

Jan.  24     :  Memos. Chps. 10, 11, 12, 13. Justification Report  (GW 5)

                    Due Jan. 31

Jan. 31      :  Arguable Claim. (GW 5). Due Feb. 9. Chps. 3, 4, 5. 

Feb. 7      :  Chps. 20, 21  (Assignment to be announced. GW 5.)

                    Due Feb.21

Feb. 14    :  Grant Proposal. (GW 10)  Chps. 14, 15, 16.

                    Due. Mar.2

Feb.21     :  Ad Evaluation. (GW 10) Chps. 8, 9, 10

                   Due Mar. 14

Feb. 28    :  Sales Proposal. (GW 10) Chps. 17, 18, 22, 23

                   Due March 28

Mar. 7     :  Analytical Report Proposal. (GW 10)

                   Due April 4

Mar. 14   :  Analytical Report Abstracts    (GW 5)

                   Due April 6

Mar. 28   :  Analytical Report Outline. (GW 5)

                   April 11

Ap. 4       :  In-class summary (GW 10)

                   April 18

Ap. 11     :  Analytical report. (GW 20)

                   Due April 20

These dates and assignments are subject to changes that time and circumstances might dictate. (Class participation is worth plus or minus 5 points. It includes punctuality, preparation for lectures, etc.) 

Policies

Attendance: After 3 absences, your grade will drop a letter. After 5, you will fail the course. This policy can be waived for unusual circumstances, but they will have to be very thoroughly documented. (Note the word unusual.)

Late Papers: Papers are due at the beginning of class on due date. Papers handed in after that will be considered late. Late papers will be penalized one letter grade and will not be accepted if not turned in on the next class meeting after the due date. Any paper more than 1 class-day late will get zero points, or, in unusual circumstances, will be awarded points at my discretion. 

Grades: You have been given a grade weight (GW) for each of the assignments listed on the syllabus. The grades will be assigned on the basis of your ability to master the skills demanded by each exercise. A Technical Writing course places great emphasis on the mechanical correctness of a paper and the usefulness of the specific details that make up the paper=s content. So your papers must be carefully planned, researched (if necessary), organized, written and edited. My assumption would be that the paper has been handed in only after all these steps in the writing process have been covered. Therefore, your grade will reflect the extent to which you have convinced the reader that these steps in the writing process have, indeed, been covered. 

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is a very serious offense that speaks to a writer=s integrity. Departmental guidelines recommend failure in less egregious cases but require academic censure or dismissal from the university in cases of blatant dishonesty. During this term, you will be reminded frequently as to what exactly constitutes plagiarism. You will occasionally be required to consult and use secondary sources. It is your responsibility to know or find out what needs to be credited to your sources and what can be used without specific documentation. You will also be asked occasionally to write short exercises in class. These documents and those you produce at home will establish the range of your abilities. Any document that departs significantly from the level of work produced in most of your writing would constitute a form of plagiarism. This guards against the quandary that many a teacher finds himself in when a student suddenly discovers a wonderful voice and vocabulary that hitherto had not been evident. 

Special note: