ENG 402: Technical and Professional Writing
Summer Session 2012
INSTRUCTOR: Peter Chilson
Office: 367 Avery Hall. Office Hours: 10:15 a.m. to noon. Mon. and
Tues.
Email: pchilson@wsu.edu. Tel: 5-7309
Web site: www.peterchilson.com
REQUIRED TEXTS:
* A Strategic Guide to Effective Technical Communication Writing, Graves and
Graves (Broadview Press.
*A good grammar reference. Buy a good dictionary.
*Longitude by Dava Sobel (Walker and Company)
COURSE OBJECTIVES: This course is designed to strengthen your
understanding and mastery of language in the context of technical and
professional communication. This involves exploring the concept of rhetoric and
the various rhetorical options available for a given professional writing task. The
truth is, you already know what rhetoric is in an instinctive way. Without
knowing it, you use rhetoric in conversation and personal letters. The aim of the
course, however, is to raise your rhetorical awareness to a more conscious and
effective level when you sit down to write in the workplace.
This means learning to write with a clearer sense of audience and purpose in
professional communication, and with a critical and open-minded awareness of
the techniques and strategies useful for different writing tasks. This also means
learning to read more critically, and with rhetorical awareness for good writing
and bad. How can we master writing techniques if we haven't learned to see
those techniques when they are used for better or worse?
Therefore, we will focus attention on parts of the writing process:
arrangement, drafting, revising, and editing. We will look at what makes
professional communication effective and credible through structure, use of logic,
voice, style, and tone. We will also review the formal requirements of report
writing, such as use of bibliographies, abstracts, graphs and so on.
ROUGH DRAFTS: Finally, revision is a critical component of the writing
process. You must turn in a rough draft for each of the major papers
you will write. There should be a significant difference between the rough and
final drafts. This tells me you have gone through the intellectual process of
developing your argument, considering its strengths and weaknesses, and making
the necessary changes using the rhetorical strategies available to you.
Moreover, you will critically examine each other's work in peer review groups.
The ability to engage in honest, forthright, constructive discussion is a must for
group work. Being able to work as part of a team, by the way, is a workplace
necessity.
Remember that writing can be tough and frustrating, but ultimately
rewarding.
One more thing! The success of this course depends on you. Active, spirited
participation is critical. Feel free to express your opinion, and to disagree with
other students, and with me. But remember to conduct yourselves with respect
and consideration.
ATTENDANCE: You have two free absences. After that, you lose a full letter
grade for every unexcused absence. Note: I rarely excuse absences. After the
fourth absence—-that’s a full two weeks of class—you’ll receive a written warning
and a request for a meeting to reconsider whether or not you should remain in
the class. Remember, chronic absenteeism proves a student’s lack of
commitment.
REQUIREMENTS: I don’t accept late work. Also, PARTICIPATION—which
covers your class involvement, including exercise assignments—is 25 percent of
your grade. Yes, 25 percent. I expect you to be in class every meeting fully
prepared and ready to participate, to voice your opinion and defend it. Also, all
work must be typewritten, double-spaced, unless otherwise indicated by the
instructor. Font size and margin should be identical to what you see on this page.
EXERCISES: You must complete a number of exercises covering the
mechanics of writing. These include short papers, technical and group exercises,
and brief oral reports. These assignments are 15 percent of your grade.
COVER LETTERS: Three major papers compose the bulk of the course work.
Every paper must be accompanied by a two-page cover letter to me. The letter is
an assignment progress report. Tell me what your goal is, who you think your
audience is, how you did your research for the assignment, and what happened
during the course of writing it. Consider this like a personal journal entry (though
I will read it) in which I am trying to get you to think about your own writing
process.
MAJOR ASSIGNMENTS:
1) Problem Memo: The task here is to define a problem that has become an
issue in your workplace. This may involve something or someone within your
work unit or another division of the company. In the memo (three double-spaced
pages in memo format, which I will give you) explain and define your problem for
your audience (4-5 pages, 25 percent).
2) Defining and Explaining a Process. This, also, should take memo
form. This might involve how a piece of machinery or software works. Or it
might involve defining how your team will approach a specific task. There are
many different types of processes (4-5 pages, 25 percent).
3) Final Project: Defining a Problem and Proposing a Solution.
This takes the form of a proposal and an argument, and the assignment has two
parts--written and oral. For this you might propose a new program, or perhaps a
change in strategy involving some aspect of your company division. You must
explain your idea, support it, and defend it. The challenge is to convince an
audience that your idea is realistic and doable.
I will ask you to hand in an annotated bibliography with this assignment and
make a five-minute oral presentation. Your written report will complement the
presentation and must be turned in. More on this assignment when the time
comes. Begin thinking of a topic NOW!!. I will ask you to hand in preliminary
proposals for this assignment at the beginning of the third week of class. (10-12
pages, 25 percent).
Class Schedule
Week One, June 18: Assign and discuss Paper One, which is to define and
prove the existence of a problem in a workplace memo. Read assigned chapters
in text and Longitude. We will discuss research methods. Students will begin
working on research log for Final Project—-the Project Proposal. Discussion
and exercises in issues of writing style: sentences and sentence structure. We will
also work on understanding audience an dhow to meet the needs of the
professional workplace reading audience.
Week Two, June 25: Paper One Due Tuesday. Assignment of Paper
Two. On Monday, we will do in-class workshop connected to Paper Two with
exercises and discussion of writing about a process. Grammar and Style Unit:
Discussion and exercises in issues of writing style, understanding paragraphing
and structure, as well as sentence style and structure, and understanding active
voice and passive voice. Read Chapters in Text and Longitude. We will be
discussing Longitude in class in context of also understanding the Final Project.
Week Three, July 2: We will be discussing Longitude in class and assigned
readings. Paper Two due on Tuesday. Discussion of Final Project and issues in
research skills. Introduction of the research log with research exercises.
Continued discussion and exercises in grammar and style.
This weeks we will begin a TEAM EXERCISE. Students will work in small
groups to solve a problem and propose a solution.
Week Four, July 9: We will concentrate on research and writing problems and
possibilities connected to the Final Project. Discussion and exercises with
keeping a research log. Discussion of assigned readings. In-class writing
exercises.
Week Five, July 16: Lectures and exercises in public speaking. Lecture and
exercises on the process of Peer Review. One or two days of Peer Review
Workshop.
Week Six, July 23: Workshop on Monday. Final Project presentations
Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday.
FINAL PROJECT DUE BY FRIDAY, JULY 27