ENG 3050
Technical Communication I: Reports
Section 202
S/S, 2014
Luke Thominet
ez7398@wayne.edu
Online Class
9306.3, 5057 Woodward (Maccabees Building)
Office hours: By appointment (email me)
BC Prerequisite for ENG 3050
To enroll in ENG 3050, students must have completed their WSU Basic Composition (BC)
requirement (ENG 1020 or equiv.) with a grade of C or better.
ENG 3050 Prerequisite for ENG 3060
A grade of C or better is a prerequisite to enrollment in ENG 3060.
ENG 3050 General Education Designation and Prerequisite for WI
With a grade of C or better, ENG 3050 fulfills the General Education IC [Intermediate
Composition] graduation requirement. Successful completion of Intermediate Composition [IC] with
a grade of C or better is a prerequisite to enrolling in courses in the major that fulfill the General
Education WI [Writing Intensive] requirement for graduation.
ENG 3050 Department of English Description
ENG 3050 prepares students for reading, researching, writing, and designing technical
documents. While some technical writing addresses a general audience (e.g., instructions),
technical documents are often written for multiple audiences with different specializations (e.g.,
technical reports for executives and implementers). Technical documents incorporate both textual
(writing) and visual (graphics, illustrations, etc.) elements of design. The main goals of the course
are (1) to teach students to consider the audience(s) and purpose(s) in reading and writing
technical documents; (2) to integrate research, writing, and design in the standard genres of
technical writing; (3) to design effective technical documents with attention to text, visuals, format,
usability, citation, documentation, and mechanics, using a flexible writing process incorporating
drafts and revision; and (4) to work with current technologies for technical document design.
Learning Outcomes
A passing grade in ENG 3050 indicates that students are able to:

read, analyze and evaluate the design of technical documents, including text, visuals
(graphics, illustrations, etc.), format, usability, citation, documentation, and mechanics

analyze the audience(s) and purpose(s) for technical communication assignments

conduct primary and secondary research in support of designing technical documents,
designing primary research and finding and evaluating print and electronic sources

write effectively in standard genres of technical writing, including summaries, letters,
resumés, memos, instructions, user test reports, and technical reports

write using a flexible writing process that includes generating and organizing ideas,
writing, revising, providing and responding to feedback in multiple drafts, formatting,
editing, documenting, and proofreading

use appropriate grammar, mechanics, and style for formal and informal technical
documents, including standard conventions of citation and documentation to avoid
plagiarism

make productive use of current technologies for reading, researching, writing, and
designing technical documents
Methods of instruction
Since our course only meets online, we will necessarily need to adapt some of our work to
acknowledge this. First, since I can’t be there to lecture, the course will involve a lot of reading
both from our textbook and from several additional sources (which will either be available on
BlackBoard or through the Wayne State Library’s online resources). In order to encourage each of
you to keep up with the readings, there will also be a weekly reading quiz. At the end of (almost)
every week, I will also ask you to submit an assignment to BlackBoard. Most of these are short
assignments tied to our current unit, but there will also be a more prolonged process that
culminates in the final recommendation report.
Required Textbook in ENG 3050
Wayne State Custom Text: Anderson, Paul V. Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered
Approach. 8th ed. Boston: Wadsworth/Cengage, 2014.
ISBN10: 1-285-90093-6, ISBN13: 978-1-285-90093-3
*** Note: This is a custom text and is less expensive than the full published edition because it does
not include all of the chapters of the original. You may purchase the original instead if you wish,
but the page numbers will not match up. Our custom text only includes chapters 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8,
11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, and 28.
You will also need to use online resources provided by the Wayne State Library for this course. I
expect that you are already familiar with these resources. If you are not, the ENG 3050 Research
Guide is a good place to start.
Course Requirements:
Students are required to write 16 or more single-spaced pages in ENG 3050.
Course grades are awarded on a 1000-point scale:
 Weekly Reading Quizzes (x 10)

Unit 1: Foundations
o 1a: Course Application Email
100 points total
1-2 pages
50 points total
20 points
o 1b: Graphics Tasks
2-3 pages
30 points
1-2 pages
1-2 pages
1-2 pages
100 points total
40 points
40 points
20 points

Unit 3: Genre, Instuctions, and Usability
o 3a: Instructions Genre Analysis
1-2 pages
o 3b: Instructions Draft 1
3-4 pages
o 3c: User Test Memo
2-3 pages
o 3d: Instructions Draft 2
3-4 pages
200 points total
50 points
25 points
50 points
75 points

Unit 4: The Job Search
o 1a: Paper Resume and Cover Letter 2-3 pages
o 1b: Digital Resume
2-3 pages
150 points total
100 points
50 points

Unit 5: Proposal Report
o 5a: Project plan
o 5b: Progress Report Memos (x3)
o 5c: Proposal Report

Unit 2: Ethics Wiki
o 2a: PW/TC Article Summary
o 2b: Discipline Article Summary
o 2c: Ethics Narrative
2-3 pages
1-2 pages (x3)
8-10 pages
400 points total
20 points
30 points total
350 points
**All page lengths are recommendations. Projects need to adjust page length as necessary for
successful communication.
Final grades are based on the following scale:
 94-100
A
 90-93
A 87-89
B+
 84-86
B
 80-83
B 77-79
C+
 74-76
C
 70-73
C 67-79
D+
 64-66
D
 60-63
D 00-59
F
A grade of C or better fulfills the
Gen Ed IC graduation requirement
and the prerequisite for ENG 3060
Grading Policies for Assignments
 Expectations for assignments – all assignments will be distributed with an assignment sheet
and grading rubric. This information will be on BlackBoard.



Format for assignments – assignments must follow the format specified on the assignment
sheet. All assignments must be correctly documented using APA style.
Drafts and revisions – some early assignments have a schedule for optional revisions; see
the course calendar. Assignments cannot be rewritten after the final grade has been
assigned.
Late papers – this is a professional situation. You must turn in all assignments on time. Late
papers will not be accepted.
Cheating and Plagiarism Policy
Cheating is the act of submitting papers written by another person as your own.
Cheating includes submitting papers that were written by another student in whole or
in part as well as papers that were purchased or downloaded from the internet.
Plagiarism is the act of copying work -- in whole or in part -- from books, articles, and
websites without citing and documenting the source. Plagiarism includes copying
language, texts, graphics, and visuals without citation (e.g., cutting and pasting from
websites). Cheating and plagiarism are serious academic offenses: the minimum
penalty for cheating or plagiarism is an F for the assignment; the full penalty for
cheating or plagiarism may result in an F for the course. All cases of cheating or
plagiarism in ENG 3050 will be reported to the English Department; information
about plagiarism procedures is available in the Department of English.
To detect plagiarism, all major assignments in ENG 3050 will be reviewed in
SafeAssign on Blackboard. SafeAssign includes in its data base papers previously
written by WSU students as well as papers copied or plagiarized from print or
internet sources. All papers submitted to SafeAssign become part of the WSU data
base.
If you want extra instruction in avoiding plagiarism, the Undergraduate Library’s
reSearch program includes a module on avoiding plagiarism:
http://www.lib.wayne.edu/services/instruction/searchpath/mod6/04-plagiarism.html
You may also visit the WSU Writing Center for a tutorial on avoiding plagiarism.
If you need assistance with your assignments, please go to the WSU Writing
Center: http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/
WSU tutors have been trained to assist students without crossing the line into providing
excessive help.
Adding and Dropping
 Students may add ENG 3050 during the first two class sessions if a spot is available.
 Students may drop ENG 3050 up until July 13, 2014; after this date, no W grades will
be given and students will be given a failing grade for the course.
Withdrawals [W]
 Per WSU policy, the grade of WN is given to a student who did not attend any classes
and/or did not complete any assignments by the withdrawal date. If a student withdraws
after having received a grade for any component of a course, then W grades must be
either WP (withdrawal with a passing grade earned to date) or WF (withdrawal with a
failing grade earned to date).
Incompletes [I]
 No I grades will be given in English 3050.
Writing Center
The Writing Center (2nd floor, UGL) provides individual tutoring consultations free of charge
for students at Wayne State University. Undergraduate students in General Education
courses, including composition courses, receive priority for tutoring appointments. The Writing
Center serves as a resource for writers, providing tutoring sessions on the range of activities in
the writing process – considering the audience, analyzing the assignment or genre,
brainstorming, researching, writing drafts, revising, editing, and preparing documentation.
The Writing Center is not an editing or proofreading service; rather, students are guided as
they engage collaboratively in the process of academic writing, from developing an idea to
editing for grammar and mechanics. To make an appointment, consult the Writing Center
website: http://www.clas.wayne.edu/writing/
To submit material for online tutoring, consult the Writing Center website:
http://clasweb.clas.wayne.edu/writing/OnlineWritingCenter
Student Disabilities Services
If you feel that you may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability, please feel
free to contact me privately to discuss your specific needs. Additionally, the Student Disabilities
Services Office coordinates reasonable accommodations for students with documented disabilities.
The Office is located in 1600 David Adamany Undergraduate Library, phone: 313-5771851/577-3365 (TTY). http://studentdisability.wayne.edu
WSU Resources for Student
 Adamany Undergraduate Library http://www.lib.wayne.edu/info/maps/ugl.php
 Academic Success Center http://www.success.wayne.edu/
 Counseling and Psychological Services (CAPS) http://www.caps.wayne.edu
Asking Questions and Getting Help
Our main forum for asking questions this semester will be twitter. You will find a twitter help feed
on our blackboard site. To ask a question, just tweet me at @ProfThominet. Make sure that you
check the feed first to see if another student has asked the same question.