“Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making”
An-Najah
National University
Faculty of Eng. & I T
‫جـامـعـة‬
‫النـجـاح الـوطنـيـة‬
‫كليـة الهندسة وتكنولوجيا المعلومات‬
Technical Writing 131201
Instructor:
Office
Lectures
Office Hours :
Maher Yousef Arafat
2430, Faculty of IT, Department of MIS, 2nd floor.
Sun, Tue, Thu, 14h00-15h00
Sun, Tue, Thu. 11h00-13h00
Mon, 12h00-14h00 Wed. 14h00-16h00
Course Scope and Objectives
Every student planning to work in business or industry must
communication. Indeed in this new century your ability
effectively in print, in presentation, and in electronic media
role to succeed in your chosen career and profession;
communication skills are essential in any career you choose.
master the art of
to communicate
will play a major
therefore, good
As the right decisions require accurate information at the right time, IT
specialists are required to produce clear and accurate reports that covey the
right information at the right time to aid and to enhance the decision making
process. To help you become an excellent communicator, Businesses today
are increasingly dependent on ICT and are becoming more and more
technology-centered,
specifically;
determining
what
information
to
communicating, processing the information and sharing it.
By the end of this semester you will be able to:
This course will prepare you to complete the kinds of practical communication
projects often required in professions such as those you will enter. Emphasis
will be placed on:
Part 1,
- Providing the student with the necessary knowledge and comprehension
for effective communication skills ‫مهارات االتصال و التواصل الفعال‬
- Writing skills.
- Some language skills.
- Communication Models.
- Identifying the process of completing any on-the-job writing
assignment.
- Defining the writing formats most often used.
- Defining communication tasks such as oral presentations and graphics.
- Highlighting Internet-Based workplace communication (Paperless
Communication).
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“Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making”
Part 2, Applying technical writing and communication skills. (Putting words
into action)
 Formal and informal reports and proposals.
 Barriers to communications,
 Use of computer for the production of high quality presentation
materials.
Also in this course, students are encouraged to gain basic skills of
communications including:
 Prewriting skills of searching, data gathering, subject, audience,
purpose
 Telecommunication.
 listening and comprehension,
 Public Speaking & Critical Discourse
 speech and presentations, ( Oral Presentation skills )
Instructional method and delivery
You’ll learn
to write well by doing as much writing as possible.
Through out the course we’ll stress on one simple principle:
This course, will provide the learners with the opportunity to develop
knowledge and will stress on the fact that “The learner is responsible for
his own learning”, therefore the learners are encouraged to change their
learning attitudes to developed skills to diagnose and solve their problems.
This course will be delivered in an ( e-enabled method of teaching and
learning) mixing the traditional Face-2-Face and e-learning using the Online
Course
Container
OCC
as
Learning
Management
System
LMS,
www.najah.edu/occ . The use of Social Media like Wikispaces where most of
the course web activity will take place http://tw-arafat.wikispaces.com/
additional tools will be used like email, chat, forums and blogs when
applicable. Additional social media tools and web based tools and applications
like Googledocs, Groove … can provide all students with the opportunity to
maintain interaction with the instructor and can benefit from interacting with
other students as a platform to collaborate with team members and work ONLINE.
Companion websites will be provided for student to visit where students are
required to participate in online activities and online assessments to enrich
their learning experiences.
Course Timeline:
Week 1 Preparation Week.
During this week everyone must:
1- Carefully read this contract and acquaint yourself with OCC.
2- Have a Wikispaces account and familiarize yourself with it.
3- Familiarize yourself with the environment, reading materials and
presentation.
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“Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making”
4- Familiarize yourself with Google products and services, eg. Google docs,
blogs, twitter and Google wave….
Week 2
 Use of OCC, Wikispaces, Google docs, forum,
 1. Effective Business Communication
 The Communication Process.
 Interpersonal comm.. Johary window
 The role, forms and purposes of communication in businesses.

Week 3
 2. Comm. In Teams, Listening and nonverbal Comm. skills
 Communication Models.
 Barriers to communication.
 Writing in groups, Work-Team communication
Week 4 - Week 5
Planning Business Reports and Proposals
Week 6 - Week 7
Writing Business Reports and Proposals
 Characteristics of effective business writing.
 Report Design
 1st Exam/ A
Week 8
 6. Completing Business Reports and Proposals
 Style, mechanics and proofing
 1st Exam /B
Week 9 Technical Communication 6th edition, William S. Pfeiffer
 ch 8 Informal report
Week 10
 ch 8.5 Type and characteristics of reports.
Week 11
 ch 9 Formal reports
Week 12
 ch 10 proposal and feasibility studies
 ch 14 technical research
 2nd Exam
Week 13
 Oral Communication
 16. Creating &Delivering Oral and online Presentation.
 17. Enhancing Presentation with Slides and other Visuals.
Week 14
 18. Building Careers and Writing Resemes.
 Applying for vacant post, Responding to vacancy requests
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“Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making”
Week 15 – Week 16
In-class report Presentations
In-class Presentations
th
16 Week Dec 5th
In-class Presentations
In-class Presentations
Final/ TBA
Attendance: Class work is an important part of this course, so attendance will
be taken regularly. If you do not attend class, make sure to find out what you
missed. If you are late for class, inform the instructor at the end of that class,
so that you will not be counted absent.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the act of parading someone else's work as your
own, either intentionally or unintentionally. In this course, plagiarism will
result in a zero on the assignment and, possibly, a failing grade in the course.
Maintaining Daily Contact: Weekly assignments and activities will be posted
on-line and changes may be announced in class and/or on OCC, it is your
responsibility to be aware of all these changes.
Assessment and grading system:
1st Test ( 2 Exams )
2nd Test ( 2 Exams )
On-line writing activities and assignments
In-class writing activity and group reports
Self Evaluation
Final Exam
15%
15%
10%
20%
%
40%
Textbooks and Reading resources:
1- http://tw-arafat.wikispaces.com/
2- Business Communication Today 9th Edition, Courtland Bovee, John V.
Thill 2009
3- Student Companion Web site.
4- Technical Communication: A Practical Approach, 6th edition, by William
Sanborn Pfeiffer, Prentice Hall, 2006
Additional supporting material:
5- Effective Bus. Comm. Hussein Harrim, 2003
6- Successful Commercial Correspondence, Radi Al-Shorafa, Nablus
7- Internet-Based Workplace Communication: Industry and Academic
Applications, Kirk St. Amant, and Pavel Zemliansky.
8- Functional English Language, for Commercial students, 1st Secondary
class. Ministry of Education, Jordan 1997
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