1. GOALS: This course aims to improve class members' skills in technical communication, both in technical writing (the creation of documents) and technical editing (the revising of documents).  To this end, class members will create and edit a variety of technical documents, including memos, descriptions, procedures, manuals, and/or Web pages.  Members will complete documents with real-world applications as well as preparatory exercises and engage in collaborative as well as individual work.  Using a best-selling text on technical editing, class members will gain experience in all elements of technical communication:

• developing and managing a technical documentation project
• creating and editing reader-oriented, purposeful text
• collaborating with writers and other editors
• editing paper and electronic text for organization, visual design, style, and mechanics
• creating technical documents with attention to organization, visual design, style, and mechanics

2. TEXT, MATERIALS, REQUISITES: The text is a comprehensive guide to technical editing: Technical Editing, 4/e, by Carolyn Rude.  In the view of the instructor, a technical editing text--as opposed to a technical writing text--presents a more comprehensive and more realistic view of what most technical writers do: they work collaboratively in teams on projects that are supposed to solve problems, and their work often consists in revising and improving technical documents already in existence. Class members will also need some high-density 3 1/2" disks or USB drives and, depending on their skills, a grammar handbook. Last, all members need to be or to become familiar with WebCT, which will be used to post assignments.

3. ASSIGNMENTS: Assignments in ENGL 3020 will be of two kinds.  (a) Class members will complete--individually or collaboratively--14 weekly writings and exercises during class. These will be worth four points each for 56 total points.  (b) Members will also complete a series of collaborative assignments in a technical writing/editing project for a client of the collaborative group's choosing.  These assignments will be worth a total of 44 points for 100 possible points in the term:

• Weekly writing and editing assignments completed individually or collaboratively during class--4 points each
• Technical writing/editing assignments in collaborative writing project:

  Client project proposal (letter to client describing deliverables)--8 points
  Progress report (memo to client and instructor)--4 points
  Draft of project--8 points
  Presentation to class--4 points
  Final draft of project--20 points

4. ATTENDANCE: Because members will complete weekly assignments in class and because of the collaborative nature of the course, attendance is especially crucial.  Weekly assignments worth four points each will be completed in class and cannot be made up for any reason: if a member misses a class, it costs four points. The instructor is not interested in looking at any documentation for absences or deciding what is excused or not.  Too many absences may also result in a member being dropped from a collaborative group.

5. CIVILITY: Late arrivals, ringing cell phones, the surfing of irrelevant web sites, and grumpy behavior are disruptive. Arrive on time, turn off cell phone ringers, keep your browsers on academic sites, and cheer up.

6. GRADING: Assignments will be given numerical grades that correspond roughly with letter grades according to a four-point, GPA-like system:

• 4=A
• 3=B
• 2=C
• 1=D
• 0=F

This four-point system is also applied to assignments worth 8 or 20 points:

• 8/8 or 20/20=A
• 6/8 or 15/20=B
• 4/8 or 10/20=C
• 2/8 or 5/20=D

Written documents will be scored on five criteria, for which SCAMP is an acronym. In ascending order of importance, these five criteria are

• Style: clarity, correctness, appropriateness, and dignity of diction and sentence structure, including punctuation and mechanical conventions
• Chunking of information: paragraphing or segmenting of text and overall design of the document, including use of horizontal and vertical white space, heads, typographical options, font sizes and styles, hyperlinks, etc.
• Audience appeal: general effectiveness of a document for a reader, given the reader's knowledge, purposes, values, and so on ( a document's appeal is affected by its performance on other criteria)
• Message: clarity, relevance, and sufficiency of information or content
• Purpose: clarity, unity, and worthiness of a document's goal.

Class members can score up to 100 points in the term.  Final grades will be determined according to the following scale:

• 87.5-100=A
• 62.5-87.4=B
• 37.5-62.4=C
• below 37.5=F

7. LATE WORK: As mentioned above, in-class activities cannot be made up.  Some of the due dates in the collaborative client project are more flexible, such as the proposal, progress report, and rough draft (which must be turned in before Thanksgiving). The oral presentation and final draft dates are not flexible.

8. CLIENT PROJECT: The collaborative technical writing/editing client project will be discussed extensively in class and is described in the Rude text.  In brief, for the client project a collaborative group will write and/or edit documentation needed by a local organization of the collaborative group's choosing. 

Class members can choose all kinds of local organizations to write for: profit or non-profit, retail or professional or trade.  Whatever organization is chosen must be in need of some technical documentation, which might include a wide range of materials: a web site, a manual or handbook, a set of instructions, a brochure, a fact sheet--or some combination of these.  A group with the requisite skills in web publishing, for example, might edit a local plumber's web site and produce a hard-copy brochure for the business.  Those are marketing documents.  Another group might compile a new employee handbook for a retail establishment and perhaps a set of instructions for a commonly performed task. These are just two quick examples of limitless possibilities.  Members will be placed in groups according to common interests and complementary skills.

Projects will vary in length and degree of difficulty.  Groups will need to consider what they are reasonably able to accomplish in about 10 weeks. One brochure, for example, probably isn't enough to occupy a group for 10 weeks. 

Documents will also vary according to their intended audience.  Some will be directed at customers or clients of the organization chosen; web sites, brochures, and fact sheets address that kind of audience.  Other documents, such as manuals or handbooks or instructions, address an audience within the organization.  Internal audiences can be of various kinds, including new employees or employees in certain departments.

Class members should probably begin thinking of a client by examining their current and past work or volunteer experiences: what organizations that have you worked for need some documents written or edited?  Members should also consider organizations that they come in contact with as patrons: does an organization that you frequent need a document written or edited?

9. ACADEMIC INTEGRITY: To plagiarize is to "use and pass off (the ideas or writings of another) as one's own" (American Heritage Dictionary). Technical writers and editors need to be careful not to plagiarize. For example, there are at least six places on the web where this sentence shows up: "Your colon, together with the kidneys, lungs and skin are responsible for eliminating waste from the body." Somewhere, sometime someone wrote that sentence in connection with colonic irrigation.  It then got picked up without attribution--plagiarized--by various people offering colonic services. That's one kind of bad technical writing.  If sources are used, they should be cited.

10. SCHEDULE: The following due dates are tentative; class members are expected to keep up with changes announced in class. There is no in-class final exam.  The client project deliverables are due on the Wednesday of finals week, December 5. R abbreviates Carloyn Rude's Technical Editing.  Students should have the reading completed before the class on which it is listed.

1. Aug 15: introduction to technical writing and editing; read R 1, 2, 3

2. Aug 22: introduction to client technical writing and editing project; read R 25, 24

3. Aug 29: client technical writing and editing project, cont.; read R 21, 22, 23

4. Sep 5: methods and tools of technical editing; read R 4, 5, 6; client project proposal due

5. Sep 12: methods and tools of technical editing cont.; read R 4, 5, 6

6. Sep 19: introduction to copyediting; read R 7, 8

7. Sep 26: copyediting, cont.: read R 9

8. Oct 3: copyediting, cont: read R 10

9. Oct 10: copyediting, cont.: read R 11; progress report due

10. Oct 17: copyediting, cont.: read R 12, 13

11. Oct 24: comprehensive editing: read R 14, 15, 16

12. Oct 31: comprehensive editing, cont.; read R 14, 15, 16

13. Nov 7: comprehensive editing, cont.; read R 17, 18; draft of client project due

14. Nov 14: comprehensive editing, cont.; read R 19, 20

Nov 21: no class: Thanksgiving

15. Nov 28: oral presentations on client projects

Dec 5: client project deliverables due by 5:30 PM

11. SPECIAL SERVICES: Class members requiring classroom accommodations or modifications because of a documented disability should discuss this need with the instructor at the beginning of the semester. Class members who require assistance but who are not registered with the Special Services Program should contact the Special Services Office in Nevins Hall (245-2498).

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