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Note: This is a sample syllabus; while some aspects of the course remain the same, others do not.
COURSE DESCRIPTION AND GUIDELINES/SYLLABUS
South Dakota State University Department of English
Online Technical Communication/English 379.7 & 8: 3 credits
Fall 2008
Mrs. Lynn Hublou, Instructor
Please make sure you familiarize yourself more thoroughly with D2L by visiting the Student D2L tutorial under “Resources” on the homepage.
Mrs. Lynn Hublou, Instructor D2L Support: The D2L homepage
Phone: 688-5753 has an email link and phone numbers for
Email: Internal email system you. The on-campus computer help phone number is 688-6776.
Required Text: Technical Communication, 11th ed., John M. Lannon,
NOTE: 11th ed. (Do not ask if it is ok to use the 10th ed.; it is not ok.)
Recommended Texts: St. Martin’s Handbook
Roget’s Thesaurus
A good, hardbound dictionary
This course is delivered through Desire2Learn (D2L). See the sections below with the blue section headings for some information about navigating the course.
Office Hours: MTWTH 10:30-12:00; and by appointment.
I am available online throughout the day. I am usually not available on weekends. If a situation arises when I will not be available for a full day, I will be sure to tell you.
Course Description and Goals/Learning Outcomes
Technical Communication is the “study of and practice in writing of a technical nature” (SDSU University Bulletin Quarterly 290).
Any successful professional will tell you without hesitation that the key to success is through excellent communication skills, with careful attention to the writer’s audience. Therefore, this course is designed to provide students with practical writing skills necessary for success in any field by stressing efficiency and usability. These skills involve everything from memo writing to business letter writing to report writing. You will learn to write convincing memos, letters, and reports; and you will learn to successfully design these documents using available technology. You will become aware of the social responsibility of communicating ethically. Your awareness of diversity will be raised through different modes of and approaches to communication. You will understand the importance and frequency of communication in the workplace.
The course will begin by studying persuasive techniques early on. The persuasion analysis is the precursor to the remainder of the assignments, all of which adhere to the assumption that any piece of writing is persuasive; therefore, each writing assignment is unique in that it will address a particular audience, and the student as the writer must analyze that audience and determine how best to “persuade” the audience. Students will learn to design letters and memos and to create other visually-appealing documents; document design is integral to successful workplace communication.
Technical writing requires conciseness and accuracy with attention to the importance of the audience and to altering tone to match that audience. Because the course stresses efficiency, course content will heavily emphasize revising techniques. You will learn to write clear, coherent, persuasive prose; you will conduct some research, and you will enhance your verbal and analytical skills.
Therefore, it is important that you analyze and critically evaluate the ideas and arguments within a given situation; it is important that you learn fundamental principles, generalizations and theories regarding technical communication; and it is important that you learn to apply the course material, in turn improving your thinking, problem-solving, and decision-making skills. It is also essential that you develop skill in expressing yourself in writing through applying the course material to improve those skills. Much of this will evolve through the important task of working with others as a member of a team.
Broadly, this course seeks to help you to improve your ability to read text critically, to consider issues thoroughly, to think about them clearly, and to write about them convincingly. These objectives accord with and, thus, satisfy two of the System General Education (SGE) goals:
Goal #1: “Students will write effectively and responsibly and will understand and interpret the written expression of others.”
Student Learning Outcomes: “As a result of taking courses meeting this goal, students will:
- Write using standard American English, including correct punctuation, grammar, and sentence structure [assessment based upon your performance on various exercises and responses and on the major essays];
- Write logically [assessment based upon your performance on the major essays];
- Write persuasively, using a variety of rhetorical strategies (e.g., exposition, argumentation, description) [assessment based upon your performance on the major essays];
- Incorporate formal research and documentation into their writing, including research obtained through modern, technology-based research tools [assessment based upon your completion of the research component of the major essays and various documentation exercises].”
Goal #7: “Students will recognize when information is needed and have the ability to locate, organize, critically evaluate, and effectively use information from a variety of sources with intellectual integrity.”
Student Learning Outcomes: “Students will:
- Determine the extent of information needed [assessment based upon your ability to provide sufficient evidence to support your claims in the major essays];
- Access the needed information effectively and efficiently [assessment based upon your ability to find relevant sources and incorporate them into the major essays];
- Evaluate information and its sources critically [assessment based upon your ability in chat rooms and message boards and in the major essays to challenge and/or corroborate the validity of other writers’ claims];
- Use information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose [assessment based upon your ability in the major essays to gather sources, incorporate them appropriately into your essays, and thereby persuade readers that your arguments are plausible and cogent];
- Use information in an ethical and legal manner [assessment based upon your ability to fairly and accurately represent others’ ideas through quotation, paraphrase, and summary—and to do so, in the case of paraphrase and summary, in your own words].”
Note: Freedom in learning. Under Board of Regents and University policy student
academic performance may be evaluated solely on an academic basis, not on
opinions or conduct in matters unrelated to academic standards. Students should be
free to take reasoned exception to the data or views offered in any course of study and
to reserve judgment about matters of opinion, but they are responsible for learning
the content of any course of study for which they are enrolled. Students who believe
that an academic evaluation reflects prejudiced or capricious consideration of
student opinions or conduct unrelated to academic standards should first contact the
instructor of the course to initiate a review of the evaluation. If the student remains
unsatisfied, the student may contact the department head and/ or dean of the college
which offers the class to initiate a review of the evaluation.
Following Directions
Because this is an online course and we are relying primarily on written communication, I have one important piece of advice: Read all instructional material carefully and follow all directions. Read the instructions for assignments carefully and print them. Highlight important information such as due dates and other criteria. Use a calendar to write down assignment due dates; consult it frequently and make any necessary changes on a regular basis. Typically, students who fail to follow directions receive lower grades than those who follow directions. Following directions is a skill many people lack, but it is an absolute necessity in almost every facet of life. Please demonstrate that you have it.
We will cover a great deal of material, but we will not discuss everything. Therefore, you are responsible for material that I assign but that I may not directly cover. This applies to the material for the quizzes, too. When you read about particular grammar or mechanical situations, you are responsible for applying those principles to your writing, including material I cover within emails, discussion postings, and in “News.”
Using a Calendar
Keeping track of deadlines in a calendar and keeping the calendar in your binder would be very helpful to you. This is especially important because assignment due dates are not always predictable from week to week. Read ahead in the syllabus so you know what is coming up and so nothing will surprise you. You have a built-in calendar within the course, too; look on the navigation bar for “Calendar.” “Events” on our course homepage also provide specific dates and times for assignment opening and closings. You will find “Events” prominently displayed on the left-hand side of the screen on the homepage.
Possible Changes to Syllabus
The syllabus provides dates of weekdays. Be alert to the syllabus and to our assignments within the Dropbox (look on the navigation bar for “Dropbox”).
IMPORTANT: I may make changes to the syllabus and/or to Dropbox assignments. Pay close attention to the “News” on our course homepage for these corrections. Any corrections I make there will always take precedence.
The syllabus is subject to change. Pay close attention to correspondence from me and make changes accordingly. I frequently provide detailed information and instruction via email and/or through “News” on the homepage, so check these sources of information daily. Also, print a copy of the syllabus and guidelines for easy reference and to make any necessary changes. As assignments become available, and as you receive emails from me, print them and put them in a three-ring binder (buy a three-hole punch, too). In fact, doing this should be a given. It’s what I do, and it makes life far less complicated, particularly in an online class. You will have no trouble staying organized.
The Beginning and the End of the Week
Most of the time, I will open assignments for the coming week on Saturday at 6:00 a.m.; however, the beginning of the week is officially on Monday at 6:00 a.m. I will post most assignments on Saturday morning to take into account those of you who work during the week and who would like to get a head start on the coming week’s assignments. The end of the week is officially on Friday at 6:00 p.m.
For the most part, you will have one paper due each week, and you will have two quizzes each week, one on Tuesday and one on Thursday. I will be fairly consistent with this, though deviations from this may occur.
The Textbook
Use the textbook. When I make assignments, you are to read them, but don’t just read the assignment. Highlight key ideas and write ideas and comments in the margins. Use the book; dig into the material.
You will learn a great deal in this course from the textbook. I will serve as your guide, but you must realize that your own reading and your own application of what you read will be your primary learning tools. Obviously, my input is the impetus for the course content and for what you ultimately produce for the course.
Technical Communication, 11th ed. is an excellent resource. Look through it to see what it has to offer. Chapter 13 will be very useful to you. You will have assignments from this chapter throughout the course, but you should look through it and become familiar with the ideas therein right away. Those ideas are vital to becoming a successful technical writer and to becoming a clear thinker. Look at Part Five of the text, “Resources for Writers.” “A Quick Guide to Documentation” provides a thorough discussion of three different methods of documenting, along with explaining how to use quotations, paraphrases, and other issues related to careful documentation. “A Quick Guide to Grammar, Usage, and Mechanics” covers mechanical and grammatical situations that you should review and be familiar with.
Finally, look at the last few pages of the book. The index should be the first place you look when you want to investigate something in particular. The very last page of the book lists editing and revision symbols. This list also provides page numbers where you can look in the book to learn about those ideas. Become familiar not so much with the list of symbols, but with what you need to be aware of as a writer.
Course Delivery and Pace of Course
This course is delivered entirely online, using Desire2Learn software (D2L). Learning will occur through reading assignments from the textbook and from other online resources, through writing assignments, through discussions and peer review exercises, and through accessing my notes from within the course.
This course is not self-paced. It is imperative that you keep up with your work on a daily basis. The volume of work must remain constant for the student and the instructor alike.
Advice About How to Navigate Our Course
You can figure out quite a bit about how to navigate in D2L on your own. However, I will offer some advice here within the Course Guidelines, and I will provide an area within the course where you can ask questions; you will see this link (a link to “Discuss” near the top of the Homepage, under “Course Info”). The best advice I can give you is just to keep experimenting and exploring the class. You will become more familiar and comfortable with it all the time, and if you have used WebCT, you will find many similarities. Also see the links on the right side of the homepage called “Student Guides.” The advice I’m offering here is limited; you have access to superior, more detailed information through “Student Guides.” The following sections (with blue section headings) outline the features of our course homepage and describe some navigational features of the course.
Contents on the Left Side of Our Course Homepage
To begin with, take a close look at the Homepage. On the upper left side of the screen you will find a link to the syllabus, a link to information about me, and so on. Be sure to look at these.
Below that, still on the left, you will find a list of “Events.” This is where you will see information about assignment openings and due dates (it is NOT where you will find assignments). It merely serves as a place to remind you of what is going on.
Below “Events,” you will see links to SDSU resources. These are handy links, so check them out.
Contents in the Middle of Our Course Homepage
At the top of the page, you will see “Course Info.” This is where you will find the link to the specific class discussion where you can ask questions about D2L. Feel free to ask questions and also to answer them. This is a place where we can learn from each other. Please don’t feel that it’s always up to me to answer every question.