Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making

“Socially Interactive Participation in Meaning Making”

Technical Writing131201

Instructor:Maher Yousef Arafat

Office 2430, Faculty of IT, Department of MIS, 2nd floor.

LecturesSun, Tue, Thu, 14h00-15h00

Office Hours : Sun, Tue, Thu. 11h00-13h00

Mon, 12h00-14h00 Wed. 14h00-16h00

Course Scope and Objectives

Every student planning to work in business orindustry must master the art of communication. Indeed in this new century your ability to communicate effectively in print, in presentation, and in electronic media will play a major role to succeed in your chosen career and profession;therefore, good communication skills are essential in any career you choose.

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 informationat 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 skillsمهارات الاتصال 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).

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 )

Instructionalmethod and delivery

Through out the course we’ll stress on one simple principle: You’ll learn to write well by doing as much writing as possible.

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-enabledmethod of teaching and learning) mixingthe traditional Face-2-Face and e-learning usingthe Online Course Container OCC as Learning Management System LMS, The use of Social Media like Wikispaceswhere most of the course web activity will take place

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 interactionwith the instructor and can benefit from interacting withother students as a platform to collaborate with team members and work ON-LINE.

Companion websiteswill be provided for student to visit where studentsare 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.

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.

Week14

• 18. Building Careers and Writing Resemes.
• Applying for vacant post, Responding to vacancy requests

Week 15 – Week 16

In-class report Presentations

In-class Presentations

16th Week Dec5th

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:

Textbooks and Reading resources:

1-

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

Additionalsupporting 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 PavelZemliansky.

8-Functional English Language, for Commercial students, 1st Secondary class. Ministry of Education, Jordan 1997

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