syllabus.html
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Syllabus
Morehead State University Caudill College of Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences English Course Details Term: Course: Professor: Office: Office Hours: Phone: Email: Prerequisite: Co-requisite:
Fall 2010 Technical Writing I (ENG 690-301 via BlackBoard) Dr. Robert D. Royar Combs Room 104 11:30-12:30 MTWTh 606.783.2734
[email protected] Graduate standing None
Required Texts and Software
Holloway, Brian R. Proposal Writing Across the Disciplines. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice, 2003. (ISBN: 978-0-13-022495-8) Alred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. Handbook of Technical Writing. 9 th ed. Boston: Bedford, 2009. (ISBN: 978-0-312-47707-3) Commercial (non-beta) version of Microsoft Office (or current open source version of OpenOffice).
Recommended Texts (choose one from the following)
Modern Language Association. MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. 3rd ed. New York: Modern Language Association, 2008. Print. (ISBN: 978-0873-52297-7) University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style. 15th ed. Chicago: Univ. Of Chicago P., 2003. Print. (ISBN: 978-0-226-10403-4) University of Chicago Press. The Chicago Manual of Style. 16th ed. Chicago: Univ. Of Chicago P., 2010. Print. (ISBN: 978-0-226-10420-1)
Purpose English 690 covers the principles of analysis, process, and definition; progress, recommendation, and research reports; proposals and memoranda; visual aids; transitions, mechanics of clear and precise statement.
Delivery ENG 690 will be conducted entirely via the Internet. Regular access to a computer and modem is required as is access to an Internet Service Provider. Students who are regularly enrolled in courses at the university may use their standard, university e-mail accounts. Course materials will be distributed via MSU's BlackBoard system. All assignments that are not posted directly to the discussion board as part of the discussion must be word processed and saved in Word DOC files before being uploaded to Blackboard's Assignments' section (or attached to messages in the Discussion Board). I will not read any files that are in MS Works or Word-Perfect format. Be sure you check that your word processor is saving files in the necessary format BEFORE you turn them in to Blackboard's Assignments section. For everyone's peace of mind, please install a virus-checking program on your computer, update the virus definitions regularly, and set it to check your word-processing files and your incoming and outgoing email. It is ill-mannered to engage in unprotected public email or forum discussions.
Schedule Week 1 2 3 4
Begins on Readings / Assignment Due Dates 23/08 Pages 175 - 186 (Holloway, yes, the index) 29/08 Pages 001 - 013 (Holloway) 07/09 Pages 014 - 034 (Holloway) 12/09 Pages 035 - 054 (Holloway) & Pages 412 - 433 (Alred) Preliminary Proposal (due 17 September)
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5
19/09
Pages 055 - 110 (Holloway)
6
26/09
Pages 111 - 174 (Holloway) & Pages 253 - 255 (Alred) Query (inquiry) Letter (due 01 October)
7
03/10
Blackboard Discussions
8 9
10/10 17/10
Pages 402 - 406 (Alred) Midterm Progress Discussion (fall break end of week) Conference Proposal discussion
10
24/10
Conference Proposal (due 29 October)
11 12
31/10 07/11
Pages 048 - 049 (Alred) Blackboard Discussions Annotated Bibliography (due 12 November)
13
14/11
Blackboard Early Drafts
14 15
21/11 26/11
Pages 072 - 075 (Alred) (Thanksgiving break) Blackboard Collaborative Workshops
16
05/12
Final Grant (or Project) Proposal with Transmittal Letter (due 10 December)
17
12/12
Final Examination (due 17 December)
Assignments Each assignment is due in Blackboard's Assignments by the end of the day (i.e. 23:59:59) on the date listed in the Due Date column in the following table: Description
Due Date
Percentage
Preliminary Proposal Query Letter
17 September 10% 01 October 10%
Conference Proposal
29 October
15%
Annotated Bibliography 12 November 10% Final Grant or Project Proposal 10 December 35% Final Transmittal Letter
10 December 10%
Final Examination
17 December 10%
About the Text Books The Holloway text is designed to be read from the beginning. You will benefit from reading this text all the way through early in the semester. It is fewer than 200 pages and should be relatively easy to complete in a weekend. I have divided the assigned reading into five short weeks, but you will learn more if you read the entire text first and use the scheduled readings to review what you have read earlier. The Alred text is in encyclopedic format. Use the index (579-626) and the alphabetic listing format of the text to look up terms you find in Holloway, this syllabus, the assignments, and the class Blackboard discussions. Follow the cross references in the individual entries. The Alred text is highly respected in its genre and is the type of text that you should keep for future reference. Its section on documentation should be supplemented by a complete documentation style manual (such as the one published by the Modern Language Association or The Chicago Manual of Style).
Grading Details Your term grade is a simple numeric average of the graded work based on percentage assigned to those papers minus absences and points for any required assignments you do not complete or which you turned in late. The following (uncurved and unrounded) scale will be used in assigning final grades: A 3.70 - 4.00 B 2.70 - 3.69 C 1.70 - 2.69 E 0.00 - 1.69
Criteria The criterion for grading each assignment is available in the Assignments' section. Each assignment includes a scoring guide. Open the assignment to download it. They are all in Acrobat (PDF) files.
How Specific Grades Will Be Assigned Grade A
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Students whose work is judged at the highest level ('A') will complete all of the assignments on time with very few surface errors, limited to occasional typographic mistakes not correctable using a spelling checker. The grade of 'A' will be reserved for exceptional work which is judged not to benefit from further correction or revision. Assignments written at the 'A' level will demonstrate the understanding and mastery of techniques such as proper citation of sources, organization, and the appropriate use of language. Students whose final course grade is an 'A' will also have participated in collaborative workshops for every paper submitted for grade, both providing criticism to and accepting criticism from an editing partner. Grade B Students whose work is judged at the good level ('B') will complete all of the assignments on time with few surface errors, limited to typographic errors not correctable using a spelling checker and/or occasional lapses into minor agreement or sentence errors without exhibiting a pattern of these errors. The grade of 'B' will be reserved for work that is of high quality but which would still benefit from revision. Writing at the 'B' level will demonstrate consistent application of and proficiency with techniques such as proper citation of sources, organization, and the appropriate use of language. Students whose final course grade is a 'B' will also have participated in collaborative workshops for most papers submitted for grade, both providing criticism to and accepting criticism from an editing partner. Grade C Students whose work is judged at the average level ('C') will complete all of the assignments with few surface errors, limited to typographic errors not correctable using a spelling checker and/or occasional lapses into agreement, verb form, and/or sentence errors without exhibiting a pattern of multiple errors. The grade of 'C' will be reserved for work that is of good quality but which needs revision for style or arrangement. Writing at the 'C' level will demonstrate consistent application of and competence with techniques such as proper citation of sources and organization. Students whose final course grade is a 'C' will also have participated in collaborative workshops for most papers submitted for grade, both providing criticism to and accepting criticism from an editing partner. Grade E Students whose work is judged at the failing level ('E') will be missing one or more assignments, or earn failing averages on their assignments, or exhibit surface error in final versions of writings which disrupts reading of these documents. Papers which do not contain evidence of the proofreading, organization, or the avoidance of plagiarism will receive an 'E.' An 'E' will also be earned by any student who does not participate in collaborative workshops, or whose responses to an editing partner's suggestions or to the partner's writing is perfunctory.
Policies Attendance and Class Participation You are expected to participate in class discussions (on the Blackboard Discussion Board) at least twice per week (i.e. at least two substantive posts per week). A portion of each paper's grade will be based on the quality of your responses to other student's writing. Your final grade will be reduced by two-tenths of a point (0.20 on a 4.00 scale) for each week you do not post at least two substantive posts to the BlackBoard discussions (or one-tenth of a point if only one post is made during that week). Plagiarism Because of the nature of the projects you are completing, it is unlikely that you will be able to find an affordably priced, already prepared package of papers that meet the course criteria. However, plagiarism includes any instance of copying another's words without using quotations or paraphrase or any instance of using another's ideas without citations. Most of your work on the final report will be based on materials you have collected from sources; therefore, you must keep track of your sources as you collect the data and be sure to cite them in any of the papers you write. Citations in your letters do not need to follow the MLA format, but you should use this style in your other papers, and you will be graded on how closely you follow the MLA style in your graded papers other than your letters. If you do plagiarise material for an assignment, expect to receive a zero (0) as a grade on that assignment. Late Papers Each paper has an assigned due date. You are expected to turn in your paper on that date (via the Assignments section). Papers turned in late will have their grades reduced two-tenths of a point (0.20 on a 4.00 scale) for each partial week for which the paper is late. Should the instructor move the due date for a paper in the class to allow more time for completion, the late penalty will accrue from the new due date. file:///Users/royar/Documents/Class/fall_2010/Technical_writing/syllabus.html
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Revisions You are provided a forum for each paper to workshop your drafts. You are encouraged to discuss your drafts with the instructor before you turn in your final draft. Essays cannot be revised once they have been graded.
Essay Format You are writing formal essays this semester. Technically, they are research-informed, transactional, expository essays. They must be word processed and handed in in electronic form, formatted following the guidelines defined by the Modern Language Association (MLA). If you need a handbook to assure you are following the format correctly, purchase the the The MLA Style Manual and Guide to Scholarly Publishing. Every graduate student enrolled in an English literature program should own a copy of this text.
Style, Readability, and Format Use a readability formula to assure that your final papers read at the college level. The Flesch index is available from within Microsoft Word. Do not submit papers with gender-specific language. Write in active voice when possible. Write in third-person perspective unless you are writing instructions for another person to follow or are describing specific actions you have taken. Create itemized or numbered lists to highlight important elements in an extended series. Write all series in correct parallel (grammatical) structure. Include descriptive headings and subheadings in your texts to aid readability. Use headings of different dimensions to show document structure and hierarchy (e.g. Word styles Heading1, Heading2, Heading3, and Heading4 in that order). Follow the guidelines for including graphics and for layout and design described in our text. Study the samples in our text to discover ways to design your own documents in a reader-based, clear, and pleasing form. Double space your text; indent paragraphs five spaces. Include the correctly formatted running headers or footers required by the style your papers follows. Use your word processor's formatting features; do not treat the software as though it were a sophisticated typewriter. Tabs are not intended to indent blocks of text; the ENTER key is for beginning new paragraphs.
Surface Correctness ENG 690 is an advanced writing course and must be taught assuming you are able to produce Standard Written English without extra training. The course focuses on issues related to document design, project management and technical writing and revision. Simply put, you will be graded on your ability to write complete and grammatically correct sentences, but the instructor will not teach these elements. If you know you have trouble writing correct sentences, then plan to spend additional time proofreading your work before you hand it in. Edit your final drafts to correct grammatical errors. Learn to use Word's grammar check. Compile a checklist of your own most common errors, and consult it each time you prepare your final draft. Edit your final draft to assure it consists of clear sentences with minimal embedded elements.
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