Course Syllabus
English
235 Summer 2013 |
Email:
patmesch@bellevuecollege.edu |
Technical
Writing |
Office:
R230 |
Patricia
Mesch |
Voice
Mail: 425/462-6780 |
Office:
425/564-2341 |
Textbook: practical
STRATEGIES for technical communication, by Mike Markel
Course Requirements:
1. Assigned textbook reading (often 2 or more chapters a week)
2. Weekly
Discussion Board
3. A
Comparative Feasibility Research Study
[requiring technical data collection,
analysis, and presentation. A Recommendation Report will be the
final project.
4. Three
Short Written Assignments
· Memo Evaluation
Topic Choice Form
· Instructions Revision
5. Four (4) written technical reports:
· Project Proposal
· Project Progress
Report
· Project Data
Report
· Project Final
Report
Weekly Discussions
ask you to apply the technical communication (TC) principles you are
learning; be prepared to participate by understanding the information covered
in the assigned reading. Through discussion, we will discover the reasons for
various technical writing strategies and their practical applications.
Research Projects:
Your four reports
are generated from a feasibility study that each of you will design,
research, develop, and report on during the course. You will be given complete
instructions and topic choices for your project in the second week of the quarter.
You will be asked to define a specific topic, purpose, and reader for
your project by the fourth week of class.
Grading:
All reports must be completed in order to pass the course. Your course grade
will be calculated in the following way:
Short Written Assignments (3) 10%
Report 1:
Project Proposal 15%
Report 2:
Progress Report 10%
Report 3:
Project Data Report 15%
Report 4:
Final Project Report 30%
Discussion
Board (10) 20%
Grades on
assignments are calculated using a 100-point scale:
A+ |
A |
A- |
B+ |
B |
B- |
C+ |
C |
C- |
D+ |
D |
D- |
F |
100-99 |
98-93 |
92-90 |
89-87 |
86-83 |
82-80 |
79-77 |
76-73 |
72-70 |
69-67 |
66-63 |
62-60 |
0-59 |
Due Dates:
All reports are due on the dates
listed on the final research assignment :
** All assignments should reach me by midnight on the due date.
(Please attach
them as Word documents)
Exceptions: You may turn in one of your first three reports one
day late by arranging it with me on or before the due dates.
Late reports should be turned in no more than one day after the original
due date, and must arrive in electronic form by midnight. Any report
turned in more than one day late will be dropped one grade level each
additional day it is late.
Assignments turned in late
because of illness must be cleared with me before submission.
Revisions:
You may revise Report 1, the Project
Proposal, for a better grade. The revised grade will be the original
grade averaged with the revision grade. Revisions must show
substantial work and improvement to earn a higher grade.
Saving Your Work
Be sure to duplicate your 235 work from your hard
drive to some other medium (USB Drive, CD, etc)
as backup. Keep your rough drafts until your report is returned to you after
grading. All graded reports should be saved until the end of the quarter as proof
of work completed. This will save you from having to rewrite a report that is
destroyed or lost.
As verification of your work,
research notes and sources for your Final Project Report should also be saved
in duplicate as your work progresses. In other words, there is no bona fide
excuse for not having proof of the work you have completed for class,
especially at the end of the quarter.
Plagiarism
The ethical considerations of
cheating in technical writing are much greater than in other kinds of writing.
Since you will use technical writing in the workplace, it is mandatory that you
communicate all technical information accurately, completely, and honestly.
Most professional organizations, including the Society for Technical
Communication, have clearly defined codes of ethical behavior (see the Code of
Ethics on p. 28-30,in text ).
The Bellevue College Student Code is
also very clear about the seriousness of cheating and the actions that faculty
members are required to take in cases of plagiarizing:
The Bellevue College Student Code prohibits cheating, stealing,
plagiarizing, knowingly furnishing false information to the college, or
submitting to a faculty member any work product that the student fraudulently represents
as his or her own work for the purpose of fulfilling or partially fulfilling
any assignment or task required as part of a program of instruction. All forms
of cheating, stealing, and plagiarizing will be reported to the Dean of
Instruction. Please read the entire section on “Academic
Honesty” in Student Procedures and Expectations on the Arts &
Humanities Division website
Affirmation of Inclusion Bellevue College is committed to maintaining an environment in which every
member of the campus community feels welcome to participate in the life of the
college, free from harassment and discrimination. We value our different backgrounds at
Bellevue College, and students, faculty, staff members, and administrators are
to treat one another with dignity and respect.
The Disability Resource Center (DRC) serves students with a wide array of learning challenges and
disabilities. If you are a student who
has a disability or learning challenge for which you have documentation or have
seen someone for treatment and if you feel you may need accommodations in order
to be successful in college, please contact the DRC as soon as possible. If you are a person who requires assistance
in case of an emergency situation, such as a fire, earthquake, etc, please meet with your individual instructors to
develop a safety plan within the first week of the quarter. Please visit the
DRC office in B 132 or call the reception desk 425/564-2498. Deal students can reach the DRC by video phone
425/440-2025 or by TTY at 42/564-4110. Web: http://bellevuecollege.edu/about/goals/inclusion.asp
Students may arrange conferences in
my office in R230 by contacting me via the course email or arrange a conference
by phone by calling my home office phone number listed on the syllabus.