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.