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This is not a free course. To register either for regular academic credit or for continuing-education credit, see http://www.austincc.edu/.
In ENGL 2311: Technical and Business Writing, you study the principles, techniques, and skills needed in scientific, technical, or business writing. The course includes instruction in the writing of reports, letters, and other exercises applicable to a wide range of disciplines and careers, along with emphasis on clarity, conciseness, and accuracy of expression. Research techniques, information design, effective use of graphics, and preparation and presentation of oral reports is also covered.
Technical and Business Writing is a writing-intensive course; be ready to produce writing projects every weeks and a lot of reading and practice in between. As a 12-week course, this course is particularly brisk. Whenever possible, try to work ahead of the schedule.
| Semester/year |
Spring 2012 |
| Instructor |
David McMurrey |
| Class meetings |
Online class |
| Office & hours |
Wednesday: Northridge Campus 4225 12:30pm-3:30pm
Thursday: Northridge Campus 4225 4:20pm-7:20pm
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| Phone |
512.223.4804 (Northridge Campus), 223.???? (Rio Grande Campus) |
| E-mail |
davidm@austincc.edu |
In this first week, find out about the course and get going on the first unit, which is resumes and application letters. You can start this week getting ready to write the resume and application letter.
Introductions & startup. Let's find out who we are and what this class is all about.
| Start-up activities |
Watch and listen to the recorded overview of this course. You may need headphones. If the audio does dead, pause the recording, back it up a notch, and restart. Be sure also watch and listen to the recording on how to name, upload, and download your files (next week).
Read about the course: a description, its objectives, policies, and grading plan.
Fill out the questionnaire. Your information will be kept confidential.
Review this information and take the learning-styles assessment to ensure that you do well in online courses: Distance Learning 101.
Write the personal memo to introduce yourself to your instructor and the rest of the class. This memo will be password-protected; only our class can see these memos; ask your instructor for the password
See the personal memos and read about the rest of the class.
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due—Feb. 16 |
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 1 (introduction to technical communication) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 4 (audience) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 8 (resumes, application letters) and take the quiz.
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due—Feb. 19 |
Resumes & application letters. The following activities get you ready to write an application letter and a resume. To get credit for them, you must complete and send them to your instructor before the due for the related project.
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 9 (document design) and take the quiz.
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due—Feb. 26 |
Note: You are not required to do the optional exercises that are in gray lettering. However, doing them ensures you will have a greater chance of success on your writing projects in this course.
| Evaluations |
The following evaluations are optional:
Evaluate these resumes
Evaluate these application letters
See a summary of the resume evaluations
See a summary of the application-letter evaluations
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| Formatting & revising |
The following formatting and revision practice items are optional:
Using the provided text, build, format, and edit the text of one resume and check your work using the key.
Using the provided text, build, format, and edit the text of one application letter, and check your work using the key.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
Note: Formatting and correcting the resume and application letter is just practice to get you ready for the writing project (see below) in which you do your own resume and application letter.
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Naming, uploading, down-
loading writing projects |
Watch and listen to this recording on how to name, upload, and download your files.
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| Writing project |
Start thinking about your own resume and application letter, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.)
Note:
See the end of the assignment requirements (the preceding link) for information on how to name the files you send your instructor. |
due—Feb. 26 |
Instructions, headings, lists, notices, illustrations.
This and next week, we focus on the style, format, and organization of instructions. You'll get some practice formatting instructions and reformatting text to include headings, numbered and bulleted lists, and notices (warnings, caution, danger) and also learn some ways to acquire illustrations and incorporate them into your technical documents.
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 13 (instructions) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 10 (tables, charts, graphs) and take the quiz.
Read and these important page-design guidelines and follow them in your instructions and in the rest of this course.
Take the quiz on basic page design.
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due—Mar. 4 |
| Practice |
The following practice items are optional:
Identify common writing-style problems.
Identify common heading problems.
Format the provided text to include headings, and check your work using the key.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
Create at least one of the tables, check your work using the key.
Create the summary table for a recommendation report, and check your work using the key.
Create at least one of the charts, and check your work using the key.
Create at least one of the graphs, and check your work using the key.
See the tutorials for help with charts and graphs.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
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Naming, uploading, down-
loading writing projects |
Watch and listen to this recording on how to name, upload, and download your files.
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| Writing project |
Start thinking about your own instructions, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—Mar. 11 |
Instructions, headings, lists, notices, illustrations. We'll continue what we started last week.
| Formatting & revising |
The following practice items are optional:
Identify common list problems
Format the provided text to include lists: do all of the items in the two groups, and check your work using the key.
Format the provided text to include notices: do all of the items in each group, and check your work using the key.
Use the provided materials to create graphics: do one each of the bulleted items, and check your work using the key.
Edit these instructions, and check your work using the key.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
Note: Editing the instructions is just practice to get you ready for the writing project (see below) in which you write your own instructions.
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| Writing project |
Complete your own instructions, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—Mar. 11 |
Final-report planning.
This week, study technical reports, types of reports, topics for reports, report requirements; look at example reports; and start thinking about your own report project, which is due toward the end of the semester. Specifically, pick a topic, and invent or find a real or realistic audience, purpose, and situation.
Handbooks. An interesting type of report not covered in the textbook is the handbook. See the link below for details and examples.
Note: Proposals come due rather quickly. Try to work ahead into next week's activities.
| Planning project |
Post your report project notes so that your instructor and the rest of the class can view them. (Don't forget: this assignment receives a grade.)
View the report memos to see what others are doing for their final report projects. |
due—Mar. 25 |
Proposals. Now that you've planned a formal, researched technical report, picked a topic, and invented or found a real or realistic audience, purpose, and situation, you're all set to learn about proposals, and plan and write a proposal in which you propose to do write the report you have just planned. This week, learn about proposals, practice formatting and revising proposals, and start planning your own proposal in relation to the report project you set up last week.
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 11 (persuasion) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 18 (proposals) and take the quiz.
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due—Apr. 1 |
| Formatting & revising |
The following practice items are optional:
Format and correct the following hyperthyroidism proposal, and check your work using the key.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
Note: Formatting and correcting the proposal is just practice to get you ready for the writing project (see below) in which you write your own proposal.
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| Writing projects |
Start working on your own proposal, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—Apr. 8 |
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Turn in the preliminary draft of your final report, due on the date shown to the right. |
due—May 6 |
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Turn in the final draft of your final report, due on the date shown to the right |
due—May 10 |
Proposal. Don't forget—that proposal is due this week.
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Appendix A (writing mechanics) and take the quiz.
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due—Apr. 8 |
Complaint letter. This week, learn about complaint letters, review business-letter format, format and revise a letter or two, and then plan a complaint letter about a bad product or service.
| Formatting & revising |
The following practice items are optional:
Format this complaint letter, edit the text, and check your work using the key.
Use these keys to check your work. If you have questions, e-mail your instructor.
Note: This is just a practice item to get you ready for the writing project (see below) in which you write your own complaint letter.
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| Writing projects |
Turn in your own complaint letter, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—Apr. 15 |
Recommendation reports. Study recommendation reports and format one. This formatting practice will get you ready to produce your own report.
Information-searching and documentation. Review another system of indicating the sources of borrowed information.
| Readings & quizzes |
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 5 (research and documentation) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Appendix B (documentation) and take the quiz.
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 19 (oral communication) and take the quiz.
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due—Apr. 22 |
| Formatting & revising |
The following practice items are optional:
Get an overview of IEEE documentation style. From the University of Toronto
Get an overview of APA documentation style. From Austin Community College
Create an information-sources list and send to your instructor by e-mail attachment.
Add textual citations and send to your instructor by e-mail attachment.
Catch the plagiarist!
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Report format. To get ready for producing your final report, format the text of a recommendation report. This will include practice with citing sources and creating the information-sources list. Putting together a nicely formatted final report in Word is tough. And one of the toughest parts of it is creating a professional-looking table of contents (TOC).
Abstracts and executive summaries. Learn about the various types of summaries (abstracts, executive summaries) that accompany technical reports and that will be an important part of your own final report. Get some practice writing them by writing the summaries for the recommendation report you format.
| Readings |
Review Technical Communication, Chapter 3 (clarity and conciseness)
Read Technical Communication, Chapter 15 (abstracts and summaries) and take the quiz.
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due—Apr. 29 |
| Practice |
The following practice items are optional:
Choose one of the following reports, write an executive summary and a descriptive abstract for it, and check your work using the key:
Classification of galaxies
Bike antitheft report
Keys
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Oral reports. This week, review the requirements for the oral
report, and then start planning for a 7-minute oral-report script on your formal-report project or some other topic. (Because this is an online class, this will be a script instead of audio or in person. If you can produce a computer audio file, contact your instructor.)
| Report projects |
Prepare your oral report, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.)
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due—May 6 |
Final technical report. For the remainder of the semester, do a variety of activities to get you ready to write your final report: look at examples of technical reports, format and revise technical reports, practice writing the executive summary, and more.
| Report projects |
Keep working on the preliminary draft of your final report, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—May 6 |
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Remember the due date for the final draft of your final report, due on the date shown to the right. (Planning notes are not required.) |
due—May 10 |
Final technical report. Keep working on that final report!
| Report projects |
Turn in the preliminary draft your final report, due on the date shown to the right. (Send your report by e-mail attachment. If you prefer to print out and bind your report, make arrangements with your instructor.) |
due—May 6 |
Oral report. That oral report is due end of this week.
| Report projects |
Remember that your oral-report script is due this week, due date shown to the right. |
due—May 6 |
| Report projects |
Turn in the final draft your final report, due date shown to the right (Send your report by e-mail attachment. If you prefer to print out and bind your report, make arrangements with your instructor.) |
due—May 10 |
| Informal course evaluation |
Course evaluation form |
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