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English 3366
Style in Technical Communication
Fall 2007
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T/TH 2-3:20 p.m.
English
Bldg., Rm. 352
Instructor: Dr. Rebecca Rickly
Office
Hours: T-Th 11-1; M/W 2-4;
and by appointment
Phone:
806-742-2500, ext. 268
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Course Description:
Welcome to English 3366, Style
in Technical Communication. In this course we will examine what constitutes
a style, and identify characteristics of the most frequently used styles in
technical and professional communication. We will study discourse
communities, how they determine which styles are appropriate for which
contexts, and how we as authors can determine the appropriateness of a
certain style for a situation. Finally, we will learn how to create these
styles in our own writing.
Texts:
Jones, D. (1997). Technical Writing
Style. Pearson Longman.
Additional research articles.
Objectives:
At the end of this class,
students will be able to:
| Objective |
Measurement |
| Identify and use appropriate style
for different audiences |
Final project, revision projects, final exam. |
| Be able to choose appropriate
language and structure for varying audiences/purposes |
Final project, revision projects, final exam. |
| Understand how style affects
content, as well as the professional and ethical
responsibilities involved. |
Daily assignments. |
| Be familiar with grammar, its
influence on style, and each student's strengths/weaknesses with
grammar. |
Final project, revision projects, final exam.. |
| Revise for tone, clarity,
conciseness, and continuity. |
Daily assignments, final project, revision
projects, final exam. |
Assignments and Weights:
Grading Scale:
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90-100 |
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The document is superior. It
exceeds all the objectives of the assignment. The information is
ethical, sophisticated, thorough, and ideally suited for the
audience. The style is clear and appropriate to the subject,
purpose, and audience. The organization and design of the document
make the information understandable, accessible, and usable. The
mechanics and grammar are correct. |
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80-89 |
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The document is good. It meets
the objectives of the assignment, but requires minor improvements or
reveals easily correctable errors in organization, style, design,
grammar, or mechanics. |
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70-79 |
= |
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The document is adequate. It
omits useful information or requires significant improvement in
organization, style, design, grammar, or mechanics. It may be
formally correct but superficial in its discussion. |
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60-69 |
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The document is disappointing.
It meets some of the objectives of the assignment but ignores
others; the discussion is inadequately developed, omits important
information, or displays numerous or major errors in organization,
style, design, grammar, or mechanics. |
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0-59 |
= |
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The document is
unsatisfactory. It omits critical information, does something other
than the assignment required, or displays major or excessive errors
in organization, style, design, grammar, or mechanics. |
Attendance Policy:
You may miss two days of class without penalty. For every absence beyond
two, one percent of your final grade will be docked. Grades will not be
docked for excused absences, those which are documented by the university or
a doctor.
HOWEVER, more than five absences in the semester is an automatic failure
of the course. Excused absences, those which are documented by the
university or a doctor, do count in these five. If you think you
might miss more than five classes, you may want to drop the course.
If you are absent, please check the webpage to find out what
you missed. You are responsible for turning in all assignments on their due
date, regardless of absence.
Assignments are not accepted late, except in cases of extreme
unforsee-ability (car accident or death in the family).
You may submit work via email if you are ill. You can have a
classmate collect any handouts for you, or you can stop by my office hours
to obtain copies.
Plagiarism Policy:
(from Student Affairs Handbook, Part IX, Section C)
"Any student found guilty of dishonesty, cheating, or plagiarism in academic
work shall be subject to disciplinary action.
Dishonesty of any kind on examinations and quizzes or on written
assignments, illegal possession of examinations, the use of unauthorized
notes during an examination or quiz, obtaining information during an
examination from the examination paper or otherwise from another student,
assisting others to cheat, alteration of grade records, illegal entry or
unauthorized presence in an office are instances of cheating.
Complete honesty is required of students in the presentation of any and all
phases of work as their own. This applies to quizzes of whatever length as
well as to final examination, daily reports, lab work, and term papers.
Plagiarism is offering the work of another as one’s own, without proper
acknowledgement; therefore, any student who fails to give credit for
quotations or essentially identical expression of material taken from books,
encyclopedias, magazines, and other reference works, or from the themes,
reports, or other writings of a fellow student, is guilty of plagiarism.
Instructors are responsible for initiating action in each case of dishonesty
or plagiarism that occurs in classes.
In cases of convincing evidence of or admitted academic dishonesty or
plagiarism, an instructor should take appropriate action as described below.
Before taking such action, however, the instructor should attempt to discuss
the matter with the student.
If cheating is suspected on a final exam, the instructor should submit an X
grade until a reasonable attempt can be made to contact the student,
preferably within one month after the end of the semester.
In cases in which guilt is admitted by the student or determined by the
instructor, after attempting to contact the student, he or she may give the
offending student a failing grade on the assignment or a failing grade in a
course. When a student is given a failing grade in a course as a result of
academic dishonesty or plagiarism, the instructor shall report the facts of
the case and the action to be taken against the student in writing to the
instructor’s department chairperson.
If the instructor elects to submit a report to the Dean of Students, the
Dean shall retain a copy of this report in his or her discipline files. The
student will have the right to appeal the receipt of a failing grade in a
course through the established grade appeal procedure. The student may not
appeal a failing grade given for a class assignment.
In cases of flagrant or repeated violations, instructors may recommend to
the Dean of Students, through the department and the Academic Dean’s Office,
further disciplinary action pursuant to the disciplinary policy and
procedure outlined in the Code. In addition, The Academic Dean or the Dean
of Students may initiate disciplinary action for flagrant or repeated
violations.
A
student referred to the Dean of Students Office for disciplinary action for
academic dishonesty is entitled to all substantive and procedural guarantees
provided in the Code, including, but not limited to, notice and hearing.
The disciplinary penalty or grade of F shall not be implemented until the
disciplinary procedures or grade appeal process has been exhausted. A
student may continue academic class and course work until a final decision
is made.
A
written report of any additional disciplinary action taken by the Dean of
Students Office will be sent to the appropriate Academic Dean’s Office and
to the student. The final results of a grade appeal in such matters shall be
reported to the faculty person by the appropriate Academic Dean in the
manner required by the grade appeals procedure, and to the Dean of Students
Office. In cases in which a charge of academic dishonesty is sustained, the
recommended disciplinary action will be enforced and/or a grade of F
reported.
In cases in which a charge of academic dishonesty is not sustained, no
disciplinary action will be taken, and the student will be entitled to the
grade he or she would have received in the absence of a finding of
dishonesty. In addition, the student will be allowed to continue in the
particular course without prejudice."
Extenuating Circumstances:
If at
any time during the semester, personal crises prevent you from performing to
the best of your abilities in the course, please notify me as early as
possible. Before making
exceptions to any of the policies stated in this syllabus, I have the right
to request appropriate documentation. This might include letters from
physicians, counselors, and/or academic advisors.
Disabilities:
Students with documented disabilities can expect instructors to make
appropriate accommodations. Please contact me early in the semester if this
applies to you.
Calendar
Date
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In Class |
Homework |
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Aug 28 |
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Aug 30 |
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- Read and outline Ch. 1 in the textbook.
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Write a memo describing the style of three of the
writing excerpts at left. Bring the memo into class.
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Sep 4 |
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- Begin Error Project
- Error project progress report due Tuesday. Write a memo
describing which errors you are studying and how you identified them
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Sep 6 |
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- Read Ch. 7 in the textbook. Be
ready for a quiz.
- Be able to identify a phrase and a
clause.
- Work on your Error Project.
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Sep 11 |
- Quiz on Ch. 7
- Go over excerpts that use many phrases
and clauses:
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NFL rulebook
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Saggs,
Babylonians
- Learn about sentence structures
- Online quiz about sentence structures
- Practice adverbs
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- Write a memo with an example of three
different sentence structures
- Work on Error Project
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Sep 13 |
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Finish Error Project |
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Sep 18 |
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- Complete Library Search
- Read Ch. 2; be prepared for a quiz/post.
- Choose your topic and your excerpts for
your style investigation project. Write and bring to class
a brief memo describing your project, including copies of your
excerpts.
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Sep 20 |
- Turn in your excerpt memo
- Post on Ch. 2
- Discussion of error projects
- Discussion: Discourse communities,
including which ones you belong to.
- Discuss Challenger example, using
discussion questions
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- Read Ch. 3 in textbook. Be ready
for quiz/post.
- Work on Style Investigation Project
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Sep 25 |
- Post on Ch. 3
- Go over website comparisons to discuss
how to describe and give specific support
- Discuss Style Investigation: ways
of organizing, starting with the overall assessment, using
quotation marks
- Brainstorm a list of possible text
features you can address in your style investigation project.
- Write for five minutes on initial
observations for the style investigation project
- Exchange excerpts with classmates and
make initial observations
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- Read Ch. 5 in textbook. Be ready
for quiz/post.
- Work on Style Investigation Project
- Read Baker's version of
Little Red Riding Hood
- No class on Thursday;
make sure you do what's on the syllabus, and what I asked you to
do in class.
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Sep 27 |
- Practice assessing syntactic features
based on list
- Describe memo format in detail:
headings, full block, etc.
- Quiz on Ch. 5
- Go over quiz in class
- Reminder about Style Investigation Due
Date
- Discuss diction and discuss problem #2
and #7
- Look up connotation vs. denotation on
Merriam Webster's site.
- Practice describing style of excerpts
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Women's heart disease A
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Women's heart disease B
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- Work on Style Investigation Project
- Check out
THIS PAGE which
changes the style of the same paragraph.
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Oct 2 |
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- Make sure you've read chapter 5
Do questions 2-1 through 2-8 to turn in.- Finish the rough draft of your
Style Investigation Project and bring it to class on Oct 4
- Optional: You may choose to check
out Urbandictionary.com;
it allows readers to define slang and vote and delete other's
versions. Be warned: some of the definitions are *very*
offensive and not for the faint of heart
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Oct 4 |
- Peer review/workshop on Style
Investigation Project
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- Read Ch. 9; be ready for a tough quiz
ON TUESDAY
- Turn in Rough Draft of your Style
Investigation Project by midnight, Saturday
- Make sure you've responded IN-DEPTH to
the paper below yours on webboard
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Oct 9 |
- Denotations/Connotations
- Quiz/post on Ch. 9
- Read open heart surgery example
- Read and respond to classmates' posts to
memo assignment: which have good tone? How was that
tone achieved?
- Discuss memo assignment
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- Post on revision example. Discuss
tone and how it is achieved, with specific examples. Be
prepared to give two or three suggestions for revision.
- Finish your Style Investigation
Project. Make sure it includes excerpts at the end; just
add them before your references.
- Read Ch. 8; be prepared for a quiz
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Oct 11 |
- STYLE INVESTIGATION
PROJECTS DUE
- Quiz on Ch. 8
- Do the snow policy exercise
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- Read Ch. 4 and be ready for a quiz/post
- Email me with either 1) your final
project topic and your source for info or 2) the topic you'd
like me to find you a source for.
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Oct 16
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- Quiz/post on Ch. 4
- Revision Assignment #1 introduced
- Discuss Revision Assignment #1
- Demonstrate the "what they need to know
what they need to do, and what tone to use" technique
- Practice revision exercise
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- Read Ch. 7
- Work on your Revision Project:
Bring in a draft Thursday
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Oct 18 |
- Workshop on Revision Assignment
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Oct 23 |
- Review Ch. 4
- Find websites which demonstrate Rogerian
argument, logos, ethos, pathos, and Toulmin logic
- Write example of each type of persuasion
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- Read Ch. 6 and be ready for a quiz/post
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Oct 25 |
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Oct 30 |
- Quiz/post on Ch. 12
- Revising for style and bias
- Check out the OWL at Purdue's
advice on editing
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Nov 1 |
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Nov 6 |
- Discuss
Final Project
- Small group work on selecting TOPIC and
AUDIENCE for final project
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- Work on
final project--make
sure you have TOPIC and AUDIENCE selected for next class
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Nov 8 |
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Nov 13 |
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- Work on
final project
- Read Ch. 11, "Determining the Ethics of
Style". Be ready for a quiz.
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Nov 15 |
- Further discussion of
audience and purpose
- Quiz on Ch. 11
- Discussion of ethics of style as they
might apply to Final Project
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- Review the papers you've finished and
make a "cheat sheet" for yourself, to help you revise.
- Read Ch. 10, and be ready for a quiz
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Nov 20 |
- Quiz on Ch. 10
- Talk about style and bias
- Discuss the case study at the end of Ch.
10
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Nov 27 |
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- Work on
final project
- Bring copies of project and materials to
work on in class
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Nov 29 |
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Dec 4 |
- Final Project Due
- Review for Final Exam
- Guess the Test!
- Course Evaluations
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Dec 6 |
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Finals week |
FINAL EXAM DEC 11 10-12 |
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