This course is designed to improve students’ written technical communication skills as are related to a range of professional applications. The goal of technical writing is to communicate a message clearly, concisely, and persuasively. This course emphasizes critical thinking skills as applied to technical writing, attention to research techniques, detail, professionalism, purpose, and audience. Students will learn to design, format, and produce documents common in business and industry.
Prerequisites
A grade of 2.0 or better in ENGL&101.
Quarters Offered
Winter,
Spring
Course Outcomes
Upon successful completion of the course, students should be able to demonstrate the following knowledge or skills:
- Read/analyze technical documents and define themes according to the style standards/expectations associated with various technical fields.
- Apply meta-analysis to completed texts in order to develop an awareness of stylistic choices made by technical writers.
- Further demonstrate writing skills introduced in 101 toward specific technical applications.
- Analyze and edit document design, vocabulary, style, and tone according to primary and secondary audience’s technical backgrounds and extend a reasoned opinion of a technical writing based upon a close reading of the text.
- Assess and articulate the capabilities and limitations of specific communication technologies (software, programs, apps, websites, tools, extensions, etc.) with regard to their usability and usefulness to a wide range of stakeholders and audiences.
- Demonstrate problem solving skills through use of rhetorical strategies aimed at effectively persuading a wide range of stakeholders/audiences and use these skills to develop plans to solve larger conceptual issues.
- Demonstrate an understanding of technical writing as a source of ideas and information that may be used toward varied purposes.
- Articulate their own place as participants in a particular discourse community.
- Develop and improve habits of lifetime literacy.
- Write, and apply the technical writing style to, specific types of documents (including: usability tests, white papers, memos, reports, project proposals, cover letters, and resumes) in order to exhibit clear critical thinking and understanding of the merits of technical writing.
- Use elements of visual design to effectively integrate screenshots, Gantt charts, tables, equations, and other visual representations of data into documents.
- Modulate tone and proofread syntax to demonstrate an awareness of audience and produce effective (honest, clear, accurate, accessible, concise, professional, correct, and reliable) written, visual, and verbal technical communications.
- Use library resources in application of industry-specific research skills in order to create a meaningful understanding and anticipation of potential pitfalls, constraints, and costs.
- Use technology to design documents, present information, submit professional materials (cover letters and resumes), and conduct virtual meetings. Build and maintain a professional web presence.
- Demonstrate an understanding of and ability to apply common technical terminology.
- Demonstrate the ability to understand and formally respond to formal writings on technical documents.
Institutional Outcomes
IO1 Communication: Students will be able to communicate clearly and effectively.
IO3 Human Relations/Workplace Skills: Students will be able to demonstrate teamwork, ethics, appropriate safety awareness and/or workplace specific skills.
Course Content Outline
Major Writing Products Must Include:
- Field-Based Audience Awareness Assignment Students begin with a completed document written for a specific audience and rewrite it for an audience in a different field. This assignment can be tailored to specific cohorts, or to the technical specializations of individual students in the class.
- Ethics/Objectivity Assignment Students examine a piece of writing which contains subjective content, analyze areas which show bias or lack objectivity, and revise the piece of writing so that it reflects an objective point of view.
- Gantt Chart + Corresponding Proposal Memo Students break down the tasks needed to complete an assigned project and create a Gantt Chart in Microsoft Excel using the basic elements of information design, then type up a professional memo to their hypothetical boss explaining their decision making process that went into the Gantt Chart.
- User Guide to New Technology (Process Analysis) Students create an instruction manual to explain how to use a new tool, add-on, app, or program for non-industry experts. Incorporates at least 2 visual elements.
- Project Proposal (White Paper) Students work in teams of 2 or 3 to research a project of interest and then write a white paper explaining the problem with the status quo, how that problem came about and how their project would address those causes. Each team member writes their own independent white papers that are significantly different from their teammates’ and that demonstrate original ideas.
- Report Students write a factual, accurate and thorough report describing a safety, law enforcement or other observable incident.
- Professional Portfolio (Cover Letter, Resume, and LinkedIn Profile) Students compose a detailed, organized cover letter for an internship or scholarship they are actively applying for along with a thorough resume catered specifically to the internship or scholarship. Students also open a LinkedIn account and build a professional-looking profile page.
Department Guidelines
PO5 should be assessed: Students will be able to solve problems by gathering, interpreting, combining and/or applying information from multiple sources.