You will need to regularly access Blackboard to complete assignments for this course.

Grades

Grading Scale

*See below for assignment grading criteria.

Attendance

Our class meets from 4 p.m.-6 p.m. on Thursday and Thursdays via Zoom.  You can find the Zoom link on Blackboard.  Attendance at these in-person class meetings is a requirement of the course.  If you can’t make it to a class meeting, please email me to let me know.  My email address is dylan.walsh@austincc.edu.

Below is a table summarizing how unexcused absences will affect your course grade.  Of course, absences for medical reasons, religious holidays, and other college-approved events and circumstances may be excused.  In such cases, please email me before the absence or as soon as possible after it.

As the table above shows, you can miss up to three class meetings with no penalty.  For absences four and five, your final course grade will be reduced by three points each (for example, a course grade of 81 would become a 78 and then a 75).  At your sixth unexcused absence, your course grade will be reduced by one letter grade—the equivalent of 10 points—in addition to the deductions from absences four and five.  If you miss seven or more class meetings, you will fail the course.

Note:  The deductions listed above will not be factored into your course grade running total on Blackboard.  I will make the deductions at the end of the term before entering your letter grade.

Late Work

Late work will be penalized. Please contact me if you would like to discuss extenuating circumstances.

Selections from Online Technical Writing by David McMurrey 

Assorted readings from Purdue OWL 

Other online readings as assigned

Course Rationale

This course is an introduction to technical writing intended primarily for people entering the Technical Communications Program at Austin Community College and for people in other majors in which writing- and oral-presentation skills are essential. The course challenges students to demonstrate writing processes through invention, organization, drafting, revision, editing, and presentation; to define audience and purpose; to employ descriptive, expository, narrative, scientific modes of expression in technical communications (written, visual, and oral); to participate effectively in groups with emphasis on listening and responding as well as critical thinking; to apply principles of critical thinking, problem solving, and technical proficiency in the development of technical documents; to research and write technical documents; and to design PowerPoint presentations on technical subject matters. ENGL 2311 covers the basics of analyzing and writing for audiences; writing technical reports, instructions, business letters, résumés, proposals; preparing for presentations; using headings, lists, and notices; creating tables, charts, graphs, illustrations; finding and documenting information; technical-writing-specific mechanics and style; and a review of grammar, usage, and punctuation.

Course Objectives

• Be able to analyze an audience, both domestic and international, and write effective technical and business documents for that audience.
• Employ the appropriate aims of discourse in technical and business contexts: primarily, expository and persuasive. Use the appropriate modes of discourse accordingly the situation, audience, and document genre.
• Write a complaint letter that calmly and professionally requests compensation for a bad product or service and that is well-designed as a business letter.
• Design a PowerPoint presentation summarizing the researched technical report
• Research and critically evaluate external-information resources for technical documents.
• Write a satisfactory application letter and résumé and critically evaluate others.
• Write a satisfactory set of instructions that employs headings, lists, illustrations, and notices competently. Review for terminology, color, and graphics issues that would cause comprehension problems for international users. Critically evaluate a selection of instructions.
• Write a formal technical report that focuses on a specific real or real-life situation requiring a report, that addresses a real or realistic audience’s needs and background, that is properly structured with the standard front and back matter, that uses page format as covered in this course, that uses borrowed information that is properly documented, and that displays effective technical writing. 

SCANS Competencies