week 1 (mondaytrishm/worddocs/composition/eng301/eng… · web viewif your post is on the bottom...

Pre-class...........................................................................................................................................3Announcements...........................................................................................................................3

Week 1.............................................................................................................................................4Announcements...........................................................................................................................4Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................4Reading........................................................................................................................................5

Week 2.............................................................................................................................................6Announcements...........................................................................................................................6Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................6Reading........................................................................................................................................6Writer’s Journal...........................................................................................................................6

Week 3.............................................................................................................................................7Announcements...........................................................................................................................7Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................7Reading........................................................................................................................................7Activity........................................................................................................................................7Peer Review.................................................................................................................................7

Week 4.............................................................................................................................................8Announcements...........................................................................................................................8Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................8Reading........................................................................................................................................8Writer's Journal............................................................................................................................8

Week 5.............................................................................................................................................9Announcements...........................................................................................................................9Lecture Notes...............................................................................................................................9Reading........................................................................................................................................9Activity........................................................................................................................................9

Week 6...........................................................................................................................................10Announcements.........................................................................................................................10Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................10Reading......................................................................................................................................10Writer’s Journal.........................................................................................................................10

Week 7...........................................................................................................................................11Announcements.........................................................................................................................11Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................11Reading......................................................................................................................................11Activity......................................................................................................................................11Peer Review...............................................................................................................................11

Week 8...........................................................................................................................................12Announcements.........................................................................................................................12Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................12Reading......................................................................................................................................12Writer’s Journal.........................................................................................................................12

Week 9...........................................................................................................................................13Announcements.........................................................................................................................13Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................13

Reading......................................................................................................................................13Activity......................................................................................................................................13

Week 10.........................................................................................................................................14Announcements.........................................................................................................................14Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................14Reading......................................................................................................................................14Writer’s Journal.........................................................................................................................14

Week 11.........................................................................................................................................15Announcements.........................................................................................................................15Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................15Reading......................................................................................................................................15Activity......................................................................................................................................15Peer Review...............................................................................................................................15


Week 13.........................................................................................................................................17Announcements.........................................................................................................................17Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................17Reading......................................................................................................................................17Activity......................................................................................................................................17


Week 15.........................................................................................................................................19Announcements.........................................................................................................................19Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................19Reading......................................................................................................................................19Activity......................................................................................................................................19Peer Review...............................................................................................................................19

Week 16.........................................................................................................................................20Announcements.........................................................................................................................20Lecture Notes.............................................................................................................................20

Pre-class

AnnouncementsHi Group, So far I have had about 8 emails asking for overrides for this course (which I don't offer), so you should feel lucky you all got a seat! Online ENG 301 always fills up quickly, partially because it is a pretty fun way to take the course. I am hoping that you all enjoy it. I am forwarding the message below to ensure that all of you can get the text in a timely manner. Please make sure you have the book before class starts.

I am still making adjustments to the course schedule and assignments, but the policies are available for you on my personal website at: http://www.public.asu.edu/~trishm/classes/301/policies.html You will have access to the myASU boards Saturday morning. I run the course on a weekly basis, so each Monday a new Weekly Folder will come online listing all of your assignments and due dates. You will not have access to future weeks, though you will retain access to past weeks (mostly for reference to lecture material). Expect to see changes by the end of the day Monday. Please always check the Announcements page on our myASU course at least twice a week, and always before you complete your online work. I will post any updates to the syllabus or changes to assignments there. Trish

http://www.public.asu.edu/~trishm/classes/301/policies.html

Week 1

AnnouncementsWelcome to week 1 of class. Please take some time to become familiar with the eight course navigation buttons on the left-hand side of our site. I ask all of you that if you have questions about the course, instead of emailing me directly, first post the question under the “Questions about the Course” discussion board. That way I can answer the question once on the board instead of several times through email.

Lecture Notes Welcome to ENG 301, Writing for the Professions. The most important concept to master at the beginning of the class is that all of your writing for the class will pertain to your major field and the profession you intend to enter upon graduating from college.

From there, you will explore rhetorical concerns in that particular job so that you can prepare yourself to write in that profession. Our four major projects are designed to show you how to produce quality documents that appeal to multiple audiences while fulfilling multiple purposes.

I am excited about our book for the course because it maintains a strong focus on the technical aspect of technical communication. As we move into the 21st century, technology has changed the way texts are written and read. Our book focuses on how computers are used in the workplace as tools for communication and for working through the writing process.

We will read about 547 pages of the 725 page book. It is a lot of reading. But as the textbook suggests, instead of reading the text cover to cover, you will actually be “raiding” the text for important information. Our text uses strong technical communication skills—it sets up ideas visually and spatially, and it should allow you to get the information you need quickly. And though I have assigned the reading in a particular sequence, you can feel free to go back to previously read chapters to help with current projects. The text is packed with helpful instructions. I would suggest that after the course is over you keep this text as a reference.

The semester moves very quickly so please keep up with due dates and updates. I am always happy to help through email or though a phone conference if you like—you can send me your number and I will call you. Week 1 work will include plenty of reading. I also encourage you to pose a note about yourself in our virtual café.

ReadingCourse WebsiteEmployment Packet AssignmentChapter 1 Communicating in the WorkplaceChapter 15 Starting Your Career

Week 2

AnnouncementsHi Class,

I have finished grading your WJ1’s. Please go to the WJ1 Discussion Board and read not only my response to your work, but also other student work and my responses. This helps you become more familiar with your classmates and more familiar with the requirements of the Employment Packet.

A note on posting: Jonathan posted as a reply to Rebecca instead of as a reply to me so Jonathan and Rebecca, your messages from me and any subsequent messages from you and me will be mixed together. Let me know if you have any trouble.

A note on WJ1: many of you did excellent work. I appreciate your attention to detail and the strong research and analysis skills it takes to gather and choose ads. For those of you with strong topics you got a message that says I accept your ad for the Topic for your Employment Packet.

Some of the Writer’s Journals show that you might need to read the assignment again. Go to the “Paper Assignments” button, choose the “Employment Packet” assignment, open the Word document, and print out the assignment. Highlight it, read it over and over, and make sure you understand all of the requirements.

Some of you missed the section that reads “This should be an entry-level job suitable for a new graduate in your field. The ad must be for an existing company. Your grade will be based on how well the ad fits your qualifications.” In my WJ1 responses I asked several of you to give me further details before I will accept your topic.

Revised topics are due Wednesday at midnight.

Thanks for your hard work everyone.

Trish

Lecture Notes Last week you did reading to help you navigate through the requirements of technical communication. This week we will begin our first paper, an Employment Packet. You will find the full written assignment under the button “Paper Assignments.”

Please print out the assignment for the Employment Packet and have it next to you as you compose so that you do not miss some of the more subtle aspects. The assignment requires you to do some research on a company with a potential job in your field. For that reason we will do an activity on how to integrate source material into your writing.

Week 2 work will include a writer’s journal and plenty of reading. Please complete your Writer’s Journal by choosing the “Discussion Boards” button and choosing the correct WJ.

ReadingChapter 2 The Technical Writing Process TodayChapter 11 Preparing and Giving Presentations

Writer’s JournalUsing a job board on the Web, list and briefly describe five positions in your field. What skills, experience, and background does each position require? What is the salary range for each position? Which job would be most suitable for the Employment Packet Assignment? Why?

Week 3

Announcements

Lecture Notes

Week 3 work will include a writer’s journal, an activity, plenty of reading, a first draft, peer review, and a final draft. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

ReadingChapter 3 Readers and Contexts of Use

ActivityEmail

Peer Review First, post your First Draft of the Employment Packet here by Wednesday Sep 7 at midnight. By Friday Sep 9 at midnight you are required to peer review the 3 papers below your post. If your post is on the bottom please start your peer reviews from the top.

You will make your peer review comments with the reviewing features in Word (preferably Word 2003). You MUST use the reviewing features in Word, not only because it is a good thing for you to learn, but also because it is the easiest, most uniform way for us to comment on each other's work. Here’s how: http://www.public.asu.edu/~trishm/classes/activities/peerreview.html

I want us to "stack" our comments onto one paper. So if you are the first person to review a paper, open the author's post and comment on their document. If you are the second person to review a paper, open the first peer review and add your comments to the document. If you are the third person to review a paper, open the second peer review and add your comments. The author will then be able to open the last document and receive all three peer reviews.

Make sure to have the assignment for the paper next to you and read it several times as you peer review. I follow the assignments to the letter. I don't grade you on anything that isn't in the assignment. The assignment states very clearly what your paper needs to include. Please help each other fulfill all the requirements in the assignment.

Week 4

AnnouncementsNice job completing your first project, the Employment Packet. This week you will complete the second project, the Correspondence Packet.

This assignment asks you to learn the role of correspondence in the technical workplace. In order to succeed at this assignment you must complete a Correspondence Packet that displays the correct usage of email, IM, letters, and memos. While drafting the sample documents play close attention to audience concerns and the purpose of each piece of correspondence. Your Packet will also show considerations of how to organize, draft, design and format the correspondence.

Lecture Notes Week 4 work will include a writer’s journal, an activity, plenty of reading, a first draft, peer review, and a final draft. Please complete your Writer’s Journal by choosing the “Discussion Boards” button and choosing the correct WJ.

ReadingCorrespondence Packet AssignmentChapter 12 Using E-Mail and Instant Messaging

Writer's JournalInterview a professional in your major field. What communication skills does this professional use most often? How important are these skills in the professional’s career? What advice does this professional offer you about how to improve your own communication skills?

Week 5

AnnouncementsGreat job everybody.

Week 5 work will include an activity and some reading. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

Lecture Notes Week 5 work will include a writer’s journal, an activity, plenty of reading, a first draft, peer review, and a final draft. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

ReadingChapter 16 Letters and Memos

ActivityResearch at ASU

Week 6

Announcements

Week 6 work will include a writer’s journal and plenty of reading. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

Lecture Notes


ReadingAppendix A Grammar and Punctuation

Writer’s Journal

Week 7

AnnouncementsThanks for your work on the periodical index activity. I hope you found additional indexes you can use, or at least found that you already liked the one you had. I enjoyed reading your responses and I appreciate your attention to that assignment. I was missing work from a few folks, so don’t forget that counts as an absence and it drops your Activity grade down a +/-. I updated the gradebook so you can see how you are doing.

Now on to peer review. I really want this process to go well. And to make the board cleaner, I would like you to CHANGE the subject line to your name. That way we can see where the threads are going. So erase what is there and type in your name. If you already submitted and did not write your name in the subject line, you can still change it by opening your message and choosing the “Modify” button. This should really help the board be easier to manage.

Another note on threads is that there are two “Views” to the threads. When you have a message open, the thread will be disturbed. When you don’t have a message open the thread will be intact. So when you are looking for the 3 posts under your name make sure you don’t have a message open. Play with this a few times and you will see the difference pretty quickly.

First drafts are due tonight at midnight. Peer Reviews are due Friday at midnight. And Final drafts are due Sunday at midnight. I will be grading these Monday morning.

Thanks again for your work. I am proud of you.

Trish

Just a reminder we will not be meeting in the classroom Thursday, and my office hours will be held online.

Some of you were confused about what it means to hold Thursday's class online. As you know, in this hybrid class your "Tuesday" class is held online, with Activities and WJs that count as attendance due at a certain time during the week. We don't actually log on together on Tuesday.

That's what I mean by "Thursday's class will be held online." Your peer reviews are due at a certain time Friday at midnight. You get credit for attendance if you do them, and you are counted absent if you don't. We don't need to log on together during our class time.

I hope that is more clear.

I will be on email today if you need me.

Trish

Lecture Notes

Week 7 work will include an activity, peer review, and plenty of reading. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

ReadingChapter 4 Ethics in the Workplace

ActivityPeriodical Indexes

Peer Review First, post your First Draft of Paper 1 here by Wednesday at midnight. By Friday at midnight you are required to peer review the 3 papers below your post. If your post is on the bottom start again from the top. You will make your peer review comments with the reviewing features in Word. You MUST use the reviewing features in Word, not only because it is a good thing for you to learn, but also because it is the easiest, most uniform way for us to comment on each other's work. Make sure to have the assignment for the paper next to you and read it several times as you peer review. I follow the assignments to the letter. I don't grade you on anything that isn't in the assignment. The assignment states very clearly what your paper needs to include. Please help each other fulfill all the requirements in the assignment.

Week 8

Announcements

Hi Class,

I have finished grading your Correspondence Packets. You will find your grade in the “Student Gradebook.” To read my comments on your paper please click on the grade (it’s a hotlink) and open the Word doc I attached for you.

I really enjoyed reading your packets. There were some very creative and interesting scenarios, and most of you did an excellent job creating strong pieces of writing, each with a specific sense of audience and purpose.

Out of 34 students there were:

16 A’s6 A-‘s1 B+6 B’s4 C’s

So as you can see you did an excellent job.

Please remember your WJ 4 is due tonight at midnight. As with the Correspondence Packet, the topic you choose can make or break your grade. Please do some careful thought and research before submitting your topic. Also please think about the next two major projects: the Report answers a research question, and our last project the Proposal proposes a solution. So make sure your topic matches the assignment.

As for next week’s work, you have an activity on Integrating Sources. I’m going to make that due Wednesday at midnight, since it works well for me to grade those on Thursday while I am on campus and my myASU is faster.

That activity asks you to practice using signal phrases to integrate source material. You will need to perfect that skill for your Report and Proposal.

Thanks for your hard work. I appreciate all of you very much.

Trish

Lecture Notes


ReadingRead Analytical Report AssignmentChapter 22 Analytical Reports

Writer’s JournalWrite a description of a potential topic for the Proposal assignment. Using library tools, compile a list of 4 sources on the subject. List them in MLA format in your post.

Week 9

AnnouncementsGreat job everybody. Now we have just one major project to go, the proposal.


Lecture Notes

Week 9 work will include an activity, plenty of reading. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

ReadingChapter 5 Researching and Managing Information

ActivityEvidence

Week 10



Lecture Notes

Week 10 work will include a writer’s journal, plenty of reading. Please check our Weekly Work folder for all of these assignments.

ReadingChapter 6 Organizing and Drafting


Week 11



Lecture Notes


ReadingAppendix C Documentation GuideChapter 10 Revising and Editing for Usability

ActivityEvidence


Week 12



Lecture Notes


ReadingRead Proposal AssignmentChapter 20 Proposals


Week 13



Lecture Notes


ReadingChapter 7 Plain and Persuasive Style

ActivityEvidence

Week 14



Lecture Notes


ReadingChapter 8 Designing Documents and Interfaces


Week 15

AnnouncementsHi Class,

I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving.

We are almost done with the semester, and I am so proud of all of your hard work. In honor of that hard work I am going to cancel the last activity, “Evidence” since I noticed I failed to put it on our Course Schedule anyway. So all you have left to do is the Proposal first draft, peer review, and final draft. As a reminder, here are the due dates for the proposal:

First Draft due Wednesday Nov 30 at midnight

Peer Review due Sunday Dec 4 at midnight

Final Draft due to "Paper Assignments" section Wednesday Dec 7 at midnight

I have had a few questions about the proposal so I would like to answer those here so everyone can benefit from the answers.

Every proposal must have a Qualifications section. For the Qualifications section I would suggest writing about any work experience or coursework you have had, or even research you have done on the topic that makes you knowledgeable. You can also write a generic description of an "IT" person or any other personnel who might assist you, based on assumed qualifications.

Every proposal must have a Works Cited even though the sample in the book does not. I use this to check your research.

If you have any further questions please feel free to contact me.

Trish

Lecture Notes


ReadingChapter 9 Creating and Using Graphics

ActivityEvidence


Week 16



Lecture Notes


Interview a professional in your major field. What communication skills does this professional use most often? How important are these skills in the professional’s career? What advice does this professional offer you about how to improve your own communication skills?

Using a job board on the Web, list and briefly describe five positions in your field in your state. What skills, experience, and background does each position require? What is the salary range for each position? Which job would be most suitable for this assignment? Why?

Write a description of a potential topic for the Proposal assignment. Using library tools, compile a list of 4 sources on the subject. List them in MLA format in your post.

In preparation for the upcoming Proposal assignment, describe your potential topic. Thoroughly explain the problem that exists, who is in charge of making decisions about the problem, and two possible solutions to the problem.

Interview a professional in your community who has participated in a collaborative project. Ask this person to describe the collaborative process and to evaluate its strengths and weaknesses. In what ways and to what extent do the technical communicator’s insights confirm the discussion about collaboration in this chapter? Write a 300-word memo to your instructor that briefly summarizes the technical communicator’s main points and analyzes the information you have gathered.

WJ1 Employment Packet Prewriting:Using a job board on the Web, list and briefly describe five open positions in your field. What skills, experience, and background does each position require? What is the salary range for each position? Which job would be the most suitable choice for the Employment Packet Assignment? Why? Present your results in a memo to your instructor. I will accept or reject your job ad. Once your ad has been accepted you may not change it without my permission. Changing your topic without my permission will result in failure of the assignment.

WJ2 Correspondence Packet Prewriting:Describe the scenario you will write about in your correspondence packet. What precipitates the communication? Who are the important audience members and why? What is the purpose of your correspondence? I will reply either accepting or rejecting your scenario. Once your topic has been accepted you may not change it without my permission. Changing your topic without my permission will result in failure of the assignment.

WJ3 Correspondence Packet Prewriting:Interview a professional in your major field. What types of correspondence does this professional use most often? How important are these correspondence skills in the professional’s career? What advice does this professional offer you about how to improve your own communication skills?

WJ4 Analytical Report Prewriting:In preparation for the upcoming Analytical Report assignment, describe the potential topic you will research. Who might read such a report? Why would the report be requested? What kinds of information do readers need? When and how will the report be used? I will reply either accepting or rejecting your topic. Once your topic has been accepted you may not change it without my permission. Changing your topic without my permission will result in failure of the assignment.

WJ5 Analytical Report Prewriting:In preparation for the upcoming Analytical Report assignment, please list the 5 sources you plan to use in MLA format.

WJ6 Proposal Prewriting:In preparation for the upcoming Proposal assignment, describe the potential topic you will research. Who might read such a report? Why would the report be requested? What kinds of information do readers need? When and how will the report be used? I will reply either accepting or rejecting your topic. Once your topic has been accepted you may not change it without my permission. Changing your topic without my permission will result in failure of the assignment.

WJ7 Proposal Prewriting:In preparation for the upcoming Proposal assignment, please list the 5 sources you plan to use in MLA format.