Write Course Outline
Technical Writing
English 115
   Spring 2007
Write


Instructor:  Dr. Charles Phillips            Office phone: 434-736-2038   Home phone: 434-223-2150   
Course: English 115-K6 credits 3        E-mail: svphilc@svccdan1.sv.vccs.edu   
Office:  46B                                                Office Hours: By appointment   
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Website        
Postal mail:  200 Daniel Road    
                        Keysville, VA 23947 

Note: All documents related to this course may be accessed independently of Blackboard by going to this website:

http://luna.moonstar.com/~acpjr/index.htm

All documents on this website are considered addenda to this course outline. Please report any inconsistencies or errors in this course outline or related documents so that I may make the necessary corrections.

Index of course documents

DESCRIPTION OF COURSE

 Develops ability in technical writing through extensive practice in composing technical reports and other documents. Guides students in achieving voice, tone, style, and content in formatting, editing, and graphics. Introduces students to technical discourse through selected reading.

TEXT

VanAlstyne, Judith S. Professional and Technical Writing Strategies. 6th ed. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson-Prentice Hall, 2005.

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INSTRUCTIONAL ACTIVITIES

  1. Reading assignments in the textbook

  2. Eight writing assignments to be submitted as files attached to email messages.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Read the assigned chapters in the textbook and submit for grading eight technical papers on the topics indicated below.

EVALUATION SYSTEM

 Your course grade will be based on the average grade for the eight essays.

Length Requirements for Essays

Each completed assignment must be at least 500 words. There is no limit on length, but all writing should be concise, informative, and correct. Longer essays that multiply errors simply provide more justification for a poor grade. Microsoft Word will tell you how many words there are in a document.

GRADING SCALE

I will grade each essay by giving it a number from 1 to 100. An "A" grade is from 100 to 90; a "B" grade is from 89 to 80, etc. At the end of the semester, I will average the eight essay grades to determine your semester grade.

ATTENDANCE POLICY

Because this is an Internet course, class attendance is not required. However, you must submit essays on time in order to avoid a grade penalty.

TOPICS COVERED

  • Defining a technical term
  • Describing a mechanism
  • Writing instructions
  • Analyzing a process
  • Writing progress reports
  • Writing incident reports
  • Writing field reports

LATE WORK

Work assignments are due on Mondays of the weeks designated. If I do not receive the work on the designated Monday, five points will be deducted from your grade. Five additional points will be deducted for each subsequent Monday that an assignment is not received. No assignment will be accepted after the last day of class.

This course has a definite schedule for work assignments. The reading and writing assignments have been apportioned so that you can easily keep up if you do the work according to the schedule. There are four reasons why you should meet the requirements on time:

  1. You will automatically lose points when an assignment is late (see Administrative Matters below).

  2. When you get behind, you hurry to catch up, and work done under pressure is never as complete or correct as work done in the allotted time.

  3. When an assignment is late, you do not get the benefit of feedback so that you can make corrections on the next assignment; therefore you are likely to repeat errors that will cost you points.

  4. Late papers create an avalanche effect giving me less time over the course of the semester to grade more papers; therefore, I cannot do as careful a job.

HONOR CODE

Proscribed Conduct is specified on page 164 of the 2006-2008 Catalog/Student Handbook. Proscribed conduct includes "all forms of dishonesty including cheating, [and] plagiarism . . . ." Students who commit plagiarism or who are otherwise dishonest in their conduct in this course will be dealt with according to college policy.

HOW TO USE THE TEXTBOOK

I have assigned specific chapters to read in Professional and Technical Writing Strategies and have posted the assignments on my web site. You must read these chapters in order to understand the writing assignments. In addition to reading these chapters, you should read other parts of the book as needed. You should treat your textbook as a handbook and consult it frequently for specific information that will help you to complete your writing assignments.

During the semester it may be necessary to change course assignments or procedures. If this becomes necessary, I will notify you by posting an announcement on my announcements page. Click on the button below to view this page. Changes may involve modification or substitution of assignments or changes in due dates. No change will increase the work load or reduce the amount of time allowed for an assignment.

Announcements

HOW TO SUBMIT YOUR WRITING ASSIGNMENTS

Name Your File

When you save a file, give it a name according to this convention: the initials for your full name (it has happened that two people in the same class had the same first and last names) and the number of the assignment.

For example, if I were a student, the name of the file for my first assignment would be ACP1 and would be understood to mean "Alison Charles Phillips Assignment One." For the second assignment it would be ACP2 and so fourth for the eight assignments.

Email Directions

UNRETURNED WORK

If you want confirmation that I have received an essay that you have sent, look for an option in your email program that says something like "Return Receipt Requested." Barring illness, injury, or computer failure, I should be able to return your essays within a week.

Sometimes things get lost in the mail and I do not receive your work, so if you do not get an assignment back within seven days, you should resend it. In your email message, tell me that you are resubmitting your work because you have not gotten the assignment back. If you wait longer than seven days to resend work which I have not received, it will be considered late and a grade penalty will be imposed.

BACK-UP COPIES

You should maintain back-up copies of your work. Copies should be saved to the hard drive of your computer, to a jump drive, or floppy disk. If an assignment is lost and cannot be recovered by means of a back-up copy, the assignment must be rewritten.

COURSE ASSIGNMENTS

PROOFREADING

I will not attempt to proofread your work or correct all grammatical or mechanical errors. I will read your work with the criteria for each assignment in mind and will point out instances of the kind of grammatical or mechanical errors. Papers which are satisfactory in organization and content may still receive a grade of "D" or "F" if the number and severity of grammatical and mechanical errors make them unacceptable. This is an advanced writing course and students with serious weaknesses in grammar and punctuation should not register.

ADMINISTRATIVE MATTERS

MAKE-UP WORK AND REVISIONS

 Make-up assignments will not be given and revisions will not be accepted. Students are expected to read the comments on returned essays, study the notes and web documents they are referred to, and do better on the next assignment.

DEADLINE FOR RESOLVING PROBLEMS

 The deadline for resolving problems of missing or unreturned work is the last day of the exam period. If any assignments have not been returned to you, it is your responsibility to resolve the problem either through a telephone conversation or by a face-to-face meeting. If you do not do this before the last day of the exam period, you will receive a grade based on the work that has been received and graded, and no additional work will be accepted.

WITHDRAWAL FROM THE COURSE

 If you find it necessary to withdraw from the course, you must do so by March 16, 2007; otherwise, you will be assigned a grade for the course. See the College Catalog (page 20) for complete information concerning withdrawal.

INCOMPLETE GRADES

 An incomplete grade will only be granted under extraordinary circumstances. No incomplete grades will be granted to students who have not completed at least seventy percent of the course work .

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