Course Syllabus

Instructor

John Hartnett
jhartnet@uwyo.edu
Office: Seattle, WA
Office Hours: by appointment
Phone: (917) 831-4908

Why study technical communication with me? Good question. Here are my creds:

• MFA Writing Hamline University 1997
• Technical Writer Teachstone Training, LLC. 2012-2013
• Director of Communication, St. John's College, 2004-2006
• President BlueMissile E-Learning 1996-2003
• Technology Editor, Online Learning Magazine 
• Sr. Writer LogicBay 1994-1996
• Sr. Technical Writer Zeos Computers 1993-1994

Course Description

English 4010 is an upper-level, cross-disciplinary communication course that satisfies the University's COM3 requirement. This class focuses on effective professional communication. You will learn how to write clear, concise prose, and then learn how to structure your prose for different audiences and purposes. You may even have a little fun along the way.

Participating in this online course will be a lot like working in a modern office setting. You will:

• Create drafts of your documents
• Share your writing with classmates
• Work together to comment and improve on your work, and then
• Submit final drafts to your intended audience (usually me)

And just like the real work world, you will be graded on your participation as well as the quality of your final output. How well you work together with your classmates will sometimes be just as important as what you produce.

You will be asked to do a lot of writing. You'll be asked to do a lot of reading and exercises on your own. You'll be evaluated on how helpful you are in peer reviews and discussions. You will be subjected to my stinging wit and merciless sense of humor.

Even worse, as an 8-week summer course, the pace will be INTENSE. Buckle up and sharpen your keyboards; there will be a LOT of work in a short period of time this summer.

Course Objectives

By the end of this course, you should be able to:

• Collaborate effectively with peers
• Tailor your writing style and structure to the audience and purpose of your document
• Prepare and revise several of the most common pieces of professional writing including: descriptions, instructions, employment applications, letters, memos, proposals, and reports
• Produce clear, concise, and accurate writing
• Learn collaborative research, writing, and revision strategies
• Practice effective oral presentation skills

Communication 3 (C3) Criteria

This course fulfills the Communication 3 (COM3) requirement of the 2015 University Studies Program. Students will develop skills in written, oral, and digital communication as appropriate to specific disciplines and courses at the introductory, intermediate, and advanced level. Through repeated instruction, practice, and feedback, the communication sequence will emphasize and progressively develop transferrable skills for students’ academic work and future professions. Advanced courses (COM3) will emphasize using the discourse of a discipline or interdisciplinary field to communicate to academic or professional audiences through written, oral, and digital communication.

C3 Objectives Met in English 4010 

Upon completion of this course, you should be able to:

1. Use the discourse of a discipline or interdisciplinary field to communicate that field’s subject matter to academic or professional audiences through written, oral, and digital communication.
2. Find, analyze, evaluate, and document information appropriately as applicable to the discipline, interdisciplinary field, or professional setting as demonstrated by completing a substantial communication project that requires appropriate research skills.
3. Recognize and evaluate more advanced aspects of communication that respond to the purposes and needs of audiences in a discipline, interdisciplinary field, or professional setting.
4. Make effective use of multiple drafts, revision, computer technology, peer and instructor comments, and collaboration to show understanding of communication standards in a discipline or interdisciplinary field.
5. Observe the accepted conventions of spelling, grammar, organizational structure, punctuation, delivery and documentation expected in disciplinary, interdisciplinary, or professional contexts.
6. Deliver presentations in a confident and professional manner, consistent with the standards of the discipline or interdisciplinary field.
7. Interact effectively with audience members, engage opposing viewpoints constructively, and demonstrate active listening skills.

Textbook(s) 

There is one text you need for this class:

• Mike Markel's, Technical Communication, 12th Edition (required)

It is available from the UW Bookstore or Amazon.com.

You can buy either a paper version or an e-text version of this book, or you can rent it. You can buy the paper version through the UWYO bookstore as well as online retailers. You can buy the e-text version online at amazon and at the publisher's web site. The paper version is more expensive. The e-text version, which contains exactly the same material, costs about half of the paper version, but you will receive a license that allows you to access it for only 365 days.

Some students may try to get by with an older or newer edition of the text. That is fine. Officially, we are using the 12th edition. I don’t care which edition you actually use, but if you ask me a question about a topic covered in the text, I am going to point you to a page number from the 12th edition.  Forewarned is forearmed. You do NOT need access to TechCom Web, or Launchpad, or the MLA online resources or whatever else the publisher tacks on.

You will need to check your WyoCourse Messages every day. You'll also need a word processing program. In the past I insisted on Microsoft Word, but there are so many good writing apps now. I don’t care which one you use, but your assignments must be submitted in one of these formats: .doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf, .txt. These are the only text file types that the Canvas speed-grader will let me use if I want to preview your document and use the commenting tools. If you use a markdown or other writing app, export to pdf or one of the other recognized formats for Canvas.

Attendance

We will cover a lot of ground this semester. Your contributions and active participation are essential to your success. You'll have plenty of work to do on your own (reading from the text, online research, filming videos, and more.) If you visit the course regularly, take good reading notes, and meet your deadlines, you will be much more likely to succeed. You should plan on logging into the class four times a week.

The work pattern for this summer is based on Wednesdays and Saturdays. There will usually be a bunch of stuff due on Wednesday night at 11 pm and then a bunch more on Saturday night, every single week for the eight weeks.

The number one reason people don't do well in this class is that they don't read carefully enough and, therefore, fail the reading quizzes. You must read the chapters thoroughly, take good notes, highlight passages, do sample problems, and otherwise thoroughly digest the material. Quizzes cannot be made up later. Once the due date is past, those points are gone for good.

Oh, and be sure to meet your deadlines. If an assignment is due at 11:00pm on Saturday, 11:01pm is considered late.  

Grading Policy

Each week you will have assigned readings and a reading quiz. Most weeks will also have one or more writing assignments.

Quizzes

There will be reading quizzes on the assigned chapters from Technical Communication. The reading quizzes are worth 1 point per question. You may attempt a reading quiz two times. Your final score will be the average of your two attempts. Quizzes cannot be made up. If you miss the quiz deadline, you lose all the points, so keep up with your readings. The quizzes are timed, so have your notes and book open and ready. Start the quiz when you have uninterrupted time to focus. The quizzes draw from a question bank, so every quiz has slightly different questions. The answers are also presented in random order.

Many students complain that the quizzes are too hard, so read the chapter thoroughly, take good notes, highlight passages, and review the exercises at the end of the chapters before attempting the quiz. It is easy to get an "okay" score on the weekly reading quiz by simply skimming the chapter and viewing the PowerPoints. It is MUCH harder to get a high score. Three or four questions on each quiz are very tricky and demand that you really know your stuff. Most students under-prepare for the quizzes. I sometimes soften the blow by discarding your lowest quiz score, but don't count on it.

Feedback on Written Assignments

For most assignments, I leave detailed feedback. If you open your assignment in the gradebook, then choose View Feedback, you can see the annotations.

For a step-by-step, look at these entries in the Canvas Help Files:

• How do I view comments from my instructor?
• How do I view comments and feedback directly in my assignment?

Due Dates

All written assignments are due by 11:00 p.m. on the due date specified in the course syllabus. For summer session this will usually be on Wednesdays and Saturdays. 

The following are NOT valid excuses for late assignments:

• Problems with your computer
• Problems with your Internet access
• Problems saving files
• Waiting for your textbook to arrive
• Traveling away from the internet
• Any other excuse (get it? No late assignments.)

Complete your assignments early enough to allow for potential problems. If you are going to travel and have difficulty accessing the internet, do the assignment BEFORE you leave.

Grading Scale

You can always tell how you are doing in this class by looking at the Gradebook and noting your overall percentage. The grading scale for assignments in this course will be:

• A  90.0 - 100%
• B 80.0 -89.99%
• C 70.0 -79.99%
• D  60.0 -69.99%
• F  0-59.99%

Exam Dates

There will be no exams. (Woohoo!)

Oral Work

In this class you will complete an oral presentation (required to meet the university's COM3 requirements) for your final project. You may need to borrow video equipment or download video editing software to complete this assignment. Take a look at the Week 8 Oral Presentation Assignment to get a preview of what is to come and what you will need to borrow or buy. Also notice that this is a mandatory assignment. If you don't turn it in, you fail the course regardless of what grade you were receiving up to that point.

Communication

Since nearly all the communication in this course will be written, it will be important to observe certain communication standards.

• All posts, emails, and critiques must be courteous and constructive
• Save all documents and email attachments in one of the approved formats (.doc, .docx, .pdf, .rtf, or.txt). Always use your last name in your filenames. For each assignment I will give detailed instructions on what to call your file. For example, if I was submitting an assignment from unit 1, I might save it as tablehartnett.pdf.
• Unless otherwise noted, use one-inch margins on all four sides, common fonts in a readable size (for example, Times New Roman 12 point, Arial/Helvetica 12 pt.), and include page numbers and headers/footers.

E-mail and WyoCourse Message guidelines

In writing messages to me, please follow these guidelines*:

1. Include an informative subject line. Begin the subject line of EVERY MESSAGE YOU WRITE TO ME with "ENGL 4010 yourlastname." Then, add a phrase that specifies what you want to say. For example, "ENGL 4010-41 Jones Question about syllabus" is clear, as is "ENGL 4010-40 Jones Draft of Assignment 02." Why do I ask you to start with the course number and your name? Because I teach more than one course, and I want to be able to put your message in a folder for your course.
2. Include a salutation. E-mails do not usually include "Dear," as a letter does. But do use last names and courtesy titles. When you write to me, call me "Mr. Hartnett" or "Captain Hartnett", or "Professor Hartnett." Calling another professional by his or her first name without having been invited to do so is rude. I am often mistakenly addressed by students as Dr. Hartnett even though I have not finished my PhD (and probably never will). Doing so will sometimes earn you extra attention. Doing it too much will earn you extra unwanted attention, so save it until you really need it.
3. Include a closing. Conclude your message with your name. Don't just stop after finishing your message. It is rude.
4. Create signature text. If your e-mail software allows, create a "signature" that includes your name and contact information and (if you are employed) your job title and company name. (Note-even though this is called a "signature" there is no actual script of your penmanship involved.) Unfortunately, Canvas messaging does not allow you to store an often-used signature, so you will have to cut and past it from somewhere or use a keyboard app such as TextExpander.
5. Use short paragraphs. Legibility on the screen is less good than legibility on paper. Therefore, please use short paragraphs (in general, 3-4 lines maximum) to make the message easy to read. And be sure to skip lines between paragraphs, as well as between the salutation and your first paragraph and before your name at the bottom of the message.
6. Don't use instant-messaging spelling. If u want 2 b treated like a pro, write like 1.
7. Adhere to the conventions of standard English. Even though messages and e-mails are informal, they should be correct. Edit and proofread for problems of correctness such as spelling errors and grammar mistakes.
8. Don't send an empty e-mail. Don't use an e-mail just to carry an attachment. Include a message in the e-mail.
9. Do most of the above for WyoCourse messages. In this course I prefer if you send messages to me using the WyoCourse message features. (Click Inbox on the left side of your screen to see what I mean.) All of the email guidelines above also apply to WyoCourse messages.

Other Information

Plagiarism

If you present someone else's work as your own, you fail the course. Period. The university may also assess serious penalties against you (University Regulation 802, Revision 2).

Some of the writing you will do in class may require citations or references to outside sources. Properly credited, this is not plagiarism.

Writing Center and STEP help

I strongly encourage you to use the Writing Center, located on the third floor of Coe Library. The Writing Center can help with many of the assignments you write in this course. You can stop by or call 766-5250 to make a half-hour appointment. Off campus students can take advantage of the university's Online Writing Center.

Online tutoring (and feedback on your assignments) is available from the e-tutoring center.

During the regular academic year, in-person tutoring is also available in this class at the STEP Tutor Center. Unfortunately, the center is closed during the summer session. 

Special Needs

If you have any type of disability or special need, please let me know. Accommodations are your right.

Evaluations

If you have any concerns about the class, please let me know right away. Don't wait until halfway through the semester to talk to me. I am always looking to improve this course, and I want to be sure the course meets your needs. 

Acknowledgements

Many of the essays, exercises, introductions, and other parts of this course were originally developed by:

• Michael Knievel, English Department, UWYO
• Meg Wood, English Department, UWYO
• Julianne Couch, English Department, UWYO
• Mike Markel, Boise State University

Many thanks for all your assistance.