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English 502

Advanced Technical Writing

Summer 2009 
University:           Northern Arizona University
College:              Arts and Letters
Dept.:                   English 
Course #:             1037
                         1041
                                Statewide tuition
When:                  Summer 2007: June 01 -- Aug. 04
Credit:                 3 hrs.
Instructor:          John Rothfork
Office:              BAA 324 (Babbitt Academic Annex)
 (:                  928.523.0559
*:               john.rothfork@nau.edu
Homepage:       oak.ucc.nau.edu/jgr6
Prerequisites:   None; graduate status

Access the Course:   http://vista.nau.edu  Use your dana account user name & password to log on. Access to courses is controlled by Distance Ed. Consequently, I cannot let you into class early.Tech Writing: Business & tech writing are defined by industry needs in contrast to typical English courses that usually have no direct or immediate application to non-academic contexts. Tech writing is interested in communicating accurate and intelligible details, often for work-related needs. It is interested in how a document looks as much as in what it says—because if the document is not navigable, no one will read it. The course title implies that you have taken an undergraduate class in technical writing. If you have not taken a junior level technical writing class, you may wish to look through a text (online community college example; Markel, 8th ed.). Most libraries have tech writing texts. They are often 30 years old but they will give you an idea about what we are concerned about in tech writing (except for the recent change in relying on computers rather than a pencil :-). Eng502 assumes you are familiar with the process of technical writing, which involves: icon of a bookTech writing does not express emotions or deep thoughts. The writing is not author-centered, but reader-centered. It is focused on solving the problems of readers at work. Most documents are team written & edited by others. You demonstrate how smart you are by illustrating that you know precisely who your target audience is, doing rhetorical analysis to anticipate what they want or need, & then providing the material in easy to navigate & clearly written documents. It is never enough to simply present the objective facts in a defensive author-centered view ("I did my job"). Getting results often involves employing a rhetorical strategy, such as threatening readers with unwanted consequences, if they fail to do what you ask.

This course will help you develop advanced skills in professional and technical writing, including:
Component   Text
Theory Gerald J. Alred, Walter E. Oliu, Charles T. Brusaw.  The Professional Writer: A Guide for Advanced Technical Writing.   isbn 0-312-00248-3.  St. Martin's Press; Amazon (used price: $1). This book is out of print, but used copies can be found. There are no assignments that require material from this book, so it is an optional text.
Workbook Dan Jones.  Technical Writing Style.  0-205-19722-1.  Allyn Bacon. Amazon (used price: $43).
 

The NAU bookstore has copies of the Jones text, which they can ship to you. I'm not sure how many copies of the Alred text they may have, but they had some when I looked.
Question markWhat we do in the course

Jones: The Jones text has 12 chapters that offer exercises & questions. We will study through the first 10 chapters in Jones & do some of the exercises. These offer most of the points available in the first 5 lessons.

 Cases: We will work through 5 case studies provided in Webpages: I treat the blueprint case in depth to demonstrate techniques of audience analysis & developments of rhetorical strategy. You should apply similar skills to solve the cases.

 Project: You will do 1 project that does not use controlled information: critique a science research journal for its policies and function in the community it serves. Science research & the journals that communicate it constitute highly formal & important discourse communities for tech writing that non-scientists are seldom familiar with. Journals are easily available online through Cline library. 

Block.gif (1086 bytes) Grades:   A: 90%
                      B: 80%
                      C: 65%

Assignments: Each unit has several components.  The table illustrates a sample lesson providing directions for completing unit 02:

  
English 502 | Unit 02

What to do in lesson 02:

  1. Read Alred, The Professional Writer: ch. 2, pp. 19-31 (optional).
  2. Read the associated Webpage, "02: Reading Alred" (optional).
  3. Read the Webpage: "02: Working inside a discourse community."

  4. Read the Webpage: "02: Getting data by interview." 

  5. Read Jones: ch. 2, pp. 19-41.
  6. Read the Webpage: "02: Exercises in Jones." 
    Do the assigned exercises & email me your work before the deadline for this unit. 
  7. Contribute to the class discussion page. 

There are 60 points available in unit 02.
 
Submission Deadlines: A day or two late is acceptable with no explanation required. Watch the calendar. I will not accept material from lessons two units prior to the one we are studying. If the calendar says we are working on unit 5, I will accept late work from units 4 and 3, but not earlier. The grade for work submitted a week late is reduced by 10%; two weeks late by 20%. Work submitted more than two weeks late is not accepted. 

I think I've misunderstood the purpose of this class.  I thought that we were concerned with perfecting our writing skills, not our computer skills. 
Tech writing courses are defined by industry needs. Industry does not employ those
who claim to have writing skills but can't demonstrate them because they have no computer skills.   

I am not a computer person. 
But this is an online course. The computer skills in this class are at the level of what
is expected of any student taking a Blackboard-Vista course in any discipline.

Shouldn't my assignments be based on their merit, not presentation?
In tech writing, presentation is merit. Graduate courses in tech writing require you to have
an undergraduate degree and consequently assume that you know how to write standard English.
Tech writing is largely about rhetorical strategy & document design or presentation to help readers quickly find & understand the job-related information.    
I haven't take an undergraduate class in tech writing.  Please tell me if the Advanced Technical
Writing class is on a much higher level than the undergraduate technical writing course.
 The short answer is "no," the eng502 course should not be conceptually much more difficult or
challenging than a junior level university tech writing class. The longer answer recognizes that 
tech writing is a skills course that perhaps resembles welding or studio arts courses more than
conceptual courses like philosophy or physics. Eng502 offers students continued practice
& discussion of skills that they were introduced to in the undergraduate course, which typically
familiarizes students with the practice of:
How technical is the course?
If you are fairly adept at “psyching” people out to know what they are thinking you should do well. We adapt this psychological skill to develop a comparable rhetorical skill to understand professional or discourse community motives and values. We do almost nothing with technical content, which could range from molecular genetics to astrophysics to petroleum engineering.
 
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Email: john.rothfork@nau.edu
11.20.08