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Syllabus for English 202, Spring 2018 Updated Thursday, November 30, 2017

The following presents the syllabus for English 202. What this syllabus says takes precedence over any other document related to this course.

Modification of This Syllabus

I reserve the right to modify this syllabus, but I will tell you, using a course announcement, when I make a modification. I will show any changes in the syllabus using red-line markup, such as shown here.

What is Technical Communication?

Technical communication includes the many forms of writing and speaking used in the work world: letters, manuals, memos, instructions, proposals, reports, presentations, and Web pages. As a technical professional, you will spend a lot of time creating technical communications; you will spend even more time reading and listening to the technical communications of others.

Textbook

The required textbook for this course is The Essentials of Technical Communication, Third Edition, written by Elizabeth Tebeaux and Sam Dragga. The book is published by Oxford University Press.

You may notice that the writing in the book does not always comply with the requirements I place on you, via the associated English 202 Style Guide. Read the book to get a better understanding of the general principles of effective technical communication, but, when you are looking for examples of the right way to write for this course, consult the English 202 Style Guide.

Software

You need the following software for this course:

• A Web browser compatible with Blackboard. See the links on the Blackboard login page for a list of browsers that have been certified.

• Microsoft Word 2010 or later version1. If you use any other word processor2, you must ensure that the files you turn in are compatible with Word in all aspects.

• Microsoft Excel, 2010 or later version.

1 I use Windows Office 2010 and Office 365 for my grading, but I tested the features I require on Macintosh, so I know there are not any incompatibilities between the two platform versions. If you believe that running Word on Macintosh prevents you from completing assignments correctly, you may need to find a Windows computer to use for the assignments. 2 Limited feature word processors, such as Microsoft Works and Macintosh Pages, do not support the styles feature crucial to this course. If you use either, you will lose points when we get into the major assignments. Some students try to use OpenOffice or LibreOffice, but the styles do not convert correctly when saving to docx format. Use these alternatives only if you understand that your grade will suffer.

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English 202 is a Component of the Foundational Studies Program Social Science Disciplinary Lens

Boise State's Foundational Studies Program provides undergraduates with a broad-based education that spans the entire university experience. ENGL 202, Introduction to Technical Communication, satisfies 3 credits of the Foundational Studies Program’s Disciplinary Lens—Social Science (DL-S) requirements. It supports University Learning Outcome 11 (“Apply knowledge and the methods of inquiry characteristic of the social sciences to explain and evaluate human behavior and institutions”) along with a variety of other course-specific goals.

After successful completion of this course, you will be able to do the following:

• Understand that successful communication effectively responds to the needs and interests of people with different backgrounds, frames of reference, needs, and interests; and understand how to examine and articulate your own place within your own culture

• Understand that documents reflect the ways in which powerful cultural forces affect writers and readers; understand how to analyze the world views and philosophical assumptions inherent in source material; and draw connections between diverse perspectives

• Write a recommendation report that effectively documents a research project calling for secondary3 research, problem-solving, and effective writing that adheres to the conventions and expectations of a professional discipline; analyze and evaluate your own and others’ assumptions about the importance of context; and isolate and emphasize the critical element of a discussion

Goal of the Course

The goal of this course is to provide you with the knowledge and skills you need to communicate effectively in a professional environment. For many of you, the topics you communicate as a professional will be technical in nature, but whether the topic is an engineering report that describes the requirements for a wastewater treatment plant or a memo to your boss, the communication must be of professional quality to be well-received. Communications that are incomplete, incorrect, inaccurate, or simply unclear reflect poorly on you and your employer.

The course goal is achieved through the following:

• Textbook Readings and Quizzes. Most weeks, you will have assigned readings and quizzes about those readings. Most quiz questions come from the textbook, but there are also questions from the English 202 Style Guide, which you are expected to reference throughout the course.

• Exercises. Through exercises, you will apply what you learn from your readings, and you will also learn features of office software essential to creating professional documents in a collaborative environment. What you learn from doing the exercises you will apply when writing the proposal, recommendation report, and instructions later in the course.

• Writing Assignments. You will apply all you have learned from your readings and the exercises as you write a proposal, a recommendation report, and a set of instructions.

Effective communication comes from study and practice. Nobody becomes an effective communicator through study alone.

3 This course does not allow sufficient time to do primary research effectively, so only secondary research is allowed.

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How Does Writing for Technical Communication Differ from Other Writing?

When you write technical communications, you must be aware of the following:

• Correctness. You are writing to people who have advanced technical training and expertise and whose jobs require them to read often. Experienced readers will quickly spot easily-corrected errors and are likely to form a negative impression of writers who do not correct such errors. From the very first writing assignment until the last, I will expect your writing to be correct in all aspects of grammar and punctuation.

• Style requirements. Technical writing is frequently done as a part of a collaborative effort. To keep the writing consistent, writers need to comply with a style guide that defines required formatting, grammar, punctuation, and word usage. For all assignments, you must comply with the requirements of the English 202 Style Guide.

• Needs of the reader. Technical writing is not a forum for personal expression; its goal is to help the reader understand and act—not to satisfy the needs of the writer. You are not entertaining; you are communicating.

Weighting of the Course Work

The course work is weighted as shown in Table 1. About half of your grade will be determined by your scores on the reading quizzes and the exercises; the other half will be determined by your scores on the proposal, recommendation report, and instructions assignments. Table 1. Weighting of course work. Course Work Element Weight (percent of

grade) Reading Quizzes (2 points each, 12 quizzes) 24 Nine Exercises (3 points each) 27 Proposal, Part 1 5 Proposal, Part 2 10 Recommendation Report, Part 1 5 Recommendation Report, Part 2 20 Instructions Writing Assignment 9 Total 100

You can calculate your grade—or make projections about your grade—using the following formula: Your grade = 0.02 * (sum of 12 reading quiz scores)

+ 0.03 * (sum of 9 exercise scores) + 0.05 * (proposal part 1 score + recommendation part 1 score) + 0.10 * (proposal part 2 score) + 0.2- * recommendation report part 2 score + 0.09 * instructions score

I also provide a spreadsheet to help you calculate your grade throughout the course. You can find the link to the spreadsheet on the left side of the Blackboard menu:

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Download the spreadsheet, enter your grades, and make guesses about future grades to see how you might do in the course.

Grade Scale

Grades will be given based on the score ranges shown in Table 2. Table 2. Score ranges and grades. A- (≥90 but <92.5) A (≥ 92.5 but < 97.5) A+ (≥ 97.5 ) B- (≥80 but <82.5) B (≥ 82.5 but < 87.5) B+ (≥ 87.5 but < 90) C- (≥70 but <72.5) C (≥ 72.5 but < 77.5) C+ (≥ 77.5 but < 80) D- (≥60 but <62.5) D (≥ 62.5 but < 67.5) D+ (≥ 67.5 but < 70) F (<60)

See Yourself as a Writing Collaborator

For all writing in this course, you should imagine that you are a member of a team of writers, each of whom is preparing one piece of a larger document. You are submitting your contribution to an editor (me) who must then assemble the separate pieces into a cohesive whole having a consistent style and format.

Accordingly, I expect you to comply with all requirements of the English 202 Style Guide and the more specific requirements of each writing assignment. When you do not comply with those requirements, I will either reject your submission, returning it to you for correction, or make the corrections with corresponding deductions in your grade:

• If you do not apply styles as required by the English 202 Style Guide, I will deduct up to forty (40) points per assignment. You must use the required styles if you want an exceptional grade in this course. Fortunately, styles are incredibly simple to use, and they add professional- level format consistency to your document. Use styles!

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• If the document requires captions and cross-references, you must use the captioning and cross- reference tools to create these captions and cross-references. Large technical documents are frequently revised, and manually-created captions and cross-references are tedious to update.

• Other deductions will be made as described in the English 202 Style Guide, so refer frequently to the style guide as you review and edit your documents. Sometimes, students complain that my deductions for repeated “small” errors ignores how much work went into the creating the content, but I am simply reacting to your document in the same way your boss or your customer would. If your writing is full of small errors, I can’t see anything else until those errors are corrected4.

Extra Credit

The best way to achieve a desired grade in the course is by making each exercise, assignment, and exam a high priority, meeting the due dates, and meeting the requirements for each exercise and writing assignment.

ESL Student Suggestions

If English is a second language for you, I encourage you to do the following:

• Take advantage of the BSU Intensive English Program (http://english.boisestate.edu/iep/) if you have concerns about your ability to write English at a professional level.

• Study the course style guide and Appendix A of the textbook frequently as you review and edit your writing.

• Use the services of the Boise State Writing Center (http://writingcenter.boisestate.edu/).

• Use any of the many excellent online English writing guides available to you across the Internet, such as the Purdue University Online Writing Lab (https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/).

• Ask native English speakers to review your writing before you submit assignments. Native speakers can help you fix such common problems as missing articles and incorrect verb forms.

Submission of Course Work

Use the Assignments function to submit all assignments. I do not accept files sent as e-mail attachments unless you are looking for a preliminary review.

Exercises and writing assignments submitted to Blackboard after the due date and times listed in the syllabus calendar receive a mandatory deduction, even if only a fraction of a second late5.

Deductions will be made as follows:

• 10 point deduction for anything turned in less than five minutes late.

• 25 point deduction for anything turned in between five minutes and one day late.

4 If you want me to look at a draft assignment before you submit, send me your draft via e-mail, tell me what you want me to look at as I review your draft, and I will flag a representative sample of the errors I find, leaving the rest for you to correct as a part of your learning experience. Just be sure to send me the draft well before the assignment is due; if you wait until the day the assignment is due, I may not have time to look at it. 5 To be objective, I use the date and time stamp provided by Blackboard to assess if an assignment is late.

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• 50 point deduction for anything turned in more than one day late.

• 75 point deduction for anything turned in more than two days late.

• Rejection of anything turned in more than three days late.

I will make allowances for illness and family emergencies if you will please contact me beforehand. However, any leeway granted applies only to the assignment for which you expect to be late; all other assignments must be submitted according to the schedule defined in this syllabus.

If you believe you have correctly submitted assignments that I have not received on time, please contact Blackboard Assistance. If Blackboard Assistance tells me that an assignment was submitted to me by the due date and time, I will grade that assignment as though it had been submitted on time.

Reading Quizzes

Questions for the reading quizzes come from the textbook and the English 202 Style Guide. Be sure to study both.

The quizzes are open-book, but a time limit applies—20 minutes for most quizzes. It is difficult to get an excellent score unless you have studied the material beforehand.

When the deadline for taking and submitting an exam passes, the exam remains open, but the time limit is cut by three-fourths.

Very infrequently, students report encountering problems when taking exams on Blackboard. Blackboard appears to lock up before they can complete and submit the exam. Please report the details of such problems to Blackboard Assistance immediately, and send me a brief message letting me know that you need to have the exam reset. However, if the deadline for the exam expires before I can reset the exam, the time available will still be reduced. (Moral: Do not wait until the last minute to begin the exam!)

How to Do Well In This Course

To achieve a high grade in this course, you need to do well on the exercises, the writing assignments, and the quizzes. Some students are better writers than test-takers, and other students are better test-takers than writers. In this course, you must do well at both, and you must incorporate what you learn into your writing.

You must also learn to write according to the course style guide. In a business environment, you will not be free to write as you choose, so learning to review and edit your writing against the requirements of a style guide is an essential part of this course.

If you have become used to writing instructors who only mark representative mistakes6, my method of grading may be a shock: I mark all mistakes that I see7, and I deduct for all mistakes I mark. I want you to develop the habit of carefully reviewing your own writing. In the business world, nobody will willingly fix your mistakes; the quality of what you write is largely in your hands.

6 I’ve never quite understood this method of grading; it is a bit like only grading representative math problems instead of all of the problems. 7 With the exception of the Proposal Part 1 and the Recommendation Report Part 1; for these two assignments, I will show you a selection of the errors I am seeing so that you know what to look for when preparing the final versions (Part 2) of these major writing projects.

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Academic Honesty

Plagiarism, which occurs when a writer, knowingly or not, uses another writer's words without appropriate attribution, is a serious offense that can result in major deductions, the complete rejection of an assignment, or even dismissal from the course. The minimum deduction for plagiarism is 20 points, but greater deductions will be used when the plagiarized material constitutes a large proportion of the submitted paper.

Communications

The best way to communicate with me is by sending an e-mail message to [email protected]. Occasionally, students ask to meet with me, but I don’t have an office at Boise State, and I am unlikely to be persuaded to meet when it is so much easier and more efficient to communicate asynchronously. If you are taking an online course, we probably agree on this point.

If I need to communicate directly with you, I will send a message to your BroncoMail account, so make sure the e-mail address defined in BroncoMail is an e-mail address you check frequently.

Calendar

Table 3 presents the course calendar, showing due dates for assignments and quizzes. The due dates can also be found in Blackboard by going to Tools and selecting Calendar.

We are all adults, so I do not always send reminders about these due dates. The dates are published, and they are easy to find. If you find it necessary to be reminded when something is due, create reminders in Google Calendar or by using some similar tool.

Because some students want to assume a consistent pattern of course activities, I have highlighted variations in the pattern of chapter readings. However, I make no claim that what I have highlighted represents all variations in whatever pattern you choose to see. If I were you, I would check the calendar rather than assume a pattern. Table 3. Course calendar. Week Week Start Reading and Course Work Due (All times Mountain Time Zone, U.S.)

1 January 7 Read the course syllabus and style guide. Exercise 1 (Getting to know the course requirements) due by 4:50 PM January 11

2 January 14 Read Chapter 1, Characteristics of Writing at Work, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 1 due by 4:50 PM January 16 Exercise 2 (Learning to use styles, electronic edits, and comments) due by 4:50 PM January 18

3 January 21 Read Chapter 2, Writing for Your Reader, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 2 due by 4:50 PM January 23 Exercise 3 (Analyzing the audience) due by 4:50 PM January 25

4 January 29 Read Chapter 3, Writing Ethically, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 3 due by 4:50 PM January 30 Exercise 4 (Citing sources) due by 4:50 PM February 1

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5 February 4 Read Chapter 4, Achieving a Readable Style, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 4 due by 4:50 PM February 6 Exercise 5 (Paragraphs and lists) due by 4:50 PM February 8

6 February 11 Read Chapter 5, Designing Documents, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 5 due by 4:50 PM February 13 Exercise 6 (Document design) due by 4:50 PM February 15

7 February 18 Read Chapter 6, Designing Illustrations, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 6 due by 4:50 PM February 20 Exercise 7 (Illustrations, captions, and cross-references) due by 4:50 PM February 22

8 February 25 Read Chapter 7, E-mails, Texts, Memos, and Letters; and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 7 due by 4:50 PM February 27 Exercise 8 (Messages, memos, letters) due by 4:50 PM March 1

9 March 4 Read Chapter 12, Resumes and Job Applications, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 12 due by 4:50 PM March 6 Exercise 9 (Creating job application documents) due by 4:50 PM March 8

10 March 11 Read Chapter 9, Proposals and Progress Reports, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 9 due by 4:50 PM March 13 Proposal, Part 1, due by 4:50 PM March 15

11 March 18 Read Chapter 8, Technical Reports, and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 8 due by 4:50 PM March 20 Proposal, Part 2, due by 4:50 PM March 22

12 March 25 Spring Break

13 April 1 Read Chapter 10, Instructions, Procedures, and Policies; and review the style guide. Reading Quiz 10 due by 4:50 PM April 3 Recommendation Report, Part 1, due by 4:50 PM April 5

14 April 8 Read Chapter 11: Oral Reports Reading Quiz 11 due by 4:50 PM April 10

15 November 27 Recommendation Report, Part 2, due by 4:50 PM April 19

16 December 4 Instructions due by 4:50 PM April 26 End of course.