ENGL 365 Technical Writing - Fall 2024 - PDF

ENGL 365: TECHNICAL WRITING SECTION 110-202520 FALL 2024 INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Ms. Wileesha Stevenson, M.A. Office Location: H. L. Griffin, Rm. 240 or MS Teams...

ENGL 365: TECHNICAL WRITING SECTION 110-202520 FALL 2024 INSTRUCTOR CONTACT INFORMATION Name: Ms. Wileesha Stevenson, M.A. Office Location: H. L. Griffin, Rm. 240 or MS Teams Email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tues/Thurs, 11:00-4:00 by appointment Class Mode: ONLINE COURSE DESCRIPTION Course Description. This course introduces technical and professional writing. It aims to help you communicate effectively in various workplace environments and professional and technical communities. You will learn to create and analyze common technical writing genres, such as résumés, letters, proposals, reports, and technical instructions. You will also learn to analyze and respond to different writing situations, considering factors like audience, organization, visual design, style, and material production of documents. Prerequisite(s): ENGL 102, ENGL 115, or ESOL 102 with a grade of “C” or better, or advanced placement; and at least 60.0 hours of credit toward degree. Pre/Corequisite(s): Fifteen hours credit in the student’s major field. COURSE OUTCOMES Define technical writing and identify the differences between academic writing and workplace writing, including recognizing the intended audience and purpose of a document Write accurate, clear, concise, and stylistically appropriate documents Demonstrate the ability to proofread and edit writing to eliminate errors Prepare standard documents like letters, proposals, and résumés using accepted formats and styles Create usable and persuasive documents that fulfill your purposes and/or your audience's needs Conduct research, including the use of library resources and/or relevant technologies Use appropriate reference material and formatting in preparing a technical presentation Deliver an informative technical presentation using supportive visual aids ASYNCHRONOUS ONLINE COURSES Asynchronous Online Courses. This is an asynchronous online course, which means we will not be meeting at the same time or place at any point this semester. Thus, you are responsible for dedicating your time to working on this course. Although you are free to decide at what time you login each day, this is not a self-paced course. Each week, there are learning exercises, readings, discussions, and/or assignments due. I will be sending updates and announcements, but you are responsible for staying on top of course communications, assignments, due dates, and course obligations. REQUIRED TEXTBOOKS AND TECHNOLOGY Strategies for Technical Communication in the Workplace, 4th Ed. Laura J. Gurak and John M. Lannon. Pearson, 2019. ISBN-13: 9780134680279 1  Reliable access to a digital device (computer, phone, laptop, tablet, etc.) Reliable access to the internet (at-home, work, on-campus access, etc.) Cloud Space (Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox, etc.) COURSE PARTICIPATION Course Participation. Since this is a cohort-based asynchronous course, you must meet the weekly deadline for all unit assignments, which is at 11:59 PM on Sunday nights. You must make a constant effort to complete the deliverables for each unit. If you are going to miss the equivalent of several days of a traditional class for health, academic, or personal reasons, you should fill out the form on this website. It is a Report Anticipated or Unplanned Absence form. Once completed and if approved, the Dean of Students’ Office will send out notices to all your instructors. COURSE ASSESSMENT GRADE DISTRIBUTION Daily Work 10% Instructions 15% Project Proposal 15% Project Progress Other Report 40% 10% Résumé/Cover Project Letter Presentation/ 20% Report 15% Inquiry/Complaint Letter 15% GRADING SCALE AND POLICIES Grading Scale and Policies. Grading for this course will be rigorous. Do not rely on me for copy-editing, even on your drafts. To receive a passing grade, you must reach the minimum criteria listed in each unit and you must fully engage in the course by completing all lessons, quizzes, discussion forum assignments, and project documents. Your work will be assessed according to this grading scale: A 90-100 900-1000 D 69-60 600-699 B 89-80 800-899 F 59-0 599-0 C 79-70 700-799 2  FEEDBACK AND REVISIONS Feedback. You can expect to receive feedback on your projects within 7-10 days. Your feedback and grade will be provided no later than 10 days after the assignment is due. For major projects due on Sunday at 11:59 PM, you can expect to receive a response by 11:59 PM on the following week’s Wednesday. Revisions. You can revise and resubmit any project documents during the semester based on instructor feedback, and your new grade will replace the previous one. The revisions must be comprehensive and must address all or the most important changes suggested, or no new score will be given. When you submit a revised draft, you must also include a description of your specific revisions. You can revise these assignments before the next assignment’s due date or wait until the end of the semester to submit an optional revision portfolio. LATE WORK POLICY Late Work Policy. If you are struggling to keep up with any part of the course, please inform me as soon as possible. Developing strong relationships and rapport are crucial for becoming a successful professional. So, be proactive and let me know when you encounter any difficulties during the semester. I will grant you reasonable exceptions or provide you with individualized instruction that best suits your learning needs. Though, late daily work (discussion postings or quizzes) will not be accepted. You will receive a zero for any daily work that you do not complete. Late submission of major writing projects will be accepted, but it being late will result in a deduction of 10 points from its final grade. Projects submitted more than 3 days after the due date will receive a grade of zero. For example, if a project is due on a Sunday, it will not be accepted after the Wednesday, resulting in a starting grade of 70% (C). ONLINE NETIQUETTE Online Netiquette. In an online classroom, your primary means of communication is written. The written language has many advantages: more opportunity for reasoned thought, more ability to go in-depth, and more time to think through an issue before posting a comment. However, written communication also has its disadvantages. This includes a lack of face-to-face signaling that occurs through body language, intonation, pausing, facial expressions and gestures. As a result, please recognize the possibility of miscommunication and compose your comments in a clear, positive, supportive, and constructive manner. Please be sure to be professional by demonstrating tolerance for diverse points of view and give each other the benefit of the doubt about any unclear intended meanings. EMAIL COMMUNICATION Email Communication. I check my emails regularly during normal business hours (M-F between 8 AM and 5 PM), so you can expect a response to emails within a reasonable timeframe (within 48 hours, but most likely sooner). However, please check the syllabus and/or assignment handout to see if they contain sought out information before emailing with questions. Please include the course name and section in your subject line (e.g., ENGL 365-100). USE OF AI-GENERATED MATERIAL Use of AI-Generated Material. In a perfect world, I would emphasize that all work submitted for this course must be your own original creation, and that the use of artificial intelligence (AI) to generate material is strictly prohibited. I would go on to state that submitting material generated by AI will be considered a violation of the University’s academic integrity policy even if it is AI-generated material that you have summarized or edited. However, in the real world, I accept that the field of education is always evolving, and new ideas and technologies are constantly being introduced to us. These changes have a big impact on the way we learn and teach and can even raise the question, “Is X a 3 breakthrough innovation for student learning or is it a disruption to students’ capabilities?” The growing use of AI generators in the classroom creates this dilemma because teachers can now easily identify how students misuse the powerful tool to create incomprehensible material and present it as their own—yes! I am bringing light to the cringe writing of most AI writing that I encounter in my classrooms. Students unapologetically submitting incomprehensible material for grading raises two main concerns for me: students may lack fundamental reading and writing comprehension skills needed to identify the odd and awkward writing generated by AI generators and students may not see a problem with submitting work that they did not actually write as their own. My stance on using AI to generate any work submitted for this technical communication course is that you may use it with caution. I want you to understand that these generators are trained to imitate human writers—that’s you—and just like you, AI generators are prone to factual errors, incorrect or fabricated citations, and misinterpretations of abstract or even simple concepts. I want you to build a healthy relationship with AI generators and see it as a means to support you as you navigate your writing process and not as an alternative for completing your work. Utilize tools like Grammarly to rephrase a confusing paragraph that you drafted or tools like MS Word’s AI Assistant to proof your writing for you. I don’t want you to use tools like ChatGPT or OpenAI to generate entire texts for you. Allow your unique human voice to shine in your writing. Your audience would be happy to hear it. In this course, you are responsible for the content of any work you submit. Use of AI to support you as you compose your drafts is permitted, but you must review and revise any AI-generated material before submission. Read it once, twice, or even three times to make sure that it is comprehensive and that it is still your work. Again, you should avoid depending on it to generate entire texts for you. In addition, you are required to be transparent about your use of AI- generated material upon request (e.g., in a reflective journal or in any interactions with me and your peers). ACADEMIC CONDUCT AND DISHONESTY Academic Conduct and Dishonesty. The University holds that all work for which a student will receive a grade or credit shall be an original contribution or shall be properly documented to indicate sources. Abrogation of this principle entails dishonesty, it defeats the purpose of instruction, and undermines the high goals of the University. Cheating in any form will not be tolerated. Students shall be held responsible for knowing the acceptable methods and techniques for proper documentation of sources and to avoid cheating and plagiarism in all work submitted for credit, whether prepared in or out of class. Cheating, in the context of academic matters, is the term broadly used to describe all acts of dishonesty committed in taking tests or examinations and in preparing assignments. Cheating includes but is not limited to such practices as gaining help from another person or using unauthorized notes when taking a test, relying on a calculator if such an aid has been forbidden, and preparing an assignment in consultation with another person when the instructor expects the work to be done independently. In other words, cheating occurs when a student makes use of any unauthorized aids or materials. Furthermore, any student who provides unauthorized assistance in academic work is also guilty of cheating. Plagiarism is a specific type of cheating. It occurs when a student claims originality for the ideas or words of another person, when the student presents as a new and original idea or product anything which in fact is derived from an existing work, or when the student makes use of any work or production already created by someone else without giving credit to the source. In short, plagiarism is the use of unacknowledged materials in the preparation of assignments. The student must take care to avoid plagiarism in research or term papers, musical compositions, science reports, laboratory experiments, and theses and dissertations. Any student caught cheating or plagiarizing will receive an F on the assignment and will be reported to the Dean of Students. The maximum penalty for cheating is a dismissal from the University, while other penalties include a fine or an ethics class. As the Department of Student Rights and Responsibilities has recommended, we will revisit plagiarism each time a major assignment is coming due. Please view the University’s Academic Honesty policy. 4  THE WRITING LAB The Writing Lab. The Writing Lab is in Dupré Library. The Lab is made up of UL English graduate students and provides an invaluable service to writers of every stripe: a knowledgeable, receptive, and helpful audience. It quests to address the issues facing writers of all skill levels, at any stage of the writing process, working on projects in any discipline. From planning to organization, from incorporating research to just getting started, the Lab is an intensive supplement to your development as a successful college writer. Sessions are at least twenty minutes to one hour, depending on the size of the project. Appointments are encouraged but walk-ins are accepted. Please visit their webpage for more information. STUDENT ACCESSIBILITY Student Accessibility. In accordance with the Americans with Disabilities Act, the University of Louisiana at Lafayette makes accommodations for students with disabilities. If you have a documented disability, please contact the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) office at 337-482-5252 or [email protected] during the first week of classes. SSD will assist you with an accommodation plan. All accommodations requested through the Office of Disability Services will be honored. Also, if you see ways the course could better accommodate you, your peers, or a diversity of students, please notify me. The university also has a Supported Education Program (SEP), which provides free confidential help on campus for students with psychological disabilities (Bipolar Disorder, Depression, Anxiety, etc.). Please contact Kim A. Warren, MSW, PhD, LCSW, Supported Education Advisor, at 337-482-5252 or at [email protected]. She is in the Conference Center, Room 126 (SEP: http://disability.louisiana.edu/SEP.html). 5  WEEKLY ASSIGNMENTS DEADLINES Week 1 (August 26-September 01) Introduction Forum Getting Started Quiz Week 2 (September 02-September 08) Research Topic Idea Forum Letter Quiz Week 3 (September 09-September 15) Inquiry Letter Submission Run-Ons, Comma Splices, and Fragments Quiz Week 4 (September 16-September 22) Proposal Quiz Week 5 (September 23-September 29) Proposal Submission Subject-Verb and Pronoun-Antecedent Agreement Quiz Week 6 (September 30-October 06) Instructions Topic Forum Week 7 (October 07-October 13) Instructions Quiz Week 8 (October 14-October 20) Instructions Submission Week 9 (October 21-October 27) Share Your Instructions Forum Week 10 (October 28-November 03) Résumé and Cover Letter Submission Writing Employment Documents Quiz Week 11 (November 04-November 10) Progress Report Quiz Apostrophes, Capitalization, and Commas Quiz Week 12 (November 11-November 17) Progress Report Submission Week 13 (November 18-November 24) Practicing Presentation Format Forum Week 14-15 (November 25-December 08) Presentation of Research Submission Comment on Peers’ Presentations Forum Resubmission/Revision Portfolio Note: Syllabus and course schedule is subject to change at the instructor’s discretion 6