English 4433: Advanced Professional Writing
English 4433: Advanced Professional Writing (Fall 2009)
Professor Diane Abdo Office Hours: MWF 9:30-10:30 am, 1-2 pm and by appointment
HSS 4.03.06
Email: diane.abdo@utsa.edu Office Telephone: 458-5390
Textbooks
Technical Communication: A Practical Approach. Pfeiffer, William, 7th ed.
Handbook of Technical Writing. Brusaw, Alfred, 9th ed.
Course Description and Learning Objectives
This course will provide you with extensive practice in writing, formatting, and preparing professional documents. It focuses on the practical aspect of writing through the fictional company McDuff as the venue for many of the assignments.
Course material will center on a variety of scenarios requiring responses based on purpose, your knowledge of the subject, audience (usually with different technical backgrounds), format, and statistical and graphic support.
Throughout the course, you will be required to demonstrate competency in grammar, usage, conciseness, clarity, and sentence structure. You will also have the opportunity to develop proficiency in writing for a variety of audiences and situations.
This course is designed to familiarize you with a variety of writing approaches you may need to communicate in your professions. You will have the opportunity to hone your writing and editing skills through a series of “real-world” assignments. In summary, the objectives of this course are to assist you in:
! applying course material to assignments/tasks in other courses and in
your profession;
! polishing your oral and written communication skills;
! developing skill in analyzing and evaluating what you read, hear, and
write; and
! learning to use primary and secondary research to produce specialized
professional writing.
Course Requirements
Students are expected to attend class, complete assignments, work within groups and participate in class discussion. Writing assignments will be done in class and out of class. Out-of-class assignments are due at the beginning of the class for which they are assigned. Each student is allowed one late assignment without penalty, except for the final assignment of the semester and any group project. Any late assignment shall be submitted the following class day
after which time it will be penalized one letter grade for each day it is late. (Note: rough drafts are subject to the above requirements.) Late assignments are accepted up to one week of the assigned due date.
All final, out-of-class assignments must be typed (double-spaced) and submitted with research materials, pre-writing and revisions attached.
Attendance
Please arrive on time and attend class regularly. Late arrival disrupts the flow of lectures, class discussions and oral presentations. Sharing individual ideas with the class and working in groups are vital aspects of the educational process, but this process cannot take place without you.
Therefore, the attendance policy for this class is as follows:
! Attendance is required. After three absences, two points will be
subtracted from your overall average for each absence.
! Students are responsible for all material covered in and assigned for
class.
! Only those students who are in class when quizzes begin or assignments
are collected will be eligible for credit.
! Make-ups are not allowed for in-class work unless the absence was the
result of an emergency, which then must be documented.
! Group projects: Students will forfeit two points from the project grade
for each absence from a group meeting (in-class or out-of-class).
Classroom decorum also requires that all electronics should be turned off during class time. Also, no one should enter a room during a student presentation.
Evaluation
Students’ grades will be determined using the following percentages:
! Quizzes/In-class & out-of-class exercises 20%
! Major writing assignments 80%
Disability Services
UTSA provides special services for students with disabilities. The following information defines disabilities and the process you must follow to access services. You will find additional information at .
Eligibility for Services
Federal law defines a disability as "any mental or physical condition that substantially limits an individual's ability to perform one or more major life activities." Major life activities include learning, working, walking, seeing, hearing, breathing, and attending to matters of personal care. The physical or mental impairment must be serious enough to substantially limit functioning in at least one major life activity. Disabilities may include:
* Physical disabilities
* Learning disabilities
* Visual or hearing impairments
* Chronic diseases or medical conditions
* Neurological impairments
* Communication disorders
* Psychological disabilities
* Attention Deficit Disorder
Students with disabilities requesting services and accommodations at UTSA must complete the following steps:
* Apply and be accepted for admission to UTSA through the regular admission process. Information on the admission process can be obtained from the UTSA Office of Admissions. UTSA does not discriminate on the basis of disability in the recruitment and admission of students. Students with disabilities must satisfy the same requirements and follow the same process for admission as every other student.
* Provide current and comprehensive documentation that includes a diagnosis of the disability and describes the functional limitations the student experiences in an academic environment. Individualized Educational Plans (IEP's) and Section 504 plans, while often valuable sources of information, do not constitute acceptable documentation of disability for higher education. For more information about documentation guidelines at UTSA, see below.
* Schedule an appointment with DS after being admitted to UTSA to discuss needs and to register for services.
Printable versions of the UTSA documentation guidelines are available for download in both html and Adobe Portable Document format (PDF). In order to read and print the PDF versions, you may need to download and install the free Acrobat Reader.
Academic Dishonesty
Professional honesty begins in the classroom. Using another person’s work as if it were your own can ruin your educational career in the same way that it can ruin your professional career. The following paragraphs are taken from the university’s policy on academic dishonesty.
• “Scholastic dishonesty” includes, but is not limited to, cheating, plagiarism, collusion, falsifying academic records, and any act designed to give unfair advantage to the student (such as, but not limited to, submission of essentially the same written assignment for two courses without the prior permission of the instructor, providing false or misleading information in an effort to receive a postponement or an extension on a test, quiz, or other assignment), or the attempt to commit such an act.
• “Plagiarism” includes, but is not limited to, the appropriation, buying, receiving as a gift, or obtaining by any means another’s work and the submission of it as one’s own academic work offered for credit.
Finally. . .
You are invited and encouraged to consult with me to discuss assignments, review drafts, practice editing, brainstorm for approaches to writing. No appointment is needed for conferences during my office hours.
I prefer meeting with you in person; however, if you need to contact me by email, please use the email address provided in this syllabus.
Have a great semester!
Schedule of Assignments
August 25-28
Course Introduction
Writing sample
August 31-September 4
Editing: Handbook review
Chapter 1: Process in Technical Communication
Chapter 2: Ethics and Globalism in the Workplace
September 7-11 (Labor Day holiday)
Chapter 5: Letter, Memos and Electronic Communication
Discussion of letter and memo writing
Discussion of case study for letter writing
September 14-18
Quiz (case study): Workplace writing (in-class writing quiz)
Chapter 3: Organizing Information
Letter draft due
Letter revision due
Editing, Chapter 17: Style (pages TBA)
September 21-25
Letter due
Discussion of M-Global newsletter (Re: pp 65-74)
Formation of newsletter teams
Chapter 4: Page Design
Chapter 13: Collaboration and the Writing Process
September 28-October 2
Chapter 12 Graphics (newsletter design)
Newsletter team meetings
Newsletter article drafts due
Editing, Chapter 17: Style (pages TBA)
October 5-9
Newsletter design draft due
Chapter 10: introduction to proposals pp 303-310
Introduction to grant proposals
Editing, Chapter 17 Style (pages TBA
October 12=16
Newsletters due (informal team presentations)
Discussion of grant proposal
Editing
October 19-23
Conferences (HSS 4.03.06)
Grant proposal draft due
Editing
October 26-30
Chapter 8: Informal Reports
Grant proposal second draft due
Editing
Grant proposal due
Discussion of informal report
November 2-6
Chapter 15 Technical Research
Chapter 11: Web Pages and Writing for the Web
Informal report draft due
Editing
November 9-13
Second draft of informal report due
Editing
Informal report due
Chapter 10: Proposal and Feasibility Studies
November 16-20
Discussion of feasibility study
Chapter 13: Oral presentation
Chapter 16: The Job Search
November 23-25 (Thanksgiving holiday)
Feasibility outline due
Feasibility group meetings
Editing
November 30-December 4
Oral Presentations
Feasibility study due
Note: December 7 and 8 are student study days. Classes do not meet.
Final Exam: Friday, December 11, 7:30-10:00 a.m.
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