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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