English 324: Principles of Technical Communication

Course Texts: Professional Writing Online (PWO) | 324 eReserves | Handouts

Welcome to English 324: Principles of Technical Communication. This website is a wiki, like Wikipedia, which allows us to create webpages and work online pretty easily. We'll be doing a great deal of work this way, but we'll also be using Microsoft Word for a lot of your work as well. We'll be discussing file formats, file naming and tracking, and a bunch more. Again, welcome to the course.

Another Conversation

03-31 :: Employment Application Project - Resume Day 2 - WTCM Project

Resume Testing 2 Group Work
- Seeing Patterns, Emphasis, C.R.A.P., Arrangement, Objectives
Why Tech Comm Matters (WTCM ?)
- Recognizing meaningful communication situations
- Analyzing a specific audience well
- Showing how to "tailor" communication for the particular situation
- Reiterate why it matters--both inside, and outside, this context

JobDox Readings:

Home > Documents > Employment Documents > The Rhetoric of Employment Documents
Home > Documents > Employment Documents > Types of Employment Documents > Resumes
Home > Documents > Employment Documents > Types of Employment Documents > Application Letter

03-26 :: Employment Application Project: Cover Letter

Cover Analysis 1 Group Work
- Collect Names of Different Parts/Sections of a Cover Letter
- Group Discussion of the what the jobs/tasks of the sections ought to be--what do they need to do, how should they go about doing it?
- Whole class discussion of sections, parts, how they should work
- Homework: PWO Reading and Wiki write-ups, Analyzing Job Ad and Company Info, Scenario Memo, Revising Resume and Cover Letter, more PRL Expanded Entries
- Board from class

03-24 :: Employment Application Project: Resume

Resume Analysis 1 Group Work
- Collect Names of Different Parts/Sections of Resume
- Arrangement of Parts
- Whole Class discussion of the different parts/sections and people's questions: Sorting, grouping, re-grouping, arranging, and the ethos of: you (applicant), company, field/discipline (specialty)
- Board from class

Job Ad Analysis

03-10 :: Employment Application (EA or JobDox) Project: Introduction

Intro to Project, Docs, Portfolio, etc.
- Job Scenario Memo
- Cover Letter, CL PDM
- Resume, Resume PDM
- Analysis of Job Advertisement
- Analysis of Company Research
- Personal Resource List
- PRL Expanded Entries
- Drafts of CL and Resume

02-13 :: FM Project: Group Articulating Purpose, User Test 2

Small Group Purpose Articulation (sounds reeeal smahht)\\In groups of 3-4 we'll try to figure out how to state how the memo needs to work for your boss.
FM User Test 2: Start in class, and then in homework, applying these ideas to each other's drafts and offering feedback.
Reading Journal:
- Home > Principles > Arranging Information > Ordering Information for Understanding
- Home > Principles > Arranging Information > Thinking about Document Design
- Home > Principles > Arranging Information > Style, Audience, and the Arrangement of Information
- eReserves: The Non-Designer's Design Book
Outside Examples: An important, and fun, part of the homework for this project is for you to keep your eyes open for comparable "displays of information" for particular kinds of use. You'll need to create a wiki page for these, include either the graphic on the page or link to it, and of course your own explanation of the example, and how it relates.

02-06 :: Wrapping the IM Project, Intro of FM Project

Final Demo of IM/PDM Analysis
Forklift Memo Project Intro

02-04 :: PDM User Test, Reading, Concepts

User Testing PDMs, Project Portfolios

User Testing "Body Chunks"
- Identify "Parts": support first, then claim, then warrant
- Checking Fit to Purpose: Is the claim explicitly stating how this development shows writer learning about a particular concept? Does the support/evidence seem like a significant, meaningful, interesting, or funny development, or does the writer explain how it is?
User Testing the Overview (Document Definition)
- Does the Overview:
  - State what the document is?
  - Explain the need/problem the document is a response to?
  - Explain how the document is going to work at the problem?
  - Have a Talking Head trying to "pithily" (I know it's not a word) Name the Purpose?
Reading Checklist

Reading Journal work is due. Be sure to have Journal Entries for each of these pages, and several of the concepts discussed here need to be included in the PDMs

Home > Principles > Overview: The Rhetorical Theory of Professional Writing Online
Home > Principles > Rhetoric of Professional Writing > Understanding Purpose
Home > Principles > Rhetoric of Professional Writing > The Complex Nature of Writing
Home > Principles > Rhetoric of Professional Writing > Types of Documents (Genres)
Home > Documents > Memos and E-Mail > The Rhetoric of the Memo and E-Mail

01-30 :: Developing Project/Process Documentation Memos

Ingrediants

One pretty well developed IM
A Collection of Drafts and work papers like audience analysis, situation analysis, etc.
A Selection of Specific Changes between various "stages" in the process
A Selection of Concepts--Terminology of Rhetoric & Information Design
One draft of a chunk

To begin, select one interesting or significant change between drafts. Analyze how this particular change shows growth in awareness of the concepts this course is about: purpose, audience, ethos, argument, claim, support, warrant, etc. Write chunk arguing how your experience in developing the IM has involved applying, learning, developing, understanding, etc. the concepts of the course. You're arguing you are learning an approach to analyzing situations and how to write/design to deal with such situations/problems. Repeat 3-4 times using different examples, and different concepts, and then write an Overview that tries to explain why writing this stuff is important.

01-23 :: Presenting & Explaining Good "Chunks" of Other's IMs

Presentations: What's good, and why?
Working towards a rubric for evaluating IMs
But what is still missing? Bridging to the PDM

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