ENC 4260/6421: Advanced Technical Writing/Studies in Rhetoric and Technology

Spring 2010

Dr. Trey Conner

email: trey.conner@gmail.com

phone: 873-4783

skype: shareriff

Meet: Florida Center for Teachers (FCT) 120

Office: 119A TBA

 

 

Student Learning Outcomes:

 

Successful students in this class will

•  

    demonstrate advanced Rhetorical Knowledge by focusing on audience, purpose, context, medium, and message, with special attention to the ways these elements of technical communication and rhetoric have shifted in contexts of media convergence and networked writing environments;

•  

  demonstrate advanced Critical Thinking, Reading, and Writing by developing writing over time through high-frequency interactions with peers that coordinate symbolic analytical skills including finding, evaluating, analyzing, and synthesizing ideas, moods, and information sampled from different sources, and by openly investigating the interdependence of language, power, and knowledge;

• demonstrate advanced Composing Processes by rigorously testing the adage of open source culture that says "share early and often." This means we will openly prewrite, draft, revise, and edit content individually and with peers across a wide range of composing media;

• will demonstrate advanced Knowledge of Conventions by controlling and modulating tone, mechanics, and documentation in a variety of  formats and genres in technical communication;

• discuss the Ethical Concerns of writing technical documents, including the underlying assumptions and implications, and demonstrate how these concerns are resolved in technical documents.

• employ Effective and Appropriate Technological Applications to help design and create working technical documents

•  

  In addition to meeting the outcomes listed above, students in ENC 6421 will demonstrate a Scholarly Ethos by determining an arena of academic writing for review, and produce a substantial research paper that engages a particular "problematic" important to a particular discourse community.

 

 

Goals and Objectives

 

• We will create a series technical documents as requested by our client, the Lead Learn Serve grant committee

• We will explore writing in multiple contexts, ranging from the most mundane to the highly complex

• We will examine writing as a rhetorical means for inquiry, persuasion, and the simplification of complexity

• We will examine the ethical concerns that adhere in a service-learning environment

• We will engage technology and each other to design and create usable, cogent technical documents

• We will enjoin collaboration and conversation to create an active learning environment

• ____________________________________________________________________

• ____________________________________________________________________

• ____________________________________________________________________

    (insert your personal goals here)

 

Course Overview:

 

 

In this client-based course, undergraduates enrolled in ENC 4260 and directed studies will join graduate students enrolled in ENC 6421 to form a technical writing collective comrpised of three parts: a philanthropy board, a team of documenters, and a team of advocates. At the beginning of the semester, this differential of student attention will generate robust student-driven conversation, investigation, and evaluation of the most important and most challenging problems and potentials taken up by nonprofit agencies in the greater Tampa Bay area, ranging from accelerating change in the technology sector/green computing, to risk-prevention and youth-outreach in low-SES communities, and ecocritical approaches to municipal services. Students will then translate these conversations and research into a meaningful and timely notification of funding opportunity document (NOFO), create a rubric for evaluating proposals/applications received in response to the NOFO, and, at the end of the semester, award the grant. Along the way, students will acquire a real-world professional writing training as they document and narrate this process for the client (the Lead, Learn, and Server grant committee) by means of letters of intent, pre-proposals, proposals and budgets, resumes, and other commonplace modes/formats of technical and professional writing. At the completion of our course, in addition to sharing finalized NOFO-related documents with the LLS committee (who will broadcast to local nonprofit community), students will produce an additional reflective/capstone technical document (4260), a research project based on issues that emerged in the process of creating the NOFO (directed study), or a scholarly paper that examines the relationship between the nonprofit sector and educational systems (6421).

 

 

Building on rhetoric&composition's history of writing-intensive client-based composition courses, this course emphasizes writing as a means of knowledge production and a means for students to connect their understanding--and experience--of service and leadership to their academic goals. Our foray into today's nonprofit sector, a multidimensional and technologically complex space of public deliberation, is designed to provide a practical and applied training in 21^st century civic rhetoric. Structured participation in complicated contexts, in scenarios that demand both expansive thinking and structured response, makes possible a multivalent sense of responsibility: our service will involve direct inquiry into difficult and challenging ill-structured ethical domains (Rand Spiro's "Cognitive Flexibility Theory"), where simple, well-designed communicative actions matter and can make a difference. When we engage complexity and render simplicity in this way, we take our cue from the Stanford Model of service learning, which emphasizes public writing but also values expressive and academic genres, and all course-based writing itself as a robust and multiply-engaging form of service. This script places us in real-world rhetorical (writing) situations, where we will write to explore issues, solve problems, and design deliverables according to personal, community, and client needs, and according to the standards of diverse genres and media of composing. Increasingly, civic rhetorical performances arise to meet problems exacerbated by, and sometimes even born out of, complex bureaucratic and technological terms and interfaces. This course directly meets this challenge directly by offering students the opportunity to tinker with technology, deliberate and dissipate together (in writing) on tough issues, and then apply our collective research and deliberation to very specific modes of technical communication. In the process of researching and creating a NOFO, we will have an opportunity to learn about the relationship between technologies of writing and the specific literacy and problem-solving practices of local communities. Hopefully, our process of writing and working together with technologies of writing in real-world situations will allow cognitive and affective vectors to commingle in ways that underscore and impart a vivid sense of civic responsibility.

 

 

Course Assignments:

 

You will develop two course portfolios that will house your work for the semester.

 

One, the project portfolio, will house your finalized, formal assignments for the client. You will notice that this wiki uses wikimarkup, and will therefore give you a chance to become familiar with this common markup language. 

 

The other (this one!) will house your process work that documents your progress toward the final projects you create. Each portfolio is worth 50% of your grade.

 

Project Portfolio = 50% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE (500 points)

 

 

This will be a website that showcases the formal writing you do for this client. These formal assignments will be included:

 

 

PROCESS WORK = 50% OF YOUR FINAL GRADE (500 points)

 

 

Participation Portfolio: Ultimately, this work which consists of daily writings & logs, research blog, progress reports, online exercises and draft conferences as well as class discussion, preparation of reading materials, in-class assignments, homework and research, conference preparation, process drafts (on time), oral and written comments from collaborative works, group evaluations, self-evaluations (reflective memos, mid-term assessments, etc.), electronic participation on discussion boards, individual and group presentations, and any other trace of your investigations of (and transformations via) the media/technologies, issues, problems, or items of interest (whether germane to the board's core mission or “off topic”) that you find in your process and participation.

 

 

Daily Writings (15 points): Most class periods we will begin with a short (10-15 minute) duration dedicated to writing in the calisthenic sense. Because these are mostly for you, to set the tone of the day, these will be graded under participation as completed or not completed. (These cannot be made up if you miss class or are more than 10 minutes late to class.)

 

 

Daily Logs (15 points): A companion to your daily writings, during the last 5 minutes of class you will write a recap of your work in the class for that day.  It should outline what you had planned to accomplish, what you actually did accomplish, and the tasks you need to prepare in the coming days. Because so much of this class is group oriented, you need to know exactly what you need to do at all times to be a contributing, and ultimately successful, group member.

 

 

Daily Group Work (15 points): As we move forward on our assignments, each day in class we will have group work. You will need to document the work that you do in your group each day as we are creating a set of standard operating procedures for other student philanthropy boards.

 

Daily Individual Work (15 points): Daily in-class individual assignments.

 

Class Discussions (15 points): In-class discussions and occasional out-of-class discussion board discussions.

 

Homework and Thrice-Weekly Responses to Recent Developments (150 points): You will have some form of homework for almost every class period, and I will collect that homework for grading, usually through electronic submission . As noted elsewhere, to get full credit for homework, you need to submit it no later than the beginning of class on the day that it is due. The purpose of the homework is to encourage you to engage more fully with assigned readings and to be prepared to discuss them in class. All homework assignments can be found at the bottom of each class day’s daily agenda. Please make sure that you know what the assigned homework is before leaving class on any particular day.

 

 

Progress Reports (75 points): Each week as you work on your projects for this class, you will submit an electronic progress report in which describe the work you are doing, and how it fits in with the overall scope of the project. These will be formalized at least twice in the semester (one at midterm and one at the end of the semester to accompany the final portfolio), as reflections, and for feedback.

 

 

Drafts and Conferences (100 points): You are asked to participate in oral, written, and electronic peer conferences in which you will read and critique one another’s projects. You will be asked to provide feedback to your colleagues in this class for each major writing assignment. To earn all available points, you’ll need to not only respond to others’ work and their commentary on your work, but also communicate with ShareRiff about your work (drafts, responses, revisions). Each time a draft is due, you will place it on the course wiki. Members of the class will read and respond to the draft, and to each other’s comments. The author will make final changes to the draft and then submit either to ShareRiff or to our clients.

 

 

Collaboration and Team Evaluations (100 points): Teamwork is a large part of the work we will be doing in this class, and you will need a paper trail to document your work on the team. Each week you will evaluate and be evaluated by the members of your team based on your wok in the class on key assignments. Please keep all electronic communications as well as handwritten notes, memos, drafts to be included in your collaboration section of your participation portfolio.

 

 

 

Course Policies:

 

 

Attendance:

You are expected to be in class: because a lot of the significant work for the course is done in class--planning, drafting, group work, discussing samples, and practicing a variety of strategies—missing class hurts not just you but the whole class, and ultimately our clients. Every absence will result in 50 points deducted from your grade for the course. Please read the section on Student Rights and Responsibilities for exact attendance policy. You must be in class to turn in papers, and you must have your work to participate in class activities. You have a responsibility to participate fully in your own education. As an added incentive, you can earn five points on your final grade if you have perfect attendance.

 

While in-class work cannot be made up, if you must miss a class, let ShareRiff know in advance so that we can rearrange draft deadlines. You are responsible for obtaining any handouts or assignments for that class session. Late work will not be accepted.

 

Late Work: Because we are working for a client, it would be unprofessional of us to be late with our work. We will stipulate deadlines in our class meetings and missed deadlines are unacceptable.

 

Working Online: Computers are essential tools in preparing you for the kinds of writing you will be doing in the workplace, we will have several days of online classes. When we meet together in the online classroom, you are expected to follow normal class policies: be on time, be prepared, and participate fully.

 

 

Grading:

Not all work in this class will receive a grade on it. For some work, you will merely receive participation points; for others, you will receive feedback. Your final grade for this class will be determined by the quality of the product (online) and participation (paper) portfolios you turn in at the end of the semester. However, you should be prepared to turn in all work you have done on any given project at any time, especially when you are asking for a tentative grade in the course.

 

A grade of C is usual grade in this course; A and B are honor grades, and they reflect active class participation, leadership in your own education, and attention to detail. I believe everyone is capable of A work, but it is work that takes both time and resources.

 

 

Participation:

Everyone begins the class with an A for participation; however, you make a choice by your actions to maintain the A or renegotiate for a lower grade. Grades A and B indicate a thoroughness and completeness to your considerations and contributions to your group and to the class. A C means coming to class and doing the minimum to get by. Grades below a C indicate that you have missed drafts, deadlines, and conference, or received poor evaluations from your team members, essentially not providing your minimum contribution to the class.

 

 

Portfolios:

This is a wiki-based class. Over the course of the semester, you will develop two portfolios, on two different wikis: one of finalized projects and one of participation work, that reflect your overall work in the course. Until the portfolios are finalized and turned in, you will have only tentative grades in the course.

 

Criteria for Evaluating Portfolios Final Documents Portfolio

 

 

A Portfolio: The documents are superior. The portfolio exceeds all the objectives for the course. Clear, concise writing; exceptional organization of information; outstanding format; fits purpose, audience, persona perfectly; research and information is specific to audience and purpose; no spelling/mechanical/grammatical/typographical errors.

 

 

B Portfolio: The documents are good. The portfolio meets all the objectives for the course. Clear writing; purpose concerns are met; general audience concerns met; research and information appropriate but needs personalizing to audience; needs proofreading; need work on word choice, sentence structure, tone; minor adjustments to organization; modify/clarify formatting; up to three spelling/mechanical/grammatical/typographical errors per project.

 

 

C Portfolio: The documents are adequate. Writing is adequate, but spotty, meeting some purpose and audience concerns and missing others. Misreads audience, multiple personas. Research and information is overwhelming or lacking. Competing formats. Competing purposes. Needs to be clarified and focused. Five or six spelling/mechanical/grammatical/typographical errors per project.

 

 

D Portfolio: The portfolio is disappointing. Documents meet some of the objectives for the course but ignore others. Writing is vague and incoherent. Reads like a first draft or a freewrite. Unclear or multiple purposes; general audience; undecided persona; little to no organization of information. Information is general and conflicting. More than seven spelling/mechanical/grammatical/typographical errors per project.

 

F Portfolio: The portfolio is unsatisfactory. Writing is unacceptable, does not meet the needs of the assignment. No purpose, no audience, no persona, no organization, inappropriate or insufficient information. . Excessive (more than 10) spelling/mechanical/grammatical/typographical errors.

 

 

 

 

Determining Draft Conference Points

 

Learning to evaluate and assess your own and others’ writings is a crucial skill that you will need, especially once you leave this class. To assist you in learning how to do this, I expect you to read and respond to each other’s drafts. I also expect you to share these written comments electronically with the author, your classmates, and me. You will receive written feedback (electronically) from us on the comments you make. To be considered for points, your peer conference responses must have more substantial feedback than some variation on these themes: “It was good, I liked it, I wouldn’t change a thing. OR It was awful; you need to start over.” In addition, attention to only grammar and mechanics will yield a less-than-satisfactory number of points.

 

3 responses on each of 5 projects = 15 points

2 responses on each of 5 projects = 10 points

1 response on each of 5 projects = 05 points

 

3 responses on each of 4 projects = 12 points

2 responses on each of 4 projects = 08 points

1 response on each of 4 project s = 04 points

 

3 responses on each of 3 projects = 09 points

2 responses on each of 3 projects = 06 points

1 response on each of 3 projects = 03 points

 

 

Calculating Course Grade

Presentation Portfolio: ____ of 500 points

Client Needs Assessment

Research Review

Request for Proposals

Formal Progress Report to Client

Award Deliberation Report

Award Letter to Non-Profit Agency

Client-Based Learning Promotional Material

Final Presentation ____ of 100 points

Participation Portfolio: ____ of 500 points

Daily Writings: ____ of 15 points

Daily Log: ____ of 15 points

Daily Group Work ____ of 15 points

Daily Individual Work ____ of 15 points

Class Discussion ____ of 15 points

Homework & Reading Quizzes ____ of 150 points

Progress Reports: ____ of 75 points

Collaboration: ____ of 100 points

Drafts & Conferences: ____ of 100 points

 

SUB-TOTAL: ____ of 1000 points

 

Perfect Attendance: ____+50 points

 

Absences:

____ -10 for 1^st absence

____ -20 for 2^nd absence

____ -30 for 3^rd absence

____ -40 for 4^th absence

____ automatic fail at 5^th absence*

*Without documented evidence of extreme physical illness

 

GRAND TOTAL: ____ of 1050 points (1050/10=grade for course)

 

A+	98-100	B+	88-89	C+	78-79	D+	68-69
A	94-97	B	84-87	C	74-77	D	64-67
A-	90-93	B-	80-83	C-	70-73	D-	60-63

 

 

Student Rights and Responsibilities:

•  

  You have the right to do well in this class. You are responsible for earning the grade you want; grades are not “given,” or “deserved,” or “received.” You earn your grade by your performance not only on final drafts but also by participating in groups, drafting and revising documents, and making connections to work outside this class. Please make sure that you ask any questions you have.

• You are responsible for being in class and being in class prepared. It is your right to choose to attend class. If you choose not to attend, there are certain consequences. Those consequences are outlined below:

 

Every absence will result in 10 points off your grade for the course.

On the 1^st absence, 10 points will be deducted from your grade for the course.

On the 2^nd absence, an additional 10 points (20 total) will be deducted from your grade for the course.

On the 3^rd absence, an additional 10 points (30 total) will be deducted from your grade for the course.

On the 4^th absence, an additional 10 points (40 total) will be deducted from your grade for the course.

 

On the 5^thabsence, you will fail the course.

 

If you are more than 10 minutes late to class, you will be considered absent for that day.

• You have the right to a full class period of work. If I am unexpectedly delayed at the beginning of class, you are asked wait 10 minutes from the beginning of class. If, after 10 minutes, a designated member of the English department has not otherwise notified you, class is dismissed.

• You have the right to prompt feedback. This feedback will come not only from your instructor but also your peers and our clients

•  

  You are responsible for showing all work (from notes to emails to presentation-ready material) you have completed over the course of the semester. Please keep all work (from handwritten notes to email to final drafts) until you receive your final grade at the end of the semester. Delete nothing (especially email) and throw nothing away. Make frequent back-ups of your electronic documents. Failure of technology is not an excuse for late or missing work.

•  

  You are responsible for completing all assignments for the class. You must complete all major assignments and turn in complete portfolios in order to be eligible to pass the class. All presentation portfolio material must be turned in at least twice—as drafts seen by your classmates and me—beforeWednesday, 21 April, to meet this requirement.

•  

  You are responsible for finding out what you missed when you are not in class. Get the names, phone #s, and email addresses of at least 3 classmates. Daily agendas are posted on our course wiki. Be sure that you check these on a regular basis.

•  

  You are responsible for contacting me when you are absent, have questions, or want to discuss your standing in the class. You may do so during office hours or by email or phone. Emergencies happen, but I can’t do anything to help unless I know about your situation.

• You are responsible for making sure you know what is due when. If you are unsure, ask.

• This is a work environment. We will work together to complete projects and meet deadlines. Because we will be moving at the pace set by the class and our clients’ needs, some dates may change.

 

 

University Policies

 

Academic Integrity: Plagiarism is a form of stealing, and it will not be tolerated. If any document in your final portfolio shows evidence of plagiarism, your portfolio will receive an F and a formal statement will be sent to the appropriate administrators. Failure to cite sources will be penalized by a 0 for the project participation grade (including, but not limited to, peer conferences and daily writings) and a required rewrite of the document. If you have any questions about proper documentation procedures, please ask.

 

Religious Preference Holiday: Students who anticipate the necessity of being absent from class due to the observation of a religious or sacred observance must provide advanced written notice of the date(s) to the instructor.

 

Accommodation Policy: Students with documented learning and/or physical disabilities in need of accommodation should be encouraged to work with Student Disability Services and inform the instructor about any special requirements they may have. All reasonable efforts should be made to accommodate students with regard to note taking, reading assignments and test taking.

 

 

Resources

 

 

Each Other. Successful communicators compose for and with other people. They write or sketch things out for themselves, muddle about in ideas for a while, and eventually find resonance with others. At some point in this process, they begin to shape their ideas for others, and allow their ideas to be transformed by others . In this class we will try to cultivate respectful and thoughtful ways of listening and attending to each others’ statements: I want you to be able to work and play in the healthiest of contexts, so as to garner and generate the most effective feedback possible. So, you will have to get to know others in class and give their work the same respect and attention you would like for your own. Seize this this opportunity to take chances, to experiment with your writing, and form a creative commons by and through your writing!

 

My hope is that you will all be invested in the course and the ideas we explore and discover. Investment always involves a certain amount of passion, and therefore, there will be a great deal of give and take in our discussions. As I am sure we will not all share the same views, different opinions should be expressed in a manner that facilitates communication. Because writing is often a personal experience, and explores personal situations, it is imperative that we develop an atmosphere of mutual respect in this class, even in the midst of the inevitable dissonance generated by true inquiry. If at any time you are uncomfortable with the class material and/or discussions, let me know. I expect you to 1) come to class prepared and take pride in the work you do, 2) offer support and encouragement to your classmates, 3) listen to others carefully before offering your opinion, and 4) talk to me outside of class if anything that happens during class bothers you. In order to maintain a productive work environment, I expect you to turn off your cell phone or pager before each class period and refrain from eating, sleeping, reading the newspaper or your personal email, talking outside of group discussion or lectures, and entering the classroom late or leaving early without permission.

 

The Professor. When you come to office hours, you don’t need to make any special preparations: just come with a question or something on which you’re working. (And if you can’t come during my scheduled office hours, talk to me after class or send me an e-mail to make an appointment.)

 

Freedom of Speech and Cognitive Liberty. As you will see, classrooms are spaces devoted to free inquiry. This is a rhetorical space, one where composers are response-able to each other: they think and write in response to each other, and not to a preconceived notion of each other. Assume the best in those you study with and be generous with your respect, and you will teach them to respond in kind.

 

 

The First Amendment of The United States Constitution

 

 

 

Gender and Pronoun Reference. It is no longer customary to use the masculine pronoun for cases of indefinite pronoun reference, for example, “When a professor grades papers, he is often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.”  Instead, style books recommend changing pronouns to the plural form, for example, “When professors grade papers, they are often swayed by a student’s degree of effort.” Some call this practice “gender-fair language.” Others just call it good sense. Regardless of the reason, it is required in this course, so bring your gender-bender sentences to class so we can figure them out together.

 

Contacting Me. The quickest and most reliable way to reach me is to post to this wiki! You can also find me quickly through e-mail (trey.conner@gmail.com). I check it often. You can even add me as a buddy on AIM--"rhythmizomenoid" is my handle. In an emergency, dial "ShareRiff" on skype

and I'll pick up. You can also call my office at 873-4783. If you do leave a message, please leave a number where I can reach you.

 

 

Required Texts:

 

*Alred, G. J., Brusaw, C. T., & Oliu, W. E. (2009). Handbook of technical writing. New York: St. Martin's Press.

 

*Wolfe, Joanna (2010). Team Writing: A Guide to Working in Groups. New York: Bedford/St. Martin's Press.

 

 

*our Course Tools page and additional readings (web links and electronic files) as assigned by the instructor throughout the

 

semester

 

 

*Peer Writing

 

 

Tentative Class Schedule

 

Date	What’s Due Today in Class?	Class Activities	For Next Time
13 January		Introduction to class	Read Handbook pp.412-433 & 456-458. Write a response. Online Discussion on topics for RFP
20 January
27 January	Draft of Client Needs Assessment	Draft Conference on Needs Assessment; What do we know about our client?
3 February	Research Review
10 February	Requests for Proposals Due
17 February
24 February
3 March
Spring Break
17 March	Award Deliberation Report due
24 March
31 March	Award Letter Due
7 April
14 April
21 April	Portfolios Due
28 April	Symposium/Presentations

Philanthropy Board schedule/grant activity calendar:

 

 

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Final – SPRING 2010 – Philanthropy Board Schedules

	Grant Activities
Tuesday, 9 February 11:00am-1:45pm	Community Partner Training or Student Philanthropy Board Student Training 11:00-11:45 Luncheon 11:45-12:30 Community/Student Philanthropy Board dialogues
Thursday February 18 5:00pm	Student Philanthropy Boards’ First Draft of NOFA – due to LLS Coordinating Committee
Thursday, February 25 5:00pm	SPBs’ Final Draft of NOFO due to LLS Coordinating Committee
26 Feb-1 March	NOFA released to public
March 1	Finalize Criteria of Award procedures
March 8	SPRING BREAK
March 19 5:00pm	Non-profit organizations’ NOFA Applications/Proposals Due to Charlie Justice 5 paper copies and electronic submission
March 22	Review Applications – evaluation and decision-making process
March 29	Narrowing to FINALISTS – Site Visit if necessary
April 5	Final Questions / Interviews – Site Visit if Necessary
April 12
April 19	FINAL Selection of Grant Recipient – Check Presentation Ceremony
April 26	Last Week of Class – Post Check Presentation – Final Reviews ?
May 3rd	EXAM WEEK

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Please sign and return the following statement NO LATER THAN MLK Day 2010:

 

I, _________________________, have read, understand, and will abide by the course requirements and policies laid out in this English 4260/6420- syllabus and explained in the wiki presentation given on the first day of class.

Signed: _____________________________

 

Date: ______________________________