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Instructor: Dr. Julie Staggers

Office: FDH 644

Phone: 895-5071

E-mail:

•          Use the class wiki for general communication: http://unlv407bspring09.pbwiki.com/

•          Use WebCampus email for personal matters

 

Office Hours:

•          9-noon Fridays and by appointment

•          Call or email to schedule appointment for office visit

 

English 407B aims to help you develop the skills you will need to write successfully in the technical workplace. The course introduces you to the rhetorical principles and composing practices necessary for writing basic technical documents, designing and analyzing technical research, and communicating about technical issues in common documents such as policies and reports.

 

In this class you will learn to:

 

·         Write to multiple audiences, for various purposes (e.g., to persuade, to inform, to earn or maintain good will)

·         Plan and manage short- and long-term writing projects

·         Draft, design, revise, and edit documents

·         Identify and address problems in organizations

·         Design and implement appropriate research strategies

·         Write collaboratively (e.g., co-authoring, peer revising)

·         Follow and adjust to business writing conventions

·         Develop effective style and tone

·         Design documents (e.g., using page design principles to format documents, incorporating graphics/visuals into documents)

·         Use writing to help prepare and deliver oral presentations

·         Write ethically and responsibly within the technical organization and as a member of society

Prerequisites

·         Completion of first-year composition requirement.

·         Junior or senior status strongly recommended, but not required.

·         Previous computer experience is recommended, but not required.

Textbook

Technical Communication Web Site and e-Book by Mike Markel

·         ISBN: 0-312-47442-3; estimated price $50.25

·         Make sure you buy the standard (all chapters) version of the Premium Student Access Ebook and not the hard-bound “real” book.

·         Available through UNLV Bookstore or online from the publisher at: http://ebooks.bfwpub.com/techcomm8e.php

 

 

Note: Make sure you intend to stay in this class before you purchase access. Access codes are non-refundable and cannot be resold or transferred. Access expires in 365 days.

Technology

·         A UNLV Student Computing Resources (SCR) account, to access UNLV public and teaching computer labs

·         A unlv.nevada.edu Rebel Mail email account Go to: http://rebelmail.unlv.edu/ ; your instructor is prohibited by university policy from emailing you at an address other than your UNLV Rebelmail account. If you wish to receive email at any other account you must set your Rebelmail account to forward mail to the desired account. Here’s how: http://rebelmail.unlv.edu/forward.html.

Assignments will be evaluated on the standard plus/minus letter-grade scale and total 100 points (see below). Use the tables below to track your performance in the class.

 

Projects	Components	Points
Technical Description Project	Technical Description Project Assessment Memo*	15
Wiki Project	Wiki Page**	15
	Wiki Revisions	misc.
	Project Assessment Memo*
Sustainability Project	Proposal	10
	Research Design Plan**	10
	Field and secondary research	misc.
	Informal Progress Report**	10
	Recommendation Report**	10
	Oral Presentation**	5
	Peer Collaboration Evaluation Form*	misc.
	Project Assessment Memo*	misc.
Quizzes	10 quizzes	10
Exercises	10 exercises	10
Miscellaneous	Class discussions Peer review Miscellaneous assignments	5

 

*Failure to complete PAM will result in a one-letter grade reduction on project score.

** Collaborative project – see grading policy for details on how grades are calculated

Miscellaneous grade

Your miscellaneous grade is based on your participation in discussion groups and peer review activities, completion of day-to-day assignments not listed as major projects, and your PAMs. Examples of miscellaneous assignments include planning assignments and document drafts. Generally, miscellaneous assignments are graded pass/fail.

 

 

Your instructor reserves the right to assess the miscellaneous grade on a student-by­ student, case-by-case basis. The grade is determined after reviewing your record of participation and miscellaneous assignments and comparing it to the other students' performance in these areas. The instructor calculates this grade, in part, through a statistical analysis of your class participation generated by usage data collected by WebCampus. Your instructor can provide you with a summary of how your participation lines up with class averages (you must request this report in writing before finals week.)

Reading assignments

There is a significant reading component for this course. You will be assigned to read from the course on-line textbook and selected pages from the WWW. (For weekly reading assignments, see the Course Schedule at the end of this document.) Students are required to complete a close reading of each assigned reading.

 

 

Reading assignments are listed for each assignment (see the Course Workload posted on the class homepage in WebCampus and/or the assignment sheets for each assignment.) You are responsible for reading and understanding

 

·         the assignment/project

·         the textbook readings for the assignment

·         any/all background or supplemental readings

 

You are encouraged to comment on the readings and to ask questions. You may comment and/ or pose your questions and comments in the appropriate discussion areas (this sort of engaged participation won’t hurt your Miscellaneous grade!). Also, I will be happy to provide responses to your questions through our discussion space on the course blog.

Quizzes

There will be 10 reading-comprehension quizzes administered during the semester, totaling 10% of the overall grade. Each quiz will contain 10 questions, with each question weighing one point. There are no make up quizzes.

Calculating Grades

Grades will be determined on a percentage basis. Major assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale with plusses and minuses. Your overall grade and project grades are based on the following percentages:

 

A = 100 – 92 %	A- = 91 – 90 %	B+ = 89 – 88 %	B = 87 – 82 %	B- = 81 – 80 %
C+ = 79 – 78 %	C = 77 – 72 %	C- = 71 – 70 %	D+ = 69 – 68 %	D = 67 – 62 %
D- = 61 – 60 %	F = 0 %

 

The instructor will explain specific criteria for each major assignment. Generally, however, three overarching criteria of professional quality writing will be used to assess your written work:

Purpose: How effectively does the document accomplish its intended task?

The overarching aim of all technical writing is to communicate technical information ethically and effectively. Your documents will foremost be graded according to how well they: meet your goals and the demands of the writing situation; solve a problem or need; meet readers’ needs; provide relevant, useful, and accurate information; and provide sound and ethical arguments in support of claims.

 

Product: How well constructed is the document?

Your documents will also be graded according to orderly and coherent presentation of material, professional tone, business style, page formatting, visual design, and correctness (mechanical issues of grammar, spelling, and punctuation).

 

Process: How effectively was the document produced?

Careful planning is required to produce professional quality writing. Your documents will be graded according to evidence of effective planning, collaboration, research, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. Your instructor will also assess how well you apply course principles and terminology in your documents and project assessments.

 

Special grading policies

·         You must submit for evaluation all project components listed above to pass the course.

·         Late major assignments will be downgraded one letter grade per calendar day late.

·         Computer problems, related to either PC malfunction or network access, are not a valid excuse for late work or incomplete assignments

·         In group projects, students receive separate grades (poor group participation can hurt your grade)

·         An act of plagiarism (or other form of academic/ethical dishonesty) will result in an F for the project and, if deliberate, for the course.

Project submissions

·         Work to be submitted for a grade is always due no later than 11:59 p.m. on Sunday of the week it is due. (Some non-graded work, such as peer reviews or optional instructor draft reviews may have deadlines that fall at midweek – check course calendar.)

 

·         All assignments must be submitted electronically through the Assignment tool in WebCampus by the scheduled deadline.

 

·         WebCampus time-stamps all assignments as they are submitted. The system will accept major assignments for up to three calendar days after the deadline. Late work is penalized one (1) letter grade for each calendar day the work is late. For example, if an assignment is due at 11:59 p.m. on Sunday, it is one day late if you submit it between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Monday, two days late between 12 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, etc.

 

·         Assignments must be submitted with the filename specified for the assignment (see instructions for the assignment). Assignments submitted with improper filenames will be returned unopened and ungraded. You may resubmit the work, but it will be subject to the same grade penalties as any other late work.

 

·         Projects submitted via email will not be opened, read, graded or returned to you. Email submissions of course assignments are deleted.

 

·         The grace period for late assignments does not apply to a number of smaller, low-point assignments. Work that cannot be submitted late and cannot be made up includes:

•          Quizzes

•          Exercises

•          Drafts for optional instructor review

•          Drafts/responses for peer review

·         Allow sufficient time for unforeseen problems. WebCampus is the final word on timing, submission, and availability. If your computer thinks it is 11:59 p.m., but WebCampus thinks it is 12:01 a.m., then WebCampus is correct and your work is late.  If your system crashes when you’re submitting an assignment at 11:57 p.m. and it takes 5 minutes to reboot that means your work is one day late.

Revision  

You have the opportunity to revise extensively based on peer and instructor feedback before you submit the assignment for grading. You may not revise an assignment after it has been graded.

 

 

Because most writing in technical contexts must be professional quality (i.e., excellent), and document review and revision is commonplace in achieving this in the workplace, you will have the opportunity to submit all of your projects to your instructor for review and comments before you submit the project for a grade.  This submission is always optional, but your instructor’s comments should help you revise more effectively.  

Communicating with the instructor and other students

When you have a question about the class, your assignments, technology, processes and procedures, or other information of a general nature, you should communicate with the instructor and/or the class at large through discussion space on our wiki. This is the primary forum for exchanging information for this course.

Using WebCampus email

·         Use WebCampus email to communicate with the instructor only when you have a specific, private matter to discuss.

•          Appropriate use of WebCampus to communicate with the instructor includes: notifying the instructor that you are dropping the class, inquiring about a grade that you don’t understand, or other personal, private matters that are too sensitive to be discussed in the general forum that is the wiki.

•          Inappropriate use of WebCampus email to communicate with the instructor would include (but is not limited to): submitting assignments, asking how to do something, asking questions about technical problems, explaining why your work was or is going to be late, asking for an extension.

 

·         Every email submitted to the instructor through WebCampus must have a subject line that clearly identifies the subject and nature of the correspondence.

 

·         The instructor will respond to WebCampus email that conforms to the criteria above no later than noon each weekday. (Email submitted after noon on Friday will not be read or processed until the following Monday.)

 

·         WebCampus email that does not conform to the requirements articulated above will be deleted unread.

Act Professionally

In addition to following the basic principles of honesty and forthrightness in crediting the contribution of others to your work, you are expected to adhere to another basic professional principle: treat others with the respect that you would wish them to grant you. “Others” includes the people you work for and with (classmates, instructors, corporation, clients); the people you write to (audiences); and the people you write about.

Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a form of academic dishonesty, defined in the UNLV undergraduate catalog as “any act that violates the academic process of the university” (p. 58). This includes giving your work to another to be copied, copying graded homework, looking at another student’s exam, giving or selling class work to another student, handing in another’s work as your own, and informing someone of questions that appeared on an exam

 

 

Penalties for academic dishonesty, including plagiarism, include failing the immediate assignment or the entire course. Examples of deliberate plagiarism that have crossed Dr. Staggers’ desk in the past year include: submission as student work of a policy written by attorneys at the student’s workplace; use of instructions students found on websites or product packaging for part or all of the instructions project; use of work that had been done by students in a previous section of English 407B. In cases of deliberate plagiarism, student(s) involved will immediately fail the course. The instructor can also (and Dr. Staggers WILL) initiate disciplinary procedures through Student Judicial Affairs that could result in a warning, probation, suspension, or expulsion from the university.

 

You must do your own original work in English 407B, and appropriately identify that portion of your work which is collaborative with others, or borrowed from others, or which is your own work from other contexts. Whenever you borrow graphics, quote passages, or use ideas from others, you are legally and ethically obliged to acknowledge that use, following appropriate conventions for documenting sources. The work you do in our class must conform to the legal and ethical standards outlined in Chapter 2 of the textbook as well to the standards articulated in the UNLV “Student Academic Misconduct Policy”: <http://studentlife.unlv.edu/judicial/misconductPolicy.html>).

 

 

If you have doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others’ writing ethically and legally, ask your instructor. Follow this primary principle: Be up front and honest about what you are doing and about what you have contributed to a project.

Academic Misconduct

Academic integrity is a legitimate concern for every member of the campus community; all share in upholding the fundamental values of honesty, trust, respect, fairness, responsibility and professionalism. By choosing to join the UNLV community, students accept the expectations of the Academic Misconduct Policy and are encouraged when faced with choices to always take the ethical path. Students enrolling in UNLV assume the obligation to conduct themselves in a manner compatible with UNLV’s function as an educational institution.” An example of academic misconduct is plagiarism: “Using the words or ideas of another, from the internet or any source, without proper citation of the sources.” See the “Student Academic Misconduct Policy” (approved December 9, 2005, located at <http://studentlife.unlv.edu/judicial/misconductPolicy.html>).

 

Writing Center Support

One-on-one or small group assistance with writing is available free of charge to students at the Writing Center, located in FDH 240. Although some drop-in times are sometimes available, students with appointments receive priority assistance. Appointments may be made in person or by calling 895-3908. The Writing Center also offers online help at http://writingcenter.unlv.edu/.

 

When you go to your appointment, bring your Rebel ID card, a copy of your assignment, and two copies of any writing that you have completed on the assignment. One copy will be for you to use, and the second copy will be for the consultant to use.

 

 

Documented Disability

If you have a documented disability that may require assistance, you will need to contact Disability Services for coordination in your academic accommodations.  DS is located in the Reynolds Student Services Complex (SSC), Room 137. The phone number is 895-0866 or TDD 895-0652.