Course Policies, Fall 2015
Class Description and Objectives
Welcome to Technical Writing, as presented through the Blended Learning Initiative. Generally our work will be divided into online media and discussions (many with Thursday deadlines) and once-a week in-class meetings on Tuesday. All course materials are located on ELMS and on our course-specific website (english393bl.weebly.com).
The intent of this class is to prepare you for the type of professional communication you are likely to engage in during your first post-college jobs and beyond. This course focuses on technical communication – learning how to present specialized information in an accessible way to a variety of different audiences, but audiences who, no doubt, will expect clarity, accuracy, and professionalism from you. This class stresses the key skills that highlight a successful professional technical communicator. Specifically, we focus on the process of writing (including the planning, drafting, and revising stages) and look carefully at the work that goes into the final polished product. As collaboration is often a key part of the professional realm, you’ll spend much of the semester working with your classmates – which will include participating in brainstorming sessions, providing constructive criticism, and preparing for your final projects together.
You can expect to:
• Analyze a variety of professional rhetorical situations and produce appropriate texts, adapting the text to the knowledge base of the audience
• Produce persuasive texts that reflect the degree of available evidence and take into account counter arguments
• Understand and practice the skills needed to produce competent, professional writing including planning, drafting, revising and editing
• Identify and implement appropriate research methods for each writing task
• Practice the ethical use of sources and the conventions of citation appropriate in your field
• Improve competence in Standard Written English (including grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, coherence and document design) and use this knowledge to revise texts
Required Course Materials
All static course material is housed here, on http://english393bl.weebly.com/, including the syllabus, readings, discussion prompts, and assignment sheets. Videos, discussion boards, peer review, and assignment submissions will be on ELMS Canvas site, so you’ll want to confirm access to and familiarity with that site. In addition, you’ll want to provide me with an email address to an account that you check daily. In addition, please obtain an updated grammar/style guidebook to help you identify proper citations and to assist with your grammar, diction, and syntax issues (e.g., The Everyday Writer, A Writer’s Reference) and identify an electronic space (such as a folder) devoted to your coursework (drafts, final versions), backed up either on a separate computer, an external hard drive, and/or on a Cloud-like system.
Weekly Schedule
We will follow a weekly schedule with set deadlines that are designed to allow students to read, consider, analyze, write, and respond on the week's topics in preparation for our Thursday's face-to-face discussion.
Attendance Policies
Attendance for our weekly in-person sessions is mandatory. Much of what we do this semester will be collaborative, and it’s difficult to engage in successful discourse with your classmates if they are not there or not meeting course-related deadlines, such as posting material one hour prior to the start of class. Please note that repeated failure to post content on time or missing more than two class meetings may cause you to fall behind in this course and may jeopardize your grade.
Unexcused Absences. You may miss two in-person class meetings for no-questions-asked absences per semester for both the expected (i.e., being the best man in your brother’s wedding) and the unexpected (i.e., a flat tire). If you take a no-questions-asked absence, however, you are still responsible for whatever material was covered in class as well as on-time submission of assignments due that day.
Excused Absences. The University excuses absences for your own illness or the illness of an immediate family member, for your participation in university activities at the request of university authorities, for religious observance, and for compelling circumstance beyond your control. Documentation is required for all excused absences. The University has mandated several guidelines for missing one or more classes due to illness (see http://www.president.umd.edu/policies/v100g.html). If you have an anticipated excused absence, you must provide at least two weeks advance notice in writing (email is preferred).
Tardiness. You’ll find that in the professional world tardiness is not tolerated. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to your instructor and your classmates. On the other hand, this is a particularly large campus and sometimes other instructors will keep you late. Please provide me in advance with information about class-related conflicts.
Please Note: If you are absent or miss any part of class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed by talking to your classmates and researching online content.
Cell Phone Policy
During our in person class meetings, cell phones and similar devices are not allowed, either on ring or vibrate; phone calls and text messages are not permitted during class time. Please power down your cell phone before class begins.
Technical Communication: The Literal Side
As upper-level college students, you’ve probably already experienced several different types of communication. In the electronic realm, for instance, you have realized that the emails you send to your friends from home contain a different level of formality than the ones you’ll send to potential employers and future co-workers. In this class, we’ll practice becoming adept at communicating with each other in a professional manner. In other words, emails sent to your classmates and instructor will use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well as proper salutations (you should address me as either Michelle or Professor Von Euw). Emails that follow these guidelines will be answered in a timely fashion during normal business hours. Please include “English 393BL” and our section number or meeting time in your subject line.
Written Assignments
All assignments, both those submitted online and in person, are due at the start of class unless otherwise indicated. As most assignments will be turned in electronically, please make sure to review all specific formatting requirements for each individual assignment. Please plan document submission in advance because late submissions due to technical difficulties – such as computer failure, corrupted documents, or files that don’t follow exact naming directions or contain the proper materials – will not be excused. Late work posted electronically will be subject to a grade penalty of roughly 10 points per day. If you do not turn in every major assignment, you will not earn a passing grade for this course.
The few minor assignments and drafts that are collected in person must be typed and cleanly printed. They are indicated on the syllabus as "bring in hard copy."
Grades and How they are Determined
Your semester grade will be based on a variety of assignments, some individual and some collaborative, accounting for roughly 25 pages of final, polished writing (approximately 6,250 words). The specific breakdown is as follows. Some minor adjustments to the percentages may occur during the course of the semester, and if so, they will be announced & amended here:
Online Work 25 percent
Includes:
Completing all reading and viewing assignments
Posting & responding to Directed Prompts
Participating in Peer Review Workshops
Submitting materials as directed
Completing all surveys
Major & Minor Assignments 75 percent
Major:
Audience-Based Resume and Cover Letter 10 percent
Project Proposal 20 percent
Final Project 30 percent
Minor (5 percent each):
Definition
Presentation
Instructions
Academic Integrity and Honor Pledge
The University has a student administered Code of Academic Integrity and Honor Pledge, which prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without permission of both instructors, buying papers, handing in fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.shc.umd.edu. On the final page of every assignment, please include the following signed statement: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment."
Special Needs
The University of Maryland is committed to providing appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities. Students with a documented disability should inform the instructors within the add/drop period if academic accommodations are needed. To obtain an Accommodation Letter prepared by Disability Support Service (DSS), a division of the University Counseling Center, please call 301.314.7682, e-mail [email protected], or visit the Shoemaker Building for more information.
Course Evaluations
Submitting evaluations to CourseEvalUM is required by the University and will be open at the end of the semester at http://www.courseevalum.umd.edu. In addition, you may be asked to answer surveys throughout the semester regarding the blended learning initiative; completion of these will count toward your online grade. Finally, the Professional Writing Program uses its own evaluation for each of its courses at the end of the semester.
Emergency protocol
If the University is unexpectedly closed on a Thursday, our deadlines and responsibilities will not be suspended. If the University of Maryland is closed for an extended period of time, our class will continue online.
Copyright notice
Class lectures and other course materials on this website, on our Canvas page, and discussed/distributed in class are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for anything other than personal use without written permission from the instructor.
General Note
To succeed at technical writing requires a mastery of the process of writing: learning and developing skills that will assist you in communicating highly specialized content to a variety of audiences. For most of you, this class will take a significant amount of time and energy, and you may have inferred from these pages that we have high expectations from you. However, it is likely that an effort on your part to meet – and exceed – the requirements outlined will successfully prepare you for professional communication in the world beyond our classroom.
Welcome to Technical Writing, as presented through the Blended Learning Initiative. Generally our work will be divided into online media and discussions (many with Thursday deadlines) and once-a week in-class meetings on Tuesday. All course materials are located on ELMS and on our course-specific website (english393bl.weebly.com).
The intent of this class is to prepare you for the type of professional communication you are likely to engage in during your first post-college jobs and beyond. This course focuses on technical communication – learning how to present specialized information in an accessible way to a variety of different audiences, but audiences who, no doubt, will expect clarity, accuracy, and professionalism from you. This class stresses the key skills that highlight a successful professional technical communicator. Specifically, we focus on the process of writing (including the planning, drafting, and revising stages) and look carefully at the work that goes into the final polished product. As collaboration is often a key part of the professional realm, you’ll spend much of the semester working with your classmates – which will include participating in brainstorming sessions, providing constructive criticism, and preparing for your final projects together.
You can expect to:
• Analyze a variety of professional rhetorical situations and produce appropriate texts, adapting the text to the knowledge base of the audience
• Produce persuasive texts that reflect the degree of available evidence and take into account counter arguments
• Understand and practice the skills needed to produce competent, professional writing including planning, drafting, revising and editing
• Identify and implement appropriate research methods for each writing task
• Practice the ethical use of sources and the conventions of citation appropriate in your field
• Improve competence in Standard Written English (including grammar, sentence and paragraph structure, coherence and document design) and use this knowledge to revise texts
Required Course Materials
All static course material is housed here, on http://english393bl.weebly.com/, including the syllabus, readings, discussion prompts, and assignment sheets. Videos, discussion boards, peer review, and assignment submissions will be on ELMS Canvas site, so you’ll want to confirm access to and familiarity with that site. In addition, you’ll want to provide me with an email address to an account that you check daily. In addition, please obtain an updated grammar/style guidebook to help you identify proper citations and to assist with your grammar, diction, and syntax issues (e.g., The Everyday Writer, A Writer’s Reference) and identify an electronic space (such as a folder) devoted to your coursework (drafts, final versions), backed up either on a separate computer, an external hard drive, and/or on a Cloud-like system.
Weekly Schedule
We will follow a weekly schedule with set deadlines that are designed to allow students to read, consider, analyze, write, and respond on the week's topics in preparation for our Thursday's face-to-face discussion.
Attendance Policies
Attendance for our weekly in-person sessions is mandatory. Much of what we do this semester will be collaborative, and it’s difficult to engage in successful discourse with your classmates if they are not there or not meeting course-related deadlines, such as posting material one hour prior to the start of class. Please note that repeated failure to post content on time or missing more than two class meetings may cause you to fall behind in this course and may jeopardize your grade.
Unexcused Absences. You may miss two in-person class meetings for no-questions-asked absences per semester for both the expected (i.e., being the best man in your brother’s wedding) and the unexpected (i.e., a flat tire). If you take a no-questions-asked absence, however, you are still responsible for whatever material was covered in class as well as on-time submission of assignments due that day.
Excused Absences. The University excuses absences for your own illness or the illness of an immediate family member, for your participation in university activities at the request of university authorities, for religious observance, and for compelling circumstance beyond your control. Documentation is required for all excused absences. The University has mandated several guidelines for missing one or more classes due to illness (see http://www.president.umd.edu/policies/v100g.html). If you have an anticipated excused absence, you must provide at least two weeks advance notice in writing (email is preferred).
Tardiness. You’ll find that in the professional world tardiness is not tolerated. Furthermore, it is disrespectful to your instructor and your classmates. On the other hand, this is a particularly large campus and sometimes other instructors will keep you late. Please provide me in advance with information about class-related conflicts.
Please Note: If you are absent or miss any part of class, it is your responsibility to find out what you missed by talking to your classmates and researching online content.
Cell Phone Policy
During our in person class meetings, cell phones and similar devices are not allowed, either on ring or vibrate; phone calls and text messages are not permitted during class time. Please power down your cell phone before class begins.
Technical Communication: The Literal Side
As upper-level college students, you’ve probably already experienced several different types of communication. In the electronic realm, for instance, you have realized that the emails you send to your friends from home contain a different level of formality than the ones you’ll send to potential employers and future co-workers. In this class, we’ll practice becoming adept at communicating with each other in a professional manner. In other words, emails sent to your classmates and instructor will use correct grammar, spelling, punctuation, and capitalization, as well as proper salutations (you should address me as either Michelle or Professor Von Euw). Emails that follow these guidelines will be answered in a timely fashion during normal business hours. Please include “English 393BL” and our section number or meeting time in your subject line.
Written Assignments
All assignments, both those submitted online and in person, are due at the start of class unless otherwise indicated. As most assignments will be turned in electronically, please make sure to review all specific formatting requirements for each individual assignment. Please plan document submission in advance because late submissions due to technical difficulties – such as computer failure, corrupted documents, or files that don’t follow exact naming directions or contain the proper materials – will not be excused. Late work posted electronically will be subject to a grade penalty of roughly 10 points per day. If you do not turn in every major assignment, you will not earn a passing grade for this course.
The few minor assignments and drafts that are collected in person must be typed and cleanly printed. They are indicated on the syllabus as "bring in hard copy."
Grades and How they are Determined
Your semester grade will be based on a variety of assignments, some individual and some collaborative, accounting for roughly 25 pages of final, polished writing (approximately 6,250 words). The specific breakdown is as follows. Some minor adjustments to the percentages may occur during the course of the semester, and if so, they will be announced & amended here:
Online Work 25 percent
Includes:
Completing all reading and viewing assignments
Posting & responding to Directed Prompts
Participating in Peer Review Workshops
Submitting materials as directed
Completing all surveys
Major & Minor Assignments 75 percent
Major:
Audience-Based Resume and Cover Letter 10 percent
Project Proposal 20 percent
Final Project 30 percent
Minor (5 percent each):
Definition
Presentation
Instructions
Academic Integrity and Honor Pledge
The University has a student administered Code of Academic Integrity and Honor Pledge, which prohibits students from cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, submitting the same paper for credit in two courses without permission of both instructors, buying papers, handing in fraudulent documents, and forging signatures. For more information on the Code of Academic Integrity or the Student Honor Council, please visit http://www.shc.umd.edu. On the final page of every assignment, please include the following signed statement: "I pledge on my honor that I have not given or received any unauthorized assistance on this assignment."
Special Needs
The University of Maryland is committed to providing appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities. Students with a documented disability should inform the instructors within the add/drop period if academic accommodations are needed. To obtain an Accommodation Letter prepared by Disability Support Service (DSS), a division of the University Counseling Center, please call 301.314.7682, e-mail [email protected], or visit the Shoemaker Building for more information.
Course Evaluations
Submitting evaluations to CourseEvalUM is required by the University and will be open at the end of the semester at http://www.courseevalum.umd.edu. In addition, you may be asked to answer surveys throughout the semester regarding the blended learning initiative; completion of these will count toward your online grade. Finally, the Professional Writing Program uses its own evaluation for each of its courses at the end of the semester.
Emergency protocol
If the University is unexpectedly closed on a Thursday, our deadlines and responsibilities will not be suspended. If the University of Maryland is closed for an extended period of time, our class will continue online.
Copyright notice
Class lectures and other course materials on this website, on our Canvas page, and discussed/distributed in class are copyrighted and may not be reproduced for anything other than personal use without written permission from the instructor.
General Note
To succeed at technical writing requires a mastery of the process of writing: learning and developing skills that will assist you in communicating highly specialized content to a variety of audiences. For most of you, this class will take a significant amount of time and energy, and you may have inferred from these pages that we have high expectations from you. However, it is likely that an effort on your part to meet – and exceed – the requirements outlined will successfully prepare you for professional communication in the world beyond our classroom.