Second 8-WEEKS (Fall 2006)

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Week 1 Last day to add class is 10/20	10/16 -Introduction to class, peers, syllabi -PowerPoint -Assign Intro Memo (show ex), Chpt 1 & 2?	10/17 -Read Intro Memos -Quiz on Genres -Chpt 2 & 4 in class -Intro to PPT	10/18 -Intro to Project 1: Individual Job PowerPoint	10/19 -No Class: Instructor in Bismarck & Fargo meeting with other English depts. -Gather information for Project 1	10/20 -No Class: Instructor in Bismarck & Fargo meeting with other English depts. -Gather information for Project 1
Week 2	10/23 -WORK DAY for Project 1	10/24 -WORK DAY for Project 1	10/25 -PROJECT 1 DUE -Presentations of Project 1 -Intro to Project 2: Fake Company: name, logo, motto, & letterhead	10/26 -WORK DAY for Project 2 -Fill out Pink Sheet about Fake Company and hand in on Monday -Document Design (Chpt 6)	10/27 -No Class: Instructor in Grand Forks at a meeting -Finish up Pink Sheet for Fake Company for Monday -Read Chpt 5 for Monday -Bring in resume info on Mon
Week 3	10/30 -Intro to Project 3: Job Packet/Scan-able Resumes -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet	10/31 -Happy Halloween! -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet	11/1 -PROJECT 3 DUE AT END OF CLASS -Exercises on Memos (Ch. 2 #5, Ch.3 #1) -Read Chpt 8 for Thursday (225-242)	11/2 -Hand in Memo Ex -Introduce Project 4: Short Report (Chpt 8) [Create a survey about your fake company & then report on the results in the report.] (Ch.8 #4?)	11/3 -WORK DAY for Project 4: Create survey and hand out in class and over the weekend
Week 4	11/6 -WORK DAY for Project 4	11/7 -WORK DAY for Project 4	11/8 -PROJECT 4 DUE -Give brief presentation of your survey results (put chart on board?)	11/9 -Intro to Business Letters (Ch. 4 #6) -Read Chpt 7 for Tuesday	11/10 -No Class: Veteran’s Day
Week 5	11/13 -Fake Company Situation [Letter or Memo]	11/14 -Intro to Project 5: Instructions & Description of Mechanisms w/Demonstration -Worksheets? on Chpt 7	11/15 -WORK DAY on Project 5	11/16 -Practice docs DUE -WORK DAY on Project 5’s Final Instructions & Description	11/17 -No Class: Instructor at NCTE in Nashville
Week 6 Last day to drop class is 11/22	11/20 No Class: Instructor at NCTE in Nashville	11/21 -WORK DAY on Project 5	11/22 -WORK DAY on Project 5	11/23 -No Class: Thanksgiving	11/24 -No Class: Thanksgiving
Week 7	11/27 -PROJECT 5: Final Instructions & Descriptions DUE AT END OF CLASS -Read Chpt 8 (242-255) for Tuesday	11/28 -Intro to Project 6: Proposal	11/29 -WORK DAY for Project 6: Proposal	11/30 -WORK DAY for Project 6: Proposal	12/1 -PROJECT 6 DUE -Fake Company Situation? -Introduce Project 7: Interview Practice
Week 8	12/4 -Project 7 DUE AT END OF CLASS	12/5 -Web Site Setup & Design (Chpt 6)? -Intro to PROJECT 8: Portfolio	12/6 -WORK DAY for Project 8: Portfolio -If done, work on Fake Company presentation (Ch. 10)	12/7 -WORK DAY for Project 8: Portfolio -If done, work on Fake Company presentation (Ch. 10)	12/8 -Project 8: PORTFOLIO DUE/Group Work in class for Fake Company
Week 9 Finals Week	12/11 -PROJECT 2 DUE: Presentations of Fake Companies on the big screen! -Class Evaluations?	12/12	12/13 -Come by my office from 9-10am to pick up portfolios and final grades	12/14	12/15

= The above daily schedule is not set in stone. Updates will be in given in class and on the instructor’s teaching weblog. Attending class regularly will keep you up-to-date on assignment changes, due date changes, and other announcements.

nORTH DAKOTA STATE COLLEGE OF SCIENCE

English 105: Technical Communications

[ 1 ] cONTACT INFORMATION:

How is my writing?

Call 1-800-WRITE-IT

Instructor’s Name- Sybil Priebe

Instructor’s Email- sybil.priebe@ndscs.edu

Instructor’s Website- www.sybilpriebe.com

Instructor’s Weblog- www.xanga.com/teacher47

Office- Haverty 223

Office Phone- (701) 671-2346

Office Hours- 9-10am Monday through Friday

[ 2 ] COURSE DESCRIPTION & FOCUS:

This course concentrates on business correspondence, informal report writing, technical communication, job preparation, and oral presentation.

This course is designed to strengthen a student’s background in writing business and technical communication. Students will also gain the knowledge to present oral information to audiences with varying levels of technical expertise.

[ 3 ] NECESSARY TEXT & MATERIALS:

The book you need is by Philip C. Kolin. It’s called: Successful Writing At Work (the Concise Edition), and it was published by Houghton Mifflin in 2006.

*A 3.5” computer disk or a USB storage device

*An email address (the school’s or otherwise – Yahoo!, Hotmail, etc)

*Note: Students will not be allowed to use computer problems as an excuse as to why their work is late.

They are responsible for saving work to a disk/device AND sending it to their email as backup.

[ 4 ] CLASS RULES & REGULATIONS:

Þ When you miss class, you will be “missing something important.” Please make sure to sign the sign-in sheet; I will count you absent if you forget. Be responsible; it is your job to find out what you missed and make it up as soon as possible (if it is an excused absence).

Þ Respect each others’ writing, opinions, responses, and property. Harassment of any kind will not be tolerated. I reserve the right as the instructor to ask anyone to leave the classroom if they are being disruptive or rude.

Þ Packing up your things before class time is over is disrespectful. Please wait until I dismiss the class.

Þ Respect goes both ways. If you are talking, I will listen (as will the rest of the class).

Þ If I am talking, I’d like all of you to listen. Once again, I reserve the right as an instructor to ask anyone to leave the classroom if they are being disruptive or rude.

Þ Turn off cell phones.

Þ Be on time. You may not get to sign the sign-in sheet if you are late; this will result in an unexcused absence.

[ 5 ] ATTENDANCE:

+ Attendance is crucial to understanding all of the course materials and to earning a passing grade.

+ Students with excused absences (illness with a doctor’s note, school-sponsored activities, military duty, or family emergencies) have two weeks to make up missed assignments. If a student misses 5 class periods due to unexcused absences, 100 points will be deducted from his/her final points. If a student misses 7 class periods, 200 points will be deducted from his/her total points. If a student were to miss 9 or more class periods, he/she would receive an F for the course.

+ Work Day Attendance Points will be awarded for attendance (and completing actual academic work) on WORK DAYS. Missing WORK DAYS can hurt students’ grades in two ways: a deduction in allotted days with the attendance policy (if it’s an unexcused absence) and a deduction in Work Day Attendance Points. [Ex: If we have ten WORK DAYS throughout the eight weeks, then each WORK DAY will be worth 10 points. Missing three of these days results in a reduction in 30 points whether the absence is excused or not.]

[ 6 ] Late Work:

Late work will not be accepted. If you are going to be gone on a due date, arrange to hand in the assignment earlier or talk to me about other arrangements. [Employers will not accept late reports, so this is why the rule is in place.] If you are absent on a due date with an unexcused reason and do not arrange to hand in the assignment earlier, there will be no extensions. For example, if you skip class due to “illness” without a doctor’s note, you may not turn in the project the next day. The project will receive zero points.

[ 7 ] students with disabilities:

Any student with disabilities or special needs, who requires special accommodations in this

course, is invited to share concerns or requests with me as soon as possible.

[ 8 ] Plagiarism:

If any amount of plagiarism is found in a student’s paper (copying resumes or reports or any technical genres from the internet or from other people’s work, copying from the internet without quotations or parenthetical citations, copying parts or whole pages from another student, or any other sign of plagiarism), that student will be subject to disciplinary action which could result in no credit for the paper or a complete revision of the paper with a large reduction in points. If a student repeatedly plagiarizes, more severe actions will take place.

[ 9 ] Simple Breakdown of Projects, Presentations, and Daily Work Points:

(a) Project 1: Individual Job PowerPoint, 100pts 100pts

(b) Project 2: Fake Company Project & Presentation, 200pts, Due at the end of the 8-weeks 200pts

(c) Project 3: Job Packet, 50pts 050pts

(d) Project 4: Short Report, Survey, & Brief Presentation, 100pts 100pts

(e) Project 5: Instructions & Description of a Mechanism, 100pts (Practice docs = 40pts; Final docs = 60pts) 100pts

(f) Project 6: Proposal, 50pts 050pts

(g) Project 7: Interview Practice & Handout, 50pts 050pts

(h) Project 8: Portfolio, 200pts 200pts

(i) Daily Work: Quizzes, Fake Company Situations, Memo Exercises, etc, 50-100pts Total 100pts

(j) Work Day Attendance, 50-100pts Total 100pts

**1050pts

**This course is based loosely on a 1000pt Total.

[ 10 ] GRADE SCALE:

900-1000 pts = A

800-899 pts = B

700-799 pts = C

600-699 pts = D

599 and below = F

[ 11 ] Project, Presentations & Daily Work Descriptions:

(a) The Individual Job PowerPoint asks students to research their chosen career. Within at least 5 PowerPoint slides, they will show off their possible income, possible job responsibilities, qualifications for the career they’d like to have, places they could live, companies they could work for, and a breakdown of their spending once they have their chosen job. Students will obviously have to research all these items (online or through interviews with people). Students will show off their final PowerPoint in a brief presentation on the due date.

(b) The Fake Company Project & Presentation is usually the most fun for students, and it flows through the whole 8-weeks with various activities connected to it from time to time (see Daily Work: Fake Company Situations). Essentially, students (in groups of 2-3 or alone) will create a Fake Company complete with a motto, logo, mission statement, expense & income charts, advertisement, job description, etc. This project does take some time to develop which is why it is due at the end of the 8-weeks.

(c) The Job Packet is a fairly simple project; students are asked to put together a packet of information they would use to get a job. This packet includes: a cover letter, resume, job description they would reply to, and a follow-up letter. See Chapter 5.

(d) The Short Report, Survey, and Brief Presentation somewhat goes in conjunction with the Fake Company Project. Students will create a survey about their company (what types of products, services, prices, etc) they should try out. From there, students will handout their survey to as many people as possible (students, teachers, etc… students should try for at least 30 people). After compiling all the surveys, students will create a chart of their results. This chart will go into the report itself. The report content will discuss what was found through the surveys, and what the fake company will do as a result of what was discovered. For example, if students found out that many people wanted to see a t-shirt company that focused on funny John Deere sayings, their report would discuss what they would do for those customers. See Chapter 8, pages 225-242.

(e) Since this is a technical class and many of the students are from technical fields, it’s a good idea to try out very technical documents like Instructions & a document with a Description of a Mechanism. Students will complete four documents for this project. Two (2) documents will be Practice (“How to burn a CD,” a pair of scissors) and two (2) will be Final documents that deal directly with their major (“How to change the oil in a Ford Bronco,” a particular wrench or piece of machinery). Please note: Instructions usually are “How to ______” and a Description of a Mechanism needs to describe the Mechanism well. [Remember: Mechanisms are items with MOVING PARTS.] See Chapter 7.

(f) In the Proposal, students will be asked to propose a new project to this class. Students can also propose that a particular project be changed or deleted. With any proposal, reasons must be given! Students will have to be persuasive (something that is not necessary in memos or reports), and the best proposal will win a prize. See Chapter 8, pages 242-257.

(g) Part of getting a job is usually going through an interview. The Interview Practice & Handout activity asks students to practice with a partner or two on what they would say to particular interview questions. See Chapter 5.

(h) At the end of the 8-weeks, students will take their work, make it even better, and present it in a Portfolio. This project asks students to REVISE many of the documents they’ve created throughout the 8-weeks such as: memos, letters, their resume, the report, the instructions & description of a mechanism, etc.

(i) Sprinkled throughout the 8-weeks are activities that don’t fall under any particular Project. These activities still count toward the final grade, and those activities include: memo exercises, fake company situations (the instructor will bring in a “situation” for the fake companies to deal with), quizzes, etc.

[ 12 ] GRADESHEET:

***Students are responsible for filling in the due dates below and

keeping track of their grades.

Assignment:	***Due Date:	Possible Points:	***Student’s Score:
(a) Project 1: Individual Job PowerPoint		100
(b) Project 2: Fake Company Project & Presentation		200
(c) Project 3: Job Packet		50
(d) Project 4: Short Report, Survey, & Brief Presentation		100
(e) Project 5: Instructions & Description of a Mechanism		Practice = 40 Final = 60
(f) Project 6: Proposal		50
(g) Project 7: Interview Practice & Handout		50
(h) Project 8: Portfolio		200
(i) Daily Work: Quizzes, Fake Company Situations, Memo Exercises, etc		50-100
(j) Work Day Attendance		50-100
Possible Total:		1050

[ 13 ] NOTES: