First 8-weeks: This chart 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.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Week 1	1/8 -Classes start at 4pm	1/9 -Introduction to class, peers, syllabi -PowerPoint -Assign Intro Memo (show ex), Genre Quiz, chpts 2&4	1/10 -Read Intro Memos -Go over Quiz on Genres -Lecture on Chpts 2 & 4 in class? -Intro to PPT	1/11 -Intro to Project 1: Individual Job PowerPoint -Gather information for Project 1 -Hand out ThinkWave Gradesheets	1/12 -WORK DAY for Project 1
Week 2	1/15 -No Class: Martin Luther King Jr. Day	1/16 -WORK DAY for Project 1	1/17 -PROJECT 1 DUE -Presentations of Project 1 -Intro to Project 2: Fake Company: name, logo, motto, & letterhead	1/18 -WORK DAY for Project 2 -Fill out Pink Sheet about Fake Company and hand in on Friday -Document Design (Chpt 6)	1/19 -Finish up Pink Sheet -Read Chpt 5 for Tuesday -Bring in resume info on Tuesday
Week 3	1/22 -Introduce the TECHNICAL MY WORDS	1/23 -Intro to Project 3: Job Packet/Scan-able Resumes -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet	1/24 -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet	1/25 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Job Packet Drafts	1/26 -Out of class Work Day for Project 3. -PROJECT 3 DUE to my office by noon.
Week 4	1/29 -Exercises on Memos (Ch. 2 #5, Ch.3 #1) -Read Chpt 8 for Wednesday(225-242) -Hand in Memo Ex at end of class	1/30 -Fake Company Situation [Memo]	1/31 -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?)	2/1 -WORK DAY for Project 4	2/2 -WORK DAY for Project 4
Week 5	2/5 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Report Drafts	2/6 -PROJECT 4 DUE -Give brief presentation of your survey results (put chart on board?)	2/7 -Intro to Business Letters (Ch. 4 #6) -Read Chpt 7 for Tuesday -TECH MW (2)	2/8 -Fake Company Situation [Letter]	2/9 -Intro to Project 5: Instructions & Description of Mechanisms w/Demonstration
Week 6	2/12 -WORK DAY on Project 5	2/13 -Practice docs DUE -WORK DAY on Project 5’s Final Instructions & Description	2/14 -WORK DAY on Project 5	2/15 -PROJECT 5: Final Instructions & Descriptions DUE AT END OF CLASS -Read Chpt 8 (242-255) for Monday	2/16 -Intro to Project 6: Proposal/Project
Week 7	2/19 -No Class: President’s Day	2/20 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Proposal Drafts -Hand in Proposals	2/21 -WORK DAY for Project 6: Proposal’s Project	2/22 -WORK DAY for Project 6: Proposal’s Project	2/23 -PROJECT 6 DUE -Introduce Project 7: Interview Practice -TECH MW (3)
Week 8	2/26 -Project 7 DUE AT END OF CLASS -Intro to PROJECT 8: Portfolio	2/27 -WORK DAY for Project 8: Portfolio	2/28 -Project 8: PORTFOLIO DUE	3/1 -WORK DAY for Project 2	3/2 -WORK DAY for Project 2
Week 9 Finals Week	3/5 -PROJECT 2 DUE: Presentations of Fake Companies on the big screen! -Class Evaluations = Online Survey?	3/6	3/7 -Come and get final grade & portfolio	3/8	3/9

Second 8-weeks: This chart 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.

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
Week 1	3/19 -Introduction to class, peers, syllabi -PowerPoint -Assign Intro Memo (show ex), Genre Quiz, chpts 2&4	3/20 -Read Intro Memos -Go over Quiz on Genres -Lecture on Chpts 2 & 4 in class? -Intro to PPT	3/21 -Intro to Project 1: Individual Job PowerPoint -Gather information for Project 1	3/22 -WORK DAY for Project 1 -Hand out ThinkWave Gradesheets	3/23 -WORK DAY for Project 1
Week 2	3/26 -PROJECT 1 DUE -Presentations of Project 1 -Intro to Project 2: Fake Company: name, logo, motto, & letterhead	3/27 -WORK DAY for Project 2 -Fill out Pink Sheet about Fake Company -Document Design (Chpt 6)	3/28 -Finish up Pink Sheet -Read Chpt 5 for Tuesday -Bring in resume info on Friday -Introduce the TECHNICAL MY WORDS	3/29 -Intro to Project 3: Job Packet/Scan-able Resumes -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet	3/30 -WORK DAY for Project 3: Job Packet
Week 3	4/2 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Job Packet Drafts	4/3 -PROJECT 3 DUE AT END OF CLASS	4/4 -Exercises on Memos (Ch. 2 #5, Ch.3 #1) -Fake Company Situation [Memo] -Read Chpt 8 for Thursday (225-242) -Hand in Memo Ex at end of class	4/5 -Introduce Project 4: Short Report (Chpt 8) [Create a survey & then report on the results in the report.]	4/6 -No Class: Easter Break
Week 4	4/9 -No Class: Easter Break	4/10 -WORK DAY for Project 4	4/11 -WORK DAY for Project 4	4/12 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Report Drafts	4/13 -PROJECT 4 DUE -Give brief presentation of your survey results (put chart on board?)
Week 5	4/16 -Intro to Business Letters (Ch. 4 #6) -Fake Company Letter -Read Chpt 7 for Tuesday	4/17 -Intro to Project 5: Instructions & Description of Mechanisms w/Demonstration	4/18 -WORK DAY on Project 5	4/19 -Practice docs DUE -WORK DAY on Project 5’s Final Instructions & Description	4/20 -WORK DAY on Project 5
Week 6	4/23 -PROJECT 5: Final Instructions & Descriptions DUE AT END OF CLASS -Read Chpt 8 (242-255) for Tuesday	4/24 -Intro to Project 6: Proposal/Project	4/25 -Peer Review: Roundtable Review of Proposal Drafts -Hand in Proposals	4/26 -WORK DAY for Project 6: Proposal	4/27 -PROJECT 6 DUE -Introduce Project 7: Interview Practice
Week 7	4/30 -Project 7 DUE = GAME! -Intro to PROJECT 8: Portfolio	5/1 -WORK DAY for Project 8: Portfolio	5/2 -WORK DAY for Project 8: Portfolio	5/3 -No Class: Agawasie Day -Out of class WORK DAY for Project 8 or Project 2	5/4 -Project 8: PORTFOLIO DUE at the beginning of class time! -WORK DAY for Project 2
Week 8 Finals Week	5/7 -WORK DAY for Project 2	5/8 Final Exam Time: 4-5:50pm -PROJECT 2 DUE: Presentations of Fake Companies on the big screen! -Class Evaluations = Online Survey?	5/9	5/10	5/11 -Final Grades will be on ThinkWave.com!! -Email me with questions (sybil.priebe@ndscs.edu)

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-

[ 2 ] Course Description:

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:

=Book: Successful Writing At Work (the Concise Edition), Houghton Mifflin, 2006, ISBN: 0-618-48111-7

=A reliable 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.

Þ Grades will be posted online. A sheet explaining how to log into this online system (ThinkWave) will be handed out at the beginning of the course.

[ 5 ] Attendance:

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

+ Students with excused absences (must show proof: 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 without an excused absence.]

[ 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 the instructor 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 & Project, 50pts 050pts

(g) Project 7: Interview Practice & Handout, 25pts 025pts

(h) Project 8: Portfolio, 100pts 100pts

(i) Daily Work: Technical My Words, Quizzes, Memo Exercises, etc. 100-200pts Total 200pts

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

~1025pts

- Save all of your documents for the final portfolio!! -

[ 10 ] Grade Scale:

90-100 = A

80-89 = B

70-79 = C

60-69 = D

59 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, and 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 project they’d like to complete in the class. With any proposal, reasons must be given! Students will have to be persuasive (something that is not necessary in memos or reports). 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) A somewhat new part of this class is the activity called the Technical My Words. Essentially, it’ll be composed of small lessons in technical vocabulary. Sometimes, students will pick their own My Words to learn and research; sometimes, the instructor will pick the 5 words for that batch of My Words. Beyond the newest activity of Technical My Words, this category also includes any other daily work like quizzes, memo exercises, fake company situations, etc.

(j) Work Days are listed on the Chart. Students will receive points for showing up and using those days wisely. Students will miss out on points if they can not make it to class for Work Days (unless they have an excused absence). For example, if we have 10 Work Days throughout the 8 weeks, and a student misses 3 days, they could lose 30 points worth (10 days/100 points total = 10pts per day).

[ 12 ] Notes:

- Introductory Technical Writing Quiz -

Open Book

[50 Pts]

Matching: [5 answers x 5 pts each = 25 Pts]

The following squares represent a section of a particular document. Each “snapshot” is a basic format of a particular genre (or type) of technical writing. Feel free to use your book to match the format to the correct genre.

Short Answer: [2 answers x 10pts each = 20Pts]

How do memos differ from letters?

How do memos and reports differ from application/cover letters and proposals?

*5pts for putting your name on quiz.

To: Dr. Richman

From: Mr. You KnowWho

Subject: Creative Writing Class

Date: 11 Sept 08

PURPOSE

Phonmnpoinefasleknaeonfepamnasekjnfpaosienfksjacnnerogiaunganowenln

PROBLEM

Pahspgnpoinsdpifgnasofidgnaiurndfvaoisndcvaiudsngiuaenuidnvcaiunfd

SOLUTION

adnapoiwengfpaoiunegaiundfiu