Syllabus

Instructor: Dr. Jan Strever Winter 2002
English 120 Technical Writing
Office: 239A, Old Main
Office Hour: 1:30-2:30 M/R
Spokane Community College Campus
Office Phone: (509) 533-8035
Email: jstrever@scc.spokane.edu

Course Goals and Guidelines

RATIONALE:

The purposes of this course are to help you improve your technical writing skills and to prepare you for the large amount of writing required in your other courses and in your career. We will spend some time with specific problems of grammar and usage, but the majority of this course will be devoted to exercises and assignments designed to teach you how to become a more confident and effective writer.

OBJECTIVES:

Through assigned reading, you will learn

	to appreciate and analyze selected readings
	to discover the connections between reader/audience
	to experience the methods of development in different forms of writing
	to critically review the content and style of a written work.

Through assigned writing, you will learn

	to develop clear technical writing strategies
	to discover the relationship between you and your audience
	to intelligibly critique what you read
	to edit and revise in order to communicate your thoughts and ideas.

Through English 120, you will learn

	to better understand computer applications and be better able to experiment with them;
	will understand the "flexible responsibility" necessary to succeed in an technical writing course;
	to appreciate the need for specificity in writing.

OVERVIEW OF COURSE:

(Subject to variation) In this course you will learn to READ, REACT to what you read and then write about your reactions. The course material will be learned through the following components:

	Documented Lectures: Will be offered on rhetorical terms, strategies, styles, writing formats and the documentation process.
	Electronic discussions: Participation through discussion is a vital and mandatory part of class; thus, all students will be expected to engage in discussion.
	Manual Project: Students will work on an in-depth writing project of their choice which will begin during the second week of class and will be due at the end of the quarter.

Students will submit assignments via e-mail, as attachments. Course materials will be on line.

ATTENDANCE AND OTHER HOUSEKEEPING POLICIES:

Keep in regular contact with us and other class members. A daily posting to the class bulletin board would not be out of line.
This technical writing course will largely be a workshop. You are expected to play an active role as a member of a community of writers. Throughout the course you will be writing to a variety of audiences. You will also be assigned group member with whom you will share ideas and drafts.
Please familiarize yourself with what constitutes plagiarism and the consequences of it.
All papers and assignments are due at the time listed on the assignment or as modified by your instructors.
All final drafts must be delivered via email, except the in-class work.
The key requirement is to be prepared and to participate and to do all of the assigned work--readings and writings--on time. You are responsible for all information presented in the class, whether you log-on to retrieve it.

CLASS MATERIALS

Access to the Internet, a computer with a modem and knowledge of their use.

Have a look at the course schedule.