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Assignments for Students
This page
shows the work students will do in Technical Writing Essentials.
Individual instructors may make modifications. The assignments are grouped
into three categories: Basics and Techniques, Applications, and Final
Exam.
Technical
Writing Basics and Techniques
The seven
activities in this category are taken from the course text. They are
used in conjunction with other text activities to prepare students to
undertake the more involved applications assignments. The assignments
are listed below along with the point values assigned. The assignments
are listed in the order in which they appear on the syllabus. The "Grading"
page shows that the Basics and Techniques assignments have a total value
of 50 points -- equal to 20% of the total points for the course.
|
Assignment
-- Text Page
|
Points
|
Description
of Assignment
|
| 1.
Page 33, #6 (Audience Awareness) |
5
|
This
assignment helps students think about primary and secondary audiences
for their writings. The chapter notes that audience awareness is
a critical component of successful technical writing. |
| 2.
Page 59, #8 (Document Planning) |
10
|
This
assignment helps students think about the organization of a document
in order to complete a revision. Effective technical writing includes
attention to the form as well as the content of the writing. |
| 3.
Pages 89-90, #2 (Clarity in Writings) |
10
|
This
assignment helps students think about grammar, sentence and paragraph
structure, voice, and parallelism. Technical writing follows conventions
that make documents clear to intended readers. |
| 4.
Page 20, #8 (Ethical Writing) |
5
|
This
assignment helps students think about personal integrity. Technical
writers will face choices about how to present data, conclusions,
recommendations in documents. Business pressures and personal integrity
sometimes are in conflict. |
| 5.
Page 205, #7 (Creating Visuals) |
10
|
This
assignment helps students think about ways to convert text into
visuals. Technical writing often visuals to help show and explain
information that is critical to the document. There are a variety
of choices to be made regarding the type of visual to use for specific
information. |
| 6.
Page 138, #4 (Writing Summaries) |
5
|
This
assignment helps students learn how to summarize. Technical writers
are often called upon to write executive summaries, abstracts, and
related summaries. These types of writings are valuable because
they improve the efficiency of the office workplace. |
| 7.
Page 223, #2 ( Defining Terms) |
5
|
This
assignment helps students think about strategies for defining terms.
By the nature of their content, technical documents often need to
have terms defined for specific audiences. |
Technical
Writing Applications
The applications
tasks enable students to use their acquired or refined skills as they
develop documents and presentations. The specific details for each assignment
will be given by the course instructor. Suggested timeframes for the
introduction, development, and completion of the assignments are shown
in the syllabus. Each assignment has assigned points which reflect the
level of complexity for the task. The table below gives each assignment,
its point value, a brief description, and some connection numbers to
the basics and techniques activities.
|
Assignment
|
Points
|
Description
of Assignment
|
| Cover
Letter/ Resume (Ch. 20) |
20
|
This
assignment helps students prepare or revise their resumes in order
to initiate the job application process. Students find this to be
a very practical task that can have rather immediate consequences
as they apply for internship or entry level positions. The assignment
particularly applies skills 1, 2, 3, & 4. |
| Annotated
Bibliography (Ch. 5) |
15
|
This
assignment helps students think about the level of authority in
secondary research sources. Technical writers need to be proficient
researchers; this assignment introduces students to electronic and
print researching strategies. The assignment particularly applies
skills 3, 4, & 6. |
| User
Manual (Ch. 17) |
25
|
This
assignment helps students to work in collaboration as they complete
a very common technical writing task. The assignment prepares students
for the real workplace where teams of workers are routinely assigned
to bring their individual knowledge and skills together in order
to complete tasks. The assignment particularly applies skills 1,
2, 3, 5, & 7. |
| Oral
Presentation of the User Manual (Ch. 18) |
15
|
This
assignment helps students plan a collaborative presentation where
they attempt to persuade an imagined audience of technical writers
that the manual is useful. The assignment is the culmination of
about two weeks of work. The assignment particularly applies skills
1, 2, 5, & 7. |
|
Project
Proposal (Ch. 16)
-
Example 1
- Example 2
- Example 3
|
55
|
This
assignment helps students move through the process of identifying
a problem, researching possible remedies, proposing a solution,
and seeking funding. It is the longest assignment for the semester
and involves planning, researching, writing and revising, developing
visuals and finalizing a document that is professional in its form
and content. APA style will be followed to the extent that it is
presented in Appendix B of the Text. The assignment particularly
applies skills 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7. |
| Oral
Presentation of the Project Proposal (Ch. 18) |
25
|
This
assignment gives students an opportunity to do an individual, formal
presentation to an imagined funding agent audience. The assignment
requires students to take the written document, revise it to create
visuals that relate to the problem, research, plan, and budget,
and prepare a talk that is clear and convincing. The assignment
particularly applies skills 1, 2, 4, 5, & 7. |
| Web
Page Design (Ch. 13) |
20
|
This
assignment helps students develop an essential technical writing
skill. It moves from the development of print documents to electronic
communication and commerce. The assignment particularly applies
skills 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, & 7. |
Final
Exam
The exam,
which is given on the last class date when the final Project Proposal
is collected, will take less than one hour to complete. It is an activity
that reviews the most important elements of technical writing basics
and techniques while also providing an opportunity for a brief application
writing. The format will include multiple choice, fill-in, and revision
items followed by a specific writing task. Worth 25 points, the
final exam should help students maintain attention to their work during
the semester and review what they have learned and practiced at the
end of the semester.
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