ENGL 410-B01: Technical and Report Writing  Summer 2005, session B 
George Mason University
Scott Berg, Instructor

Office: Performing Arts Building, 407G (in the Theater Department)
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays 3:00-4:00.  Better yet, make an appointment.
E-mail: sberg1@gmu.edu

Required Materials/Expenditures:

One book is required for this course:

Edward R. Tufte, The Cognitive Style of PowerPoint

PREREQUISITES FOR ENGLISH 410

Six credits of composition, including ENGL 302, and six credits in humanities or permission of instructor.  I am not the person who dispenses information and advice about course eligibility; if you have questions, contact Laura Scott, English department advisor, at 703/993-1179 or lscott@gmu.edu, and tell her I sent you.

THE COURSE

Catalog description of the course:  "Intensive study and practice in various forms of technical writing, including formal and informal reports, proposals, and technical correspondence. Emphasis on writing for a variety of audiences, both lay and informed, and on writing within various professional and organizational contexts."

What this means in my version of the course:  ENGL 410 is designed to expose you to upper-division technical and professional writing, the kinds of writing that happen when organizations, institutions, and corporations seek to communicate purposeful messages to specialized audiences both externally and internally.  This is not an introductory business writing course--that is, resumes and business letters will not form a major part of the work we do--but certainly some technical and professional writing happens within business contexts. It is not a remedial or 'writing practice' course. You won't write any 'papers' in this class. Instead, you'll write a cross-section of the kinds of external and internal documents most common to technical and professional writing: marketing materials, instructions, proposals, formal and informal reports, and PowerPoint presentations. The course will emphasize the craft of writing--with our limited time, you'll be doing a lot of writing in and out of class.

Our course meets in a "smart classroom."  Each of you will sit and work at a computer station.  Our first week of the course will be partly devoted to familiarizing ourselves with this room and the ways it will affect the work we do.  It's my second time in such an environment for the this course, so some patience all the way around will be necessary. Working in such an environment puts an extremely high priority on saving your work in more than one location. My instruction to you is to get used to e-mailing assignments to yourself as attachments.

In the full 15-week version of this course, you'd be expected to do a substantial amount of collaborative work. Running through the course in 7 1/2 weeks makes it difficult to devote much time to collaborative writing, but we will emphasize collaborative review and critique of your work.  This means that your work will be shared regularly with individual classmates or even the entire class.

As far as your writing goes, it will be very important that your grammar and syntax be correct, but it will be more important that your writing be creative, clear, committed, cogent, complex, and complete.  I'll give each of you as much help as you'd like, tell you  what works and what doesn't.  If you're willing to take advantage of such help, you'll see the results in your writing.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Each of you, as a student at George Mason, is entitled to a free e-mail account, and should have basic e-mail competency.  Let me know immediately if this is not the case.  I will try not to assign anything exclusively via e-mail, I will send reminders, updates, and other course information electronically.

This is a cooperative discussion and workshop class, which relies on the attendance and active contribution of its members to succeed.  I will require that you let me know in advance of any absences.  An excused absence will be any legitimate absence which I know of ahead of time. These excused absences (as long as they are not frequent) will be treated differently than unexcused absences: there will be more opportunity to make up graded assignments, in-class writing, etc.

NOTE ON ATTENDANCE:  Missing class with regularity will damage your ability to do well in the course.  And there are limits to the kind of absenteeism I'll allow:  Anyone missing three or more classes consecutively, or five or more overall, will not be able to pass the course because of the missed in-class work and participation.  Approaching these limits will affect your final grade as well, though to what degree will depend on your contributions when you are in class.

Punctuality is important.  Please be on time for class.

Beginning on the first day of class, you will begin putting together a portfolio of all your work for the course.  Get a two-pocket folder now and put everything you write for the class into that two-pocket folder.

Your major assignments in this class will consist of one press kit (consisting of a press release, white paper, corporate backgrounder, and industry backgrounder), one formal report (at least 10 pages including all materials), one related PowerPoint presentation with supporting materials, and one 750-word analysis comparing the formal report and the PowerPoint presentation.

You'll write at least four in-class assignments under deadline (called "deadline writing," which you will then have a chance to revise) that ask you to demonstrate skill in the art and science of clear, concise communication.  There are only two possible grades on these assignments:  "very good" and "please revise."  If you're in the "please revise" stage, there will be no grade recorded on the exercise other than a notation that you handed your first version on time and therefore are eligible, eventually, for full credit.  Once you've received your "very good," you're done with that exercise and will be given full credit for its completion, no matter how many drafts you wrote.  Know in advance that I'll be quite demanding of these--you may write something that has many positives and still be asked to do more with it.  I will look at first drafts and final drafts (and any commentary I ask you to write about your work or the work of others) when I evaluate these at the end.

We will have at least one writing workshop during the course, when you will meet in groups of three or four classmates to discuss your work.  You will also be responsible for writing responses in reaction to the writing of your workshop members.  These days are very important to this class, and as such, workshop participation is a required assignment, which cannot be made up.

NOTE ON FORMAT and MECHANICS: All in - and out-of-class writing must follow the specifications established in the class.  (These specs will vary from assignment to assignment.)  Presentation is very, very important in a professional/technical writing class.   At the very least, you will need to type everything in readable fonts.  Note: All writing should be free, or nearly free, of mechanical errors--the focus in this class is on style, form, and content, not grammar and punctuation. The ability to competently manipulate the fundamental units of English composition--the word, the sentence and the paragraph--is a prerequisite and not a goal for this course.

Remember, again, that your writing will make up the important "text" in this course -- your work will be shared with the class, perhaps frequently.

GRADING

You must do everything assigned to receive a passing grade in the class.

Your grade will be determined according the following mix:

Deadline writing: 10% total
Class Participation: 15%
Draft of press kit and finished version of press kit: 25%
Draft of formal report and finished version of formal report:  25%
PowerPoint presentation and supporting materials:  15% total
750-word analysis comparing formal report and PowerPoint presentation: 10% total

Your writing will be evaluated in part based on Mike Markel's well-known "measures of excellence in technical communication": honesty, clarity, accuracy, comprehensiveness, accessibility, conciseness, professionalism, and correctness.  More will be said about this rubric in class.

PLAGIARISM AND LATE ASSIGNMENTS

Here is the definition of plagiarism, according to the English Department:

Plagiarism means using the exact words, opinions, or factual information from another person without giving that person credit.  Writers give credit through accepted documentation styles, such as parenthetical citation, footnotes, or end notes; a simple listing of books and articles is not sufficient.  Plagiarism is the equivalent of intellectual robbery and cannot be tolerated in the academic setting.

Egregious plagiarism will result in an F for the paper and a report of an Honor Code violation.

Late papers and assignments will be penalized.  This penalty will depend on the nature of the offense;  for example, an assignment one day late will suffer less than an assignment five days late.  (The minimum penalty, though, is a half-grade reduction: B to B-, for example.)  No paper a week late or more will receive a passing grade.  I will consider, though not automatically grant, extension requests made at least a class period in advance--but only if they are infrequent and legitimate.

THE UNIVERSITY WRITING CENTER

The University Writing Center is a free one-on-one tutorial service, available to all GMU students who want to work on writing skills.  Stop by Robinson Hall, room A114, or call 993-1200 for information and appointments.