nau | english | rothfork | teaching | eng621 syllabus

College:        Arts and Sciences
Dept.:            English 
Course:         English 621: Directed Projects in Writing Communities
When:           Fall 2001
Credit:          3 hrs.
Instructor:     John Rothfork
Office:          BAA 319 (Babbit Academic Annex) 
(:               928.523.0559
*:     john.rothfork@nau.edu
Class:           Wednesdays, 7pm-9:30pm.
Course Prerequisites:  None; graduate status

Course Description:

 Other courses in the rhetoric and/or professional writing areas are designed to help you recognize and define such “discourse communities” as:

• a Catholic junior high school
• an independent software company that sells via the Internet
• a research oriented university hospital
• an office of a federal agency, like the BIA

Documents produced for these and other “communities” are distinct in several ways.  This course (English 621) assumes that you have had some experience doing such analysis.  It therefore emphasizes writing documents for specific communities, agencies, or businesses, rather than studying documents written by someone else. 

The internship experience places you in a specific discourse community situation where your role is mostly defined by the business or agency.  English 621 offers a bridge between analytic courses (like 522) and an internship experience.

Course Objectives:

After completing this course you will be:

• more expert in recognizing and defining discourse communities.
• more expert at inferring rhetorical patterns, audience expectations, and journal requirements for professional writing.
• more competent to write for specific organizations, agencies, journals, and the Internet.
• a more competent writer, having produced a publishable document.  “Publishable” means that an editor would find that your document conforms to the standards for the organization (e.g., specified in Guidelines for Submissions found in most technical periodicals) or that your Website is functional.

Texts:

1.      The Professional Writer: A Guide for Advanced Technical Writing.  Alread, Gerald, et. al.  St. Martin’s, 1992: 0-312-00248-3.  $42.65 at Amazon. 

      Although it is nearly a decade old, this book is useful in bridging the gap between the standard models offered in dozens of technical writing textbooks and the actual production of technical and business documents.  It answers the “how to do it” questions that lie between the textbook model and a specifically required document.  In a sense, it offers “the tricks of the trade” or behind the scenes explanation of “how it is really done.”

2.      Professional Writing in Context: Lessons from Teaching and Consulting in Worlds of Work.  John Frederick Reynolds, et. al.  Larence Erlbaum Associates,1995: 0-8058-1727-1. $22.50 ($2.50 used) at Amazon.

3.      Contending With Words: Composition and Rhetoric in a Postmodern Age.
Patricia Harkin (Editor) and John Schilb (Editor).  Modern Language Association of America, 1991: ISBN: 0873523881.  $20 at Amazon.

The books below are not required.

4.      Web Design for Dummies.  Lopuck, Lisa.  Hungry Minds, 2001: 0764508237:  $25 at Amazon.

If you know nothing about Web building, you may want this text; if you are an old hand at web building, you may only want to skim through someone else’s copy to consider design advice, rather than relying on it to learn how to perform Web tasks.  

5.      Writing Workplace Cultures: An Archaeology of Professional Writing.  Jim Henry. Southern Illinois Univ Pr, 2000; ISBN: 0809323206.  $35 at Amazon. 

More discourse community profiles.  Jim Henry analyzes eighty-three workplace writing ethnographies composed over seven years in a variety of organizations.

Course Structure:

• We will analyze material from texts 1-3 in class.
• You will do an analysis of the journal/s, Website, or business that your paper is likely to target as a potential audience.  For print media papers, you will analyze professional journals, including the “Guidelines for Submission” section and the contents for several issues.  For Websites, you will do Internet searches and analyze select sites.  You will present your analysis to the class.
• You will write a proposal for a major paper or Website and make a class presentation.  If approved, you will produce the document of Website proposed.
• We will talk about the major components of technical papers, business reports, and Websites.
• You will produce a major paper or Website, periodically showing me results of your progress throughout the semester.  I know you are asking, “How long does the paper have to be?”  Approximately 25 pp.  For traditional technical writing reports this includes use of the decimal outline system with headlines, the inclusion of graphics, a letter of transmittal, a table of contents, a list of figures, an informative abstract, a bibliography, and other elements that greatly increase the number of pages. 
• Submit a major paper or Website url. 
• Give a presentation of your major paper or Website to the class.

 Course Outline:

Depending on your interests and career aspirations, your major document could take several forms. 

• It might be a technical report or a business plan. 
• It could be unit plans or a Website for a course you plan to teach. 
• It could be a manual for computer use or some other process. 
• It could be a journal article you hope to publish.

In all cases, your final document should illustrate your talents and abilities as an aspiring professional writer.  It should be a document that you will wish to show a potential internship sponsor or employer.

Assignments:  

• (20%) Class participation. 
• (10%) An analysis of a journal/s, Website/s, or business that your document targets as a potential audience.  Produce a written document and make a presentation to the class.
• (15%) A proposal for your major document.  Produce a written document and make a class presentation.
• (40%) Produce a major document, either print media or a Website.
• (15%) Class presentation of the major document or Website.

 Grades:

Assignments will receive a letter grade.  The final grade will be derived from the scale given above in “Assignments.”

 Attendance:

In writing classes like this one, students sometimes become concerned only to produce their own documents or make their own presentations.  Once they finish their papers, Website, or presentation, they mistakenly think they have fulfilled all the class requirements.  This outlook ignores several important principles of professional writing.  Class involvement offers you valuable opportunities to:

• practice audience analysis 
• improve your speaking and presentation skills
• practice discourse community role playing
• test your documents for usability
• do collaborative study and writing

Because our class meets only once a week and because we will develop a schedule for making presentations, missing even a single class can diminish your grade.  Professional writers have rigid deadlines for their work.  As an aspiring professional writer, you are expected to demonstrate professional dedication by actively participating in each scheduled class.  

If your project involves producing a Website, these are minimal formal requirements:

WebSite Requirements:

• Website or homepage hosted at an Internet site: Geocities, Yahoo, Go, etc.  These are free services.  If your site is located at a stable commercial site, you can “take it with you” when you graduate.  

• An Internet e-mail account/address at go.com, yahoo.com, etc.  Again, this is free.

• An entry page (a file called: index.htm) that offers links to the 2^nd level of your Website.

• At least five 2^nd level Web pages. These are not remote pages (i.e., pages that someone else posted and that you simply provide links to reach). Each page is your own creation.  Of course, you will have links to other sites on the Net.

• Every page must be linked back to the index page.  They are likely to be linked to each other on the 2^nd level as well.  You may wish to create a navigation device, such as a table you use on all 2^nd & lower order pages.  You may use frames.

• An e-mail link that accurately generates and sends e-mail to you.

• A background image for at least one of your web pages.  This may be a theme that visually defines or implies a level.  For example, each of the 2^nd level pages may have the same background image, which visually indicates that we are at the same site, on the same level, etc.  Ask a fellow student if your background or colors are appropriate, look good, & are readable.

• Each page must have at least one scaled graphic.  Don’t go overboard on animated gifs.

• Each page must use a divider or otherwise indicate a concern for composition.

• At least one table, visible or invisible.

• At least six links to relevant remote Web sites.  These are somewhat comparable to bibliographic sources and illustrate both your audience analysis skills and Internet search engine skills.

• Spelling, grammar, & usage must be correct (including an appropriate diction level).

• All links work.

• All graphics load.

   Northern Arizona University

Policy Statements:

1. Safe environment policy

     NAU’s Safe Working and Learning Environment Policy seeks to prohibit discrimination and promote the safety of all individuals within the university.  The goal of this policy is to prevent the occurrence of discrimination on the basis of sex, race, color, age, national origin, religion, sexual orientation, disability, or veteran status and to prevent sexual harassment, sexual assault or retaliation by anyone at this university. 
     You may obtain a copy of this policy from the college dean’s office.  If you have concerns about this policy, it is important that you contact the departmental chair, dean’s office, the Office of Student Life (523-5181), the academic ombudsperson (523-9368), or NAU’s Office of Affirmative Action (523-3312).

2. Students with disabilities

     If you have a learning and/or physical disability, you are encouraged to make arrangements for class assignments/exams so your academic performance will not suffer because of the disability or handicap.  If you have questions about special provisions for students with disabilities, contact the Counseling and Testing Center (523-2261). 
     It is your responsibility to register with the Counseling and Testing Center.  Application for services should be made at least eight weeks before the start of the semester. 
     If the Counseling and Testing Center verifies your eligibility for special services, you should consult with your instructor during the first week in the semester so appropriate arrangements can be made.  Concerns related to non­compliance with appropriate provisions should be directed to the Disabilities Support Services coordinator in the Counseling and Testing Center.

3. Institutional review board

     Any study involving observation of or interaction with human subjects that originates at NAU-including a course project, report, or research paper-must be reviewed and approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) for the protection of human subjects in research and research-related activities. 
     The IRB meets once each month.   Proposals must be submitted for review at least fifteen working days before the monthly meeting.  You should consult with your course instructor early in the course to ascertain if your project needs to be reviewed by the IRB and/or to secure information or appropriate forms and procedures for the IRB re­view.  Your instructor and department chair or college dean must sign the application for approval by the IRB.  The IRB categorizes projects into three levels depending on the nature of the project: exempt from further review, expe­dited review, or full board review.  If the IRB certifies that a project is exempt from further review, you need not resubmit the project for continuing IRB review as long as there are no modifications in the exempted procedures. 
     A copy of the IRB Policy and Procedures Manual is available in each department’s administrative office and each college dean’s office.  If you have questions, contact Carey Conover, Office of Grant and Contract Services, at 523-4889.

4.  Academic integrity

     The university takes an extremely serious view of violations of academic integrity.  As members of the academic community, NAU’s administration, faculty, staff, and students are dedicated to promoting an atmosphere of honesty and are committed to maintaining the academic integrity essential to the education process.  Inherent in this commit­ment is the belief that academic dishonesty in all forms violates the basic principles of integrity and impedes learn­ing.  Students are therefore responsible for conducting themselves in an academically honest manner. 
     Individual students and faculty members are responsible for identifying instances of academic dishonesty.  Faculty members then recommend penalties to the department chair or college dean in keeping with the severity of the violation.  The complete policy on academic integrity is in Appendix F of NAU’s Student Handbook.

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