MWSC Division of Liberal Arts & Sciences

Department of English, Foreign Languages, & Journalism

Spring 2005

ETC 420: Technical Documentation and Editing

12:00 MWF 110 Murphy (JGM)

Professor: Dr. Kaye Adkins

Office: 222J Eder (SS/C)

Email (My preferred form of communication): kadkins@missouriwestern.edu

Office Hours: Office Hours: M: 10:00-10:50; WF: 10:00-10:50, 2:00-3:30; by appointment

Phone: 271-5967

Required texts and materials:

Alred, Gerald J. et. al. Handbook of Technical Communication

McMurray, David A. Power Tools for Technical Communication

Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 Classroom in a Book (if you buy a used copy, make sure it includes a CD-Rom)

Membership in Society for Technical Communication, <http://www.stc.org>

2 3.5" floppy disks or a Zip disk

Additional resources for your professional library:

Ament, Kurt, Indexing: A Nunts-and-Bolts Guide for Technical Writers

Barker, Thomas T., Writing Software Documentation

Dicks, Stanley, Management Principles and Practices for Technical Communicators

Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. Writign Proposals: Rhetoric for Manageing Change

Kostelnick, Charles and David D. Roberts. Designing Visual Language

Lanham, Richard. Revising Business Prose

Rude, Carolyn. Technical Editing

About the Course:

In this course, students will include readings from professional journals that examine current issues in technical documentation. They will also practice a wide range of technical documentation forms. Although we will focus on print forms of documentation, we will also discuss and practice single-sourcing that makes documents available in a variety of formats. We will also look at the ways technical editing differs from copy editing or journalism. Students will use what they have learned throughout the semester in final group projects that meet the needs of real world clients.

Objectives: Students will:

• Gain an understanding of the steps involved in a systematic documentation publication process.
• Receive the intensive practice and needed to develop professional writing skills.
• Gain an understanding of types of editing through practice and reading in professional journals.
• Be introduced to important tools for managing large documents, especially FrameMaker and Adobe Acrobat.
• Learn an appropriate and useful balance of theory and practice.
  
• Produce significant writing of professional quality for actual use.
• Become familiar with current issues in documentation such as single sourcing, information design, publications management, and indexing.

Assignments:

Major assignments will include a formal report evaluating a product or service (in hyptertext), a proposal, a quick reference guide, and a collaboratively created policy or procedure guide. Students will also be expected to participate actively on a Webboard in discussions of articles in Intercom and Technical Communication.

English majors with an emphasis in Technical Communication, Journalism, or Public Relations Writing are required to complete a graduation portfolio (EPR/ETC/JOU 401). I recommend that you consider the following assignments from this class for your portfolio:

• Quick reference guide (if it is essentially instructive, and uses significant writing/visual design)
• Formal (evaluation) report
• Final collaborative project

  Grades will be weighted as follows:

Absences:

Students with four absences will have their grade lowered one letter grade. If you must miss class and know in advance please contact me. Please make success in your college courses your priority. Learning to say “no” (to requests that take time and energy away from your schoolwork) is a valuable life/work survival skill.

Academic honesty:

“Since honesty in the classroom is required, cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the college constitutes a violation.” Policy Guide II, B, C. In other words, the work you turn in should be your own.

Disabilities:

Please let me know during the first week of class about any physical handicap or learning disability if you need special help or accommodation in order to do your best work.

Disclaimer:

I try to adapt each of my classes to the needs and interests of the students. This means that the Schedule of Assignments may change.