Department of English, Foreign Languages, & Journalism

Spring 2009
 

ETC 420: Technical Documentation and Editing

3:30-6:20 M
Schedule of Assignments

Professor: Dr. Kaye Adkins

Office: 222J Eder
Office Hours: Office Hours: 12:00-12:50 WF, 2:00-2:50 MF, 2:00-4:00 W; by appointment

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

Required texts and materials:

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

Rude, Carolyn D. Technical Editing, 4th ed.

O'Keefe, Sarah S. and Sheila A. Loring, Unstructured FrameMaker 8

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

Flash drive
 

Additional resources for your professional library:

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

Allen, O. Jand and Lynn H. Deming, Publications Management for Professional Communicators

Barker, Thomas T., Writing Software Documentation

Dicks, Stanley, Management Principles and Practices for Technical Communicators

Dragga, Sam and Gwendolyn Gong, Editing: The Design of Rhetoric
Johnson-Sheehan, Richard. Writing Proposals: Rhetoric for Managing Change

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

Lanham, Richard. Revising Business Prose

Additional resources in the Western library:
Boiko, Bob. Content Management Bible
Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry
 

About the Course:

In this course, students will read articles that examine current issues in technical documentation  These articles can be accessed by members of the Society for Technical Communication through the organization’s website (www.stc.org).  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 for 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.
• Become a member of a teach creating documentation for a real client.
• Become familiar with current issues in documentation such as single sourcing, information design, publications management, and indexing.

Major assignments will include a formal report evaluating a product or service (in hyptertext and PDF), a FrameMaker document, a proposal, a quick reference guide, and a collaboratively created procedural guide. In short essays, students will also discuss issues raised in groups of assigned readings.
 

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:

Communication: I welcome the opportunity to talk to students about reading or writing assignments during my office hours.  You don’t need an appointment.  If you can’t drop by during my office hours, please make an appointment. 

Email is the official medium for communication at Missouri Western.  You should check your Missouri Western email account at least every other day.  This is how professors will contact you if they need to, and it is how you will receive information about campus events, scholarship and financial aid opportunities, and other important campus information. Many departments have student listservs to announce special events (like speakers or conference opportunities), scholarship deadlines, and the like. When you send an email to a professor or office on campus, you should send it from you Western email account, so that we know it is campus business.

A note on email etiquette: When you write an email to a professor, approach it as correspondence in a professional setting.  This means including an informative subject line (at the very least, the course number), complete sentences, correct grammar, punctuation, and spelling, a salutation, and a signature.  If you are including an attachment, you should tell the recipient what it is.

Absences:

Students missing two class periods will have their semester grade lowered one letter grade.  If you miss class, check with your classmates to find out what short assignments you missed. Daily in-class work and homework exercises may not be made up.  You can also find the Schedule of Assignments on line (see below).  If you must be absent for a number of class sessions and you know in advance, please talk to me about it; otherwise, talk to me when you return.  I understand that many of you have work and family responsibilities, but you should make success in your college courses your priority. Your education is your most important job, so you should arrange your schedule accordingly.

Academic honesty and Due Process:

Academic honesty is required in all academic endeavors.  Violations of academic honesty include any instance of plagiarism, cheating, seeking credit for another’s work, falsifying documents or academic records, or any other fraudulent activity.  Violations of academic honesty may result in a failing grade on the assignment, failure in the course, or expulsion from the University.  When a student’s grade has been affected, violations of academic honesty will be reported to the Provost or designated representative on the Academic Honesty Violation Report forms.

Please see the 2008-09 Student Handbook for specific activities identified as violations of this policy and the student due process procedure. This handbook is also available online at <http://www.missouriwestern.edu/handbook/index.pdf>.

Papers that have been plagiarized will receive no credit, and the student who submits such a paper will have to meet with me before any other work will be accepted. This is one of the key issues in technical communication, since the documents written by technical communicators are essential to establishing ethos–theirs and their organization’s.  Throughout the semester, we will be discussing these ethical issues for writing in professional settings.

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.