ENGL 301-001: Technical Writing – Gisèle M. Baxter
Technical Writing
Term 2 TTh 9:30
This course examines the principles of written, oral, and visual communication (including online) in various professional activities. You will spend much of term producing a formal report, in which you will investigate concerns in a real-life workplace, organization, or community, and make recommendations for solution or improvement. This report is a multi-part assignment, involving a proposal, a progress report, an oral presentation, and the final report itself with all of its apparatus. Evaluation will also include two shorter assignments (an introductory memo and a resumé) as well as participation in classroom and online discussion and activities (Note: this will be a blended course, with both classroom and online components and requirements; more information will follow on this blog via edits to this post).
Our discussions will consider the requirements and the ethical concerns of these forms of communication, given their specific aims, methods, and goals. In some ways, you can think of this course as an extended report-writing Boot Camp; it is an intensive, useful preparation for the last phase of your undergraduate degree, as you start applying to professional and graduate programs, and for the years beyond of work and community involvement.
A fuller description of the course will be posted later this summer; this description of last year’s classroom version provides some sense of the assignments (there will be two more short assignments set near the start of term: see above). However, the texts will differ: the primary textbook will be Lannon et al’s Technical Communication, 7th Cdn. ed (Pearson 2018), and writing resources will be linked to the course’s Connect site.
As well, please note that while technical competence in writing is required, the course will not cover grammar and mechanics. This course is closed to first- and second-year students in Arts, and cannot be used for credit towards the English Major or Minor.
© Gisèle M. Baxter. Not to be copied, used, shared, or revised without explicit written permission from the copyright owner.