English 301 is an online technical writing course taught by Dr. Erika Paterson. The purpose is to help students learn about written and online communication in professional and business contexts. Some of the assignments include abstracts, proposals, emails and reports. The course consists of four units, each three weeks in length and has a different focus. Students will be divided into writing teams where assignments will be peer reviewed. At the end of the course, students will have completed a formal report, a complete application to a job on Linked-in and a web folio to display some of their best projects.
Many people assume a programmer’s job only involves sitting at a desk and writing endless lines of code. In reality, programming is a social activity. Written communication plays a big role as the time talking in person is limited. In order for a piece of software to be useful, it needs to be documented. When customers and coworkers try to figure out how to use the product, they rely on the documentation. During my coop I was required to write documentation for the tools I built. I found it difficult because I did not know how to write clear instructions that matched the ones in the existing manual. Towards the end of the term, I had the opportunity to write a blog entry on my experience at the company. I hope that through writing the reflections at the end of each unit, I can learn how to professionally share my experiences with others in blog posts.
One of my career goals is to start a software consulting business. I will have to write proposals to potential clients to persuade them my company is the best for their project. I hope technical writing can help me learn how to write persuasive proposals. In order to persuade clients, having a portfolio is crucial. I hope the portfolio that we create in this course will help me learn how to effectively display my projects and something I will continue to build throughout the years.