Owen Picton's Virtual Technical Writing Cubicle

As someone who has been using words longer than the average undergraduate student, I think my expectations from the course are slightly different than most. Because I have been creating documents in the work world for a rather long time, I expect to become reacquainted with standard business documents, and I expect to learn current trends in technical writing as well as aspects I have not encountered. I also expect to learn about any tired and clichéd techniques that I currently use and need to retire as I move forward in my professional career. Likely I will need to divest myself of some bad habits as I go through this course as well.

I have expectations of myself and my fellow classmates too. I expect to work in and provide a respectful, professional, and collegial environment for everyone involved with this course. Should drama of any type arise, I expect each and every one of us to be patient, tolerant, and kind, yet no-one should be allowed to be disrespected or to shoulder issues that are not theirs to resolve.

I expect to be successful in this course as long as I put the effort in. I expect to put in sufficient effort to produce product that my classmates and I can be proud of. The corollary to that is that I expect my classmates to be as invested in this process as I am, and make a similar effort to mine.

Welcome to my Technical Writing blog!

The UBC Technical Writing course (also known as ENGL 301) is an on-line survey course designed for students across disciplines who wish to improve their business and technical communication skills.  It introduces students to the distinct formats and platforms through which concepts and ideas are communicated in contemporary academia, business, and industry.

Students who successfully complete the course will emerge with an appreciation for well-written technical and professional documents and will understand the processes that allow these documents to be created and shared. They also will have experienced the processes of generating ideas, creating and revising content, giving and receiving constructive criticism, and broadcasting content on current platforms. Experiencing these processes will make them better able to produce accurate, appropriate and readable documents in their professional lives, either as individuals or as part of a group.