Professor: Dr. Will Kurlinkus Time: T, R: 12:00-1:15 pm Location: Gittinger 232 Email: wkurlinkus@gmail.com Office: Gittinger 307A Office Hours: MWF 12:30-1:30; TR 1:30-2:30 Course Website: www.english3153a.wordpress.com

English 3153.01Technical Writing

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Course Description 01. Exigence From the most basic lab report to medical aftercare instructions, from museum displays to airplane safety guidesin English 3153, Technical Writing, students will learn to analyze and produce technical documents across a variety of settings. In particular this course will take a wicked-scenarios approach to writing for science, workplace, and consumer settings asking questions like: How can an aftercare document help calm anxious patients in an ER? What responsibility do manufacturers have to communicate the potential dangers of their products in an easy to understand way? How easy, is easy enough? How should scientistsfrom oil engineers to meteorologistsrespond to popular misconceptions about their fields? Students will produce a variety of documents throughout the semester including a design-scenario journal, a website report, an analysis of a science museum exhibit, a popular translation of a technical concept in their field (see NPRs Radiolab or Neil deGrasse Tysons Cosmos), a website usability report, and a rsum packet. In addition to more standard tech-writing skills like document formatting, grammar, citation, genre analysis, and scientific observation, along the way students will prepare to enter 21st Century tech writing contexts by learning the basics of web design, visual rhetoric, usability testing, and client-designer-user negotiations. 02. Objectives More generally, the learning objectives of this course are to:

Learn about and produce several technical communication genres, Learn about and respond to the rhetorical situations of professional settings, Learn to design documents in specific ways for specific audiences, Learn to work, write, and present collaboratively.

Required Texts and Equipment Anderson, Stephen P. Seductive Information Design: Creating Playful, Fun, and Effective

User Experiences Krug, Steve. Rocket Surgery Made Easy: The Do-It-Yourself Guide to Finding and Fixing

Usability Problems External Hard drive or Thumb Drive: 16GB or more Notebook Various other readings will be made available on our course website. Participation & Professionalism I want to hear from you, in any and all forms you're comfortable with. And, perhaps more importantly, I want you to hear from each otherto know what one another think of the readings, course topics, etc. 01. In-Class

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Just as you would in any business setting, I expect you not only to come to class meetings but also to contribute in a professional, respectful, and engaging manner to our meetings by bringing questions, comments, and criticisms of readings and assignments. Youll have time every class-period to say something, so make sure you do as professionalism and participation is 10% of your grade. Beyond speaking in class discussions, youll also be expected to use in-class working and group-meeting times wisely. 02. Blog Our course website is in the form of a wordpress blog at http://english3153a.wordpress.com, extra readings, links, and short-writing prompts will be posted there. It is your responsibility to follow the blog and make sure you are up-to-date before you come to class (especially if you miss a class). I might also ask you to respond in the comments section to a post on the blog. Course Policies 01. Access Students requiring academic accommodation should contact the Disability Resource Center for assistance at (405) 325-3852 or TDD: (405) 325-4173. For more information please see the Disability Resource Center website http://www.ou.edu/drc/home.html

Any student in this course who has a disability that may prevent him or her from fully demonstrating his or her abilities should contact me personally as soon as possible so we can discuss accommodations necessary to ensure full participation and facilitate your educational opportunities. 02. Attendance Attendance is an important part of your ability to understand the class material. Therefore, each unexcused absence after four will result in the lowering of your participation grade by a half a letter grade. Six unexcused absences will automatically result in failing the course. Excused absences, such as those for documented illness, family tragedy, religious observance, or excused travel for intercollegiate athletics, will not affect your grade. If you plan to be absent, however, please contact me beforehand. There will be an attendance sheet passed around each day of class. It is your responsibility to sign the attendance sheet to indicate your presence in class each day. Whether you are excused or not, if you miss a class, you are expected to make up the work. This means, if you miss on a day that involves an in-class exercise, you must make arrangements to complete the exercise on your own time. Additionally, I will count you as absent if you are more than 20 minutes late to class, sleeping, or if you come to class unprepared to discuss the days assigned readings. I reserve the right to hold quizzes to spot check for preparedness. It is the policy of the University to excuse the absences of students that result from religious observances and to reschedule examinations and additional required classwork that may fall on religious holidays, without penalty.

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03. Student Work Must be completed and submitted on time. Late submission of a final graded assignment will result in the deduction of one third of a

letter grade for each day past the due date (for example, a B+ would go to a B). Missing class or encountering technological misfortunes are not acceptable excuses for

failing to meet a deadline. Save early and save often, and be sure to back up your work. I recommend that you save your work in two separate locations (e.g., save one copy to your external hard drive, and another copy on a flash drive or CD-ROM). The hard drives of the classroom computers are wiped every night, so plan to back up your work somewhere else if you do your composing work there.

The grade will not be affected when an assignment is late for reasons that would result in an excused absence. Students who know they will miss the class when the assignment is due must contact the instructor as soon as possible in advance of class to arrange for submission of the assignment.

04. Group Work On collaborative writing assignments, all students will receive the same grade as their group members. Your grade for these collaborative assignments is based on the product that you and your classmates produce. During the final project, however, you will write an evaluation of how your group worked together. These evaluations will form part of my assessment under Productivity and Professionalism and possibly affect your grade on that project if something seems amiss. 05. Copyright and Plagiarism All students are expected to conform to college-level standards of ethics, academic integrity, and academic honesty. By enrolling in this course, you agree to be bound by the Academic Misconduct Code published in The University of Oklahoma Student Code (www.ou.edu/studentcode/OUStudentCode.pdf). For further clarification please see: www.ou.edu/provost/integrity-rights/. All members of the community recognize the necessity of being honest with themselves and with others. Cheating in class, plagiarizing, lying and employing other modes of deceit diminish the integrity of the educational experience. None of these should be used as a strategy to obtain a false sense of success. The need for honest relations among all members of the community is essential. 06. Class Cancellation Class cancellation is a possibility in the unlikely event of an emergency. I will contact you via email and request that a note on department letterhead be placed on the classroom door. In addition, I will contact you as soon as possible following the cancellation to let you know what will be expected of you for our next class meeting. 07. Changes to the Schedule Changes are a possibility, even likely. Our topic is constantly growing and changing so a particular issue might arise that Id like us to cover. I will notify you of any changes in class and

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I will post on the course website. If we should need to rearrange the syllabus, I will also post a revised syllabus to the course website.

Project List/Grade Breakdown

Grading Scale

A 100-90 D 69-60

B 89-80 F 59-below C 79-70

Schedule Date Readings Due In Class Writing

Due

Unit 1. Report Writing and Editing

Objectives: Intro to tech writing, rhetoric, and design; report writing/analysis; basic HTML and CSS; grammar; web design.

T 8.19 Intro to technical writing, rhetoric, and

wicked communication design What is technical writing? Intro Assignment 1 and Rhetorical Analysis

R 8.21 Hart-Davidson, What Are the Work Patterns of Technical Communication?: 50-75. Krug, Dont Make Me Think: 11-39.

CodingHTML See Code Academy for Review

T 8.26 Krug: Dont Make Me Think: 51-74. CodingCSS Wicked

Professionalism and Participation 10% Journal (Design Scenarios, Finger Exercises, Editing) 15% Project 1: Professional Genre Analysis Hypertext 15% Project 2: Museum Analysis 10% Project 3: Popular Translation 15% Project 5: Usability Report 25% Project 4: Job Application Packet 10%

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Kolin: Writing Effective Short Reports and Proposals

Scenario 1 Due

R 8.28 Anderson: xii-34 Riordan, Chapter 2, Profiling Audiences 35-52

CodingPositioning

Report Genre Chosen

T. 9.2 Anderson: 35-73 Pfaffenberger: Technological Dramas

Report Genre AnalysisRhetorical Analysis in class

Bring 3 report examples to class

R 9.4 Donald Norman: Three Levels of Design: 63-98 Henze, What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know About Genre? 337-360

Report Genre AnalysisCitation

Wicked Scenario 2 Due

T 9.9 Ceraso: How Can Technical Communicators Plan for Users? 237-260 Kramer and Bernhardt: Teaching Text Design: 240-264.

Studio Day

R 9.11 Anderson: 75-103 Monotype: Designing Business Documents

Studio Day

Unit 2. Visual Analysis and Production

Objectives: Visual rhetoric and tech writing; politics of museum exhibits; report writing and visual formatting; info-graphics.

T 9.16 Jorgensen-Earp: Satisfaction of Metaphorical Expectations 41-59 Anderson: 105-136

Visual Rhetoric Presentation; Intro Assignment 2

Project 1 Due

R 9.18 Morris: Death on Display 204-224 Kress and Van Leeuwen: Ideal and real 186-99

#IfTheyGunnedMeDown

Wicked Scenario 3 Due

T 9.23 Gallagher: Displaying Race: Cultural Projection and Commemoration 177-194. Class Field Trip to Sam Noble Natural History Museum

Museum Day

R 9.25 Schriver: What do Technical Communicators Need to Know About Information Design?: 386-424 Anderson: 137-167

Draft Workshop

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Unit 3. The Ethics of Popular Translation

Objectives: Ethical issues in technical writing; writing for international audiences; accessibility; translation of technical concepts to a variety of audiences; simple video production.

T 9.30 Scott: How Can Technical Communicators

Work in an Ethical and Legal Manner? 213-234 Radiolab: , Oops, Making the Hippo Dance

Infographics and Infonoises; YouTube Examples

Project 2 Due

R 10.2 No ClassWill Gone T 10.7 Educational Comic Selection: Clan Apis and

Medical Comics Judy Segal: A Rhetoric of Death and Dying

Comics and young audiences; Creating user Profiles

Wicked Scenario 4 Due

R 10.9 Anderson: 169-197 St. Amant: What Do Technical Communicators Need to Know About International Environments: 479-494

International Audiences; ethos contact zones and ethics (anti-vaccination)

T 10.14 Anderson: 199-216 Playgrounds: Rosenberg, Worlds Coolest Playgrounds; NPR Benincasa, For Kids With Special Needs, More Places To Play;

Accessibility (redundancy and multiple access points) and failed designs (Bic for Her, etc.)

Wicked Scenario 5 Due

R 10.16 Mirel: How Can Technical Communicators Evaluate the Usability of Artifacts? 285-306

Draft Workshop

Unit 4. Usability Report and Website Redesign

Objectives: Usability analysis and proposal report writing; participatory and user-centered web design; web design basics; working on teams.

T 10.21 Krug, Rocket Surgery: 13-37

Smith: Top 5 Web Design Mistakes Small Intro to Usability vs.

Project 3 Due

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Businesses Make Usefulness TestingHow can we best learn about users?

R 10.23 Krug, Rocket Surgery: 39-61 The Web Style Guide, Chapter 7, Visual Design and Visual Design Principles

Beyond usability: how else can we learn about users? Ethnography and participatory design.

Wicked Scenario 6 Due

T 10.28 Krug, Rocket Surgery: 63-89 and 147-153

Creating task list/protocol and scenarios

Choice of Website Due

R 10.30 Krug, Rocket Surgery: 91-119 Anderson: Writing Reader-Centered Proposals 483-506

Emotional feedback loops; ethics and informed consent

T 11.4 Krug, Rocket Surgery: 121-132 Ethnographic film reading

Ethnography and self-reporting

Progress Memo Due: Protocol written

R 11.6 Proposal Report Student Examples Creating forums for noisy users

Wicked Scenario 7 Due

T 11.11 Studio Time Usability Videos Due

R 11.13 Studio Time

Unit 5. Resumes and Cover Letters

Objectives: Job ad analysis; resume and cover letter writing; visual rhetoric and resumes. T 11.18 Job Ad Analysis Project 4 Due

R 11.20 Paul Anderson: Technical Communication: Wicked

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Obtaining a Job, 22-58 Kolin 142-178 Gallery of Best Resumes pp. 7-14

Scenario 8 Due

T 11.25 Kolin 179-196 R 11.27 Thanksgiving Vacation T 12.2 Draft Workshop Wicked

Scenario 9 Due R 12.4 Last Day of Class Project 5 Due