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Course Information- Advanced
Technical and Professional Communication
Summer 2005
Course Description
This
advanced course is designed to help you examine and gain experience
with a variety of professional communication genres. The
core of the course is based on a sequence of assignments, each building
on the work of the previous one, which will provide you
with an opportunity to investigate your own professional communication
practices, to conduct primary and secondary source research on an
issue of professional interest, and to construct persuasive documents
that seek change by convincing others of the value of your proposal.
In each of these assignments, you will
focus on understanding and negotiating the rhetorical situation which
includes the following three core components:
- purpose- the
reason for
which you are writing
- audience-
the people or groups to whom the communication is directed
- context-
the situational conditions in which the text will be read and used
By
focusing on the rhetorical demands of communication, you will learn
practical and theoretical approaches for
researching and developing content for multiple audiences. By analyzing
the purpose, audience, and context of various communicative situations,
you will be able to create documents that successfully achieve
their intended goals.
Importantly,
this course will also focus on the design
and arrangement of documents, as well as on the development
of their textual content. As several of your readings will argue
and demonstrate, using basic principles of design will help readers
to:
- locate
needed information quickly and easily
- notice
and understand important ideas
- comprehend
how discrete parts of a document are related
- respond
more positively to a document's content
Throughout
the course, I'd like you to concentrate on how you can best shape
your documents to most persuasively and effectively communicate your
intended message to your intended audience.
Course Goals
- Understand
the rhetorical nature of professional writing and that each communication
situation requires negotiating the unique context in which it is
located
- Understand
the communicative conventions of your field and how they function,
particularly with regard to technical and/or scientific writing
- Improve
your processes for project planning, research, and development
- Understand
how to investigate and address the rhetorical situation (audience,
purpose, context) to shape the development of professional communication
- Develop
a range of strategies for learning technical and scientific information
and conducting specialized research
- Demonstrate
that you understand how to integrate written content, graphics,
and basic design principles in order to create usable, persuasive,
and reader-friendly documents
Required
Materials (available from the NMSU bookstore or through Amazon.com)
- Policy & Politics
in Nursing and Health Care (4th edition). Diana
J. Mason, Judith K. Leavitt, & Mary W. Chaffee (eds.). St.
Louis: Saunders (Elsevier Science), 2002. ISBN 0-7216-9534-5
- The Non-Designer's
Design Book (1st edition). Robin Williams. Peachpit Press,
1994. ISBN 1566091594
- Additional readings in PDF format- available
on CD mailed to you or as downloads from the WebCT course site under
the "Additional Readings" link. (From student comments
from the last three semesters, your best option would be to have
me mail a CD to your physical address, though I have re-scanned these
readings and these seem to be working better. Email me at jasheppa@nmsu.edu for
more information.)
Technology
Requirements and Expectations
As participants in a Distance Education Program,
I am making the assumption that you are all at least a moderately comfortable
users of your computers and their operating systems. Additionally,
I have the following requirements and expectations for this course:
- that you have consistent and reliable access
to a computer and the internet
- that you can search and navigate the web
- that you can receive and send email and attachments
- that you have a working understanding of how
to login to WebCT, how to navigate course materials, and how to use
some of its basic functions such as the Discussion Board
- that you have access to and knowledge of Microsoft
Word, and possibly other MS Office applications
- that you have access
to and knowledge of Adobe Acrobat Reader for opening and viewing
PDF documents from the course web site, course CD, or from the
internet. If you don't already have it, Acrobat Reader is available
for free at http://www.adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html
- that you will consistently make back-up copies
of all your electronic work
If you have questions about any of these requirements,
please email at jasheppa@nmsu.edu
Course Policies and How to Get
Help
- Since this is an online course, I will have
online office hours on Mondays from 6:00-7:00pm and on Wednesdays
from 9:00-10:00am. I will generally (though not always) be online
between 9:00 and 11:00 am Monday through Thursday. I also usually
check my email at least once during the afternoon or early evening
on most days, including weekends.
- If you email me,
I will do my best to get back to you within 24 hours.
- There may be times
when it is easier to receive help or feedback by talking to me
by phone or in person. If this is the case, please email me and
we can set something up.
- For help with WebCT
issues, you can try the following resources:
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