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Re: sugestions needed for teaching a tech writing class
Subject:Re: sugestions needed for teaching a tech writing class From:Ashley Bennett <milesthecat -at- yahoo -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Tue, 22 May 2001 05:57:20 -0700 (PDT)
Hi Christine,
there have been many helpful suggestions here, but
before talking about the specific content of your
course, the first question I would ask is, who are
your students?
Are you teaching Freshmen? Are they
Engineering/Science majors who have to take a
technical writing class to fulfill a requirement or
are they Humanities students who are taking a
particular "flavor" of a writing class.
Is there a second module of this class in which you
can focus upon some of the more industry specific
types of tech writing?
Are all of these students going to become technical
writers?
The answers will help you get started thinking about
what you need to include in your syllabus and help you
determine what level of "technical" is appropriate to
your students. As you know, technical writing is not
limited to software documentation or even computers.
For an introductory class, I would suggest sticking to
the basics such as problem solving, clear
communication (which I think ties in with Andrew's
belief that TW is not about self-expression), learning
to perform effective research, and learning to
interview subject matter experts.
They should come out of the class with a basic set of
skills that they could apply to software, engineering,
medicine, or some other industry.
Good luck and enjoy!
Ashley Bennett
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