revising a tw course

Subject: revising a tw course
From: Joe Pellegrino <joe -dot- pellegrino -at- charter -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 12 Dec 2003 16:25:01 -0500


Gentles,

It's the end of another semester teaching tech writing, and I'm itching to revise my syllabus. I'm wondering what projects you think should be included in a beginning tech writing course. I'm afraid that my requirements, once pretty stringent, have become less so as software gets more sophisticated and students become more familiar with document design principles.

Here are the projects I currently require, each with its own strictures and guidelines:

1. a machine-readable resume
2. a cover letter
3. a personal web site
4. a group web site
5. a tri-fold brochure

The group sites and the brochures are really the hard work in the semester. The group must target an academic area (usually a department at the university), approach it as a customer, arrange meetings with them, get input, do a mock-up, produce a deliverables document, distribute the workload and develop internal deadlines, collect or produce the necessary content, survive editing by the customer, and get it done within the timetable. I prefer that they write the html in something like notetab lite and do images in gimp (I have them download those and openoffice at the beginning of the semester).

The brochures involve another department (usually the department that houses each student's major), and he or she must produce something that the department can use for a Career Day, or a symposium on majors. While I would like students to use pagemaker, the campus doesn't have a site license, so most of them just use either openoffice or word.

What do you think? I noticed that many students had time on their hands in class, and that makes me think that this workload is too light. Is this too much of a bunny course now? Is there another assignment I should include? Should I ditch any of these?

Thanks for your expertise,

Joe Pellegrino


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