Bay Mills Community College--Virtual College
EN 219 - Technical
and Report Writing
Syllabus
4 Credits
15 Weeks
Table of Contents
- Contact Information
- Prerequisites
- Transferability
- Required Textbooks
- Course Description
- Audience
- Course Objectives
- Course Projects and Content
- Chat Session Instructions
- Submitting Work
- Plagiarism
- Useful Links
- Grading Scale
- Course Units
- Student Grades
BMCC Policies:
All students please review the following policies and procedures
Student Handbook : (http://www.bmcc.edu/StudentServices1/Handbook/index.html).
Drop or Add a Class : (http://www.bmcc.edu/StudentServices1/Handbook/index.html#course).
Book Refund and Book BuyBack Policies:(http://www.bmcc.edu/StudentServices1/vbookstore.html)
Billing or an outstanding bill: (http://www.bmcc.edu/StudentServices1/Handbook/billingProcedures.html).
Information about class schedules and transcripts:(http://www.bmcc.edu/StudentServices1/Handbook/transcripts.html).
Contact Information
| Instructor: Josh Armstrong E-mail: jarmstro@alumni.nmu.edu |
|
| Click HERE to contact BMCC with any questions. | |
- CS112, EN112 - College Composition, with a grade of C or better and the ability to use Microsoft Word ®, Microsoft Works®, WordPerfect®, Notepad®, or WordPad,® (the last two programs come standard with Windows) for submitting assignments which you should already be familiar with.
- Full preparation in the areas of grammar and mechanics. While there will be a limited discussion on the impact of syntax on communicative effectiveness, students who need to improve their grammatical and/or mechanical skills will need to work independently with the instructor and/or the Learning Center.
- A commitment to excellence. Mistakes due to sloppiness will result in a severe loss of marks to the same extent that it would be regarded as unacceptable in the professional world.
Bay Mills Community College participates in the Michigan Association of Collegiate Registrars and Admissions Officers (MACRO) Agreement. To my knowledge, the transferability of this course is yet to be determined; therefore, check with the college or university to which you intend to transfer so that you can be certain the school will fully accept this course's four credits.
Mehlich, S. & Smith-Worthington, D. (1997)Technical
Writing for Success: A School-to-Work Approach. Cincinnati:
South-Western Educational Publishing. ISBN 0-5384-3868-1
Barrett, E., Paradis, J., & Perelman, L. (1998). The
Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing. Mountainview:
Mayfield Publishing Company. ISBN 1-55934-647-7
The primary text that will be used is Technical Writing for Success. The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing is a resource that will be employed sporadically throughout the course. It contains a wealth of information about grammar, punctuation, style, and formats. Students are encouraged to use the handbook to correct errors and to supplement the information in the primary textbook by consulting appropriate subjects in the index. The handbook can often add information and clarity to the primary text.
This course introduces students to the fundamentals of writing in a professional context. The skills and formats used in management, industry, and government will be the primary focus of the course in support of the college mission to prepare students for employment. The course will cover report writing, internal communications, correspondence, and public relations. Students are encouraged to incorporate a focus on the Head Start program. Students are also especially encouraged to focus on applying these skills to issues related to Anishnaabe culture and values in keeping with the college's objective to "foster a spirit of pride in Native language, culture, and history." My hope is that this course will help you to achieve a position of leadership. As such, critical thinking, the ability to judge the validity of statements or courses of action based on specific criteria, is an important component of this course. While the ability to write well and think critically cannot guarantee success professionally, the absence of those skills can certainly guarantee a lack of success professionally.
Obviously, this course's distinguishing feature is the environment in which it unfolds. Some have dubbed such space "virtual reality" or the "electronic classroom," but regardless of the terms used to describe the environment, certain problems and benefits present themselves (for both students and instructors) when working in or through such a medium. I highly suggest reading the section entitled "What Does It Take To Be a Successful Asynchronous Student?" if you are new to this environment in order to familiarize yourself with the demands and opportunities learning on the Internet can present. Although this "work at your own pace" course is designed to fit your schedule, you must complete almost half or more of the course by the mid-point of your allotted time. As well, you must complete the course within 15 weeks of your start date.
This course is intended for those people who want to hone their writing skills with an eye towards advancement in their present or future career. As such, pride in one's craft and the ambition to push oneself to the fullest of one's ability is desired. This course is not easy. Students will be expected to think and write on a daily basis. Being prepared to surprise oneself with one's achievements is not a prerequisite, but it will certainly make the course more enjoyable. I promise not to frighten you anymore than that.
After completing this course, the student will be able to:
- identify audience and adjust for knowledge level, role, interests, cultural background, and personality;
- draft appropriately formatted and well organized memos, letters, news releases, incident reports, progress reports, and proposals;
- design highly readable documents, suitably supported with graphic aids, in a variety of formats;
- conduct comprehensive research using a variety of resources such as the library, the community, and the Internet;
- accurately cite sources according to APA standards, as well as being able to identify other types of citation styles;
- edit and revise your documents for proper grammar and usage, clear and concise expression, and topic unity and logical development of ideas. Misplaced modifiers, faulty parallelism, redundancy, and wordiness will be studiously avoided.
Students will be expected to write and think often about the assignments in this course which is why I said earlier that you might expect to write on a daily basis for this course. The course is divided into four Units. Units 1, 3, and 4 should take approximately two weeks each to complete. Unit 2 should take approximately six weeks to complete. During this time you will also be asked to keep a professional journal which will be evaluated on basis of the depth, completeness, and originality of your critical thought. Journal entries will be required for each Unit and submitted with the completion of the other assignments in each Unit. The journal entries will be evaluated and returned along with the other assignments so that students will better understand what is expected of the student in terms of the entries. Each unit's assigned documents and journal entries combined make for most of the course's writing content. Assigned documents will be evaluated on the basis of format (layout), grammatical accuracy, mechanics, and spelling, as well as the demonstrated ability to judge the appropriate organization of ideas which requires critical thought in addition to understanding the standards required for each document. The rest of the course's writing will consist of abstracts and exercises. For each of the four units, students will submit a summary or abstract of the unit's most important information, shaped into compact, coherent, unified paragraphs. The word limits will be severely restrictive (words will be counted, if necessary), so information will have to be grouped logically into paragraphs then pared down. Decisions will have to be made as to what is the most vital information. The abstracts will be evaluated on economy, clarity, completeness, and readability. The abstracts will be done in place of short answer quizzes on reading assignments, but each unit will also have a brief, multiple choice or true-false quiz on the reading assignments. Other multiple choice exercises and short answer exercises make up the remainder of the course. At the end of the course, each student will complete a time-limited, final project based on a field of interest that will involve completing several written assignments based on the information supplied within a set time period, roughly 24 - 36 hours. The weight given to each assignment is as follows:
| Document type: | Point
Value: |
| interview report | 2 points |
| research report | 12 points |
| incident report | 5 points |
| progress report | 4 points |
| proposal | 12 points |
| good news memo | 3 points |
| bad news memo | 3 points |
| recommendation letter | 3 points |
| letter of inquiry | 3 points |
| press release | 3 points |
| Other Assignments: | Point Value: |
| Professional Journal | 10 points |
| Exercises | 10 points |
| Unit Abstracts | 10 points |
| Final Project | 20 points |
| Total | 100 points |
Back To Table of Contents
All quizzes and some textbook-based exercises are automatically formatted using a special program, which presents answers and questions in such a way as to allow both student and instructor to see the same thing. In most cases, it also automatically calculates grades, so you instantly receive your scores. Therefore, no complications concerning format should arise when completing and submitting these assignments.
Submitting written work via e-mail is a different story, so to ensure I can read your written work, produce it using the programs mentioned in the Prerequisites Section.All written assignments must be submitted as an attachment that I should be able to just open and print; that is, the assignment must be properly formatted to be immediately printable as would be expected in a professional setting.
Chat Session Instructions: Each week I will make myself available for a chat session so that I can answer any questions that you may have in an environment that allows for dialogue. We can arrange a time to meet by e-mail. While this course will be taught mainly through e-mail, consider the chat session to be like my "office time" where you can receive help in a more sustained way and in a way that allows both of us to know that effective communication is transpiring. This is an open forum for discussion of issues related to the course, from understanding the course text and assignments to generating ideas. Note: The link to the chat room is found on BMCC's home page. You need to enter your name to enter the chat room. You do not need your e-mail address.
Plagiarism
Derived from the Latin word plagiarius (kidnapper), plagiarism refers to a form of cheating that has been defined as the false assumption of authorship: the wrongful act of taking the product of another person's mind, and presenting it as your own.
I plagiarized the above definition and information because I took them from the Modern Language Association's Handbook, Fourth Edition, page 26 and didn't give credit to the source. Most students, however, plagiarize unintentionally because they don't understand the concept underlying the term "research." Yet, if this should occur, I will still take this as a serious offense and breach of trust. Please do not steal someone else's ideas and pass them off as your own.
Useful Links
Bay Mills Community College Virtual Library. An excellent compilation of helpful sites including dictionaries, encyclopedias, biographies, and much more.
Roget's Thesaurus. A compilation of synonyms and antonyms.
Virtual Reference Desk. One-stop web site for all your intellectual needs. I suppose it resembles a virtual Wal-Mart for students.
Research-It! Another "all encompassing" reference site with dictionary.
Guide to Grammar and Writing. An extensive yet easy to use site that covers the basic (and not so basic) grammar and writing questions provided by students around the world.
Internet Public Library. An extensive list of research sources available on the Web.
Ethics on the World Wide Web. A portal to sites on the Web devoted to ethics, divided by subject matter.
| A |
94-100 |
A- |
90-93 |
|
B+ |
86-89 |
B |
83-85 |
|
B- |
80-82 |
C+ |
76-79 |
|
C |
73-75 |
C- |
70-72 |
|
D+ |
66-69 |
D |
63-65 |
|
D- |
60-62 |
F |
59 and below |
|
|
|
|
| Students: Please fill out the Mid-Semester Course Feedback |
||
|
|
|
|
| Students: Please fill out the End of Semester Course and Instructor Evaluation |
||
Please click here to testify that you have read and understand the syllabus and have read and understand the academic dishonesty and plagiarism information.