Schedule

All reading and writing assignments are due on the days listed.

All texts will be provided in-class or on our course site (including readings on writing process/strategies to accompany our frequent in-class writing workshops). It is your responsibility to print out these texts and bring them to class with you. It is mandatory to have the assigned texts printed and in class when we are discussing them.

Additional texts may be added throughout the semester to supplement the texts listed here.

You will notice that some days are devoted entirely to discussing reading, some days are devoted entirely to discussing writing, and some days we will discuss both reading and writing. Some classes require a heavy amount of reading and/or writing, so I encourage you to plan ahead.

Always consult this dynamic schedule on our OpenLab site for the most up-to-date version of the schedule, access to readings, and more detail about assignments

 

Date Focus HW (due on date listed)
W 9/3 Introduction to Course & OpenLabWhat is Technical Writing?

Class Notes (Calvin)

W 9/10 Career Materials (considering audience/context/purpose); Active vs. Passive VoiceClass Notes (Iurii) READ

BLOG

  • Introduction
  • A post reflecting on your mini job search this week (categorize as “Job Ads). After you look through a number of job ads (minimum 15) in your field/industry, you should write a post that discusses your sense of what employers in this area are looking for in potential candidates. Some things to think about: What kind of content-specific skills do they want? What kind of communication (written, verbal, etc.) do they want? What kinds of technology (software) and digital literacies do they require? Synthesize your findings from the various job ads, and afterwards, discuss your own skills/education/career preparedness in relation to these jobs. How do you think your education here at City Tech and your hands-on work experience (perhaps as an intern or in another type of job) has prepared you (or not preapred you) to meet these employers’ needs? Make sure to include links to all of the job ads in your post, so we can refer back to them.*Like all posts, this one is due the night before class (so Tuesday night), and is a minimum of 500 words (though I encourage you to write much much more). See OpenLab Compsing for more details guidelines/expectations.

DUE

W 9/17 CorrespondenceClass Notes (Vincent) BLOG

  • If you haven’t done your Introductory post, do so ASAP
  • Revise or (if you haven’t done it already), post your “Job Ads” post, making sure to pay attention to the questions I asked

DUE

  • Final Draft of Assignment 1: Career Materials (submit to Dropbox & bring one printed copy to class–in a “portfolio” folder, with (revised) “Job Ad” search, your first draft, final draft, and your reflection)
W 9/24 NO CLASSES SCHEDULED READ

BLOG

  • Blog: Major/Education Reflection. Now that you’re conducted your job search, finding/close reading a number of job ads, and writing career materials in response, reflect on your education/career preparedness. Does the curriculum in your major at City Tech adequately prepare you for the types of jobs that are actually available out there? Are most of your courses historical? theoretical? practical/applied? Are there courses (or workshops, internships, etc.) that need to be added/revised to adjust for the types of qualifications you’re seeing in these ads? [just like with the “Job Ads” post, you should consider: What kind of content-specific skills do they want? What kind of communication (written, verbal, etc.) do they want? What kinds of technology (software) and digital literacies do they require?] Do you think that a college education should primarily prepare students for jobs (so determining their curriculum according to current job market needs/demands), or should they teach something else (skills that are more transferable/adaptable/etc.)? Discuss your own skills/education/career preparedness in relation to these your education here at City Tech, and end with a suggestion for the department (and for other students) about how graduates can be better prepared for the current job market in your field? This means you need to do some research of other comparable programs at other colleges, to see if their curriculum is similar to ours (provide links and discussion of these other programs). Categorize as “City Tech Education & Career Preparedness”
  • Online Identity in a Networked World (categorize appropriately). Read the articles discussed in class (and find one additional one, which you will link to/summarize clearly in your post), think about how you are represented online (do you have Facebook account? Twitter? LinkedIn? OpenLab?); Google yourself … are there things you didn’t expect to come up?; do you actively “brand” yourself? Did you realize that your online identity can affect your job prospects? Do you think it ethical for employers to “google” their job candidates, and to then use what they find online in their decisions about employment (and/or promotion)? Make sure that you make reference back to the texts we are discussing.
W 10/1 Summarizing
Peer Review: Assignment #2 (Correspondence)Class Notes (Olgucan)
DUE

W 10/8 Owners Manuals/Instructions/Usability TestingClass Notes (Goutam) READ

BLOG

  • Locate an owner’s &/or instruction manual for a consumer product, such as a coffeemaker, smartphone, bicycle, or bookcase. In a blog post, describe and evaluate the manual in terms of its clarity, accessibility, usability, etc. Make sure to upload the file (of manual/instructions) to the post as well (you can do this the same way you uploaded photos to your Introduction blogs), or link to it if it is an online document. Please categorize as “Owner’s Manual / Instructions Evaluation.”

DUE

  • Final Draft of Assignment #2: Correspondence (submit to Dropbox & bring one printed copy to class–in a “portfolio” folder, with pre-draft–your “City Tech Education & Career Preparedness” blog post, your first draft, peer review comments, final draft, and your reflection)
W 10/15 Class Notes (Enrique) READ

  • Actively read/annotate/reverse outlining Sherry Turkle’s “The Flight from Conversation” (distributed in class), building on the work we did together in class

BLOG

DUE

W 10/22 Class Notes (Jason)*Professor Belli away at conference; Professor Miller subbing DUE

W 10/29 Class Notes (Tony) DUE

W 11/5 Class Notes (Rene) READ

BLOG/DUE

  • Proposals due for Final Collaborative Project.
    • Remember that proposals are works-in-progress, and together we will shape them as the semester continues
    • We will look at these proposals in class next week and peer review them
    • All proposals must be approved by me to go forward, and I can only do that once you convince me that this is an interesting, viable, useful project (so this proposal is persuasive, you are selling me your ideas)
    • You are more than welcome to discuss your ideas with me prior to submitting your proposal, to get initial feedback
    • You should do a significant amount of researching, brainstorming, revising, discussion before submitting your proposal (become informed about the topic before you write about it)
    • post one proposal per group
    • categorize as “Project Proposals”
    • Title with name of project and group members
    • Include a detailed, specific description of the project you are proposing
    • A rationale for it (why it is important/relevant for this course and for others)
    • Who are the stakeholders? The audience? The purpose?
    • What steps will you need to take throughout the semester to complete the project?
    • What types of research needs to be done?
    • A plan for how you will go about completing the project
    • The role your various group members will play in it, in terms of working collaboratively
    • Methods, tools, and times for communication/collaboration/meetings, etc.
    • What you will learn by doing this project.
W 11/12 Class Notes (Samson) READ

BLOG /
DUE (3 separate blogs; 3 separate Dropbox submissions)

  • Revised/updated Proposal (complete with work plan & project-specific deliverables): post to blog & submit to Dropbox
  • Annotated Bibliography, First Draft (2 sources per person; 6-sources for 3 person groups, 8 sources for 4-person groups): post to blog & submit to Dropbox. Read more about the annotated bibliography purpose and guidelines here.
  • Progress Report #1: post to blog & submit to Dropbox. For this week, you can use any format you want that clarifies your progress to date and the division of labor & methods/times of collaboration (how many meetings did you have? were they in-person or virtual? how are you synthesizing the different work people are doing? etc.).
W 11/19 Working “lab” Day; Peer Review/Usability Testing; Individual Group Meetings with Professor Belli during classClass Notes (Ray) BLOG/DUE

  • Meeting Agenda, Meeting Minutes, Progress Report (due Tu night, post to OpenLab and submit to Dropbox – 3 separate categories for each)
  • Bring in all materials & sources/research for our working “lab” day on 11/19
  • Bring in drafts of work (e.g., surveys, prototypes, mock-ups, annotated bibliographies, work plans, etc.) for group meetings with Professor Belli. Come in with specific questions and be prepared for feedback.
W 11/26 In-Class Project PresentationsClass Notes (Deniel) BLOG / DUE

  • Meeting Agenda, Meeting Minutes, Progress Report (due Tu night, post to OpenLab and submit to Dropbox – 3 separate categories for each)
W 12/3 Writing Workshop: the Cognitive Styles of PowerPoint and Prezi; Effective Multimodal Composing/DesignClass Notes (Derrick) READ

BLOG / DUE

  • Meeting Agenda, Meeting Minutes, Progress Report (due Tu night, post to OpenLab and submit to Dropbox – 3 separate categories for each)

*Mandatory Group Meetings with Professor Belli

W 12/10 Peer Review of Final Project Write-Ups; Writing Workshop: Final Project Write-UpsClass Notes (Lian) BLOG / DUE

  • Meeting Agenda, Meeting Minutes, Progress Report (due Tu night, post to OpenLab and submit to Dropbox – 3 separate categories for each)

DUE

*Mandatory Group Meetings outside of class with Professor Belli (Tu 12/9, W 12/10, or Th 12/11: if you choose Tu 12/9, you must submit your report to me by 5pm on Monday – a printed copy in my mailbox, N512)

W 12/17 Final Project Presentations; Course Wrap-UpClass Notes: Presentation Blogging (Ivan) BLOG / DUE

  • Meeting Agenda, Meeting Minutes, Progress Report (due Tu night, post to OpenLab and submit to Dropbox – 3 separate categories for each)

DUE