Final Due Date on Projects, Make-up Work, and Revisions: Monday, Dec. 21

I hope that you all are doing well physically and mentally. It’s a tough time of year even before the pandemic, but I think it can be even more so given how things are now.

I wanted to give you all a gentle reminder that everything in our class is due by the end of the day on Monday, Dec. 21.

It’s important to give me something for all of the assignments even if might be incomplete or not your best work.

That said, I don’t want anyone to feel compelled to plagiarize or copy the work of others without proper citation just to get an assignment turned in. As I’ve discussed in lecture, it’s important to engage the words and ideas of others, but we have to do so ethically and give credit where credit is due. This is why the professional style that we use–APA–is so important. It gives us a system for quoting the words and ideas of others and giving them credit for their writing that we discuss and engage in our own writing. This page on the Purdue OWL website answers a lot of questions about plagiarism. You can also email me if you have any questions about plagiarism.

My overall advice at this point in the semester is to keep your eye on the prize, see the class and your team project through to completion, and reach out to me if you have any questions leading up the final deadline of Monday, Dec. 21.

Good luck!

Important Reminders

  • If you have any questions about the class or assignments, reach out to me by email at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu. We can talk over email, or we can make an appointment for office hours.
  • Please fill out the Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) for our class! You can find this in your school email (if you don’t see it, check your spam folder). In particular, your comments, which are anonymous, are very helpful.
  • Check your grades. As I’ve discussed in past lectures, you can check your project grades and read my feedback by clicking on “Check My Grades” on the left side of our OpenLab site. If you don’t see a grade for one of your major projects, you should send me an email. Also, you can go into our Site’s Dashboard > Comments to check some of your weekly writing assignments.
  • I want you all to know that your collaborative project is difficult even in the best of circumstances when we were holding in-person classes. Now, those challenges are compounded even more with distance learning. As you all work to complete these final projects, please keep these things in mind:
    • Be kind and understanding to one another. Work things out as a team as much as possible. However, you can loop me in at any point if it’s big issue or something that you cannot find a way to resolve. I want to help you as much as possible, but I also want to give your team the space to discover solutions, too.
    • Maintain good communication channels. Don’t go silent.
    • Work out responsibilities within your team. Be aware that depending on circumstances, you might have to shift or adjust these.
    • Do your best. I know you all have terrific affordances (skills and knowledge) and realistic constraints (time, energy, and resources). Do the best that you can by finding the middle way between your affordances and constraints.
  • Be well, stay safe, and have a strong finish to the semester!

Week 15, Lecture

It has been a good semester, and I appreciate you all working with me thus far in our class.

This is the last weekly lecture, but I will still hold office hours this week and then I will be available by email or appointment in the days leading up to the final due date for everything in the class: Monday, Dec. 21.

Remember to refer to previous lectures 11-14 and the corresponding Weekly Writing Assignments for models and useful information for the Collaborative Project.

If you would like to take advantage of the extra credit offer from last week, you can still catch videos of one of those events–the City Tech Science Fiction Symposium. I posted videos there of each panel. Choose a session video, watch it from start-to-finish, and write a 250 word summary of who spoke and what they spoke about. Email your summary to me by Monday, Dec. 21.

Good luck in our class, your other classes, and your lives. When we can return to in-person classes, stop by my office sometime for a conversation in Namm 520.

Week 15, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s Weekly Writing assignment, I would like you to choose a different person from your team than the previous persons who emailed me last week and the week before. This new team member should write an email to me (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu) and cc all the other team members. Use the subject, “ENG2575, Week 15 Update.” In the body of your email, write a professional message of about 250 words describing what your team has done over the past week to work on the project. This email should be written collaboratively through conversation (phone, Zoom, Google Hangouts) or text communication (text message, social media, etc.). It isn’t up one person to write this email. All team members are expected to say and contribute something to the email about what your team has been doing. For example: Did you have a meeting? Who is working on what? What research leads were found? What do you plan to do next? Don’t forget to include a salutation to open and a closing at the end. This is due by Wednesday, Dec. 9.

Week 14, Lecture

Lecture

Due Dates

The Collaborative Project is due by Monday, Dec. 21. No work will be accepted after that date as I need time to grade and submit grades. As an incentive, I am offering 1 bonus point per day that your team submits your collaborative project early up to 7 points (essentially one week early). If you need until Monday, Dec. 21 to complete the project, I want you to take it, but if your team is done early and feels good about your deliverables, you may turn it in early and receive the bonus points.

Any individual projects and weekly writing assignments are also due by Monday, Dec. 21. If you haven’t done a project, please get it done and submit it (remember: something is better than nothing). If you have any questions about this, please email me at jellis

Student Website Examples

Remember, yours will be slightly different due to the different affordances and constraints of our current situation during the pandemic. Yours should have a landing/first page that includes your presentation video embedded on the page, a shared/viewable link to your analytical research report, and brief description of your project; a problem page summarizing your research; a solutions page summarizing your research; and an “About” page with short bios for each team member.

Presentation Recording

The links below last week’s lecture might be useful, too.

Reminder

Review the lectures and links for the previous weeks that relate to the collaborative project.

Week 14, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s Weekly Writing assignment, I would like you to choose a different person from your team than the person who emailed me last week. This new team member should write an email to me (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu) and cc all the other team members. Use the subject, “ENG2575, Week 14 Update.” In the body of your email, write a professional message of about 250 words describing what your team has done over the past week to work on the project. This email should be written collaboratively through conversation (phone, Zoom, Google Hangouts) or text communication (text message, social media, etc.). It isn’t up one person to write this email. All team members are expected to say and contribute something to the email about what your team has been doing. For example: Did you have a meeting? Who is working on what? What research leads were found? What do you plan to do next? Don’t forget to include a salutation to open and a closing at the end. This is due by Wednesday, Dec. 2.

Week 13, Lecture

Lecture

Analytical Research Report Presentation

Analytical Research Report Website

  • How to create a project on the OpenLab
  • Help > Sites (look at the section on Building Sites)
  • Your site should have:
    • a landing page with your presentation video embedded (copy and paste the link into the content section), a link to your Research Report Google Doc (Share > Anyone with the link), and a brief description of your project
    • an about page with bios (and photos if you choose to include them) of all team members
    • a problem page that briefly describes the problem and its background
    • a solution page that briefly describes/lists the solutions to the problem that you found

Week 13, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s Weekly Writing assignment, I would like you to choose a different person from your team than the person who emailed me last week. This new team member should write an email to me (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu) and cc all the other team members. Use the subject, “ENG2575, Week 13 Update.” In the body of your email, write a professional message of about 250 words describing what your team has done over the past week to work on the project. This email should be written collaboratively through conversation (phone, Zoom, Google Hangouts) or text communication (text message, social media, etc.). It isn’t up one person to write this email. All team members are expected to say and contribute something to the email about what your team has been doing. For example: Did you have a meeting? Who is working on what? What research leads were found? What do you plan to do next? Don’t forget to include a salutation to open and a closing at the end. This is due by Wednesday, Nov. 25.

Opportunity, Extra Credit for Attending and Writing About City Tech Events

This Thursday, Nov. 19, there are three big events hosted by City Tech that I wanted to let you all know about.

Also, you may earn extra credit that can take the place of a missed weekly writing assignment or be applied to a major project grade. To earn the extra credit, write an email to me that includes a 250-word or more summary of who you heard speak and what you learned from them. The events take place at different times of the day, so you can catch parts of each. You don’t have to stay for the whole event, but please invest enough time to get something out of the events that you do attend.

Even without the extra credit, I would like to encourage you all to take part in events–even virtual ones–at City Tech. I can speak from my own experience about how transformative these experiences can be.

Event 1: The Fifth Annual City Tech Science Fiction Symposium

This is the big event that I help organize each year. We have Science Fiction writers, scholars, and students talking on the theme of “Race and Science Fiction.”

To join this virtual event, follow the instructions for registering to attend the Zoom Webinar at the top of the program located here.

Event 2: Conversation with New York Times Journalist Annie Correal

Please join us for New York Times journalist Annie Correal’s visit with the City Tech community. Correal will be discussing her trajectory as a writer and the story behind her 2017 article “Love and Black Lives, in Pictures Found on a Brooklyn Street.”

Thursday, November 19, at 1:00
Introduction: Mr. Kenny Joseph, Construction Management Major

Respondent: Dr. Emilie Boone, Art Historian, African American Studies Department

Moderator: Dr. Caroline Hellman, English Department

All are most welcome.  Please share widely!

Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81147763239?pwd=NFRtUllnOEpySDdvU2tyelB0eGFhdz09

Meeting ID: 811 4776 3239
Passcode: 680059

Event 3: 18th Annual City Tech Poster Session

The 18th Annual City Tech Poster Session will held on November 19 from 12:30 pm to 4 pm

This year the Poster Session will be online via the ZOOM and OpenLab Platforms.
1) The opening of the Poster Session and one-minute Oral Presentations will start at 1 pm via ZOOM 
Link: https://zoom.us/j/6986910931?pwd=TUhkMFAvNkY0c1pQQ0dmTis2WkQwdz09
Meeting ID: 698 691 0931
Passcode: Poster
  2) Posters are accessible online starting November 19, 2020 via the OpenLab platform
https://openlab.citytech.cuny.edu/postersession2020/
Attached please find the Program and Book of Abstract of the 18th Poster Session.

Week 12, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s weekly writing assignment, your team should have emailed your topic to Professor Ellis beforehand.

Please watch this week’s lecture before proceeding.

Then, one team member should create a Google Doc and share it with all team members. See this week’s lecture for instructions on doing that. Team members will need to tell whoever takes point on this their Gmail/Google Drive email addresses.

Next, copy-and-paste the outline for your analytical research report that I provided below in the “Week 12, Project, Focusing on the Analytical Research Report” post below. This document is now where your team will write together–share research, write the report, format it, etc. You can write all at the same time or you can write at different times. Do not be afraid to edit and add to this document.

Finally, one team member should create a sharable link for viewing, again, refer to this week’s lecture for instructions on how to do this, and email that link to Prof. Ellis (jellis at citytech.cuny.edu). Be sure to cc your other team members on that email so that they know it has been sent.

Week 12, Project, Focusing on the Analytical Research Report

As discussed in the Week 12 lecture, your team needs to quickly choose a topic and begin working together to do the research and writing of your analytical research report. As I discuss in the lecture, this is a secondary research report, meaning it is based on research that you find done by others. You are not required to perform primary research or building/testing your topic on your own. This is the foundation for the rest of your collaborative project, which also includes a presentation, a website, and report on collaboration. I will discuss these latter parts next week.

With your analytical research report problem/topic identified, you can begin researching it with the library’s databases and books, periodicals like the New York Times, and the World Wide Web.

Evaluate and vet your sources so that you can account for their veracity, accuracy, credibility, etc.

To get started with writing your report together, check out this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment and the lecture. You will need the following outline:

Introduction (topic and why your report is important)

Objectives of the research (what were you attempting to do?)

Method (methodology–what kinds of research did you do, how did you do it, and why is the research sound?)

Results (what did you find in your research? facts, quotes, figures, interviews, surveys, etc.)

Discussion (how do you interpret your results? what story does your data tell us? results and discussion can be combined, but title this section appropriately if you do so)

Conclusions (what conclusions do you draw from your results and discussion? what is the significance of what you discovered?)

Recommendations (what do you think should be done to solve the research problem based on your research? this section is what all of your work is leading up to.)

Also, here are some resources and examples that I discussed in this week’s lecture to help you with writing and designing your analytical research report.

Week 11, Lecture

Greetings, all!

Make sure you watch and take notes on this week’s lecture. It covers submitting your Instruction Manual Project and beginning the Collaborative Project. Scroll down our OpenLab Course Site for detailed instructions and screenshots to help you with those things, too. And, watch for my emails that will announce your new teams for the Collaborative Project.

Office hours will be Nov. 4 from 3:00-5:00pm. I’ll post a link above beforehand.

Week 11, Weekly Writing Assignment

To begin your team’s collaborative project, the first things that you will need to do are: 1) introduce yourselves, 2) provide other contact info, and 3) choose a topic for your research report.

To accomplish these things, I will start a new email thread for each collaborative project team (remember that these teams are different than your peer-review teams).

During this week, each team member should “Reply All” to my email to introduce yourself (including your major, hobbies, and interests, and make a note if you already know someone in your team–perhaps from the peer-review teams or another class), provide a phone number or suggest another way for your teammates to communicate besides email (Facebook, Whatsapp, etc.), and list three possible scientific or technical problems that you can potentially research for your team’s research report (for example, Moore’s Law, specific computer exploits like rowhammer or types of exploits like privilege escalation, etc.).

The purpose of your report is to present what you can learn about the problem and provide some solutions also based on your research, so think about these possible problems based on your studies and interests. Since you are all studying computers and/or electrical systems, I would recommend that you focus on problems related to that instead of problems not directly related, such as global warming. Coming up with three possible problems might require a little bit of library research, so don’t be afraid to check out the databases!

Now, after you and your teammates begin exchanging these emails, look at the possible problems for similarities or connections. Everyone should reply all to comment on the problems, generating ideas, and arguing for or against some of the options. After this discussion, a clear winner might emerge, or one team member can devise a vote of the top two or three candidates.

At this point or even before after you’ve made your first introductions via email, your team can decide if they would like to hold the rest of the conversation over email or another communication medium of your choice. For the weekly writing assignment, I will be looking for your first email with your three possible problem topics. The rest of the conversation is for your benefit to choose a topic for your project by Wednesday, 11/11.

After you’ve selected a problem for your research report, I would like one member of your team to send me an email and cc (carbon copy) all the other team members on that email. In the email, let me know what scientific or technical problem your team has selected. Email me your team’s topic by Wednesday, 11/11.

Watch this week’s lecture for more details and explanation. I will post it on Wednesday following our established schedule.

Week 11, Project, Beginning the Team-Based Collaborative Project

While you are finishing up your last individual project in the class, we are moving ahead to begin the team-based collaborative projects in the class.

Think of each of the following projects as part of an interconnected larger project. Each team member should contribute to each part, but individual team members may take the lead on one part versus the others depending on their skill set and interests. For example, one team member may take the lead on the research report and collect contributions from the other team members for the first draft, and another team member may take the lead on the presentation or the website.

These are the parts of the collaborative project from the syllabus:

  • Collaborative: 4000-6000-Word Analytical Research Report, 20%
  • Each team member contributes 1000-1500-word contribution to a 4000-6000-word analytical research report on a scientific or technological problem that demonstrates: 1) knowledge of the history and context of the problem, 2) knowledge of the causes and nature of the problem, 3) ideas for solving the problem, 4) the ability to explain the problem and offer possible solutions to a general audience, 5) the ability to integrate written work with the written work of a partner or partners in a coherent report, and 6) knowledge of proper research report format. At least six library-sourced citations must be included (non-library-sourced citations are encouraged, but they do not count toward the six library-sourced sources). Any outside sources cited should be documented according to APA format.
  • Collaborative: Seven-to-Ten-Minute Oral Analytical Research Report on a Scientific or Technological Problem, 10%
    • The goal of this part of the project is to transform your written report into an spoken presentation anchored by a PowerPoint or other visual presentation supplement. As a team, adapt and present your analytical research report as an oral presentation that demonstrates: 1) knowledge of oral presentation techniques and conventions, 2) the ability to organize a presentation effectively, 3) the ability to incorporate various media into the presentation, including appropriate computer software, 4) awareness of audience, 5) the ability to communicate the value of the product or service in clear spoken English, 6) the ability to answer audience questions, 7) the ability to collaborate productively with a partner or partners, and 8) the ability to explain the problem and offer possible solutions to a general audience.
  • Collaborative: Website Advertising a Product or Service Responding to the Analytical Research Report and Oral Presentation, 10%
    • The goal of this part of the collaborative project is to imagine a service or product that your team can offer that is related to your research report and oral presentation, both of which will be featured on the website in some way. The website should demonstrate: 1) knowledge of the product or service offered, of pertinent market forces, and of the potential customer base, 2) basic knowledge of web page design and composition, including appropriate software. The website will be based on your presentation and it is encouraged to be integrated into your presentation (perhaps to demonstrate how your team is promoting your product or service). All graphics, logos, design, and text must be created by your team.
  • Collaborative: 500-Word Report on Collaboration, 10%
    • During the collaborative project, the team as a whole needs to track and document their progress, challenges, and successes, and each individual delegated responsibilities needs to keep track of what they contribute to the project. As the last component of the collaborative project, write a brief report of 500-750 words reflecting on how the team worked together and what each individual team member contributed to the overall effort. Each team should submit only one report.

Another way to consider these interconnected projects is through the following illustration:

The main part of the collaborative project is the research report. It anchors everything else. It should be completed first and adapted or transformed for use in the other deliverables: the website and the presentation. The report, website, and presentation will be submitted on our OpenLab Course Site. Also, throughout the project, the team should keep track of the work that each person does and compile that into a reflection report that will be submitted via email to me after your collaborative project is completed.

To distribute the workload better, you will work in a new team of five or six persons. These teams are randomly assigned using a number list that I generated on random.org.

For your reference, I am including the teams below. I will get in touch with each team via email for this week’s weekly writing assignment.

Remember, don’t confuse these teams with your peer review teams on the first three projects in the course. If you are still working on individual projects and need peer review feedback, you should give and receive it with your peer review teams that you’ve already been working with.

Separately, you will begin working with this new team on the collaborative projects. There may be some overlap between your peer review team and the new collaborative teams–this was just by chance and not by design. In addition to reaching out to you by email, I will detail how I would like you to begin the project together in this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, which I will post soon.

And, make sure that you all watch this week’s lecture and listen carefully to the details that I provide about the collaborative project.

Team 1
Barbu L.
Tan
Arias
Romanowski
Clarke
Beauge

Team 2
Requena
Dominique
Barbu T.
Anny
Anika

Team 3
Abdulla
Persaud
Ferreira
Patterson
Htut

Team 4
Andiappen
Cifuentes
Chan
Pritom
BK

Team 5
Adeyemi
Campbell
Su
Lin
Bah

Week 11, Project, Submitting Your 1500-2000-Word Instructional Manual Project

While we will be moving ahead to the final, collaborative projects in the class this week, I wanted to go ahead and provide you with instructions for submitting your 1500-2000-Word Instructional Manual.

Since we are running a week behind on the syllabus, your instructional manual is now due by Nov. 11. If anyone needs additional time, reach out to me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu and let me know how much more time you need to complete the project.

To submit your Instructional Manual, please do the following (which I will also discuss in this week’s lecture).

First, you need to publish your Instructional Manual to the Web from inside Google Docs. This is a great feature of Google Docs that I wanted to make you all familiar with. Essentially, it allows you to quickly publish content on the World Wide Web from Google Drive (Docs, Sheets, and Present). To do this, follow these steps:

After opening your instructional manual in Google Docs, click on File > Publish to the web as shown below.

Then, click “Publish.”

Next, click “Ok.”

Finally, copy the link to your now published instructional manual and click the “x” in the upper right corner to return to Google Docs.

That completes the first half of this process.

The next phase is creating a post on our OpenLab Course Site that includes the link that you just copied. To do this, open another tab in your web browser and go to our OpenLab Course Site. Then, click the “+” icon to create a new post as shown below.

Then, add a check next to “1500-Word Instructional Manual.”

Then, type in a title for your post that includes your name and a descriptive title, such as “Jason Ellis’s Instruction Manual for Assembling a Skateboard.”

Next, add a sentence into the body of your post describing your project, such as “For this project, I created an instruction manual for assembling a skateboard.”

Then, highlight the part of your sentence that corresponds with “an instructional manual for [your topic].”

Next, click the icon above the text that looks like three chain links, paste your link into the box that appears, and click the “Enter” or “Return” line-and-arrow icon to the right of the link as shown below.

After reading over everything and correcting as needed, click the “Publish” button in the upper right corner of the page.

And, click “Publish” again to confirm.

To see if your post is live, click on the title of our OpenLab Course Site in the center of the page, click on down carrot next to Student Work in the left menu, and then click on “1500-Word Instruction Manual.” Yours should be at the top of the posts that appears.

Week 10, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s weekly writing assignment, I would like you to use email to peer review your instructional manual draft with your peer review team. As with the previous peer review sessions on the article summary and expanded definition projects, I will begin each team’s email chain on Wednesday afternoon. Choose to Reply All, write a ask/offer email, and include a link to your instructional manual on Google Docs. Follow the directions below to get your sharable link that gives your teammates access for viewing but not editing your work–this is important so that your work is easily seen by others and no mistakes are made by haphazard peer reviewers:

Open your instructional manual on Google Docs and click on “Share” in the upper right corner.

On the screen that appears, click on “Change to anyone with the link” at the bottom.

Next, click on “Copy link” on the right, and then click “Done” at the bottom.

Then, go back to your email, find the email that I sent to you and your team about peer review for the Instructional Manual project, click Reply All, and write a professional and polite email asking for feedback on your work and offering to give feedback to your teammates. Paste the link that you copied from Google Docs into your message. Sign your name. Click Send. Remember to Reply All when you receive work from your teammates to review so that everyone in the team and I can see your responses.

As I point out in the lecture, it’s okay to not be completed with your instructional manual at this point. I would like you to receive some feedback on what you have done thus far. Incorporate the feedback that you receive as you continue working on your instructional manual for submission. I will detail how to submit your work on OpenLab next week. Stay tuned!

Opportunity, Self-Paced Learning with Lynda.com

As I discuss in week 10’s lecture, Lynda.com is free for anyone to access with a New York Public Library Card, which is free, too! Lynda.com is a resource of educational training videos about everything from communication skills to high technology. Access it with your NYPL card number and pin number here.

Week 9, Lecture

We’ve made it all the way to week nine! Woo-hoo! Pat yourselves on the back for hanging in there thus far!

In this week’s lecture, I discuss grades, time spent on the class, the instructional manual project, and this week’s weekly writing project. Here are the time stamps for the major points:

00:00 Grades, Time Spent on Class
25:44 Instruction Manual Readings
45:39 Instruction Manual Examples
01:25:22 Weekly Writing Assignment

Remember to scroll down to see posts below on this week’s weekly writing assignment and more information about the instructional manual project.

Take notes from the lecture and review the materials that I reference before jumping into this week’s weekly writing assignment.

Visit office hours from 3:00-5:00pm or email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu with your questions!

Week 9, Weekly Writing Assignment

Use this week’s weekly writing assignment as a way to move your instructional manual project forward. In the spirit of the project, here are a set of instructions that guide you through completing this assignment.

  1. As discussed last week, you will need a Gmail/Google Drive account.
  2. Go to drive.google.com.
  3. Click on the “+ New” button in the upper left corner, and then click on Google Docs.
  4. In the new tab/window that opens, you will see the Google Docs editor.
    [It looks like most modern word processor software, such as Microsoft Word or Apple Pages. The difference being that this word processor runs as a web app and your work is saved remotely on Google Drive.]
  5. In the large white box where you see the cursor blinking, begin typing a memo with the headers: TO: Professor Ellis, FROM, DATE, SUBJECT: Instructional Manual Outline for X [where X is what you are creating an instructional manual for].
  6. Looking back at this web page, scroll down to the basic outline quoted below after the numbered list of instructions.
  7. Using your mouse, click-and-drag over basic outline below to highlight it, and then press CTRL-C (PC keyboard) or Command-C (Mac keyboard) on your keyboard to copy the text.
  8. Click on the tab for the Google Doc that you are writing, press “Return” or “Enter” a couple of times to add two lines after your memo header. Then, press CTRL-V or Command-V to paste the basic outline below into your Google Doc.
  9. Edit the basic outline in your Google Doc as appropriate for the set of instructions that you are designing.
  10. Between each point, add notes and keywords that will remind you what needs to be added, developed, and written for each section. Are photos, screenshots, or diagrams needed? Make a note of those. And, in particular, focus on the Directions section by listing out a basic list of instructions that you want to write. These do not have to be fully written out, but they should be a guide to you to follow when you turn this outline into your instructional manual.
  11. Before next week’s lecture, copy-and-paste your memo into a comment made to this post on our OpenLab site. We will discuss how to turn this into your draft instruction manual next week.

Basic Instructional Manual Outline

1.0 Introduction
1.1 Purpose
1.2 Intended Audience
1.3 Scope
1.4 Organization Description
1.5 Conventions (abbreviations, left/right)
1.6 Motivation (answers the “so what” question)
1.7 Safety and Disclaimers
2.0 Description of the Equipment
2.1 Illustration of the Equipment
2.2 Description of the Equipment’s Parts
3.0 List of Materials and Equipment Needed
3.1 Illustration of the Parts Needed to Carry Out the Instructions
3.2 Tools needed
3.3 Table of the parts with description of each
4.0 Directions
4.1 The Task These Directions Are Designed to Show
4.1.1 Step 1 (don’t write Step 1--write a brief statement on what the first step is)
4.1.2 Step 2
4.1.n ...Step n being some number (write as many steps--briefly--as you can think of--you can fill this list out later)
5.0 Troubleshooting
6.0 Glossary
7.0 Reference List

Week 9, Project, Instructional Manual Continued

During this week’s lecture, I will discuss using Google Docs to create your Instructional Manual. Google Docs gives us plenty of writing, layout, and multimedia-rich features that will support your instructional manual’s design. Additionally, Google Docs has a “Publish to Web” feature that lets you turn your instructional manual into a web site that you can easily share with others. This week, we will focus on the layout of your instructional manual and save the publishing features for an upcoming lecture.

I’ll discuss these examples that I made with you in this week’s lecture:

And, I’ll discuss these webpages for generating ideas about how to present relevant information in your instructional manual:

See this week’s weekly writing assignment with your next step in the project–to build an outline and a basic set of instructions or steps, and post that outline in a comment with a memo format. You can find it above!

Week 8, Lecture

Greetings, all! I hope that you used this past week to get caught up on the Expanded Definition project and get some peer review feedback. As described in this week’s lecture and detailed in the new posts below on our OpenLab Course Site, I give you directions about submitting your Expanded Definition project and then discuss our next project, the 1500-2000-Word Instruction or Training Manual. At the end of the video, I go over this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, which is also detailed in a new post below. Remember to watch the lecture, read the new posts, visit office hours on Wednesday 3pm-5pm, and email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu with your questions!

Week 8, Weekly Writing Assignment

For this week’s Weekly Writing Assignment, you will brainstorm what you would like to create a set of instructions or training materials on and write a brief memo, which you will submit as a comment to this post on our OpenLab Course Site.

First, identify what you want to write a set of instructions about for this project. I recommend choosing something that you already have some firsthand experience with that you feel confident enough showing or teaching someone else how to use, build, operate, etc.

Second, find three example instructions online (these could be webpages or PDFs) or in print that you plan to use as models. These would be instructions or training manuals give you ideas about how to approach the creation of your own instructions or training manual. You may include links to some of the examples that I showed in the lecture, but it would be better if you can find some on your own so that you read and study as many examples as possible as there is no one way to create a set of instructions. What you want to aim for is following best practices and identifying the needs of your audience.

Third, write a short memo addressed to Prof. Ellis that includes a memo header at the top with a relevant subject line of your choosing, a body that states what you will create an instruction or training manual for, and APA-formatted references to three example instruction or training manuals that you have found (if it’s in print, format it as a print book likely with no author, and if it is electronic, format it as an electronic source). Copy-and-paste your memo into a comment submitted to this post on our OpenLab Course Site.

Week 8, Project, Introducing the 1500-2000-Word Instructional or Training Manual

Individual: 1500-2000-Word Instructional or Training Manual, 15%
Individually, you will write a 1500-2000-word instructional or training manual that demonstrates: 1. ability to explain a task/process in clear, concise language. selection and definition of appropriate terminology and concepts. 3. awareness of the intended user/audience. 4. knowledge of instructional manual format. All diagrams, illustrations, or photos must be created by the student and integrated into his or her manual. Any outside sources cited should be documented according to APA format.

Since we modified the schedule and pushed things back a week, this project will now be due by the end of Week 11 (Nov 4-Nov 11). Originally, this was due during Week 10 according to the syllabus.

Instructional or Training Manual

  • For our purposes, we will say instructional manuals are external facing, meaning they are meant for end users, customers, or clients.
  • Training manuals are internal facing documents, meaning they are meant for employees, contractors, and colleagues.
  • You choose your audience (internal or external).
  • Its word count should be 1500-2000 words.
  • Combine words with pictures, illustrations (drawings), and/or screenshots. Any images that you use must be created by you or taken by you.
  • Clearly define the purpose of your manual. What does it teach? What does it help a person do? What task or tasks does it help someone complete in a straightforward and easy manner?
  • Telling versus showing. Always aim for showing, but provide the telling as context, clarification, and additional information.
  • Use the body of your document for writing, steps, etc. Don’t be afraid to include text boxes and end notes.
  • Provide a cover sheet, table of contents, introduction/purpose, and glossary of important terms. It can be as few or as many pages as needed.
  • Be consistent with your explanations and learn from similar kinds of manuals about what terms you should be using to explain how to do something (e.g., tapping, pressing, clicking, holding, dragging, typing, etc.).

Let’s look at some examples (using Google, enter terms including “instructions,” “user manual or guide,” and “filetype:pdf” modifier to find others).

Find your own examples for ideas and inspiration. The reading for this section of the class has to do with your own research into what instruction manuals look like.

Think about what you know enough about that you can teach it to someone else and it is something that you want to include in your professional portfolio.

Of course, choose a task or process that you have realistic access to the hardware, software, etc. that you will need for creating your instruction manual.

As you write and revise your instructions, you will want to test them with the intended audience to ensure that they are correct and easy to understand. Obtaining user feedback ensures that your instructions work, but if they don’t, you can use feedback to revise your instructions accordingly.

Look at this week’s weekly writing assignment to begin the brainstorming and initial research for your instruction manual.

Week 8, Project, Submitting Your 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project

Now that you’ve had an extra week to catch up on the Expanded Definition project and perform peer review, this week I will show you how to submit your final draft to our OpenLab Course Site, which you should do before next Wednesday’s lecture (Oct. 21).

As noted previously, your document should resemble this model with headings for each section. Please remember that the bracketed information should not appear in your final document–it’s only for explanation from me to you.

Your Name's Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM

TO: Prof. Jason Ellis
FROM: Your Name
DATE: Due Date
SUBJECT: Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM

Introduction [Heading Level 2]
What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]
Quote several definitions of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and parenthetical citations for each definition, and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc.

Context [Heading Level 2]
Quote several sentences from a variety of sources that use the term in context. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal or two, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should be in quotes, have a parenthetical citation, and a bibliographic entry in your references at the end of your document.

Working Definition [Heading Level 2]
Based on the definitions that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that's relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]
Order your APA-formatted bibliographic references by the author's last name, alphabetically. In your posted version, they do not need a hanging indent. And, they should not be in a bulleted list.

For APA citations, refer to the Purdue OWL’s APA guide and if you do any indirect quotes, use this guide on the Simon Fraser Library’s website.

To turn in your work, you will create a new post on our OpenLab site as you did for the 500-Word Summary project. The steps below should get you started.

Place a check next to 750-word expanded definition under categories.

Enter your post's title.
Begin your post with a heading block.
Enter your heading's text and select H2.
Start a new paragraph block and paste your introduction's text there.
Start a new heading block and enter it's title.
Type in your heading's title and press enter to begin a new paragraph block.

If you have questions about posting, please email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu.

Week 7, Lecture

This week, I propose shifting the scheduled work to Week 8 and using Week 7 to catch up on the 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project. This means, I want you to use the time that you would have spent watching a longer lecture to work on your Expanded Definition: complete your first draft, give and receive feedback via peer review, get additional peer review during your drafting (as per the short lecture above), and complete a final draft of your Expanded Definition, which I will give you instructions for submitting next week.

There’s no additional Weekly Writing Assignment–complete peer review by giving and receiving feedback to receive that credit.

We will pick things up on submitting your Expanded Definition and beginning the Instruction Manual Project next week. If you have questions after watching the lecture above, email me at jellis at citytech.cuny.edu or stop by my office hours on Wednesday, Oct. 7 between 3:00pm-5:00pm or by appointment.

Grades are almost ready on the Article Summary Project. I’m very proud of the work many of you put into your work. Of course, I hope you will all consider revising your writing to make it even stronger before it goes into your professional portfolio or for a publishing opportunity.

Also, check out the Opportunities link in the navigation menu on the left for some things that I talk about in the lecture that would be beneficial to you.

Week 6, Weekly Writing Assignment

Watch for peer review emails from Prof. Ellis to each team on Wednesday afternoon.

Complete your Expanded Definition first draft as soon as possible.

Then, click “Reply All” to the peer review email from Prof. Ellis.

In the body of your email, write a polite and professional message to your teammates that includes an ask for feedback on your paper and an offer to help others by giving your feedback to them on their papers.

Below this message to your teammates, copy-and-paste the text of your Expanded Definition draft from your word processing software into the body of your email. This makes it easier for your teammates to read your writing without having to download and open a file using additional software. Put another way, please do not attach files or include links to your document on a cloud-based platform. Simply select all of your writing in the open document, switch to your email, and copy-and-paste your text from your document below the message to your teammates.

When you receive emails from your teammates asking for feedback, click Reply All and write a polite and professional email with advice about how to make their work better.

In particular, please address the four following points in your reply to your teammates:

  1. Are there the main sections present: introduction, definitions, context, working definition, and references? If something is missing or needs development, please point that out to the author.
  2. In the definitions section, are there at least two library sourced definitions and are they discussed in the author’s own words?
  3. In the context section, how many sentences are quoted, are they all cited, and are they discussed in the author’s own words?
  4. Look over each in-text citation and reference and see if they follow APA format. You don’t have to correct them but if something seems off, you should recommend that the author double check these before turning in their work.

Week 5, Weekly Writing Assignment

This week’s Weekly Writing Assignment has two parts: one part that you will submit as a comment to this post by next week and one part that you will develop on your own in preparation for next week’s Weekly Writing Assignment.

First, the part that you turn in this week is a sampling of your research. I would like you to add a comment to this post with three quotes from your research with parenthetical, in-text citations and the three bibliographic references for those quotes. For this task, you do not need to format it as a memo. The quotes, citations, and bibliographic references is all that I need to see. This will show me that you are doing the important research needed for this project. These quotes and references should go eventually into your 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project. Your comment should look something like this with the information filled in:

“This is a quote” (Author, Year, pp. pages).

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

“This is a second quote” (Author, Year, pp. pages).

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

“This is a third quote” (Author, Year, pp. pages).

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Second, you should begin writing a first draft of your 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project on your own. I don’t need to see this yet, but you will use it for peer review and next week’s weekly writing assignment. It’s important to write as much as you can. In the lecture, I mention how important it is to spend time doing the research first to locate definitions to quote through the library and then find sentences using your term to quote in library and web-based sources. Below, I am including a general format of your Expanded Definition Project memo. Feel free to copy-and-paste it into the document that you are writing as your first draft. Delete my text as needed. Also, the bracketed text for headings should be removed. These are guidelines for how your document should look when you submit it in a couple of weeks.

Your Name’s Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM [Title for your OpenLab Post]

TO: Prof. Jason Ellis

FROM: Your Name

DATE: Due Date

SUBJECT: Expanded Definition of YOUR TERM

Introduction  [Heading Level 2] 

What is the purpose of this document? What term are you defining? How are you discussing the way it is defined and the way it is used in context? Describe a road map for what follows (definitions and context). This content should be published as paragraphs, unlike the heading for this section, which is a level 2 heading.

Definitions [Heading Level 2]

Quote several definitions of the term that you selected. Provide quotes and parenthetical citations for each definition and include your sources in the References section at the end of the document. Each definition that you include deserves discussion in your words about what it means and how it relates to the other definitions that you include. Consider how they are alike, how are they different, who might use one versus another, etc.

Context [Heading Level 2]

Quote several sentences from a variety of sources that use the term in context. A range of sources would provide the best source material for your discussion of how the term is used in these contexts. For example, a quote from an academic journal or two, a quote from a newspaper or magazine, a quote from a blog, and a quote from social media would give you a range of uses that might have different audiences. For each quote, you should devote at least as much space as the quote discussing what it means in that context and how it relates to the other quotes in context. Each quote should be in quotes, have a parenthetical citation, and a bibliographic entry in your references at the end of your document.

Working Definition [Heading Level 2]

Based on the definitions that you quoted and discussed, and the contextual uses of the term that you quoted and discussed, write a working definition of the term that’s relevant to your career field or major, which you will need to identify (this is the specific context for your working definition).

References [Heading Level 2]

Order your APA-formatted bibliographic references by the author’s last name, alphabetically.

Week 5, Lecture

Also, as I mentioned in the lecture, I created a Job Search Advice website this past weekend. It includes a video lecture on job hunting, resume and cover letter writing, and interviewing. Also, I included links to sample documents and templates, and links to other valuable resources. This isn’t a required part of the class, but I hope that some of you might find it useful. We can talk about job hunting during office hours, too.

Week 4, Project, Posting Your 500-Word Summary Project

Refer to this week’s lecture for more details on how to post your 500-Word Summary project to our OpenLab Course Site.

Below, I am including some screenshots to guide you through the process of creating a post for your 500-Word Summary.

To begin your own Post, login to OpenLab, navigate to our Course Site, mouseover the "+" icon, and click "Post."

To begin your own Post, login to OpenLab, navigate to our Course Site, mouseover the “+” icon, and click “Post.”

Before typing anything, look under Categories on the right and add a check next to "500-Word Summary."

Before typing anything, look under Categories on the right and add a check next to “500-Word Summary.”

Click in the "Add Title" section to enter your title (e.g., Summary of Lin's "3D Layering of Integrated Circuits"). Then, click in the "Start Writing" area and copy-and-paste your 500-Word Summary memo from your word processor into this area.

Click in the “Add Title” section to enter your title (e.g., Summary of Lin’s “3D Layering of Integrated Circuits”). Then, click in the “Start Writing” area and copy-and-paste your 500-Word Summary memo from your word processor into this area.

After copyediting your work to ensure everything is as you want it to be, click on "Publish" and then click "Publish" on the next screen. Verify that your post is live on the site by clicking on "ENG2575 Technical Writing" at the top center to return to our Course Site.

After copyediting your work to ensure everything is as you want it to be, click on “Publish” and then click “Publish” on the next screen. Verify that your post is live on the site by clicking on “ENG2575 Technical Writing” at the top center to return to our Course Site.

Week 4, Weekly Writing Assignment

While we are concluding the first 500-Word Summary Project, we are moving ahead with the 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Project. It is described on the syllabus as:

Individual: 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition, 10%
Individually, you will write a 750-1000 word expanded definition of a technical or scientific term, with cover memo, which demonstrates: 1. correct memorandum format. 2. knowledge of the etymology and historical development of the term. 3. examples of the term’s use in various written contexts. 4. ability to compare and contrast various uses of the term. 5. use and citation of sources with proper attribution. 6. awareness of audience. At least three library-sourced citations are required and should be cited following APA format.

For this week’s writing assignment, I would like you to do some brainstorming about what term you would like to explore in this project.

To that end, write a short memo with the following information:

  • Memo Block (TO, FROM, DATE, SUBJECT: 750-1000-Word Expanded Definition Brainstorming)
  • One sentence stating three terms that you will choose from.
  • One sentence definition for each of the three terms in your own words–no citing, no looking at the web, use only what is in your own brain.
  • After using the databases, Oxford English Dictionary, and ebooks available through the Library’s website, write one sentence stating which of the three terms you have selected as the focus of your expanded definition project.

Save your memo some place safe and then copy-and-paste it into a comment made to this post.

Collaborative Project on Phishing Attacks in Cybersecurity

The objective of this collaborative project is to inform the audience about the impact of phishing attacks in cybersecurity . You can view our project website here. This project was created by David Requena, Nargis Anny, Tasnuba Anika, Teodor Barbu, and Stephan Dominique.

Ye Lin Htut’s Instruction Manual for How to Build your own Powerful PC tower and Installing the Operating System

For this project, I have created an instruction manual on how to building your own powerful PC tower and Installing the Operating System