University of Calgary

Faculty of Communication and Culture

COMS 363: Professional and Technical Communication
Fall 2008 (Lec. 01)

An on-line course on the Blackboard system:  https://blackboard.ucalgary.ca/webapps/login/

Please check the BB site at least twice a week for course materials, readings, & announcements.

There will be no class meetings or lectures (face to face or virtual), but you will have to be prepared to learn from a variety of printed and multimedia materials.

Instructor:  Dr. Doug Brent                                       ( 220-5458                    Social Sciences 110

E-mail:  dabrent@ucalgary.ca (Please put COMS 363 in your subject line so that I don't miss your message.)

Marking Groups and Markers - There are no face-to-face tutorials in this class; however, all students will be in one of five marking groups on Blackboard. These groups will be assigned at random after the drop/add date, but I may move some students later in the term either to balance marking loads or to bring together students who wish to collaborate on the final project.  If you wish to change groups, please make your request as soon as possible.  You must form your group (if you wish to work as a group) before the proposal is due.

 

If you have questions or concerns, please e-mail the instructor (dabrent@ucalgary.ca ). E-mail your marker only when necessary.

Marking Group 1: Concetta Ranieri cranieri@shaw.ca

Marking Group 2: Calvin Seaman  cbseaman@ucalgary.ca 

Marking Group 3: Gina Grosenick grosenickg@shaw.ca

Marking Group 4: Andrea Hanslip  andreamarker@mac.com

Marking Group 5: Andrea Hanslip  andreamarker@mac.com

 

 

Course description and objectives:

An introduction to professional and technical communication. Note that this section of the course will be offered entirely online.

 

Every workplace calls for different conventions of writing and different generic forms.  This course is not intended to provide a cookbook of all the different recipes you might need.  Rather, it will help you develop general concepts and tools to help you make sense of workplace writing situations as they arise.

 

This course will help you develop

 

• a rhetorical approach to crafting documents--one in which you critically consider your purpose in writing, the needs of your audience(s), and relevant features of the context in which you are writing;

• an understanding of current theories of genre and familiarity with the conventions and composing strategies for a range of written genres, including business correspondence, proposals, and reports;
• document design strategies to ensure that your documents look professional, promote easy retrieval of information, and use visuals to communicate information effectively;
• writing strategies to keep your writing focused, coherent, and readable;
• a sound command of the mechanics of writing and the skills to edit effectively to eliminate common errors in sentence structure, grammar, word use, spelling, and punctuation;
• competence in the use of a standard style of documentation;
• familiarity with a range of resources for professional writers, including tools for online research, for online composing, and for collaborative writing;
• skills in conducting primary research (usability analysis, surveys);
• competence in preparing PowerPoint presentations.

 

The course will also give you the opportunity to develop your skills as an effective member of a collaborative writing team in an online setting.  However, completing your final project with a group is optional, not mandatory.

 

Prerequisite: Second year standing and completion of the University of Calgary Effective Writing Requirement.

 

Required materials & academic support:

Graves, H. & Graves, R. (2007). A strategic guide to technical communication. Peterborough ON: Broadview Press.

Additional readings and resource materials will be posted on the course Blackboard site.

Technical requirements & support:

 

TO DO (1): Before the course begins, please visit the e-learning student help page: http://elearn.ucalgary.ca/elearn/blackboard/students   Here, you will find helpful resources for Blackboard plus links to information about obtaining an IT account, changing your password, and updating your e-mail address in the system. Note that you must have an IT account in order to access Blackboard. If you already have an ....@ucalgary.ca e-mail address, you have the necessary IT account in place. Once you enter the Blackboard platform, check out the help resources located under the HELP button on the menu. As you'll see, these help resources include a list of frequently asked questions (FAQs). If you run into problems, please check this area first.

 

TO DO (2): Before the course begins, please go into the Blackboard site and send an e-mail to yourself. If you do not receive the e-mail, it is your responsibility to update your e-mail address in the system (at the link provided on the e-learn page. If you neglect to update your e-mail address in the system, you will miss important messages related to this online course.

 

Be sure to check your e-mail often and to keep your e-mail box cleaned out. If your e-mail box is full, you may miss important messages and returned course work as messages bounced back to the instructor because of full e-mailboxes will normally not be resent. (Returned messages because of full e-mail boxes tend to be a problem with Hotmail accounts.)

 

TO DO (3): If you do not have PowerPoint and MS Word on your computer, please visit the Microsoft download centre to download the PowerPoint and Word viewers: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/Search.aspx?displaylang=en

You must have composing software that can generate files readable in Microsoft Word 2000 or higher.  If you are not using Microsoft Word, please save your files in a Word-compatible format.  If you are using Microsoft Word 2007, please use the save as feature to save all files as .doc (2003-style) rather than .docx (2007-style).  Markers may have difficulty reading .docx files.

 

If you encounter technical problems, please contact the IT support desk (phone 220-5555 or e-mail itsupport@ucalgary.ca).

Assignments:

 16%    Eight quizzes on reading and editing (each quiz will be a short multiple-choice test in Blackboard)

14%     Two short analysis assignments (500 words)

10%     Project proposal

15%     Wiki memo -- informal report in memo format

15%     PowerPoint presentation & notes      

30%     Final report with Letter of Transmittal

 

Assignment Schedule:

Note:  There will be an assignment or quiz, occasionally both, due almost every week.  Please print out the printable version of the syllabus (on Blackboard) and tape it to your fridge so you don't miss any,

 

Quizzes are due at midnight on Wednesdays.  Written assignments are due at 7:00 pm Mountain time on Fridays.  See below for late penalties.

 

Wed. Sept. 10: Quiz 1 (2%)

Wed. Sept. 17: Quiz 2 (2%)

Note: These first two quizzes are exceptions to the late penalty rule.  For the benefit of students who add the course up to the drop-add date (Sept. 19), they will remain open until midnight Sept. 22.)

Wed. Sept 24: Quiz 3 (2%)

Fri. Sept. 26: Short assignment 1 (reading response) (7%)

Wed. Oct. 1: Quiz 4 (2%)

Fri. Oct. 10: Project proposal (10%)

Wed. Oct. 15: Quiz 5 (2%)

Wed. Oct. 22: Quiz 6 (2%)

Fri. Oct. 24: Wiki Memo (15%)

Wed. Oct. 29: Quiz 7 (2%)

Fri. Nov. 7: Short assignment 2 (analysis of graph or table) (7%)

Wed. Nov. 12: Quiz 8 (2%)

Fri. Nov. 21: PowerPoint presentation (15%)

Friday Dec. 5: Final report (30%)

 

No registrar-scheduled final exam.

 

Notes and advice on course work:

• Please download and follow the Weekly Syllabus of readings posted on the Blackboard site.
• For detailed information on the assignments, including information on how to submit assignments, please see the Assignment Guidelines in the Assignments section in Blackboard.
• Note that all assignments (except quizzes) must be completed in order to pass this course.
• Aim to manage your time effectively. Try to schedule at least five hours every week for reading and work on this course. Break your assignments down into manageable chunks and set a schedule for completing them. Your success in this online course will likely be a measure of your ability to be a well-organized and self-directed learner, a skill that you will bring with you into the workplace.
• If you have questions, don't hesitate to e-mail the instructor. However, if you have a question of potential interest to other students, post it to Discussion Board 1, which will be set up as a Q&A forum for the section.

 

A note on word count:

A supervisor who asks for a two-page memo either will not read a four-page response, or will not be in the best frame of mind when doing so.  However, if it leaks a little onto the third page, and has enough real meat to make it worth reading, few supervisors will complain.  With this in mind, then:

1.  All assignments should stick as closely as possible to the assigned length.  A truly excellent assignment nails the question exactly and is the suggested length.

2.  However, there is a 10% grace in length.  Therefore a 500-word assignment would not be actively penalized until it reached 550 words.  Over 550, no assignment, however brilliant otherwise, would receive a clear A.

 

Note that the report assignment does specifically allow for more than the suggested page length if it contains bulky visuals.  Otherwise the same rules apply to pages as well as number of words.

Don't try to keep down to the required length by using narrow margins and teeny font.  Your markers have all seen that trick before.  Some of us have even tried it.  We got caught every time.

 

Group project option:

The proposal, PowerPoint and final report may be done individually or in a group of up to three members. If you know someone whom you'd like to work with, you may form a group. It will be much easier if you form a group with students who are already in your marking section, but if you want to join someone in another marking section, please let me know and I will try to accommodate you.

 

If you form a group and would like your group space enabled on Blackboard, please email the instructor with the names of all your group members (and indicate what marking section you are in.) Group spaces include a private discussion board, a file exchange tool, and a group email feature.

 

Note on group grades:

 

All group members will normally receive the same grade on group assignments. It is up to each group to ensure that the group's workload is distributed fairly among members and that all group members have a chance to review the final draft of any group document before it is submitted. Note that if a group member's name appears on an assignment but that group member did not contribute to the document, he or she is guilty of plagiarism. Group assignments should include only the names of members who contributed to the document.

 

Due dates, late policy, return of assignments, & grade appeals:

• § You have an automatic 48-hour grace period on all assignments. Once the grace period has elapsed, late assignments will be docked one letter grade level (e.g., from B to B-) for each day the assignment is late (including weekend days). For example, an assignment due Wednesday but submitted the following Tuesday would have a four-level grade deduction for late submission. Assignments submitted late may or may not receive detailed comments. However, all assignments must nonetheless be submitted in order to pass the course, even if they are so late that they receive an F.
• § Quizzes likewise have a 48-hour grace period, but once the grace period has expired, access will be closed and they will not be accepted at all. (Note the exceptions for students who add the course after the first day of classes, described above.)
• § Extensions will be granted only by the instructor and only with good reason.
• § Assignments will normally be returned within two weeks.
• § If you wish to appeal your marker's grade on an assignment, please write the instructor (not the marker) an email explaining exactly why you think the grade should have been higher. You must address your marker's comments specifically and explain which ones you accept and which ones you think are unreasonable. Note, however, that grades may be lowered as well as increased on appeal.

 

Research Ethics

Whenever you perform research with human participants (i.e. surveys, interviews, observation) as part of your university studies, you are responsible for following university research ethics guidelines.  Your instructor must review and approve of your research plans and supervise your research.  For more information about your research ethics responsibilities, see the U of C Research Ethics "Information for Applicants," sections 3.0 to 9.0, inclusive: http://www.ucalgary.ca/UofC/research/html/ethics/info_undergrad.html

Ethics forms and information specific to COMS 363 will be posted on the course Blackboard site.

 

Grades:

Work in this course will be assigned a letter grade, which represents the following percentage range equivalents:

 

	Grading Scale
A+	96-100
A	90-95.99
A -	85-89.99
B+	80-84.99
B	75-79.99
B-	70-74.99
C+	65-69.99
C	60-64.99
C-	55-59.99
D+	53-54.99
D	50-52.99
F	0-49

 

Where a grade on a particular assignment is expressed as a letter grade, it will normally be converted to a number using the midpoint of the scale.  That is, A- would be converted to 87.5 for calculation purposes.  F will normally be converted to zero.

Plagiarism

Feel free to discuss your ideas with others and to have someone review your written work to point out weaknesses and typos. These practices are common in the workplace and do not constitute plagiarism as long as you do the corrections and the rewriting. All of the following, however, constitute plagiarism:

 

• Ÿ passing off the work of others as your own
• Ÿ submitting work that you have done previously (or that you are now doing for another course) as if it were new work done for this course
• Ÿ borrowing wording from published or online material without using quota­tion marks (or formatting long quoted passages according to documentation conventions)
• Ÿ using wording, ideas, information, or graphics from published material or from the internet without acknowledging the source.

 

In other words, using any source whatsoever without clearly documenting it is considered plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious offence: it can result in failure on an assignment, failure of the course, or even suspension or expulsion from university.  (See the University of Calgary Calendar.)

 

Note that you must document not only direct quotations but also paraphrases and ideas where they appear in your text. A reference list at the end is insufficient by itself. Readers must be able to tell exactly where your words and ideas end and other people's words and ideas begin. These requirements apply to assignments submitted in non-traditional formats such as Web pages or visual media, and material taken from such formats. Information about documentation styles is included in your textbook and in the course documents posted on Blackboard. If you need further guidance about whether or how to document a source, please contact your instructor.

 

Students with Disabilities

 

If you are a student with a disability who may require academic accommodation, it is your responsibility to register with the Disability Resource Centre (220-8237) and discuss your needs with your instructor no later than fourteen (14) days after the start of the course.

 

Students' Union

For details about the current Students' Union contacts for the Faculty of Communication and Culture see www.comcul.ucalgary.ca/su

 

"SAFEWALK" Program -- 220-5333

Campus Security will escort individuals day or night -- call 220-5333 for assistance. Use any campus phone, emergency phone or the yellow phone located at most parking lot booths.