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COM/135 Week 1

Technical Writing Basics

Checkpoint: What is Technical Writing?     

• Explain the importance of technical writing in the workplace.
• Give an example of three different types of technical writing (excluding emails and memos) and explain the purpose of each.
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

For your final project, you are going to write an instruction manual [user manual] for a product of your choice.  Follow the prewriting process and:

• Examine and state your purpose for the manual.
• Determine and state the goal for your manual.
• Consider and write a brief statement about your audience.
• Use one of the data gathering techniques to begin prewriting your manual and include your results. 
• Paper must be a minimum 400 words and follow APA guidelines.
  

Role of the Audience

Checkpoint: Understanding Your Audience

You are writing your user manual for a lay-audience—your audience has never seen packaged, sliced bread; glass (or plastic) jars; butter knives; or sticks and tubs of butter—what would you do to ensure their understanding?  Be sure to discuss:

• Who is your audience?  Men? Women? Old? Young?
• What level is your audience?  High-tech, low-tech, lay-, or mixed?  Explain.
• Will your audience represents different levels of education, some come from different backgrounds, use different colloquialisms?  For example, “pop,” “soda,” and “co-cola.”
• How will you make sure to reach as much of your audience as possible without using condescending or offensive language?
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

Which of the five objectives in Technical Writing do you think is the most important?  Explain.

How does the audience influence technical writing?  Explain.

COM/135 Week 3

Written Communication in a Corporate Environment

Checkpoint: Thesis Statement and Topic Outline

• Your thesis statement is the sentence in which you state the purpose and goal of your document.  It should be as clear and concise as possible. 
• Write a thesis statement for your user manual. 
• Write a topic outline by dividing your document into major sections (see the example on page 457).  You must include all of the mandatory sections for the user manual
• Provide at least two subsections in each of the primary sections.
• There is no minimum word count. Must follow APA guidelines.

• List and briefly describe each of the seven types of letters you may come across in the workplace. 
• Do not simply paraphrase the list on page 173; you must include detail from the rest of the chapter.
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

Write a business letter using one of the seven types described in Chapter 6.  See the Exercises on page 216 for letter ideas.
Use proper letter formatting.
Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

COM/135 Week 4

Techniques

Checkpoint: Article Summary

• Find an online article of at least 1000 words and summarize it using the techniques described in Chapter 15.
• Follow the guidelines in the Axia Writing Handbook to format your summary.
• Cite any quotations or paraphrases, and document the source of the article in a reference list at the end of your summary
  Include the URL of the article.
• Paper must be between 5% and 15% the length of the original article and follow APA guidelines.
• Note: Game, movie, or any kind of review is not appropriate for this assignment.
  

Supporting Activity

What constitutes a well-constructed summary?

Supporting Activity

What two primary goals do you achieve when you delete unnecessary information or biased comments from a summary?

COM/135 Week 5

Technical Descriptions and User Manuals

CheckPoint:  Characteristics of Good Instructions 

• Review the instructions for the TurnItIn software utility (posted in Course Materials).
• Use the “Usability Checklist” (pages 382-383 in your text) to determine if these are good or bad instructions.
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.
  

• Create a table to compare the criteria for short instructions vs. the criteria for a user manual.
• You may use bulleted lists provided they are formatted correctly.
• You must include a brief introduction describing the contents of the table and what overall conclusion can be made from the data. 
• For example: The table below shows the similarities and differences between dogs and cats.  According to the table, dogs are way better.
• There is no minimum word count for this assignment.  Must follow APA guidelines

COM/135 Week 6

Reports

Assignment: Write a Progress Report

• Write a progress report based on the Project Management scenario given on page 488 of your text.
• Be sure to include all of the required criteria (pages 490-491) for this type of report.
• Use the examples on pages 492 and 493 to include the necessary sections and format the report properly.
• Your paper must be a minimum of 400 words and follow APA guidelines.

Supporting Activity

What is the appropriate writing style for a research report?  Support your response.

Supporting Activity

How can you create a reader-friendly, researched report?  Explain and support your answer.

COM/135 Week 7

Remote Support Technologies

Checkpoint: RFP Analysis (Clark County Request for Proposal)

• What does the acronym AF AIT PMO stand for?
• What is the purpose of the RFP?
• What items are the Air Force looking for?
• When should bidders deliver their proposals?
• Where should the bidders deliver their proposals?
• How will the contract be awarded?
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.
  
  

• Submit a draft of your manual for review.
• This is NOT a rough draft, but an entrance into the re-writing stage of the technical writing process. 
• Your draft should be as complete as possible so that I can help you sand off the rough edges.
• The more complete your draft, the more I can help with comments and suggestions.
• Blank pages containing only headings or explanations of what will eventually go there are unacceptable.
• Draft must be at least six pages and follow APA guidelines.

COM/135 Week 8

Problem-Solving Strategies

Checkpoint: Figure/Image Integration

• Integrate three different types of figures (279-282) into a Word document.  Note: Figure types include photos, tables, clipart, etc.
• Use text wrapping to position text next to (either right or left) the figure.
• Write a few sentences about the subject of the figure as if it were included in a formal paper (see example below).
• Be sure to use as many of the criteria for effective figures as apply.  This ALWAYS includes figure number, figure title, and an introductory sentence.
• Figure descriptions should total at least 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

Supporting Activity

How can you help your readers access your information, filtering out tangential or extraneous information?

Supporting Activity

Explain three different ways to make figures effective.

COM/135 Week 9

Capstone and Final Project

Capstone: Integration of the Technical Writing Process

• Think about the information and skills you have learned over the past nine weeks and answer the following questions.
• Which topics covered in this course were the most important to you?
• How will you use this information in your technical communication?
• How will this information affect your employment opportunities?
• Explain your answers and provide examples.
• Paper must be a minimum 200 words and follow APA guidelines.

Final Project: User Manual

Your goal is to create an easy-to-use manual that provides all the information and instructions needed to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  If you have nut allergies or do not eat peanut butter, you may make a butter and jelly sandwich.  Note: Instructor allowed me to do a User Manual on Peanut Butter Cookies.

• Cover Page (mandatory)
• Table of Contents (mandatory)
• Warnings and cautions (optional):  You will need to include any warnings and cautions for dangerous steps or risky behavior.
• Introduction (mandatory)
• List of Materials (mandatory)
• Parts Diagram (mandatory):  Create a parts diagram to make it easy for the user to identify each ingredient and tool.  You may use clip art or create your own diagram.  When using clip art, make sure each component has the same look and feel.
• Step-by-Step Instructions (mandatory):  Your audience has never seen packaged, sliced bread, glass (or plastic) jars, butter knives, or sticks and tubs of butter.  This means you will have to include instructions for identifying and opening each of the ingredients, holding and using the butter knife, etc.
• Variations (mandatory):  Include a list of sandwich variations, such as peanut butter and bananas, peanut butter and honey, etc.
  Garnishes (optional):  You may include extra instructions for cutting or garnishing the sandwich
• Warranties (optional)
• Corporate Contact Information (optional)
• Accessories (optional)
• Must follow Axia Writing Handbook (APA) guidelines.
• Must be between 7-10 pages.