Having designed and taught two successful courses of Writing & Editing for Gaming and a semester of Tabletop Game Writing Lab, my proposal to teach a Technical Writing course has been officially approved, as of this week, by the Communication Department at Taylor University. Really looking forward to designing and teaching this new course in the fall.
I still have a lot of details to work out, but it is happening this Fall. I am working with the department chairs to finalize the syllabus, then I will reach out to potential guest speakers I would like for the course. As the course solidifies, I will post again with more details. For now, here are drafts of sections from the syllabus. These will likely alter slightly as we finalize the course, but they will give you a feel of my design process for this course.
Credit Hours: 3
Prerequisites: ENG 110 AND CAS 110 or CAS 120
Textbook: The Essentials of Technical Communication by Elizabeth Tebeaux and Sam Dragga
Course Description:
Technical Writing prepares students to design effective technical documents for both written and oral communication. The courses emphasizes business communications, technical reports, scientific papers, compliance reporting, and technical documentation.
Course Outcomes:
- Apply ethical standards to technical documents
- Utilize structures appropriate to technical documents
- Cite sources in conventional forms and formats
- Evaluate and critique technical documents
- Design effective technical documents for both print and oral presentations
Tentative Course Schedule:
September 2 – Intro to course
September 4 – Writing at work vs Writing at school
Week of September 7 – Audience
Week of September 14 – Ethics
Week of September 21 – Style
Week of September 28 – Documents and Illustrations
Week of October 5 – Business Communication
Week of October 12 – Business Communication (Guest Speaker)
Week of October 19 – Business Communication
Week of October 26 – Technical Reports (Guest Speaker)
Week of November 2 – Scientific Papers (Guest Speaker)
Week of November 9 – Project Reporting
Week of November 16 – Government and Compliance Reporting (Guest Speaker)
Week of November 23 – Technical Documentation
Week of November 30 – Technical Documentation (Guest Speaker)
Week of December 7 – Final Project Presentations
Week of December 14 – Final Project Presentations (Exam Week)
Have you taken or taught a Technical Writing course before? If so, any pointers for teaching Technical Writing at the university level or guest speakers you suggest I consider?
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