ENGL315-001: Professional Writing
Spring 2001--12:30-1:45, MW

General Information

Instructor: Bruce Closser
Office: Nethery Hall 116
Hours: As posted
Phones: 471-3172 (office)/473-5480 (home)
E-mail: closserb@andrews.edu

Course Description and Objectives

ENGL315: Professional Writing is a new course this year. It is designed with the written demands of the work place in mind. Students in this class will receive "practice in adapting writing to a variety of professional audiences and tasks, including resumes, proposals, business and technical reports, web writing, and collaborative writing." The course will feature traditional readings from appropriate texts and written works one might expect to encounter in the professional work place.

At the conclusion of this course, you will have

  1. Reviewed your knowledge of the writing process and of strategies for analyzing a rhetorical context and designing writing to meet that context.

  2. Explored how to adapt this knowledge to the various writing demands of the professional world, including those tasks referred to in the course description: resumes, proposals, business and technical reports, web writing, and collaborative writing.

  3. Developed a portfolio of writing projects representative of the written tasks you might encounter in the workplace; such tasks will include those referred to in Objective 2 as well as others which emerge in class discussion.

Textbook

Kolin, Philip C. Successful Writing at Work 6th Ed. Boston: Houghton, Mifflin, 2001. Reading in the text will be selected according to writing tasks assigned.

Requirements/ Assignments

During this course you will complete a variety of writing tasks typical of the workplace, including those listed below. If you look closely at each of them, particularly the way they are sequenced, you'll notice that they have a distinctively academic flavor, though all disciplines in one way or another make use of these kinds of writing tasks.

Some of these tasks are short can be done quickly with little research; others will require more time and effort. Due dates for each assignment will be announced and posted on the class web page which you will see referred to again in the Schedule of Activities section below.

Policies

The following policies will be in effect during this course:

During the semester, class time will be devoted to a variety of activitiesclass discussions, small group meetings, conferences, library research, and possibly public speaking. Since this is a professional writing course, you will complete a variety of writing tasks, each of which will make different rhetorical demands on you. Class time will be devoted to discussing not only the readings from the text, but also strategies appropriate to preparing for and writing each assignment.

Much of our emphasis will be on process; it is essential that you participate actively in every aspect of your paper's development. This will involve not only class attendance, but also attendance at writing conferences with me or with consultants in the writing center or with others who may be helpful in developing each writing task.

Your attendance and participation in each of these activities is absolutely necessary. Absences, excused or otherwise, may lower your final grade by as much as one full letter, depending on number and circumstances. I will abide by the University Bulletin policy regarding absences which states that students who miss more than 20% of the total course appointments may receive a failing grade. In this course, 20% is six absences. If you accrue more than six absences plan to withdraw from the course to avoid failure.

Since computers do malfunction, make a practice of saving your work regularly in multiple locations. It is your responsibility to keep copies of your work until the final grade is submitted.

It is also your responsibility to be able to prove "ownership" of the final paper. You must be able to produce on demand any research notes, source material (either the actual sources or photocopies thereof) used in your research. Evidence of academic dishonesty will result in either failure of the specific work or of the course in general.

All written work must be typed; format and layout of each task will be determined by the nature of the task.

Written work is due when announced in the Schedule of Activities found on the class web page. If you are unable to meet a due date, please make prior arrangements.

Grading Policy

Each writing task will be worth 100 points. All writing tasks will be weighted equally. Your grade, based on the total number of points possible, will be determined according to this scale: