I cannot teach you everything you will ever need to know about writing. Every workplace and every field requires different skills. New writing formats are created all the time. Existing formats change. Without a magic wand, it’s impossible to know what each of you will need in the future.
Instead of trying to teach you every possible way of writing, this course focuses on how to survive in the workplace without a teacher telling you how to write. We will review many kinds of writing in our readings, but you will write documents that are specifically important to your career and learn techniques to research kinds of writing on your own. By the end of the course, you should be prepared to figure out how to write anything you need in the future.
Course Requirements and Assessment
Your course grade is comprised of three parts, shown in the following chart. Each portion is described in more detail below the chart.
Major Written Projects (70% of your course grade)
The Work You Need to Do
There are four major projects in this course:
- Professional Bio
- Analysis of Writing in Your Field
- Proposal with Resume
- Genre Analysis Report (counts double)
How Grading Works
Each assignment includes a rubric that outlines the requirements for the project. All major projects are graded on the default Virginia Tech A/F grade scale with +/-. Because of the short length of the Winter Session, there are no rewrites or revisions once work has been graded.
Quizzes (15% of your course grade)
The Work You Need to Do
You need to know about all of the kinds of writing covered in the textbook, even though you may not write all of these kinds of writing during the term. To demonstrate your understanding, you will take quizzes.
Quizzes
Most quizzes in this course are designed to help you identify the key points in the readings. You can take a multiple-choice quiz on every chapter in the course textbook, Practical Strategies for Technical Communication by Mike Markel.
- All quizzes in this course are open book.
- There are fifteen chapters, so there will be a minimum of fifteen quizzes.
- Quizzes may be added for other readings.
Because of possible delays in getting textbooks for the course, the quizzes are open until the end of the term.
How Grading Works
- You can take the quizzes an unlimited number of times, so you can retake them until you get the grade you want.
- There are no do-overs or make-ups. If you do not complete a quiz by the end of the grace period, you get a zero.
- You will receive immediate grades when you submit quizzes.
Quiz grades are calculated on the default Virginia Tech A/F grade scale with +/-.
Participation (15% of your course grade)
The Work You Need to Do
Your participation in this course is based on the work that you do in discussion posts, writing group conversations, and other informal activities.
You will log your work, noting where and how you contribute to the on-going conversations in the course. At the end of the term, you will write a completion report (as your final exam) that explains what you have done and provides a self-evaluation of your participation.
How Grading Works
You will participate by writing and replying to discussion posts, writing group conversations, and other informal activities. You will track your participation and evaluate yourself at the end of the term.
Participation is calculated on the default Virginia Tech A/F grade scale with +/-.