Fall 2001
4-7pm Wednesdays Gore Hall 124 and Memorial Computer Classroom (ground floor)
Instructor: Stephen A. Bernhardt
Office Memorial 23
Phone 831 3351
Instructor email sab@udel.edu (goes to me)
Class email engl312-022-01F@udel.edu (goes to whole class and me)
office hours Tuesdays 2-4;Wednesday 2-330; and by appointment
Alred, Gerald J., Charles T. Brusaw, and Walter E. Oliu. The Business Writer’s Handbook. 6th Edition. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2000.
Kynell, Theresa C., and Wendy Krieg Stone. Scenarios for Technical Communication: Critical Thinking and Writing. Boston: Allyn and Bacon 1999.
This course is an advanced course in the special demands of writing in business and professional settings. It meets the requirement for the second writing course. You must have passed Eng 110 or an equivalent course to enroll in this course. We will work part of our time in a regular classroom (Gore 204) and part time in a computer classroom (Memorial, ground floor).
We'll begin with several assignments which we work through together, with everyone working at the same case studies. As we move into the term, however, you will work on individual and team projects. My assumption is that some of you have ideas about what you want to work on; so I will give you some opportunity to plan your own work. You can adapt assignments to meet your own goals.
Working collaboratively is an important aspect of the course. We will count on each other throughout the course, sometimes as research partners, sometimes as peer reviewers, sometimes as a full class. I will give each of you careful criticism of your work and try to be responsive to your needs for individual help.
This course is intended to make you a better writer. Writing is one of the most important life skills you have: it will open doors, be a source of pleasure and satisfaction, and help you reach your goals. Like any writing (or skill development) course, what you get out of this course is in large measure dependent on what you put in. I can't force you to pay attention or read carefully or put lots of time and energy into the assignments (though I will try to be very persuasive). I can help set you on the right course, but the energy and commitment must come from you.
I expect you to take advantage of my office hours for one-on-one conferences. You can either schedule an appointment or drop in during my hours. I like it when you have specific issues you want to work on: to talk over ideas for a paper, to review an outline, to plan research, to revise a draft.
You should communicate with me and the class via email. We can discuss issues as a group on email. You will also be able to ask the group for information about assignments, strategies, or requirements via the list. This is a class where we will consciously practice good, professional communication in the context of doing our work.
If you have a question about how to do an assignment or want help, write to the class email (engl312-022-01F@udel.edu), so everyone benefits from your question. If you are not sure about something, there will be other people in class with the same question. If you write to me personally, but I think the class would benefit from discussion the issue, I will forward your question to the group.
Develop your skills to work online with electronic texts. You can turn in assignments via email attachments, and I will give you feedback and return the text as an attachment. When you send me texts, be sure to write a message in the email telling me what kind of help you would like, where you are having trouble, and whether I am looking at a draft or a final text to be graded. If you would rather create a web page (html) text instead of a paper text, talk it over with me and we can adjust the assignment.
We have a lot of work in this course and I am sure you will feel busy. But should you want to undertake any kind of writing not required—for work or for pleasure—I would be happy to read and react to it and to give you extra credit. I won’t, for example, require a vita or job cover letter, since so many classes seem to require these documents. But you can develop yours on your own and I will be happy to give you advice. Let the class know if there is a certain kind of writing you would like to do. I also give extra credit when a student provides outstanding help to others in the class.
Your grade will be based primarily on the average of your grades from individual assignments.
A Outstanding, beyond expectations, well designed and edited, strong and interesting content, thorough, professional
B Good work, highly acceptable, responsive to task, informative, gets the job done
C Just satisfactory, has some problems, would not get you favorable attention in the workplace
D Unsatisfactory, not professional, poor information, lack of research background, would call bad attention to your work, not responsive to task
F Careless, sloppy, missing information, bad analysis, would get you in trouble in work settings
0 Not completed; worse than F
Written work is due at the beginning of class, unless otherwise announced. A late paper will be graded down one full grade. Papers will not be accepted more than one week after they are due.
Some work will be graded check (√) for satisfactory, √+ for better than expected, and √- for worse than expected. These marks can influence your grade up or down.
Homework, class participation, and work habits all influence your grade. I will give you an evaluation of your progress at any time you request it—the grade I would give you if your work continued at the current level.
Since this is a workshop class, participation is important and I will credit you during grading on the basis of your overall participation, contributions, and leadership. Bring samples of interesting writing to class to share. Talk in class about what you are learning. Help others be successful. Take an active role and your grade will take care of itself.
To participate, you need to be in class, on time, having read the work and being prepared to work. This class meets only once per week, so a class equals three regular meetings. We will follow the University policies on excused absences (see the catalog). To validate such an absence, the student should present evidence to the Dean's Office of his or her college. The Dean's Office will then provide a letter of verification to all of the student's instructors for the term.
I can accept one absence for personal reasons or special events, as long as you explain to me in a written memo the reason for your absence. You should do this before the absence, if possible. You should make sure all your work is on time. Additional absences will cause your grade to be lowered. If you miss a class, talk to someone or see me to be sure you don't miss important information about assignments.
I cannot accept habitual tardiness or absence, nor can I accept work that is late or poorly done. Withdrawing from class within deadlines is up to you. I will initiate withdrawal procedures if someone misses several classes (3-4) during the first four weeks of the term and is obviously not going to pass the course.
Students with disabilities should use the services the University provides: diagnosis, support, special consideration. Let me know if you have a disability that affects your performance in this class and we will find ways to work together, in confidence. Sit up front if you need to see or hear better. Ask me to repeat if you have trouble understanding.
1) Attend class
2) Deadlines are an important part of a professional writer's life. It is important to keep up and to bring the work to class that is requested. Keep track of reading, writing, and homework assignments in your planner. Late assignments will be graded down one full grade.
3) Drafts: When the syllabus calls for a “draft” version of your work, that means a complete, word processed document that is ready for review and revision. If you don’t bring strong, complete drafts to our workshops, we can’t work together. I will give checks or zeros to those who show up with or without their drafts on the due dates.
4) Word process all major assignments. I am not concerned with how you prepare short exercises or planning documents, though doing exercises on a word processor may be easiest. We will make good use of the computer lab. If you have a Mac at home, learn to save and convert files to Windows format. If you are using recent MS Word versions on either Mac and PCs, the files are interchangeable.
5) Format texts according to what kind of document you are composing. Use plenty of white space, ample margins, boldface, underlining, headings, and other devices to highlight the organization of your texts. Use headers and footers to label your text well. Double space only if it makes sense for your document. Be consistent in documenting sources: follow an acceptable style guide (APA, CBE, Chicago). We will discuss format in class, and I will always be ready to take questions. Title pages and blank pages are rarely necessary. Save a tree.
6) Collaboration with another writer in the course is typically an option. We learn a lot by working collaboratively with other writers. If two of you work together, put both names on the text and put a copy in each portfolio. You also must plan at least two or more assignments to be completed on your own, without co-authoring with other students (though you should still get others to review your work).
7) Printing and saving assignments: Keep a copy of all assignments, both your originals and graded assignments. Always back up your work. You will lose files, so protect yourself and your grade. Print your assignment well before class so you are ready to turn in your work. Having file or disk problems or being unable to get to a printer is not an excuse for late work nor for being tardy, just an example of bad planning. Do not plan to print your assignment when our class goes to the computer lab—it is due when you arrive.
Simply stated, "plagiarism" is presenting as your own original work something that is not. If you borrow words, ideas, or information from other people and include those under your name, you must properly document and make fair use of the borrowed material. This requirement applies to visuals and data, web-based and electronic information, as well as published and printed text.
The University of Delaware protects the rights of all students by insisting that individual students act with integrity. Accordingly, the University severely penalizes plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty. See the section on "Conduct Expectations" within the student handbook. The Faculty Handbook says "It is the official policy of the University of Delaware that all acts or attempted acts of alleged academic dishonesty be reported to the Dean of Students Office. At the faculty member's discretion, and with the concurrence of the student or students involved, some cases, though reported to the Dean of Students Office, may be resolved within the confines of the course. All others will be adjudicated within the Undergraduate Student Judicial System."
If you have any questions about why and how to document sources, please see your text, pp. 94-97. Talk with me about any issue of concern before it potentially becomes an issue of plagiarism. The Writing Center's web site provides a useful handout on plagiarism designed to help students understand the difference between types of plagiarism:
(http://www.english.udel.edu/wc/handouts/plagiarism.html)
Plagiarism can cause you to fail the course.
Do not give me work that someone else wrote. Do not give me work that you wrote for another class (unless you talk it over with me and the other professor and it makes great sense to combine the assignments). Do not copy passages from printed or web material or borrow ideas without giving credit. Always let your reader know where information comes from. Ask questions about how to avoid plagiarism. This is not an idle issue–each term we discipline numerous students for stupid acts of plagiarism. As a member of the academic community, you have the ethical obligation to understand plagiarism and to be as honest as you can when using another person's writing or ideas.