Revising a Memo  

One of the best ways to practice writing memos, of course, is to get a job and write lots of memos to actual audiences, but practicing can certainly help. This computer file contains a memo that needs to be revised. In the current version, the main points are difficult to locate, and the supporting details aren’t well organized. You will work to improve this memo to make it work more effectively with its audience.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Editing

Revising Documents for Different Audiences  

In the most effective documents, the data is presented in the way most appropriate for the readers. It matches their expectations for the document, their purposes for reading, and their level of technical expertise. When professionals create documents, they must be mainly concerned with the primary reader. To ensure that you are thinking about your readers, it is often useful to create a reader profile, identifying their key characteristics. This profile allows you to shape the material into a more reader-friendly document. During this exercise, you are going to create an information sheet about melanoma. This exercise has two major stages. First you will complete an audience analysis worksheet by answering questions about your primary audience. Then you will revise text about melanoma of the skin, creating a one-page information sheet that could be distributed to students at a campus science exhibition.

Burnett, Rebecca E. Thomson (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Editing

Rhetoric 3301.03: Editing for Usage, Style and Clarity

Rhetoric 3301 is a writing course in which students work to improve their writing style and clarity while studying the conventions of standard usage.

Nahrwold, Cynthia. University of Arkansas-Little Rock (2002). Academic>Courses>Editing

Rhetoric 3316.06: Writing for the Workplace

Rhetoric 3316 studies and practices 'workplace communication required of professionals who write as part of their jobs. Emphasis on developing a sense of audience and purpose, writing in teams, and learning problem-solving strategies. Intensive practice writing workplace documents such as memos, letters, e-mail, resumes, and reports.'

Nahrwold, Cynthia. University of Arkansas-Little Rock. Academic>Courses>Writing>Business Communication

Rhetoric 5/4304: Technical Style and Editing

Rhetoric 5/4304 emphasizes the editing process of technical materials, which includes the following: knowing different levels of editing, copyediting and proofreading, editing for organization and content, editing graphics, editing for effective document design, and learning how to work effectively and efficiently as a team member. We'll do hands-on editing to give you necessary knowledge/practice and to develop your editing skills.

Nahrwold, Cynthia. University of Arkansas-Little Rock (2002). Academic>Courses>Editing>Technical Editing

Rhetoric and Community Service

In this course, you will extend your critical and rhetorical skills beyond the classroom and the library into the world of community action and service by working or volunteering at least two hours a week at a local nonprofit community service agency or group (dealing, for example, with homeless outreach, adult literacy, tutoring inner-city children, elder care, AIDS support, drug rehabilitation, domestic violence, environmental issues, or civil rights issues). Up to one hour a week on-site may be used to gather information for assignmen

Locker, Kitty O. Ohio State University, The. Academic>Courses>Graduate>Rhetoric

Rhetoric and Technical Communication

The Greek word for persuasion derives from the Greek verb 'to believe' Therefore, we can see that rhetoric may be argumentative but also expository (modes of discourse that seek to win acceptance of information or explanation). This understanding is critical for those of us who seek to accommodate technology or science to a user.

Coppola, Nancy W. New Jersey Institute of Technology. Academic>Courses>Graduate>Rhetoric

Rhetoric, Privacy, and Persuasion in Cyberspace

This course provides a theoretical and critical overview of communication in cyberspace, such as email, MOOs, Web pages, Usenet newsgroups, e-lists, and other forms of Internet-based communication. Although television and radio have had significant impacts on the rhetorical situations of human discourse, the interactive, simultaneous, global technologies of the Internet are being viewed as an even greater force (some say revolution) in how we communicate with each other. This revolution can be understood from many perspectives, but rhetoric offers a critical lens through which to see the social and cultural implications--particularly the persuasive power and implications for personal privacy-- of this technology. Communication in cyberspace is different from traditional communication in many ways. In rhetorical studies, for example, communication is usually evaluated first by deciding if it is spoken or written and then by considering such communication in terms of the rhetorical canons. Yet online communication blurs the boundaries between oral and written discourse and raises questions about the traditional canons. In addition, interactions in cyberspace raise questions about identity, literacy, gender, community, intellectual property, privacy, commerce, the classroom, and the corporation. An interdisciplinary body of research called Internet Studies has arisen in response to this phenomenon. As a result, this class will analyze Internet discourse using rhetorical and other theory, with an emphasis on the persuasive power of electronic space. We will apply these ways of thinking to discourse taken from the Internet. Students will have an opportunity to publish white papers as part of the Internet Studies Center at the University of Minnesota.

Gurak, Laura J. University of Minnesota (2002). Academic>Courses>Graduate

Risk Communication  

Almost all of us are or will be involved in risk communication—as either producers or consumers—in two broad capacities: as professionals (scientists, engineers, technical communicators, business managers, foresters, etc.) and as citizens.

Waddell, Craig. Michigan Tech University (2003). Academic>Courses>Risk Communication

Rubrics and Evaluation Resources

Midlink's rubrics site offers documents about educational technique.

North Carolina State University (1998). Academic>Course Materials

Rubrics for Web Lessons

How often have you attempted to grade your students' work only to find that the assessment criteria were vague and the performance behavior was overly subjective? Would you be able to justify the assessment or grade if you had to defend it? The Rubric is an authentic assessment tool which is particularly useful in assessing criteria which are complex and subjective.

Pickett, Nancy and Bernie Dodge. San Diego State University (1998). Academic>Course Materials

Sample Memo  

A PDF document intended as a resource for teachers who want help describing the memo to students. This (relatively lengthy) sample memo attempts to make an all-too-familiar document strange again by explaining what it is and how to use it.

Zuidema, Leah A. Michigan State University (2003). Academic>Course Materials>Writing>Technical Writing

Sample Oral Presentation Evaluation Form  

A form for evaluating presentations.

Markel, Mike. Bedford-St. Martin's (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Assessment

Scholarly Publication as an Indicator of Change  

This paper reviews literature from several different theoretical perspectives that examine scholarly publication as an indicator of disciplinary change. From bibliometric citation analyses to genre and rhetorical analyses, many academic fields have analyzed the artifacts of scholarly publication. These crossdisciplinary perspectives provide theoretical and methodological approaches to understanding the relationships between journal publication and knowledge production within an academic field. These approaches can aid technical communication scholars and practitioners understand the history of technical communication scholarship and where technical communication scholarship may be headed in the future. provide scientists and engineers with technical writing instruction.

Allen, Liza. STC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Publishing

Scientific and Technical Communication

Effective communication skills in the workplace can prevent problems, streamline production, and determine who gets promoted and who doesn'ï¿t. This course will develop your use of several genres of scientific and technical writing, as well as teach you planning, drafting, and revision strategies that will dramatically improve the quality of your communication. A significant part of this course will be devoted to exploring new communication technologies, such as web design and presentation software and hardware. Graphics and document design have always been important elements of technical communication, but new technology has made them required features of workplace communication. In short, technical communicators are both writers and designers. As such, you must also regularly confront a range of ethical questions ï¿ from the political implications of the language you use to the decisions you make about the appropriateness or appeal of particular images. Throughout the semester, weï¿ll consider the ethical implications of what often seems to be (but isnï¿t) a straightforward, value-free form of communication.

Smith, Erin. Michigan Tech University (2002). Academic>Courses>Scientific Communication>Technical Writing

Seeing, Writing and Rhetoric

The primary aim of Writing 205/Writing Studio 2 is to help you become more adept at meeting the writing demands of the university. In your earlier work in writing courses, you may have focused on reflection or understanding what you have come to know through experience and observation.

Murray, Joddy. Morrismurray.net (2001). Academic>Courses>Writing>Rhetoric

Sentence-Style Revision

Problems involving sentence-style cause writing to be unclear, wordy, unemphatic, and difficult to read. But sentences with these kinds of style problems are not necessarily grammatically incorrect—--nor do they violate any of the commonly accepted standards of usage. Yes, perfectly wretched, unreadable writing can be perfectly error-free! Federal, state, and local government—as well as academicians and lawyers in general—have long been the primary resource for wordy, pompous, and just plain bad writing. However, with the Plain English Movement, William Clinton's 1998 Presidential Memorandum on Plain Language, and similar events in state and local governments— government writing is becoming less and less an easy target. This chapter reviews some of the most common sentence-style problems, showing how to recognize them and how to fix them. Surely many others exist —we've just not trapped and labeled them yet. But in the wilds of bad writing, being able to recognize and revise sentence-style problems covered in this chapter will take you a long way—and enable you to recognize other types of problems as well.

McMurrey, David A. Illuminati Online (2001). Academic>Course Materials>Style Guides>Minimalism

Shirley G. Carter Memorial Scholarship

Shirley G. Carter, a member of the Washington, DC Chapter, was the first African-American female elected to the Society Board of Directors. She was an STC member since 1976. After serving as Region 3 Director-Sponsor from 1979 to 1982, Ms. Carter was an Assistant to the President for Member Programs until 1984. Ms. Carter was instrumental in the Metro Baltimore Chapter's formation, which was chartered during her term. Ms. Carter was responsible for the publication of one of the STC anthology series, Word Processing and Automated Publications Systems. Ms. Carter worked for the General Services Administration as a management analyst in the Office of Information Resources Management. She was a part-time instructor at the Graduate School of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. She continued to be active in STC until her death. Shirley G. Carter died on July 16, 1986. When possible, the chapter awards scholarships of $1,500 to an undergraduate student and $1,500 to a graduate student. The scholarships are intended to further the education of individuals who may, upon graduation, make contributions to the technical communication profession in Maryland, DC, or Virginia.

STC Washington D.C.. Academic>Scholarships>TC

Should Academic Programs in Technical Communication Try to Strengthen the Bond between Academia and Industry?  

Whether the answer to this question is a resounding yes or no, we need to address this question when we consider models for strategic development. My own experience is that technical communication is drawing closer to issues present in both academia and industry, issues such as visualization of data, usability and field testing of products, design of instructional material for the web, and other research issues. But as the two domains need each other to begin to solve problems, the collaboration is fraught with perils, perils such as who states the problem, who manages the project, what resources are available for working on the project, and who owns the results? As we begin to try to strengthen the bond, do we currently have models for successful collaborations? Are there strategies in place that lead to success? Are certain approaches doomed to failure?

Feinberg, Susan G. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>Industry and Academy>Collaboration

Should We Concentrate on Developing Specialized Programs to Fill Particular Niches?  

This question, posed as one of many in the annual call for papers, asks further if we should, in developing our technical communications programs, focus on such niches as environmental, safety, or medical writing, writing on the Web, on computer documentation, or on multimedia. As someone who has been asked to coordinate a rethinking of our school’s technical writing curriculum, such a question is paramount. From the perspective of one such as myself, who teaches at a small institution, the answer to this question hinges on three primary considerations: first, how does one balance the need to serve a small university’s duty to serve the general, liberal education requirements of a small body of students with the need to turn out graduates who have specific, marketable skills (a particularly important consideration in technical writing)? Second, how specialized can we make a class in a college like mine before enrollment figures for these classes dry up? And third, are the categories of the niches listed above really mutually exclusive, or can we say that some of them, such as writing for the Web, could be seen as a focus area that could incorporate some of the others?

LaGrandeur, Kevin. CPTSC Proceedings (2000). Academic>Education>WPA

SIRCh: Science Writing Aids

Students often misinterpret the objective: 'learn how to improve writing skills' that is found among the many objectives of the C471 course. We do not have a major writing assignment in this course, nor do we critique your writing skills. On the other hand, we do introduce you to many tools that will assist in the task of writing. One of the most important things to grasp in this session is the conventions used in formal science writing, such as the use of abbreviations for journal titles and the frequent omission of article titles from the citations. The terms 'citation' and 'reference' are used in several contexts in C471. In this session, they refer to items of a bibliography.

Indiana University. Academic>Course Materials