1.
Employment Project, Technical / Business Writing
Technical Writing Syllabus, Fall 2024 – Institutional “boilerplate” statements have been removed to make a shorter document.
Lesson plan from Technical Writing
Employment Project description and course schedule
Teaching materials:
Job Ad Analysis introductory talk
Job Ad Analysis Form (students are provided with a .docx version of this)
Quick Resume Pointers – brief talk given toward the start of the project
Resume Mistakes to Avoid – talk given before resume first drafts are due
Cover Letters introductory talk (students are provided with a .docx version of this)
Comments: This “old chestnut” of an assignment is a staple of many Business and Technical Writing courses, but here you can see how I like to structure the assignment, building on skills from earlier in the semester (writing memos) as well as skills from other courses – for example, I teach analyzing a job ad by comparing it to analyzing other written works that students have invariably done elsewhere. In my presentations you can see the lighter tone I often like to take when presenting material to undergraduates.
2. Advanced Writing Course
Advanced Writing Syllabus, Spring 2023 – Institutional “boilerplate” statements have been removed to make a shorter document.
Major Assignments:
“How I Write” essay description
Exploratory Essay – topic formation
Selected teaching materials:
Storytelling 101 – quick presentation to guide discussion (re)introducing students to the basics of storytelling in writing.
Comments: This syllabus reflects how I adjusted my Advanced Writing course to suit the needs of the institution as its general education program evolved. It was one of the few courses designated Writing Intensive, and many students from all departments would enroll in it to satisfy the requirement. As a result, I removed multimedia projects (a Digital Literacy course requirement had also been added to the gen ed curriculum) and altered the main essay assignment to allow students to compose either academic essays or non-fiction essays. Regardless of genre choice, this essay was worked toward with a series of shorter assignments throughout the semester. The “How I Write” assignment at the start of the semester has been a mainstay throughout these changes, as it proved fruitful to get students thinking about, talking, and then writing about their personal writing processes. I also like to emphasize writing for a wider audience by introducing the idea of publication in this class. I ask students to locate undergraduate-focused publications that would be a possible good fit for their essays.
3. Introduction to Editing Course
Writing: The Editing Process Syllabus, Fall 2022 – Institutional “boilerplate” statements have been removed to make a shorter document.
First Assignment: Syllabus with intentional errors, with comments reviewing them
– An idea I borrowed from my mentor, Dr. Richard Johnson-Sheehan: first day of class, ask students to proofread the syllabus. I like to give them a few minutes on their own, then provide a couple of pointers. Depending on the length of the class session, we review the answer key and then delve into how to proofread (presentation below). Then we practice what we have learned on another document.
Major Assignments:
Wikipedia Editing Project (more details below in Technology Integration)
Selected teaching materials:
Introduction to Editing presentation
Comments: I have found that, in order to become better editors, most undergraduates benefit greatly from a grammar review, which is done early in the semester with the excellent texts, The Copyeditor’s Handbook and Workbook. In designing this course, I took my cue from its title (“Writing: The Editing Process”) and always included a writing project. Previous semesters have included personal essays on editing-related topics (such as correctness in writing perceived as etiquette and politeness, errors in online discussions, etc) or an end of semester reflection essay on the course. This semester I allowed students to work solo on the zine, after many students asked; I think the pandemic got them used to working alone. I believe the assignment works much better when it is completed collaboratively. In previous semesters, I have assigned a global editing project that asks students to not only edit the documents content but also revise the design of the document to improve readability.
Academic year 2024/25 Generative AI Policy
Comments: Like many writing instructors, I have reservations about the use of generative AI programs by students in writing courses. I do my best to design writing assignments that cannot be easily handed off to chatGPT. My policy explains my concerns to students, and currently allows generative AI use by students in certain limited situations, such as brainstorming. I am guided by Sano-Franchini, McIntyre, and Fernandes’ excellent “Refusing GenAI in Writing Studies: A Quickstart Guide,” and ongoing discussions with writing studies colleagues.
The multimedia projects below go into details of technology I have integrated into my teaching:
Juxtapositions – text and visuals
Juxtapositions assignment description
Comments: Credit to Dr. Mark Pepper for originally coming up with this assignment. I have used this in iterations of advanced writing and writing in digital environment courses. It’s a great exercise for early in the semester as the sorts of images called for are easy to create (text on top of an image), but hard to compose without a lot of thought.
Wikipedia Editing Project
Wikipedia editing project description
Editing Wikipedia Guide, produced by Wiki Education
Link to Wiki Ed’s training modules for students
Assignment details, from course Wikipedia page
Comments: I have long sought out an opportunity to have a class work on Wikipedia. When I discovered the robust tools and support Wiki Ed offers, I realized it was a perfect fit for an editing course. It was largely self-paced, which makes outcomes reliant on the individual student’s motivation. I look forward to assigning this project again!
Multimedia Writing course – Writing in Digital Environments
mini assignments:
Larger assignments:
Multimodal information campaign
Comments: I enjoy teaching multimedia writing and try to work in these sorts of assignments whenever feasible (instructions videos are assigned in technical writing courses, for example). This particular syllabus features a scaffolded approach to a major end-of-semester project that includes aspects of the previously-assigned smaller projects. Other iterations of this course as I have taught it include more focus on web page design work and website usability studies. My approach to teaching the use of programs and apps to produce multimedia relies on the students’ being willing to learn by doing. Workshop style class sessions will include whole-class demonstrations on the use of a program, followed by time for students to work alone or in groups to complete tasks with the program. This allows me to circulate and answer individual questions but encourages exploration and students teaching each other.