The following Professional Writing courses are available for Fall 2005. Please contact the course instructor or the Director if you have questions.
English 3104: Introduction to Professional Writing - Weathers
In this class, we will study many kinds of documents that a professional writer might be asked to write, including letters, reports, articles, instructions, and proposals. We will study the writing strategies, format conventions, and design principles that apply to such documents, including resumes and job-application letters. You will create several original documents yourself. In addition, you will learn to create documents collaboratively, along with some of your classmates. Finally, besides learning how to write more professionally, you should gain a clearer understanding of the role of the writer in the typical corporate workplace and of the ways a professional writer can earn a living.
English 3804: Technical Editing & Style - Rude
This course focuses on comprehensive editing in technical and other professional environments. Students will learn to make informed choices about a document's content, style, organization, and visual design-the editor's design tools. They will make these choices understanding the needs and reading strategies of document users. Students will work with both print and online documents. One assignment will be a client project.
English 3804: Technical Editing & Style - Weathers
This course focuses on comprehensive editing in technical and other professional environments. Students will learn to make informed choices about a document's content, style, organization, and visual design-the editor's design tools. They will make these choices understanding the needs and reading strategies of document users. Students will work with both print and online documents. One assignment will be a client project.
English 3814: Creating User Documentation- Evia (instructor's home page)
English 3814 prepares you to produce effective print and on-line documents
that explain how to perform a specific task to a targeted audience.
In this class, you will work with real "clients;" all of your
projects will be based on the need to create documents that actually
work for the users. You will also learn that not every technical document
has to be a technological production in order to be valuable. The readings
and tasks in this class offer you a balance of practical and theoretical
foundations for creating good manuals, instructions, and standard operating
procedures. Assignments include quizzes on appropriate readings, development
of a standard operating procedure, and a collaborative on-line help
project. All class projects include detailed proposals, documentation
plans, and usability studies. Software used and evaluated in the course
includes Microsoft Word, HTML and CSS, XML, and HTML Help.
Required Textbook:
Is the Help Helpful? by Jean Hollis Weber.
English 3824: Designing Documents for Print- Brumberger (instructor's home page)
This course is intended to help students make the transition from verbal
to visual thinking, from privileging verbal communication to balancing
verbal and visual communication. In this course, we will treat design
as functional, not merely aesthetic, and we will avoid treating the
verbal text as the "default" form of communication. We will
read about and discuss design concepts, and we will apply those concepts
to hands-on projects. In this class, you will work on both individual
and collaborative projects intended to sharpen your design, audience-awareness,
and teamwork skills, as well as your peer critique and editing abilities.
You will be evaluated on how effectively your documents communicate,
on how likely the documents are to produce their desired effects for
a specific audience, and, of course, on how well written they are.
English 4814: Science Writing- Collier (instructor's home page)
We will examine how users read on the web, how authors should write
their web pages, and, accordingly, how to design rich, appropriate content
for web sites. In so doing, this course offers a practicum in the novice
and intermediate use of (X)HTML, HTML editors, graphics, and
presentation software. Students will learn the basics of (X)HTML (and
HTML editors) and be introduced to XML, Style Sheets, and JavaScript
in constructing web sites. By analyzing how online communities organize,
use, and distribute knowledge and information, we will evaluate and
build web sites that communicate simply and effectively.
English 4874: Issues in Professional and Public Discourse- Collier (instructor's home page)--Managing Knowledge and Information
Knowledge and information have become commodities; commodities that
can be mined, developed, owned, managed and traded. Once viewed as a
public good, knowledge and information are now bought and sold in the
digital marketplace. The sites where knowledge and information are produced
have migrated from universities, to research parks, to individual designers.
In this course we will explore the theoretical landscape and practical
implications of managing knowledge and information in the digital age.
We will begin by analyzing definitions of terms common to us - 'knowledge',
'information', 'content' - that have appropriated and redefined by "knowledge
professionals." We will consider how, and whether, knowledge and
information should be treated as a means for profit making. We will
look at the shrinking role of the university as a unique provider of
knowledge. We will investigate the ways that the personal computer and
the Internet have shifted our conceptions of ownership, creative expression,
anarchy and control. To study these shifting concepts, we will analyze
controversies regarding copyright, peer to peer networks, and Internet
surveillance. And, most importantly, we will critically address your
place in the digital revolution as a creator and possessor of knowledge
and information. Coursework and readings will be developed and announced
on the course website (www.english.vt.edu/~jcollier/km/). Please direct
questions to Jim Collier at jim.collier@vt.edu.