Howard, James
MWF 11:30 AM
Park Hall 0061
In ENGL 3590W, students focus on the kinds of communication that convey specialized information to others (technical) and that people use to obtain and do their jobs (professional). As practice we study and produce examples of several genres of technical and professional communication, including but not limited to resumes, cover letters, online FAQs, reports with data visualizations, and presentations. Our goals are to not only learn how to accomplish these tasks but also understand how to approach any task using rhetorical concepts (purpose, audience, genre) backed by feedback and reflection. For instance, how do we figure out what our audience is and what they may want? How do we feel out the conventions or rules for a genre we’re writing in for the first time? What changes when we change from one medium to another? How do we assess the risks and benefits of trying something new or different?
In other words, by the end of the course, you should have a sense of what questions to ask and where to start when faced with a new professional communication challenge.
Required Text:
Heather Graves and Roger Graves, A Concise Guide to Technical Communication. Broadview, 2021.