Howard, James
TR 2 :20 PM
Park Hall 0139
In ENGL 3590W, students focus on the kinds of communication that convey specialized information to others (technical) and that people use to do their jobs (professional). We practice examples of several genres of technical and professional communication, including but not limited to proposals, instructions, and technical reports. Our goals are to not only learn how to communicate in technical and professional genres 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? How do we take technical information and tell a compelling story with it? 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 technical communication challenge.