ENG 115 Technical Writing
Contact Information and Office Hours
Dr. Thomas L. Long, Professor of English
757.825.3663 (voice) | 757.825.3842 (fax) | longt@tncc.edu (email)
Course Web page: http://community.tncc.edu/faculty/longt/ENG115
ENG 115, Technical Writing, is a three-credit course designed for students in engineering, technology, and business curricula. The course includes learning about varied forms of technical writing and oral presentation and about research writing. It is accepted in transfer at many area colleges and universities. Course prerequisite: ENG 101, Practical Writing, or ENG 111, College Composition I, or its equivalent.
Your instructor
Dr. Thomas L. Long is professor and chairperson of the English Department at Thomas Nelson Community College, where he has taught since 1989. He has earned master’s degrees in English and in theology and a doctorate in literature and criticism. He is the author of AIDS and American Apocalypticism: The Cultural Semiotics of an Epidemic (State University of New York Press, 2005) and numerous articles in books and publications. He is editor-in-chief of Harrington Gay Men’s Fiction Quarterly, published by Haworth Press in New York, and is past president of the Literature and Religion Division of the Modern Language Association (MLA). Dr. Long has served in visiting professorships at Old Dominion University (2003-2004) and the College of William and Mary (1999).
Course Textbook
Mike Markel's Technical Communication 8th ed. (Bedford/St. Martin's, 2007). Other readings will be linked on the Web site. Markel has developed a generous Web site for the textbook:
http://www.bedfordstmartins.com/techcomm/
Course Projects and Final Grade
Students will produce nine sequential projects, one of which will be a collaboratively produced group project, one a researched report, and one an oral presentation. Specifications and deadlines for these projects can be found on the course Web site. The final course grade will be calculated thus: Projects I-VIII (40%) + Project IX (50%) + Attendance and Participation (10%) = Final Grade (100%).
Grading Scale
After years of receiving inflated grades ("earning" a C for simply attending, "earning" a B for doing the work in the course), students are frequently surprised and disappointed in the grades they receive in this course. This is a college course, however, and in this course students will be held to the standards of college-level work, not the standards of high school. Most students who complete the course earn a B or C.
90-100 (excellent work) = A
80-89 (good work) = B
70-79 (minimally competent work) = C
60-69 (less than competent work) = D
0-59 (failure) = F
Writing Standards
While to some degree the evaluation of writing entails subjective judgments, there are clearly definable standards of competent academic and professional documents. These standards examine conventions, composition, and content in the document or project. By "conventions" is meant that the writer has conformed to the standard formats and document design of the assigned task (a memo should look like a memo, an academic paper should follow all MLA format and documentation conventions). By "composition" is meant that that the writer has used standard spelling, punctuation, grammar, sentence construction, and paragraph coherence devices. By "content" is meant that the ideas are clear and coherent, logically developed, and supported by details.
90-100 (A) Excellent writing sets the gold standard. It does not simply meet the specifications of the assigned task; it exceeds them and does so with conspicuous excellence. It is not simply free of serious composition errors or relatively free of minor errors generally; it is exemplary (i.e. could be a textbook example). Therefore, it is rare.
80-89 (B) Good writing meets the specifications of an assigned task very well. It is free of major errors, though it may have some minor composition errors. It may fall short of the sophistication and thoroughness of excellent writing, but it is not embarrassing and demonstrates the writer's intelligence and thought.
70-79 (C) Minimally competent writing only meets the minimal specifications of an assigned task. It has minor composition errors and it falls short in several areas.
60-69 (D) Less-than-competent writing seriously falls short in from one to a few major areas of an assigned task. It has serious composition errors.
0-59 (F) Failed writing either completely does not succeed in meeting the specifications for a task, is plagued with serious errors, or has violated academic honesty (plagiarism).
The College Writing Center, located in Wythe Hall behind the library, is available for all students who need to work on specific problems with writing or who would like some coaching to improve their writing.
Deadlines
Projects and assignments are due at the beginning of class on the date stipulated in the on-line syllabus. Many community college students live complex lives, however, and students may take a 24-hour extension on a normal deadline provided that they contact the professor in advance of the deadline (not at the time it is due) to inform him of that fact. (This policy does not include peer review deadlines or the deadline of the oral report and final research project.)
Drafts
Writing is a skill (like a sport, craft activity, or musical performance) that requires practice in order to improve. Improving one’s writing requires writing and rewriting. In order to emphasize this aspect of the craft of academic writing, this course requires students to produce a draft of each project for peer review and the professor’s review. For producing a typed draft of a project on the assigned day for peer review, students will receive 50 points (out of a total 100) toward that project; the remaining points will result from the final draft. Students who fail to produce a typed draft on the day assigned, will fail that project, regardless of the qualities of the finished draft.
Classroom Decorum
Behavior that is disruptive or hostile will not be tolerated. The professor reserves the right to dismiss any student from the classroom, either temporarily or permanently. Students should consult the "Student Handbook" section of the College Catalog in order to acquaint themselves with the student code of conduct.
Attendance and Participation
A portion of the final grade for the course will depend on the student's attendance record and participation in the course. Just as a successful learning experience depends on the reliable presence of the professor, it also depends on the regular attendance and the active, prepared participation of all students. Students who miss more than 20% of the course (9 hours or the equivalent three weeks in a standard semester) will fail the course. There are no "excused" absences. Students are also expected to arrive on time and not to leave before the end of class. Late arrivals and early departures (which are distracting to both professor and students) will be recorded and every two instances will count as one absence.
Withdrawals and Incompletes
Students may withdraw from a course on their own until the designated deadline at the middle of a term. Students' transcripts will record this attempt as a "W," which will not affect a student's GPA but will count as an attempt (see Repeating a Course). After the withdrawal deadline, only a faculty member is authorized to withdraw a student administratively and only for documented extenuating circumstances (e.g. illness, change in work schedule, military deployment). The professor has the discretion whether or not to request the withdrawal at this point. In addition, a student may request to take an incomplete at the end of the course, provided that the student a.) is passing the course and b.) has already completed the majority of the work for the course. The professor has the discretion whether or not to grant an incomplete. Students must complete the work for the course by the end of the following semester in order to earn a passing grade. Unfortunately, most students who take an incomplete fail to complete the work, so this option should be requested only in rare instances.
Repeating a Course
Students may attempt a course twice for credit. However, if a student wants to take the same course a third time, the student can only do so with the approval of the dean of Instruction. Registering for a course but withdrawing from it later counts as one attempt.
ADA Accommodations
Students with documented disabilities should contact the college's Counseling Center in order to secure a letter stating the specific reasonable accommodations under the Americans with Disabilities Act that professors can make in order to enhance a student's likelihood of academic success. The Counseling Center is located in 201 Diggs Hall and can be reached by voice phone at 757.825.2827 or by TDD 757.825.2853.
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is theft of intellectual property. Intellectual property includes writing, data, and ideas (as well as music, art, film, video and other media). Failure to call attention to the fact that you have used someone's written expression (a verbatim quotation) or their data or their ideas is plagiarism. You call attention to your use of someone's words by putting a verbatim quotation in quotation marks (or in indented block format for quotations of more than three lines in length) and citing the source (using an in-text parenthetical citation and bibliographic entry in Works Cited). You call attention to your use of someone's ideas or data by citing the source (using an in-text parenthetical citation and bibliographic entry in Works Cited). Some instances of plagiarism are the result of ignorance, some of carelessness, some of deliberate dishonesty. In this course, it is assumed that students are not ignorant about plagiarism. The punishment for plagiarism varies with the severity of the offence: instances that are clearly the result of carelessness will result in a student's failing the assignment, while instances that are clearly the result of deliberate deception will result in the student's failing and being dismissed from the course (with the college's dean or vice president possibly taking further action).