Summer 1998 Class Syllabus

UC Berkeley Extension
Introduction to Technical Writing X465
Section 4
EDP 164491
June 11 to August 27, 1998
Thursdays 6:30 to 9:30 p.m.
480 Brawner Hall
Menlo College
Valparaiso/El Camino Real
Atherton, California
Instructor: Thomas Albert, Ph.D.
email: talbert@WORDesign.com
website: www.WORDesign.com

Enrollment News
View and Post Comments about the Class
Answers to Frequently Asked Questions
Getting Started in Technical Writing
Three Steps to Wealth and Freedom
UC Berkeley Extension Professional Sequence in
Technical Communications general information:
http://socrates.berkeley.edu/~techcomm/techcomm.html
U.C. Berkeley Extension online catalog description of the course

Directions:

Highway 101 to Marsh Rd.
Left on Middlefield Rd.
Right on Glenwood Ave, which becomes Valparaiso at El Camino Real.
Enter Menlo College parking log at Valparaiso and University Drive.
Walk past Douglass Hall to 480 Brawner Hall.

General Information

Course Outline (week by week)
Note: This syllabus is subject to adjustment.

COURSE DESCRIPTION
A comprehensive theoretical and practical overview of the technical publications profession (career opportunities, work processes, standard tools) that enables each student to apply course principles and guidelines to the course project: the creation a professional quality portfolio piece.

PORTFOLIO PIECE
The portfolio piece can be a paper document, an online Help system, or a Web site. The portfolio piece should be in the form of a "book":

Title page (with descriptive title of the product and its purpose)
Table of Contents with Heading Levels 1, 2, and 3
Chapter 1 Concepts (Explaining ideas the user needs to understand, and helping the user make basic decisions about how to use the product)
Chapter 2 Procedures (Numbered Steps or "HOW TOs")
Appendix Reference (Tables of information so the user can look up details, such as what photographic film speed is compatible with what camera aperture size)
Index (cross-referenced with the nouns and verbs the user is likely to think of)

You can write the portfolio piece in MS Word, Adobe FrameMaker, RoboHelp, HTML, or any word processor that allows you to format text. The length should be 10-15 pages.

The topic must be technical and about a real product or process, which can be drawn from your real-world work environment.

Examples:

installing, configuring, and using a software or hardware product

designing a product (database, aircraft engine, printed circuit)

analyzing traffic flow in a city

quality assurance in pharmaceuticals

managing the risks of electro-static discharge

how to maintain the cleanliness of a "clean room"

color, hue, and saturation in the printing process

how to design a new product in the ___ industry

how to build a book using FrameMaker or MS Word

techniques for maximizing the use of a web site

how does an established product (photocopier, VCR, modem, or network hub) work?

how does an emerging technology (electronic commerce, enterprise-wide resource planning, satellite communications) work?

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Prepare students to enter and advance a career in Silicon Valley technical publications by exposing students to real world tasks and tools while increasing the market value of the student's portfolio.
Foster the technical writing skills of those, such as engineers, whose primary responsiblity is other than technical writing.

GRADING POLICY

In-Class Writing Assignments	20%
Class Project	50%
Homework	20%
Class Participation	10%

A = 90-100%
B = 80-89%
C = 70-79%
D = 60-69%
Work loses 10% for each week late.
An absence counts as zero class participation for that date.
The final version of the class project is due at the final class session.

TEXTBOOK (REQUIRED)

Developing Quality Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers and Editors
Gretchen Hargis, et al. (Prentice Hall, 1998), $35, ISBN 0-13-790320-0.
IBM's Santa Teresa Laboratory in San Jose created this textbook originally for IBM's technical publications departments.

Availablity:

next to the classroom during the first half hour of the first class
at the nearby campus bookstore
through Amazon online bookstore (http://www.amazon.com/)

OPTIONAL TEXT
Technical Communication: The Practical Craft, 3rd ed.
Maris Roze (Prentice Hall, 1997), $37, ISBN 0-13-455874-X.

PREREQUISITES

Good command of standard written English grammar and usage.
For homework and class project: easy access to a computer with Microsoft Word, FrameMaker, WordPerfect or the like.

PEDAGOGICAL METHOD

TOPIC INTRODUCTION: The instructor explains the subject of this week's session.
IN-CLASS WRITING: Students use 15 minutes to write one page on the topic. In some cases, students form groups of two or three to collaborate on the in-class writing assignment.
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION: The instructor lectures and leads class discussion on the topic, incorporating when appropriate examples from the in-class writing.

COURSE OUTLINE

WEEK ONE: June 11
IN-CLASS WRITING
Interview a classmate and write a one page summary of what your classmate hopes to achieve with this class.
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Authoring Tools
    Microsoft Word for Office97
    FrameMaker 5.5
Career Opportunities in the Profession
    Intern, Junior Writer, Senior Writer
    Case Studies of Silicon Valley Employers in various industries
        Oracle, Ericsson, Imation, Hyperion, Remedy, ETAK
    Skills in Demand
    Tools
    Portfolio Development
    Resume (electronic and paper)
    Networking and Job Search Strategies
    Transitioning into Product or Tech Pubs Management
    Related Specialties
        Editor
        Instructional Designer
        Information Architect
        Multimedia Author
        Trainer
        Production Specialist and Desktop Publisher
        Graphic Artist
        Webperson
    Employee vs Contractor
Work Environment
    Product Cycle
    Doc Cycle
        Scoping the Project
            Searching for Specifications
            Hands-on with the Developing Product
            Interviewing and Cross-functional Teams
        Scheduling and Project Managment
        Document Plan
        Alpha Draft
        Beta Draft
        Production Document
        Conversion to PDF or HTML
        Archival
        Addenda
READING ASSIGNMENT: Developing Quality Technical Information, pp. 1-27.

WEEK TWO: June 18
IN-CLASS WRITING (Groups of two or three)
A Step-By-Step Procedure
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Task versus Feature/Function
Creating Task-Oriented Headings and Titles
Choosing Your Class Project
READING ASSIGNMENT: Developing Quality Technical Information, pp. 29-106.
What to include and how to organize your portfolio for the hiring manager--Guest Lecture: Josie Cerrato, Technical Publications Manager at Cemax-Icon/Imation

WEEK THREE: No Class (Menlo College Closed)
June 25
Recommended:
Silicon Valley Chapter Meeting of the Society for Technical Communication
Sheraton Four Points Hotel, Sunnyvale, California
http://stc.org/region8/svc/www/

WEEK FOUR: July 2
HOMEWORK DUE: Draft of Table of Contents for your class project
IN-CLASS WRITING
Critique the Table of Contents for a Class Project
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Organizing a Document
    Subordinating Secondary Points
    Dividing Topics into Subtopics
READING ASSIGNMENT: Developing Quality Technical Information, pp. 169-194.
Career Entry: Resume, Interviews, Portfolio -- Guest Seminar Leader, Andrew Davis of www.synergistech.com

WEEK FIVE: July 9
HOMEWORK DUE: One paragraph description of your class project, including its medium of delivery
IN-CLASS WRITING
Editing Exercises
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Active Voice versus Passive Voice
Present Tense
Avoiding Vague Referents
Direct and Succinct Sentences
Parallelism
READING ASSIGNMENT: Developing Quality Technical Information, pp. 139-168.
Career Development: Job Networking and Specialized Areas for the Generalist (Writing for Programmers, WebHelp, SGML, Editing) -- Guest Lecturer: Andrea Ames, Principal Technical Writer, Informix Software
and 1997-98 President of the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Society of Technical Communication

WEEK SIX: July 16
IN-CLASS WRITING
Exercises in Chunking (Breaking Information into Smaller Blocks)
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Retrievability 1: Chunking info-nuggets and document modules
The concept of random access
Analysis of online Help and Websites

HOMEWORK DUE: Final Table of Contents for your class project
IN-CLASS WRITING
Exercises in Indexing
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Retrievability 2: Creating a Usable Index
    Common Flaws in Indexes
    Grouping Related Items
    Nouns versus Verbs
READING ASSIGNMENT: Developing Quality Technical Information, pp. 195-234.
----
IN-CLASS WRITING (Groups of 3 or 4)
Critique a Table of Contents/Outline of a Class Project

WEEK SEVEN: July 23
Attend the Silicon Valley Chapter of the Society of Technical Communication July Meeting with a Presentation on Java for Technical Writers: http://stc.org/region8/svc/www/

NOTE: August 6
[No Class]
Email talbert@WORDesign.com the Alpha Draft of Class Project

WEEK EIGHT: August 13
HOMEWORK DUE: Beta Draft of Class Project
IN-CLASS WRITING (Groups of 2 or 3)
Critique a Beta Draft of a Class Project
Exercises based on the Four Design Principles (from The Non-Design's Design Book)
    Proximity
    Alignment
    Repetition
    Contrast
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
Online Help
Windows Help (demo of RoboHelp)
Visual Cues
    Tables
    Bullets
    Numbered Lists
    Font and Point size
Screen Capture (demo of HyperSnap)
Callouts (labels for screens and graphics)
Quick Reference Guides

WEEK NINE: August 20
HOMEWORK DUE: Final Pre-Production Version of Class Project
IN-CLASS WRITING
Critique a Pre-Production Version of a Class Project
LECTURE AND DISCUSSION
FTP (file transfer protocol)
HTML
    overview of tags (demo of Notepad and Unix vi)
    authoring tools (demo of FrontPage 98)
    animated gifs (demo of MovieGear)
    conversion (Word to HTML, FrameMaker to HTML)
HTML-based Help
    Microsoft HTML Help
    BlueSky RoboHTML
    ForeFront ForeHTML Pro
Web Resources
    Society of Technical Communication
        http://www.stc-va.org/
    HTML Writers Guild
        http://www.hwg.org/
    IEEE Professional Communication Society
        http://www.ieee.org/society/pcs/pcsindex.html
    The Association for Business Communication
        http://www.cohums.ohio-state.edu/english/facstf/kol/abc/
    International Association of Business Communicators
        http://www.iabc.com//homepage.htm
    American Society of Indexers
        http://www.asindexing.org
    Help University
        http://www.helpuniversity.com/

WEEK TEN: August 27
(1) Oral Presentation of Class Project
(2) Submission of Written Class Project

Written by Thomas Albert
Copyright (c) 1998 University of California Regents