SYLLABUS for Technical Communication II    

X466    EPD166892

Instructor

Thomas Albert    http://www.WORDesign.com

Time and Location

Mondays 25 January 1999 to 5 April 1999
6:30 pm to 9:30 pm
No class on 15 February
Contra Costa Center, Room A2
2272 Camino Ramon
San Ramon, CA  94583

Week-by-Week Topics and Assignments

Examples of Student Work

Course Materials

• No textbook required
• You can print out course notes from this web site

Grading Criteria

Course Objectives

• design and author document sections for different information types
• identify and define audiences
• use technical communications software
• demonstrate your skills to a hiring manager by creating and presenting to the class your course project,  a portfolio-quality document integrating multiple information types to form a coherent, useful guide about a technical process and/or product:
  1. Title page with indicative title, author name, and date
  2. Table of Contents (three levels)
  3. Preface with book description, audience definition, how to use this book, related publications, conventions
  4. Concepts section
  5. Tutorial chapter (walk the reader through multiple procedures)
  6. Quick Start/Job Aid (1-2 pages)
  7. Procedures section
  8. Reference appendices with multicolumn tables
  9. Glossary (optional)
  10. Index (two levels)

  Possible topics include but are not limited to:

  • Pharmaceutical product development and FDA regulation
  • How Cellular Telephones Work
  • Introduction to Programming in Java
  • Setting Up a Computer Network for a Small Business
  • How to Buy (or Build) a Personal Computer
  • HTML, SGML, and XML
  • ISO 9000
  • Writing for an International Audience
  • How to Fly a Small Airplane (or Parachute, or Ski)
  • Speech Recognition Hardware and Software
  • Designing a Printed Circuit Board
  • How to Plan Your Finances (could include an application, such as Quicken)
  • Training for a Triathlon
  • Managing a Documentation Project
  • Launching a Career in Technical Communication
  • Authoring indexes with FrameMaker and RoboHelp
  • Creating a web site (including how the Internet works)
  • Using PhotoShop for Fun and Profit

  NOTE: Save soft and hard copy of all work you provide the instructor.

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Instructional Methods

• Instructor lectures and demonstrations
• Guest presentations on particular industries, tools, or other specialized topics
• Class discussion
• Individual work
• Team work
• Spoken presenation to the class on your course project, supplemented by visuals (paper document, PowerPoint, Help system, or HTML system)
• Research and writing each week
• Writing assignments, usually related to the term project
• Weekly progress report on your course project
  • completed this week
  • goal for next week
  • problems and issues
• Term project to be developed throughout the course and completed by the end of the session. The purpose of the term project is to complete a documentation suite that shows your ability to write about the same content area for a number of different audiences and create documents of a number of different types and styles, as identified in class. This project must be completed to the quality standards expected of an entry- to mid-level technical writer. (These standards will be made clear during the term.)
• Final classroom "presentation" of term project (final exam).

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Week-by-Week Topics and Assignments

1. Class Introduction
2. Understanding Your Audience and Their Work
3. Working Methods: Collaboration, Design, Productivity Tools
4. In-class Individual Writing Assignment
   analysis of a manual I provide:
       audience, design, diction, organization, navigation

Critique of a proposed term project

Critique of a product manual

Assignments due next week:

1. Create a documentation plan that includes the elements described in this class session's lecture. Bring 20 copies of plan to class.
2. Collaboration: Over the next two weeks, make contact with another person in class to review and get peer feedback.

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Week 3
8 February

1. Guest Lecture on Document Design by Marina Krakovsky
2. Research and Outlining
3. Tutorials and Procedures

Assignments due next week:

1. Write tutorial and procedure for your project. (Start with plan: consider audience and purpose, then outline, then draft.)

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[No class 15 February -- Presidents' Day]

Week 4
22 February

1. Guest Lecture/Seminar by Laura Bayer: "Ins and Out of Contract Technical Writing"
2. Screen and Page Design
3. Overviews, Introductions, and Memos

Assignments due next week:

1. Write introduction and overview for your project

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Week 5
1 March

1. Writing and Editing
2. Reference Materials and Job Aids

Assignments due next week:

1. Revise tutorial, procedure, introduction, overview
2. Create reference and/or job aids
3. Collaboration: Meet with other students to test procedures, rewrite as necessary.
4. Read selections from required course materials

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Week 6: Online Help
8 March

1. Learning about Users' Information Needs
2. Determining Stages of Use
3. Categorizing Information Needs

Demonstration of RoboHelp

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Week 7: Online Documents
15 March

1. FrameMaker to PDF demonstration
2. FrontPage demonstration

1. Bring paper copy and file on disk.
2. Collaboration: Meet with other students to test material, rewrite as necessary.

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Week 8: Tagged Documents
22 March

1. HTML
2. SGML
3. XML

Assignments due next week:

1. Work on project, revising, editing, and polishing as needed.
2. Identify problematic sections of text for work in class next week.

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Week 9
29 March

1. Guest Lecture by Becky Phung, "Working in the Windows NT Environment"
2. ISO 9000 (Export standard)
3. API (Application Programming Interface) -- discuss examples
4. Internationalization/Localization (writing tips)

Assignments due next week:

1. Finish term project.
2. Prepare presentation.

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Week 10: Presentation of Term Projects
5 April (remember Daylight Savings)

1. Give a 5-7 minute presentation of your term project.
2. Submit project-paper copy and disk copy-with self addressed, stamped envelope (for return of project)

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This page last updated: 15 March 1999

Copyright © 1999, Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.