ENG 381: the creatively named “project”

Summary: create a portfolio of user-centered technical communication which answers a personal writing need or benefits an experiential learning partner. Perform all research, writing, design, revision, and presentation needed to bring the project to completion.

This project is intended to enable you to create an ensemble of technical communication which puts the lessons of the course into practice—our work with audience, genres, development and detail, design, and more. This assignment sheet is not terribly specific because you have a tremendous amount of latitude in form. I hope you’ll develop a project which helps you build skills and learn methods tailored to your specific interests in technical communication.

Some of you are already involved in student organizations which could provide great projects. Work may be a source of potential material as well. A third way to imagine the project: consider a problem which you deal with often, at home, work or school, and create communication which addresses it, or makes an argument for a policy shift which would address it.

I am suggesting real life examples here because it can be easier to work with them in many ways; you do not have to invent components of the rhetorical situation, but can rely on the actual exigence for your work.

Examples

• A web-based plan for making Macomb more pedestrian-friendly, including transportation management research, a proposal for redeveloping sidewalks, and forms designed to facilitate citizen communication with state officials, railroad management, and other interested parties;
• Publication style sheets, requests for funding, and other materials related to the publication of a student literary magazine;
• A campaign for improving study space in the WIU libraries, involving a formal proposal to be submitted to administration, a press release, flyers, and a request for proposals for the construction of private study carrels;
• Policies, forms, and other documents to be used by a youth basketball league, including membership forms, guidelines for coaches and players, promotional brochures, and requests for sponsorship.

Milestones

Along the way, you’ll file these with me:

Memo

Write a memorandum indicating the project you wish to engage or the problem you wish to solve. If you’re not sure what you want to work on, you can propose a few projects and we’ll trade email about them. Or you can describe the problem you want to address, and we’ll talk about ways tech comm can do that.

Draft

Ideally, a complete draft of the project. Barring that, provide enough of the content and a framework for what’s left out, so we can effectively critique it and guide revision.

Presentation

Present your advanced draft work to the class. You’ll have about ten minutes. This is an opportunity to get feedback on it from everyone.

Final

The final project. Just the dox, ma’am.

Portfolio & report

A brief report summarizing what you did and how it went. Plus all the other crap: drafts, communication with others, research logs, transcripts of conferences with me, etc. Please organize this in some manner (e.g. consider it as technical communication as well).

Assessment and schedule

Strategies

• Length: I expect fifteen to twenty pages of completed documents and a pile of other stuff which helped you make it (communication, research notes, drafts, etc).
• Experiential learning: if you know of a client who could use some technical communication help, feel free to speak with me about structuring this project in a service-learning or experiential mode.
• Technology: two senses are relevant. First, technical communication usually involves using relevant technologies—writing, the web, PowerPoint—to solve problems. Second, it often requires explaining a difficult or complex technology to an audience not accustomed to it. While your project need not address both senses, do consider the way technology informs your work, as we have discussed in class.
• Research: this assignment will require research—from finding samples of specific modes of communication you’re likely to engage, to audience analysis, to nuts and bolts data collection about your topic. Recall that helping different audiences connect is a key element of technical communication—and thus a big part of your job.
• Avoid duplicating the content of other assignments—e.g. job search and instructional materials. This should be no more than 20% of your work.
• If you have no idea what to work on, come see me. I’ll put you to work.