Computing & Software Systems 301:
Technical Writing for Computing Professionals
Fall 2003

While it might not be possible to be a successful computer professional without technical skills (at least, one hopes, not for long), it is certainly possible to be unsuccessful even with excellent skills. What often makes the difference are your communication abilities. It would be a very unusual situation in which your personal success or failure (or the success or failure of a product or company) didn't depend on the actions of other people. Other people will only act to your benefit if you can convince them to do so, and that requires excellent technical communication. In this course, you will learn about and practice the fundamentals of technical communications, including researching new topics, analyzing your audience, summarizing information, convincing others that your ideas are good ones, clearly describing how something should work, comparing different problem solutions, and writing understandable instructions.

Instructor

Michael Stiber <stiber@u.washington.edu>, room UW1-341, phone (425)352-5280, office hours Mondays 3:30-4:30 or by appointment.

Course Web

http://courses.washington.edu/css301/stiber.

Lectures

Mondays and Wednesdays, 1:15-3:20PM, room UW1-315.

Textbooks

Laura J. Gurak and John M. Lannon, A Concise Guide to Technical Communications, Second Edition, Pearson Longman, New York, 2004.

Philip Rubens, ed., Science & Technical Writing: A Manual of Style, Second Edition, Routledge, New York, 2001.

Resources

Peter Flynn, ``Formatting information: A beginner's introduction to typesetting with L^ATEX'', March 2003, http://www.tug.org/tex-archive/info/beginlatex/.

Indian TEXUsers Group, ``Online tutorials on L^ATEX'', http://www.tug.org/tutorials/tugindia/.

Tobias Oetiker, Hubert Partl, Irene Hyna and Elisabeth Schleg, ``The Not So Short Introduction to L^ATEX2$\varepsilon$'', http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/lshort/.

Grading

Your course average is computed as: 30% homework + 20% class participation + 25% midterm + 25% final.

I don't grade on a curve. I use my judgment to determine what averages correspond to an `A', `B', etc. for the quarter. Some quarters assignments, etc. turn out harder, and so the averages are lower. Other quarters, averages are higher. So, I adjust for that at the end. Decimal grades are then computed using the equivalences in the Time Schedule, linearly interpolating between letter-grade boundaries.

I am well aware of the significance of assigning a grade below 2.0, in terms of impact on your career here at UWB. I can assure you that I examine in detail the performance in this course of each student before assigning a grade below 2.0.

What is the difference between this and grading on a curve? With the latter, the goal is to have $X$% `A's, $Y$% `B's, etc. My way, I would be happy to give out all `A's (if they were earned). FYI, in a ``typical'' quarter, below 50% might be a `D', 50%-70% a `C', 70%-85% a `B', and above 85% an `A'. You may use these as a rough guide; however, if you really want to know how you're doing, please see me. I reserve the right to adjust these scores to reflect the specifics of assignments, test questions, etc. for each quarter.

Homeworks

Technical communication is the process of transmitting information from your brain to someone else's. Since this can't currently be done via telepathy, we must use an ``artificial'' communication system -- language. There is a fundamental division of any such communication system into medium and message, and this is the basis for this class' grading scheme. You cannot transmit a message -- regardless of how profound it is -- if it is not correctly encoded in the medium. So, every written assignment you turn in will pass through a two-stage grading process:

1. The mechanics of your writing will be evaluated (spelling, grammar, basic organization). Your homework must meet minimum standards or it will be returned to you -- without a grade -- for a mandatory rewrite. You will be able to resubmit it within one week without any penalty (i.e., the grade you receive will not be reduced just because it is a resubmission). If you do not resubmit, then you will receive a zero for the assignment. If you do, but the rewritten work still does not meet minimum standards, the maximum grade you can receive is 20%.
2. Assuming your writing passes the first stage, its content will be evaluated, and you will receive a grade between 20% and 100%. This grade is final (you cannot resubmit for a higher grade).

I expect there to be five written homework assignments, all centered around a central ``theme'':

1. You will be asked to research some software application area and write a briefing paper describing that area and existing programs.
2. You will propose to develop a new program in that area.
3. You will specify what that program would do.
4. You will analyze alternative approaches used to implement existing software by comparing at least two such programs.
5. You will write a user guide.

While you won't be writing a program yourself, you will be testing and analyzing existing software to compare their strengths and weaknesses.

Special needs

To request academic accommodations due to a disability, please contact Disabled Student Services (DSS) in the Counseling Center, (425) 352-5000, TDD: (425) 352-5303. If you have a documented disability on file with the DSS office, please have your DSS counselor contact me and we can discuss accommodations you might need in class.

Ethics

As you will learn in this course, giving credit is one of the most important aspects of the creative process. Therefore, I assume that, by affixing your name to an assignment, you are affirming that it is solely your own work. If any of the content is not yours, you should either cite the source or include an acknowledgment of the help received (the latter would be appropriate for any assistance you received in revising a draft, for example).

You are expected to subscribe to the highest standards of honesty. Failure to do this constitutes plagiarism. Plagiarism will not be tolerated in this class, any more than it would be in the ``real world''. Any student guilty of plagiarism will be subject to disciplinary action. Please believe me, neither you nor I want to go through an academic misconduct hearing.

Problems

If you have problems with anything in the course, please come and see me during office hours, or send email to set up an appointment. I want to make you a success in this course. If you have trouble with the assignments, see me before they are due. If you fall behind, it will be difficult to catch up.

Very Tentative Course Schedule

Week	Topics	Reading	Assignment
1	Course introduction; Mechanics	Gurak, ch. 1, app. A; Rubens, ch. 3-5
	Audience Analysis	Gurak, ch. 2; Rubens, pp. 1-5	Spam paper read
2	Library orientation
	Performing Research	Gurak, ch. 4, 7, App. B; Rubens, pp. 24-29, ch. 8
3	Everyday communications	Gurak, ch. 10 [esp. pp 202-8]; Rubens, pp 9-23 [esp. pp. 17-20]	Briefing paper drafts ready
	Complex products	Gurak, ch. 12 [esp. pp. 281-9]	Briefing paper due
4	Graphics	Gurak, pp. 150-2, 164-75; Rubens, ch. 10
	Simple products	Gurak, ch. 11 [esp. pp. 219-25]	Proposal due
5	Usability	Gurak, ch. 3	specification drafts ready
	Midterm
6	Numeric information	Gurak, pp 152-64, 175-82; Rubens, ch. 7, 11	specification due
	Numeric information, cont'd
7	Ethics	Gurak, ch. 6
	World English	Rubens, ch. 2
8	Digital media	Gurak, ch. 5	Design comparison due
	Document layout	Gurak, ch. 8; Rubens, ch. 12
9	Structuring languages	LATEX and HTML readings
10			User guide due

Qualities of a Good Written Assignment¹

A good written assignment should be well written, contain all necessary information, use the correct style, be responsive to the requirements, and be suitable for the intended audience.

Content

1. Fulfill the requirements of the assignment.
2. Include all necessary information at a level of detail appropriate for the audience and purpose.
3. Show a depth of analysis appropriate for a college-level course.

Mechanics

1. Choose the appropriate style (active or passive voice, long or short sentences, active verbs, use of first person, etc).
2. Avoid stylistic problems with parallelism, wordiness, pronoun reference, misused modifiers, etc.
3. Exhibit an appropriate tone for the situation.
4. Eliminate grammatical errors.
5. Use correct spelling.
6. Follow the rules for punctuation and mechanics.

Organization

1. Write coherent paragraphs with topic sentences.
2. Use organizational content that guides the reader.

Illustrations and Graphs

1. Include illustrations and graphs where necessary.
2. Design illustrations and graphs that are easy to understand and tell a clear story.
3. Integrate illustrations and graphs into text both physically and verbally.

Footnotes

... Assignment¹

Parts of this section are liberally borrowed from the Spring 2000 TC 231 syllabus.