Overview

Required Texts

Course Goals

Writing in Context
Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on

• writing for general audiences and decision makers
• understanding the ethical dimensions of workplace communication
  

Writing Process
Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Collaboration
Learn and apply strategies for successful collaboration, such as

• working and communicating online with colleagues
• setting and achieving project goals
• responding constructively to peers' work
• working as part of a writing team and/or with a client organization
  

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents

• analyzing professional contexts
• assessing and using information resources
• using primary research methods such as interviews, observations, focus groups, and surveys to collect data
• working ethically with research participants

Technology
Select technologies appropriate to the generic conventions of various types of workplace communication, including email, memos, letters, reports, online documents, and white papers.

Document Design
Learning the generic conventions of the design of workplace documents including

• understanding and implementing various principles of format and layout
• interpreting and arguing with visual information.

Course Projects and Activities

1. ISP "Welcome" Email Case (ISP)

2. Employment Project

3. Critical Website Project

Grading

Each of the 3 major projects in the course will be comprised of several components, each of which will be worth a percentage of your final grade for that project. For the two collaborative projects, students will complete the required Group Member Evaluation

All major assignments will be graded on the standard letter-grade scale: A=100-90 B=89-80 C=79-70 D=69-60 F=59 or below. 

Grading Criteria

PURPOSE:
How effective is the document? Does it

•  accomplish its intended task?
•  meet its goals and the demands of its context (both academic and organizational)?
•  solve a problem or address a significant organizational need or help people?
•  provide a sound argument in support of its claims?
•  meet readers' needs?
•  improve relations between people?
•  provide relevant, useful, and accurate information?

•  demonstrate orderly and coherent presentation of material?
•  display effective design and formatting?
•  use visuals effectively?
•  present professional tone and style?
•  demonstrate careful proofreading and editing?

• exhibit a considered writing process? 
• reveal quality of planning, collaboration, research & invention, drafting, editing, proofreading?

Technology Requirements

• Mac OS System or Windows
• Microsoft Office (Word and PowerPoint)
• Netscape or Safari and Internet Explorer 
• Email program (including attachments)

Technology Responsibilities

• Have access to your Career Account. 
• Set up your @purdue.edu email address and regularly check your email. 
• Become proficient sending and receiving e-mail attachments, resolving file compatibility issues, and following e-mail decorum.
• Check the course calendar before the beginning of each class. 
• Become more proficient with unfamiliar computer technologies and applications.
• Maintain back-up copies of all assignments via your home directory(career acct.), disks, and/or e-mail attachments to yourself.

Collaborative Work

Attendance

Attendance is required. Since you will be working in project teams much of the semester, you also will be required to attend any scheduled out-of-class meetings with your team to complete course assignments. You are allowed five absences on a MWF schedule (three on a TTH schedule); more than 5 absences will be considered excessive and will result in your final grade being lowered by as much as a letter grade. More than eight absences on a MWF schedule (five on a TTH schedule) can result in a failing grade for the course. Excused absences may be granted for religious holidays or university-sponsored events, provided you bring documentation to me before the absence and that you complete any required work before the due date. Be especially mindful of your responsibility to any group you are in at the time. In the case of emergency, please be in touch with me (and your group) as soon as possible. Being excessively or regularly late for class or team meetings may also be counted as an absence.

Academic Integrity

Purdue students and their instructors are expected to adhere to guidelines set forth by the Dean of Students in "Academic Integrity: A Guide for Students."

The preamble of this guide states the following: "Purdue University values intellectual integrity and the highest standards of academic conduct. To be prepared to meet societal needs as leaders and role models, students must be educated in an ethical learning environment that promotes a high standard of honor in scholastic work. Academic dishonesty undermines institutional integrity and threatens the academic fabric of Purdue University. Dishonesty is not an acceptable avenue to success. It diminishes the quality of a Purdue education, which is valued because of Purdue's high academic standards."

Academic dishonesty is defined as follows: "Purdue prohibits "dishonesty in connection with any University activity. Cheating, plagiarism, or knowingly furnishing false information to the University are examples of dishonesty." [University Regulations, Part V, Section III, B, 2, a] Furthermore, the University Senate has stipulated that "the commitment of acts of cheating, lying, and deceit in any of their diverse forms (such as the use of substitutes for taking examinations, the use of illegal cribs, plagiarism, and copying during examinations) is dishonest and must not be tolerated. Moreover, knowingly to aid and abet, directly or indirectly, other parties in committing dishonest acts is in itself dishonest." [University Senate Document 72-18, December 15, 1972]"

If you have any questions about this policy, please ask.

Late Work

The majority of missed class assignments cannot be "made up." If a serious and unavoidable problem arises, however, you should contact me personally or in writing (email will do) prior to the deadline to determine whether or not an extension for the work will or will not be granted. (I do occassionally grant short extensions, when circumstances warrant it. If you need one: ASK.)

Created by the Professional Writing Program, Purdue University
Modified by Rebecca Whitus Longster, Fall 2001
last updated 12-27-06
Please send corrections and suggestions to: RebeccaL@purdue.edu