English 605
ENGL 605
Teaching Professional Writing
1. Catalog Entry
ENGL 605
Teaching Professional Writing
Credit hours (3)
Prepares students to teach professional writing as a survey course for students across the disciplines. It introduces students to the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge that helps them address practical concerns ranging from what to teach in a professional writing survey course, how to teach this information, and why to teach it. In addition to professional writing pedagogy, students learn to write a variety of professional documents as they prepare a textbook recommendation report, a class observation memo, a lesson plan handout and computer-assisted presentation, and a syllabus proposal that includes a theoretical justification.
2. Detailed Description of Course
Possible topics may include the following:
1) Defining professional writing and the professional writing survey course
2) Defining genres related to and sometimes subsumed under professional writing,
such as business writing and technical writing
3) Introducing foundational theoretical approaches
4) Rhetorical theory and its applications in the survey course
5) Cognitive theories and their application in the survey course
6) Teaching document design and cognitive theories through word processing
7) Social and organizational theories and their applications in the survey course
8) Workplace and situated learning and its application in the survey course
9) Genre theories and their applications in the survey course
10)Cultural and gender theories and their applications in the survey course
11)Process and usability and their applications in the survey course
12)Theoretical approaches to document design and visual rhetoric
13)Theoretical approaches to professional writing style
14)Theoretical approaches to teaching technology
15)Pedagogical frameworks
16)Writing a recommendation report in using the report genre
17)Writing an informal observation report in memo format
18)Developing survey course curriculum, lessons, and assignments
19)Evaluating technical and business communication assignments
3. Detailed Description of Conduct of Course
ENGL 605 is a course that intends to prepare students to teach professional writing as a survey course for students across the disciplines. It may introduce students to the theoretical and pedagogical knowledge they may need to teach professional writing successfully to students. ENGL 605 may ask students to consider critical issues related to teaching professional and workplace-related writing. From this foundation, it may progress to more practical concerns ranging from what to teach in a professional writing survey course, how to teach this information, and why to teach it. In addition to professional writing pedagogy, students may learn to write a variety of professional documents as they prepare a lesson, compare textbook treatments, observe a master teacher at work, and report their findings and experiences. These activities provide an added benefit: Even if students never teach a professional writing course, knowing how to write reports, proposals, and business communication genres may serve them well as their careers develop. Students may conclude the semester by producing a syllabus for a semester-long course and writing a theoretical justification for their syllabus. In order to promote ongoing conversation about the required readings and issues raised by the class, student may be required to participate in a variety of ways. Each class meeting, students may be asked to read from the course readings and to respond to these readings in asynchronous forums. Students may be required to complete four major assignments: a textbook recommendation report, a class observation memo, a lesson plan handout and computer-assisted presentation, and a syllabus proposal that includes a theoretical justification.
4. Goals and Objectives of the Course
By the end of the course, students may be able to:
1) Describe the theoretical underpinnings of a professional writing survey course
2) Apply these theories to survey course activities and textbooks
3) Develop and teach a professional writing lesson
4) Develop a semester-long syllabus
5) Produce a variety of professional writing documents, including a textbook
review/recommendation report, classroom observation/memo informal report,
lesson plan handout and computer-assisted presentation, and syllabus proposal
with theoretical justification and informal presentation
5. Assessment Measures
Course assessments may include reading responses, a textbook recommendation report, a class observation memo, a lesson plan handout and computer-assisted presentation, and a syllabus proposal that includes a theoretical justification.
6. Other Course Information
Following are examples of possible readings that may be relevant to the course:
1) Allen: “The Case Against Defining Technical Writing”
2) Connors: “The Rise of Technical Writing Instruction in America”
3) Durack: “Gender, Technology, and the History of Technical Communication”
4) Lay: “Technical Communication in the Workplace”
5) Miller: “A Humanistic Rationale for Technical Writing”
6) Johnson: “Complicating Technology”
7) Moore: “Rhetorical vs. Instrumental Approaches to Teaching Technical
Communication”
8) Aristotle: “The Rhetoric and Poetics of Aristotle”
9) Ornatowski: "Technical Communication and Rhetoric”
10)Lay: “The Persuasive Nature of Technical Communication”
11)Bitzer: “The Rhetorical Situation”
12)Miller: “What’s Practical about Technical Writing?”
13)Russell: “The Ethics of Teaching Ethics”
14)Katz: “The Ethics of Expediency: Classical Rhetoric, Technology, and the Holocaust”
15)Redish: "Understanding Readers”
16)Blyler: “Reading Theory and Persuasive Business Communications: Guidelines for
Writers”
17)Huckin: “A Cognitive Approach to Readability”
18)Kramer and Bernhardt: “Teaching Text Design”
19)Barnum: “Working with People”
20)Subbiah: "Social Construction Theory and Technical Communication”
21)Thralls and Blyler: “The Social Perspective and Pedagogy in Technical
Communication”
22)Morgan: “The Group Writing Task: A Schema for Collaborative Assignment Making”
23)Freedman and Adam: “Learning to Write Professionally: ‘Situated Learning” and
the Transition from University to Professional Discourse”
24)Sapp and Crabtree: "A Laboratory in Citizenship: Service Learning in the Technical
Communication Classroom”
25)Matthews and Zimmerman: "Integrating Service Learning and Technical
Communication: Benefits and Challenges”
26)Berkenkotter and Huckin: “Rethinking Genre from a Sociocognitive Perspective”
27)Spinuzzi: “Pseudotransactionality, Activity Theory, and Professional Writing
Instruction”
28)Blakeslee: “Bridging the Workplace and the Academy: Teaching Professional
Communication Genres through Classroom-Workplace Collaborations”
29)Lay: “Reports for Decision Making”
30)Beamer: “Learning Intercultural Communication Competence”
31)Thrush: “Multicultural Issues in Technical Communication”
32)Lay: “Feminist Theory and the Redefinition of Technical Communication”
33)Gurak and Bayer: “Making Gender Visible: Extending Feminist Critiques of
Technology to Technical Communication”
34)Carliner: “A Way with Words. Presenting Information Verbally”
35)Redish: “What is Information Design?”
36)Cargile Cook: “Usability Testing in the Technical Communication Classroom”
37)Horton: “Pictures Please. Presenting Information Visually”
38)Benson: “Writing Visually: Design Considerations in Technical Publications”
39)Broadhead: "Style in Technical and Scientific Writing”
40)Selzer: "What Constitutes a 'Readable' Technical Style"
41)Kastman Breuch: “Thinking Critically about Technological Literacy”
42)Selber, Johnson-Eilola, and Selfe: “Contexts for Faculty Professional Development
in the Age of Writing and Communication”
43)Selfe and Hawisher: “A Historical Look at Electronic Literacy”
44)Selting: “Conversations with Technical Writing Teachers: Defining a Problem”
45)Cargile Cook: “Layered Literacies: A Theoretical Frame for Technical
Communication Pedagogy”
46)Nagelhout: “Pre-Professional Practices in the Technical Writing Classroom:
Promoting Multiple Literacies through Research”
47)Allen and Benninghoff: “TPC Program Snapshots: Developing Curricula and
Addressing Challenge”
48)Cargile Cook: “How Much is Enough?”
49)Creelman: “The Case for Living Models”