Phil Druker/ Department of English/ UI

 

Teaching Technical Writing (English 504)

Instructor:

Phil Druker.

The Goal:

Teaching Technical Writing will give English Department graduate students a chance to learn about technical writing and methods for teaching technical writing courses.

The Plan/What you will do:

  1.  Regularly attend either section of the technical writing course that the instructor teachers.
bulletPlan to attend either the 9:30-10:45 or 11:00 - 12:15 section.   Eight people have signed up for the course so I'm hoping 4 or you will attend one section and 4 will attend the other section. 

   2.   Read the chapters in the technical writing textbook by Markel that pertain as we progress through the course.

   3.   Write a proposal and final report -- the main assignments for the Technical Writing (English 317) course.

   4.   Teach a topic/topics during a class and help lead workshops during class.

    5.  Practice grade a few papers from two or three assignments.

    6.  Attend two (maybe three) seminar  sessions about the course. These will be at the beginning and middle of the semester to discuss the course and general principles of teaching technical writing. They should last about an hour.  We'll determine the times and dates based on our schedules.

The Required Textbooks:

Markel, Mike. 2007.Technical Communication (8th Ed.)   Bedford/ St. Martins.  (You will read this on your own to fill in the gaps I don't discuss in class.)

Druker, Phil. 2008. Technical Writing Course Pamphlet.  Available at the UI Bookstore.

Also articles/chapters from:

Dubinsky, James M. 2004. Teaching Technical Communication.  Bedford/ St. Martins

Staples, Katherine and Ornatowski, Cezar M.  1997. Foundations for Teaching Technical Communication: Theory, Practice, and Program Design. ATTW Contemporary Studies in Technical Communication

These articles/chapters will be available through e-reserve, but I encourage you to buy the books for your own reference.

Syllabus-- not yet ready