WR227 - Technical Writing

1. WR227 - Technical Writing Dr. Dương Nguyên Vũ Professor, Academic Advisor Dr. Vũ Hải Quân Lecturer Faculty of Information Technology University of Science - Vietnam National University HCM

2. Welcome to WR227 • Today’s topics: • Course Syllabus • Course goal and learning objectives, • How things work in WR227 and what are the elements of SC203 to be performed here, • Our expectations on your progress and achievements in WR227, • Preps for Final Report of SC203 and WR227: “Proceedings of APIT Class 06 Research Projects.” • Auxiliary works: Designing cover pages, Editing, Compiling, Table of Contents, Author Index, Prefaces, etc…

3. Main Things from SC203 • Project Schedule: • Period 1 - Jan 19 to 26, 2008: • Acquiring knowledge about scientific method, • Developing initial idea • Defining your project, • Period 2 - Jan 28 to Apr 04, 2008: • Developing your project, • Work (with your team mate), Work (with your TA), Work (with the Boss), • Period 3 - April 07 to 11, 2008: • Oral Report on Your Final Project, • Critical Analysis, • WR 227: Lectures on April 14-18 March 24- April 04 • Finalizing your experimentations and • Prepare for Written Reports for May 12-17 (date to be confirmed).

4. Main things in WR227 • To write the final report of your experimental project defined and conducted in SC203. Your reports will be going into the “Proceedings of US-VNU HCM APIT Class 06 Research Projects 2008.” • You will be working on how to produce your final report with lecturing classes, classroom discussions, exercises, using your research topics to progress. • You will write a “Handbook …” as an exercise and to help others.

5. Pedagogy • Through readings, discussions and practical exercises, we will focus on basic principles of good writing and on organizational matters aiming at developing skills that enable you to produce clear and effective scientific and technical documents. • Working Books: • Perelman, L.C., Paradis, J. and Barrett E. (1998). The Mayfield Handbook of Technical Scientific Writing. Mayfield Publishing, Mountain View, CA. USA. • Markel, M. (2007). Technical Communication. Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston MA. USA. • Hacker, D. (2004). A Pocket Style Manual, 4th Edition. Bedford/St. Martin’s, Boston MA. USA.

6. Your Tasks

7. SC 203 & WR227 Go/ No-Go Project Statement Go/ No-Go Proposal 1 Idea Background Hypothesis Measurements Proposal 2 Review of Literature Design of Experiment Data Collection Method Example of Scenarios SC 203 WR 227 Oral Report Final Report Completion of Experiment Writing, Writing, Writing… From Idea to Statements of Hypothesis, Description of Experimental Method, Expected Scenarios & Results Running the Expe, Collect & Analyze Data, Conclude

8. Course Structure • Five workshops: • Workshop 1: How to Plan and Produce Documents Reading: Chapter 1 of Mayfield Handbook, • Workshop 2: Document Types Reading: Chapter 2 of Mayfield Handbook, • Workshop 3: Elements of Technical Documents Reading: Chapter 3 of Mayfield Handbook, • Workshop 4: Citing References Reading: Chapter 10 of Mayfield Handbook, • Workshop 5: Things to Avoid in Scientific Writing Reading: Chapter 9 of Mayfield Handbook,

9. Workshops? • You will workshop a rough draft of each topic with a group of your peers. You learn a lot by figuring out how to talk to each other about writing. You get more out of wrestling with each others' papers than you do listening to lectures, or following my instructions on how to "fix" your work. • The point of the class isn't to produce papers; it isn't the function of a teacher to simply do editing for you. Rather, the papers are a means to an end: the production of better writers. • We will comment each of your rough drafts. It makes more sense to us to expend the effort of giving you feedback at a point when the feedback can help you improve your writing (and thus your grades). Should you wish more feedback on the final version, you may see your tutors during office hours.

10. Practically … • Each one reads the recommended chapter for the workshop; • Groups of 5-6 (2-3 project groups) workshop for 2 hours at your most convenience place to produce a rough draft of “How to …” Please respect the time and be self-discipline. • Every Monday, Wednesday, Friday everyone comes to our lecture (13:30 - 15:30) for the course and for a presentation of the rough draft (on projector) upon which we will give comments; One member of the group will represent the group in rotation.

11. Attendance • Regular class attendance is expected. Two absences or more will result in being withdrawn from the course; • If you are going to miss a class, you should email me with the reason. You are responsible for making up what you miss. • Coming to class either too late or insufficiently prepared to meaningfully participate counts as an absence.

12. Participation • As a great deal of class time will be spent in a variety of interactive formats, active participation is essential. • It is also essential that you do the required work-including the reading, and complete rough drafts of your papers on workshop days - and do it on time.

13. Plagiarism • Using someone else's language and/or ideas without proper attribution is academically dishonest. As members of this class and the larger scholarly community you are expected to abide by the norms of academic honesty. • While a good deal of collaboration is encouraged in and out of class, failing to acknowledge sources or willfully misrepresenting the work of others as your own will not be tolerated. Everything you submit must be your own work, written specifically for this class. • Plagiarism can result in withdrawal from the course with a grade of F, suspension or expulsion from the University.

14. Grading • Short Assignment grades will be checks, with pluses and minuses. Grades on the papers will be letter grades, also with pluses and minuses. Course grades will be letter grades. • The course is Pass/Fail. You need a C to pass. Your final grades will be weighted, as follows: REQUIREMENTS PERCENTAGES Final Writing Report 50% Handbook of Common Writing Problems 15% Workshop Rough Draft 15% Class Participation 20%

16. Grades GRADES DESCRIPTIONS A Understood the assignment and was able to reinterpret it, adding a high degree of personal style and insight. Essentially without mechanical flaws. B Understood and was able to reinterpret the assignment. Went beyond the minimum the assignment called for. Better than average from a mechanical point of view. C Reasonable understanding of the assignment. Visible effort to fulfill the requirements of the assignment. Adequate level of mechanical competence. D Flawed understanding of the assignment. Some evidence of a good faith effort to understand and complete the assignment. High number of mechanical errors. F Clear that the assignment was not understood. No serious effort made to understand or complete the assignment. Very high number of mechanical errors. NG On rare occasions—if a paper demonstrates that work has been done but it doesn't fit the assignment, for example—I will give a "No Grade," which means the assignment must be re-written and re-submitted.