Instructor: Dr.

Will Kurlinkus

English 3153
MW: 1:30-2:45PM
E-Mail: wkurlinkus@gmail.com
Office: Cate 2, Room 338
Technical Writing Office Hours: MW 12-1:30 or Ask

Materials
Overview
Rocket Surgery Made Easy
From the most basic lab report to medical aftercare instructions, from Grant Writing Made Easy
museum displays to airplane safety guidesin English 3153, students learn
Notebook
to analyze and produce technical documents across a variety of settings.
In particular this course will take a user-centered design research Other readings made
approach to writing for science, workplace, and consumer settings. available online for free

Assignments
Goals
Learn to produce technical communication genres, 1. Application Packet: 15%
Learn to respond to the rhetorical situations of professional settings, 2. Instructions Set: 20%
designing documents in specific ways for specific audiences,
3. Grant: 20%
Learn the basics of scannable document design,
Learn to translate technical information to non-technical 4. Usability Test: 35% (10%.10%.15%)
audiences,
5. Forums/Activities: 10%
Learn how to run a usability test and research users,
Learn to work, write, and present collaboratively.
Email Policy

Attendance, Participation, Late Work I will check and respond to emails

once a day at 1PM. You can expect
Attendance is vital to your ability to understand course material. Each
unexcused absence after two will result in the lowering of your assignment feedback around that time. So,
grade by a letter grade for that unit. Six unexcused absences (three weeks) will please do not worry if you dont
automatically result in failing the course. There will be an attendance sheet receive a response quickly if you
passed around each day of class. It is your responsibility to sign it each day. send an email at 5pmI will respond
Forums: You will be required to participate in ~2 forums a week the next day at noon.
responding to reading questions, activities, and your colleagues. Forum
responses are due by 5PM the day they appear on. If they are not
received by 5pm, you will receive no points. 3 to 4 discussion leaders will Other Expectations
be assigned at the time each forum question is posted, and they will be
Peer Review: If you dont submit a
expected to respond to 3 other students. These responses will be due by
noon the next day, if they are not posted the discussion leader will receive draft for peer review, youll receive
no points. 2% off your final grade. If you dont
Late submission of a final assignment will result in the deduction of 5% per day. return your 2 commented on drafts
back on time for peer review 2% off
your final grade. You will be assigned
Access peer review partners.

Students requiring academic accommodation should contact the Disability

Resource Center for assistance at http://www.ou.edu/drc/home.html Any
student who has a disability that may prevent him or her from fully
demonstrating his or her abilities should contact me personally ASAP so we
can discuss accommodations to ensure full educational opportunities.

Technical Writing 1


Introduction
M 8.21 Intro to Class

W 8.23 What is the Work of Technical Writers?
1. A School of Visual Arts Grad Remakes the Pill Bottle
2. Listen to the following: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2014/08/14/340351393/when-
patients-read-what-their-doctors-write
3. The University of Maryland just released a report on its incredibly irresponsible chocolate milk
research
4. Italian Scientists Sentenced to 6 Years for Earthquake Statements - Scientific American.
Homework: Respond on the discussion forum to the readings. What do they teach you about
the importance of technical communication? About the responsibility of scientists to be good
communicators?

Unit 1: Application Packet
M 8.28 Job Search, Analyzing Job Ads, and Professional Email
1. KolinGetAJob.pdf
2. Emails 1: How to Email - The Atlantic - The Atlantic.pdf
3. Emails 2: New Series: The Art of the Email
4. Emails 3: https://www.sitepoint.com/how-to-streamline-email/
Homework: Find 2 job/internship ads. Post them to the discussion forum.
In Class: Job search discussions; finding and analyzing job ads; CV production;

W 8.30 Resumes
1. Obtaining a Job. Paul Anderson: Chapter 2: Read 22-45 (beginning to cover letter)
2. https://www.fastcompany.com/3052371/a-former-google-recruiter-reveals-the-biggest-resume-
mistakes
3. Student examples that I commented on
4. Student Examples for you to Grade.
Homework: Grade Student Resumes
In Class: Resume production; analyzing resumes; visual rhetoric

M 9.4 No Class Labor Day

W 9.6 Cover Letters
1. Writing Your Job Application Letter. Anderson: 46-58 (cover letter onward)
2. Student Examples: with my comments
3. Student Examples for you to grade.
Homework: Grade student examples and post your comments for each in the discussion forum.
In Class: Cover letter production; analyzing cover letters; showing vs. telling

M 9.11 Job Interviews
1. KolinInterviewing.pdf
2. https://www.levo.com/posts/12-tips-to-get-hired-as-a-recent-graduate
3. https://www.aol.com/article/2011/08/19/3-crucial-career-fair-tips-for-college-students/20021243/
4. http://www.resumeok.com/49-job-interview-questions-and-answers/
5. https://www.levo.com/posts/5-things-you-must-do-to-follow-up-after-an-interview
Homework: What advice have you been given about job interviews in the past? Have you ever
been on a job interview? What was it like? What kind of questions were you asked?

W 9.13 [DUE]: Peer Review. Draft of 1 resume and 1 cover letter

Unit 2: Instruction Set

M 9.18 Introduction to Instruction Sets
Reader-Centered Instructions. Anderson: Chapter 27
In Class: Lego Group instruction creation; comparing types of instructions
Introduce Assignment 2
[DUE]: Assignment 1

W 9.20 Introduction to Instructions Culture
1. Maker Culture
2. Makerspaces and Morality - The Atlantic.pdf
3. Student Example 1
Homework: Find, photograph, describe and post an example of a bad instruction set in the wild.
What makes it so bad?

M 9.25 Introduction to User-Centered Design
1. User persona
2. The Design of Everyday Things
3. Start to fill out this user-persona template, which is required for the instruction assignment.
Homework: Choose an instruction set topic and post it to the forum. Describe why you believe
this will be a good topic for a technical instruction set. Begin to fill out this worksheet. I won't
collect it but it will help you complete your instruction set.

W 9.27 Designing Instructions
1. Visual Hierarchy 1: http://gibbon.co/c/e14983c1-54fd-4945-9c3e-c433074da086/on-visual-
hierarchy
2. Visual Hierarchy 2
3. Illustrations in Technical Writing:
https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Professional_and_Technical_Writing/Design/Illustrations
Homework: Evaluate the visual design of the following examples. What could be made more
clear?
1. https://mi-od-live-s.legocdn.com/bigdownloads/buildinginstructions/4503825.pdf
2. https://i.stack.imgur.com/O7mFt.jpg
3. StudentSample3.pdf

M 10.2 Evaluating Instruction Sets
What are the Pros and Cons of Each of these instruction sets
1. Dummies: http://www.dummies.com/personal-finance/how-to-change-your-cars-oil/
2. Pennzoil: http://www.pennzoil.com/en_us/education/know-your-oil/changing-your-own-
oil.html#iframe=L3NvcHVzL3Blbm56b2lsLzIwMTZuZXdzbGV0dGVyLz9sb2NhbGU9ZW5fdXM=
3. Instructables: http://www.instructables.com/id/OilChange/?ALLSTEPS
4. Wikihow: http://www.wikihow.com/Change-the-Oil-in-Your-Car
5. Lifehacker: http://lifehacker.com/how-to-change-your-cars-oil-1598482301

W 10.4 [DUE]: Peer Review. Draft Due

Unit 3: Grant Unit
M 10.9 Discovering and Describing Problems: Statements of Need
1. Grant Writing Made Easy Workbook: Statement of Need (pp. 1-19)
2. Statement of Need Professional Example
3. Statement of Need Student Example
Homework: Choose the problem you want to address, write a two-sentence statement of need,
and give me a bulleted list of quotes, facts, and statistics you need to gather to prove your need.
[DUE]: Assignment 2

2


W 10.11 Researching Problems: Pre-Existing Solutions
1. Continue to read and fill out pp. 1-19 of your workbook. Read through all the sources I've provided on
your topic at: Grant Research Materials
2. Research Professional Example
3. Research Student Example
Homework: Summarize one of the pre-existing solutions of your problem provided in your
research section. Evaluate what you think is good or bad about it.

M 10.16 Describing Solutions
1. Grant Writing Made Easy Workbook (see download from Monday): Proposals pp. 20-41
2. Research Professional Example
3. Research Student Example
4. Professional Proposal 2
Homework: Propose two possible activities that you might create to solve your problem. That is,
what might you write your grant proposal about.

W 10.18 Goals and Objectives, Evaluations and Deliverables
1. Grant Writing Made Easy Workbook: pp.42-45, 61-63
2. Professional Example
3. Statement of Need Student Example
4. Logic Model Example 1
Homework: Describe how you will evaluate whether your program is a success. What measures
will you use?

M 10.23 Executive Summary, Timeline, and Budget
1. Grant Writing Made Easy Workbook: pp. 52-60
2. Professional Example
3. Student Example

W 10.25 Understanding Feasibility


M 10.30 [DUE]: Peer Review

Unit 4: Usability Test
W 11.1 Evaluating Web Design
1. http://mashable.com/2011/04/10/5-web-design-mistakes/#IKyF2IIiLuqp
2. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/02/9-common-usability-blunders/
3. https://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/10/15-common-mistakes-in-e-commerce-design-and-
how-to-avoid-them/
4. Rocket Surgery. Steve Krug: 13-37.
Homework: Find a poorly designed website (not just ugly but difficult to complete basic tasks)
that you will usability test in this unit put a link and description of its poor design in the forum.
Use this worksheet

M 11.6 Introduction to Usability Testing
1. Rocket Surgery. Steve Krug: 39-50, 102-110
2. The Art of Guerrilla Usability Testing
[DUE]: Assignment 3

W 11.8 Evaluating Usability Proposals
1. Student Example 1
2. Student Example 2
3. Chapter 9: Design Briefs

3


M 11.13 Introduction to Creating Usability Test Scenarios and Methods
1. Rocket Surgery. Steve Krug: 50-90.
2. IDEO Methods Cards
3. Turn User Goals into Task Scenarios for Usability Testing
4. A step by step guide to scenario mapping
Homework: Begin writing your 2 scenarios for 4.1. Look to Krug for your scripted intro (pp. 147
onward) and homepage tour.

W 11.15 Writing a Usability Plan
1. Chapter 11: Usability Plans
2. Rocket Surgery. Krug: 63-89 and 147-153;
3. Student Example 1
4. Student Example 2
[DUE]: Assignment 4.1

M 11.20 Studio Time

W 11.22 Thanksgiving Break

M 11.27 Writing Lab Reports
1. Introduction to Scientific Reports
2. Student Example 1
3. Student Example 2
[DUE]: Assignment 4.2

W 11.29 Run Your Usability Test in Class

M 12.4 Studio Time
1. Chapter 12: Usability Reports

W 12.6 [DUE]: Peer Review

Final Report Due: December 14