The University of Maryland, Baltimore County

College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences

English Department
ENGL 393: Technical Communication (3 credit hours)
Section 04: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 4:00pm-5:15pm
Classroom: Performing Arts and Humanities bldg., Room 314

WELCOME!!!

Basic Course Information

Term: Spring 2024

Instructor: Dr. Christopher Justice
E-mail: cj10@umbc.edu
Office Hours: 5:30-6:00pm, T and Th
Office: Room 434, Performing Arts and Humanities Bldg.

Course Description – ENGL 393 teaches students from various disciplines to

communicate technical information effectively. The course emphasizes critical
thinking, synthesis, analysis, and the writing process to help students inform and
persuade audiences by composing technical documents. Reflecting a professional
writing style and document design principles, these documents demonstrate
how text and visuals work together to reach different audiences with specific
needs. Students also develop oral communication and collaborative skills along
with technological and visual literacies.

Course Outcomes – Upon successfully completing this course, you will be able to

- Demonstrate research skills, including gathering data from primary and

secondary sources and selecting, organizing, revising, and reporting
information in written and oral form;
- Communicate effectively as professionals in the workplace and advanced
academic environments;
- Analyze the communication situation fully and accurately so you make
appropriate decisions about audience, task, purpose, style, technical formats,
document design, and visuals;
- Complete written technical documents that use correct standards of English, a
professional writing style, and appropriate document formats to meet
professional standards;
- Recognize and effectively use a variety of paragraph or full-document
patterns, including description, definition, comparison/contrast,
cause/effect, persuasion/argument, analysis, and process;
 - Prepare workplace reports, proposals, manuals, abstracts, memos, letters,
emails, or other business and technical communications;
- Design usable, accessible, and understandable documents employing
techniques and concepts from the course textbook;
- Create visuals and graphics that complement and enhance the verbal
elements of the document;
- Gather, interpret, and document information logically, efficiently, and
ethically;
- Correctly use discipline-specific documentation styles;
- Evaluate, using determined criteria, information obtained from the Internet;
- Use professional oral presentation techniques to present technical
information;
- Demonstrate collaboration/teamwork skills, both face-to-face and online;
- Incorporate legal, ethical, and cultural considerations as they relate to
technical communication;
- Employ computer technology effectively when solving communication
problems;
- Incorporate awareness and acknowledgement of the needs of a global
economy and workplace; and
- Self-assess your writing to write more effectively.

Evaluation Policies

Grading

Attendance 10%
Sonic warning / reflection 10%
Rhetorical analysis 15%
Instructions 15%
Grant Proposal 15%
Written exercises and reflections 20%
Digital Portfolio 15%

Attendance

Attendance is crucial for success in this class and will be taken EVERY class.
If you’re not in class, you’re absent, regardless of your reason/s. Your
attendance grade will be earned as follows:

No more than four absences = A

No more than seven absences = C
Eight or more absences = F and you need to withdraw from the class
 If you are absent from class, for whatever reason, you are responsible for
obtaining information about the material covered and the assignments
announced in class. You’ll be considered late if you arrive in class after
attendance has been taken. I usually indicate attendance has been taken by
writing “Late” on the board. Three late arrivals equal one absence.

Also, “attendance” assumes more than just your physical presence.

Attendance means you’re prepared for class, ready to ask questions and
seek clarifications, and generally engaged throughout the class session.

Late work policy

There isn’t one. I don’t accept late work. If an assignment is not submitted
by the due date, you’ll receive a ZERO for that assignment. The only
exception to this policy is if you have a documented excuse.

Also, a draft should reflect a sincere attempt to produce, in prose format, at

least 2/3 of the assignment. So, if a final draft is expected to be six pages,
the first draft should be at least four pages.

Workload

You are expected to submit your assignments on time and have them
prepared BEFORE the assignment deadline. As a 300-level course, you are
required to spend approximately eight hours a week doing work for this
class. Budget your time accordingly.

Academic Integrity

By enrolling in this course, you assume the responsibilities of an active

participant in UMBC's scholarly community in which everyone's academic
work and behavior are held to the highest standards of honesty. Cheating,
fabrication, plagiarism, and helping others to commit these acts are all
forms of academic dishonesty, and they are wrong. Academic misconduct
could result in disciplinary action that may include, but is not limited to,
suspension or dismissal. To read the full Student Academic Conduct Policy,
consult UMBC policies, or the Faculty Handbook (Section 14.3).

Plagiarism

It is illegal and unethical to use someone else's work without properly

crediting the source, whether online, print, or other. If you are not sure
 whether to credit a source, quote or paraphrase, or use original language,
please ask me in advance or lean toward the side of citing the source.

Documentation generally occurs in in three ways (the following are

examples of MLA documentation styles): a signal phrase (such as Johnson
argues or In his essay “Politics and the English Language,” George Orwell states);
an in-text citation such as (Jones 90); AND a Works Cited entry. Just doing
one is not enough.

We’ll use different documentation styles in this course. I will specify what
documentation to use for each major writing assignment. You DEFINITELY
should be familiar with the documentation style used in your major (MLA,
APA, Chicago, etc.).

Upon the first instance of plagiarism, you’ll receive a ZERO for that
assignment. We’ll discuss this course of action and reach an understanding
about why it was taken. Upon the second instance of plagiarism, you’ll fail
the course. A formal notification about your plagiarism will be submitted to
the English Department. Additional penalties may at that point be issued.

Course Procedures

A. Materials
Required:
i. Technical Communication by Markel and Selber, 13th edition
ii. I will also provide other reading materials throughout the
semester including PowerPoints, Websites, or .doc or .pdf files.
iii. A Blackboard portal
B. Special procedures
a. How to Submit Your Work
i. When appropriate, please make sure you write proper headings
on your assignments.
ii. Unless stated otherwise, format the major writing assignments as
follows: 1) one-inch margins; 2) double-spaced; 3) 12-point
standard font; 4) heading in the upper right corner consisting of
your name, course title and section, assignment title, and due
date for the heading; and 5) a title (centered). NOTE: These
formats may vary and will be further elaborated upon in
assignment descriptions.
iii. A note about assignment lengths: Usually, I assign a page total.
You can write all you want beyond that page total. However,
please keep in mind that you’ll be graded only on what you
produce within the page total. If I ask for three pages, I stop
 reading after three pages. No exceptions. The fourth, fifth, sixth,
etc. pages won’t be read.
b. Class Expectations
i. You are expected to treat both the instructor and your
classmates as respected professionals. Behavior short of this will
not be tolerated.
ii. If you need any type of special accommodation, you must
identify your needs with me as soon as possible and support
your needs with documentation from the appropriate UMBC
office.
iii. I rarely give Incompletes, and when I do, there are clear
guidelines the student must meet. I will review them with you
individually if I think you’re in a position for an Incomplete.
iv. You are expected to be aware of and follow the UMBC Student
Handbook, particularly as it relates to all academic policies.
v. Cell phones should not be used during class unless there are
emergent situations.
vi. You’re expected to use laptops for class purposes only and to
pay attention to your classmates and instructor throughout
class. If you use it for other purposes, I will count you as absent.
vii. If you bring drinks or snacks to class, please keep them to a
minimum and clean up after yourself.
viii. Please be always aware of and adhere to social distancing
protocols.
c. Help Available
i. The Writing Center is a free resource for all UMBC students.
Writing consultants can offer comments and advice on anything
you're writing for UMBC courses at any point in the writing
process, from brainstorming to editing. Writing consultants can
meet with you in person or discuss your work by telephone.
ii. The consultant will expect you to 1) identify issues about which
you want feedback and bring assignment instructions; 2)
actively discuss your paper with the consultant; and 3) decide
which of the possibilities raised during the consultation are
helpful to you. Please note that writing consultants will not
proofread papers or discuss grades, but they can help you
develop strategies to proofread your own work.

Schedule:
(Please keep in mind these plans are subject to change.)

1. Week 1 – 1/30 and 2/1

 a. Introductions
b. Review syllabus
c. Speech vs. writing

2. Week 2 – 2/6 and 2/8

a. What is technical communication?

i. Chapter 1 in Markel/Selber
b. Professional technical communication organizations

3. Week 3 – 2/13 and 2/15

a. Understanding writing processes

i. Chapter 3 in Markel/Selber
b. Peer reviewing
c. What is rhetoric?
d. Key principles of rhetoric

4. Week 4 – 2/20 and 2/22

a. Review key principles of rhetoric

b. Writing for diverse audiences
i. Chapter 5 in Markel/Selber
c. Digital ethos and rhetorical velocity
d. Kairos and exigency
e. Rhetorical analysis assigned

5. Week 5 – 2/27 and 2/29

a. Draft of Rhetorical Analysis due

b. Peer Review of Rhetorical Analysis
c. Sonic rhetoric
d. Sonic warning assignment assigned

6. Week 6 – 3/5 and 3/7

a. Discourse and discourse communities

b. Understanding genres
c. Types of sentences
i. Chapter 10 in Markel/Selber

7. Week 7 – 3/12 and 3/14

 a. Levels of formality
i. Pages 374-377 in Markel/Selber
b. Instructions assignment assigned
c. Writing instructions
i. Chapter 20 in Markel/Selber
d. Designing visuals in text
i. Chapters 11 and 12 in Markel/Selber

8. Week 8 – 3/26 and 3/28

a. Digital portfolio assigned

b. Writing instructions
i. Chapter 20 in Markel/Selber
c. Writing effective definitions and descriptions
d. Designing visuals in text
i. Chapters 11 and 12 in Markel/Selber

9. Week 9 – 4/2 and 4/4

a. Diction, precision, and concision

b. Avoiding nominalizations
c. Writing lists
i. Pages 202-207 in Markel/Selber
d. Translating complex information for general audiences

10. Week 10 – 4/9 and 4/11

a. Discuss digital portfolio

b. Draft of Instructions due
c. Peer Review of Instructions
d. Translating complex information for general audiences

11. Week 11 – 4/16 and 4/18

a. Grant proposal assigned

b. Writing grant proposals
i. Chapter 16 in Markel/Selber
c. Differentiating subjects and topics
d. Conducting research
i. Chapter 6 in Markel/Selber
12. Week 12 – 4/23 and 4/25

a. Writing grant proposals

i. Chapter 16 in Markel/Selber
b. Exigency
c. Writing effective paragraphs: introductions, body paragraphs, and
conclusions
i. Chapters 7 and 9 in Markel/Selber

13. Week 13 – 4/30 and 5/2

a. Writing grant proposals

i. Chapter 16 in Markel/Selber
b. Making arguments
i. Chapter 8 in Markel/Selber
c. Documentation styles

14. Week 14 – 5/7 and 5/9

a. Discuss digital portfolio

b. Draft of Grant Proposal due
c. Peer Review of Grant Proposal due
d. Writing grant proposals
i. Chapter 16 in Markel/Selber
e. Ethical aspects of technical communication
i. Chapter 2 in Markel/Selber

15. Week 15 – 5/14

a. Grant Proposals due

b. Digital portfolios drafts due
c. Digital portfolio peer reviews due
d. Review
e. Farewells
f. Course evaluations