… is titled “Technical Writing and Group Dynamics”.
This is a technical writing course. As I see it, it has two basic parts:
I think the course should be more about technical writing, but you can't do that without being able to write. We will interleave “writing” and “technical writing” topics.
Why do we have a 300-level CMPT writing course?
Writing is important, even to software developers, and can be career enhancing or limiting.
Things I am not:
Things I am:
Eshan Raina. Office hours etc to be announced.
Ask for help at cmpt-376-d1-help@sfu.ca: not Greg or the TAs individually.
When teaching first year, I admit to myself: I have never taught anyone how to program, only made it possible for them to learn how to program. Learning to program takes practice.
I think the same applies to writing: the only way to become a better writer is to practice. The things we talk about in lecture are important, but as a guide to your actual writing.
The consquence: I will expect you to write a lot. I will try to keep it under control.
The tradeoff: I will cancel lecture if I don't think it's really worth it.
| Activity | Weight |
|---|---|
| In-class exercises | 7% |
| Blogs | 8% |
| Weekly writing exercises | 10% |
| Writing assignments | 50% |
| Midterm exam | 5% |
| Final exam | 20% |
You will be required to post twice weekly to a blog you create.
You may not post more than once a day. Posts should consist largely of text and should be at least 4 sentences long. The idea is to practice writing in proper sentences.
The topics are up to you (within reason).
There will be a short writing exercise due (most) Fridays.
The length will be similar to a blog post, but will give me the chance to guide your practice a little more.
There will be exercises in lectures, as relevant. You are expected to complete (a reasonable fraction of) them (reasonably well).
A computer or tablet would be best. Paper also accepted.
I hope to have you submit to CourSys, discuss in real-time, and figure out marks later.
These will be larger and will have a rough draft, feedback, final draft lifespan. Some will be reviewed by the TAs; some will be peer-reviewed.
These will be submitted through turnitin.com (and CourSys?).
We will have a midterm and final exam. Let's be honest: if we don't, you won't pay attention.
Midterm in lecture on ???.
Final as scheduled.
I'm assuming you can generically write English.
This won't be a basic English course, or a course about subject-verb agreement, or verb tense, or ….
We won't be talking (much) about those things. They also won't be the emphasis of the assignments and marking.
It's much more important that you can be understood than having perfect grammar. Consider these:
I have been studying for more than one year.
I was studying more than one years.
I has studying one year more than.
The basic principle: if you submit it, it must be your work. Be honest about that.
“Your work”: you sat down and wrote those words: not your friend, your tutor, or somebody on the Internet. You didn't take somebody else's work and change it a little so it looks different.
See also SFU Policy S10.01. More later.
Style: Lessons in Clarity & Grace, Williams & Bizup.
It's good, but it's much more about “writing” than “technical writing”.
There will be some readings and/or exercises from it. Feel free to share a copy or use an old edition.
Credit that will apply throughout the course: Fred Popowich and Milan Tofiloski, who have been very generous with their materials for the course. I will be borrowing from both of them.