Course Description

Required Reading

Policies

Expectations

Grading

Summary of Assignments

Technical and Scientific Writing (HU333)

This is an undergraduate course that Nancy Hoft teaches at
Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI USA.
Current Offering: WINTER QUARTER 1997-98

Summary of Assignments

Here is a summary of the assignments students complete during the quarter. This summary does not list short and in-class assignments, which are listed in the syllabus or that may be assigned during the quarter.

Assignment One: Personal Profile

Answer ten questions that help me learn more about you. I'll use this information to try and make this class more enjoyable and more meaningful to you throughout the quarter.

Assignment Two: Teach Nancy Statistics

Perform an audience analysis. Develop an information product that explains one or two principles of statistics and that accommodates the findings of your audience analysis. Then, develop an assessment instrument to evaluate whether the user of your information product learned anything.

Assignment Three: Memo to Dr. Stone

Listen to a professional interview of Dr. David Stone, a busy professional engineer and manager, to determine his information needs and learning style. Listen to a ten minute presentation on a topic (to be determined). Prepare a one-page professional memo to Dr. Stone summarizing the presentation and based on your analysis of his needs. Receive feedback on the effectiveness of your memo from Dr. Stone and your instructor.

Assignment Four: Personal Press Kit

Collect a variety of marketing, employment, public relations, and professional information about a company you want to work for. Write a Corporate Profile based on the information products you collected. Next, write a cover letter and a resume to apply for a position at the company. Write answers to a series of interview questions. Develop some interview questions of your own. Give a presentation to the class about your audience analysis. Perform a peer review of a classmate's resume and cover letter.

Assignment Five: The Wildcard

This will be the longest and most involved assignment of the quarter. You will be expected to submit weekly one-page status reports concerning your project's status. You will be given a list of four or five possible projects from which you will choose one. (If none of these appeal to you, or if you have something else in mind, feel free to stop by my office to talk about it.) All assignments require an audience analysis plus the development of at least one high-quality information product. All information products are subject to a usability assessment, which will be performed by your peers and possibly others. Written projects are expected to be minimum of ten single-spaced pages in length. The length of visual projects should be negotiated with me in advance. A final list of projects is not available at this time. However, possible projects may include: a technical report or proposal; a completely visual, online presentation of a technical topic (with a written script) that you'd present to the class; a technical marketing package for a product or service; a critical analysis and usability study of a product or process; and, a rewrite of an existing information product for completely different audience.