COURSE FOCUS

WRA 202 introduces you to rhetorical principles and compositional practices helpful to your work as a professional writer. The courses also serves as an introduction to the field of professional writing. The principles and practices you learn and apply in this class will help you understand and communicate effectively within professional workplace writing scenarios. We will devote time to understanding what "professional writing" means, to understanding the professional writing major here at MSU, and to understanding the meaning and value of core concepts such as rhetoric, culture, community, organization, and technology. We will address issues related to genres of workplace writing, design principles, digital writing, and research skills and methodologies. Given the nature of professional writing, the course will involve both individual and collaborative work.

KEY THEMES

The course will be organized around three ongoing themes:

Identity | Rhetoric | Interface

The IDENTITY of the Professional Writer. What is professional writing? What does the professional writer know, and know how to do? What skills and expertise does the professional writer have that is different from what professionals in other disciplines offer (e.g., graphic designers, web designers, journalists, communication majors, English majors, creative writers, and editors)? Who are YOU as a professional writer? The short and simple answer to these questions is that the professional writing knows how writing works ... but we will need to explore that claim, challenge it, and clarify it somewhat. We will first investigate the work and professional identities of professional writers: What are professional writers? What kind of work do they do? How are professional writers related to other kinds of writers, such as creative writers, technical communicators, and journalists? How are they related to and different from graphic designers, information architects, and project managers? By the end of the course you should have a solid idea of what it means to be a professional writer and a sense of which track or emphasis you would be most interested in pursuing within the BA program in Professional Writing: Digital and Technical Writing, Writing in Communities and Cultures, or Writing, Editing, and Publishing.

The role of RHETORIC. In general, rhetoric is the art of how to communicate. It refers to theories and principles guiding the production of writing and speech. (In WRA 202 the focus will mainly be on writing, but we'll also be looking at the rhetoric of oral presentation as well.) Rhetoric provides a set of tools and procedures for analyzing communication situations and for making strategic decisions about how to persuade or inform your readers. Rhetoric provides us with procedures, methods, and analytic tools that we can use to analyze problems, build arguments, and test ideas. In the vocabulary of the digital age, you might think of this as "content development." This process certainly involves collecting and evaluating information (aka, research), but it goes beyond that to include the critical analysis of information, audience analysis, and ethical considerations.

Some of the rhetorical procedures we will focus on in WRA 202 include: - planning and managing a project: coordinating tasks, collaboration, milestones, testing and evaluation - applying procedures for inventing, developing, assessing, and finding content - analyzing rhetorical situation (purpose and audience, goals, ethical issues) - analyzing your audience (readers and users of your documents) - analyzing your client (who might or might not be the same as the reader/user of the document/s you are producing) - analyzing the organizational context for your writing

The Design of the INTERFACE. Another major focus of WRA 202 will be interface design, with a particular focus on the design of the page. One of the most ubiquitous interfaces in academic work is the paper page — we still often design our documents as 8 1⁄2 by 11 inch texts intended to be printed and distributed as material objects. While the page is one major form of interface (and one that we will be working with rather extensively), the screen is another primary interface, particularly for the work of the professional writer. Different forms of pages and screens provide different constraints and opportunities for the kinds of writing we do. Think, for instance, of the different kinds of text that might appear on a billboard, the label on a medicine bottle, or the display on your cellphone. But the interface is not only a mechanism for conveying or circulating information — the interface acts as an intermediary that facilitates action. In this sense, your work as a professional writer can be itself a form of interface, as you work to facilitate a particular activity through the writing that you do.

REQUIRED TEXTS AND READINGS

• Williams, Robin. (2004). The non-designers design book (2nd ed.). Peachpit Press. ($14) —> NOT available in the campus bookstore ... order directly on your own (e.g., from Amazon.com)

• Lynch, Patrick J., & Horton, Sarah. (2002). Web style guide: Basic design principles for creating web sites (2nd ed.). Yale University Press. ($14) —> NOT available in the campus bookstore ... You can order a print copy if you like — OR, you can use the free online version at http://www.webstyleguide.com/index.html

• You can expect to read about 3-5 short articles or chapters per week. However, most of this assigned reading will NOT be textbook material. Most of the readings will be online — either articles available on the web (the URLs will be posted in the WRA 202 schedule) or documents posted to the ANGEL course site as PDFs. You are expected to complete all assigned readings before class on the day they are listed in the schedule.

COURSE PROJECTS

There will be five major projects in the course: four individual ones and one team project. In addition, there will be something like 15-20 short exercises and modules, most of them done in class and most of them graded on a simple pass-fail-high pass basis.

#1 — Short Report on Professional Writing Journals or Organizations — 10%
- document type: print report (2 pages) —> converted to PDF

#2— Billboard Project — 10%
- document type: A roadside billboard (reduced, web-based facsimile thereof) offering a political or social critique and demonstrating the rhetorical device of irony. Your billboard should include some kind of visual/graphic plus some text.

#3 — Team Project (specifics TBA) — 20%

#4 — Individual Project (specifics TBA) — 20%

#5 — E-Portfolio — 10%
- document type: a web site (portal page) with links to relevant documents that you have developed in WRA 202 and other classes
- focus: you are to design an electronic portfolio to display your work as a professional writer; this portfolio should establish an identity for yourself as a professional writer and provide links to your work (as well as reflective overviews of that work). If you already have a e-portfolio, then you can use this assignment as an opportunity (a) to critique and update your current portfolio; and (b) to add in the work you produce in WRA 202.

Exercises and Miscellaneous Short Assignments — 15%
There will be numerous miscellaneous short exercises and assignments — in class, outside of class, and on email. For instance, you will send short planning reports to the class email list; you will do in-class peer reviews of your classmates' writing; there will be in-class exercises related to learning various writing technologies, such as web authoring and graphic design. There will probably be one or two miscellaneous exercises each week of the course.
Miscellaneous exercises are graded on a simple pass-fail basis: "pass" means you did the assignment well, you did it completely, and you turned it in on time; "fail" means you didn't do it well, didn't do it completely, or turned it in late (or not at all). (Your two lowest grades on these assignments will be dropped ... in other words, you get two "fails" without penalty.)

Class Participation — 15%
Regular involvement and participation in the class are a critical component of WRA 202. There will be four types of participation:
- face-to-face, in-class participation
- asynchronous participation (email, discussion board postings)
- synchronous participation (chat)
- peer review and feedback (online and F2F)
You are expected to participate in all four areas. Regularity, substance, helpfulness, and relevance of participation are more important than frequency: Do you attend class; participate regularly; provide interesting, helpful, and substantive comments; and ask good questions? Are you responsive to your classmates and the instructor? Do you provide helpful feedback? In general, do you contribute to the intellectual community of the WRA 202 class?

GRADING POLICIES AND CRITERIA

• Major projects will be graded on a 4.0 grading scale, according to the following general scale:

• You must complete ALL the major projects to receive a grade of 2.0 or higher in the course.

• A late major project will be downgraded one half of a grade marker (0.5). If an assignment is late by more than one week, it will be downgraded an additional 0.5 per week late.

• For major projects, you will submit your work in stages (e.g., preliminary topic ideas, planning, research notes, drafts, projects assessment memo, etc.). You should save all stages of each project. For some assignments, the instructor will ask you to submit a portfolio of your work for the entire project (not just the final document). Since one of the principle grading criteria is production (or process), your instructor needs to see evidence of your writing process and not just its final outcome.

• You will receive individual grades for team projects (that is, all team members do not necessarily receive the same grade for the project).

• A major act of plagiarism (or other form of serious academic dishonesty) will result in a grade of 0.0 for the course. Minor forms of plagiarism will typically result in a grade of 0.0 for the assignment (depending on the extent of the plagiarism).

• Miscellaneous exercises will be graded on a simple pass-fail basis. "Pass" means you did the assignment well, you did it completely, and you turned it in on time. "Fail" means you didn't do it well, didn't do it completely, or turned it in late (or not at all).

Grading Criteria
Specific criteria for each major project will be explained by the instructor. Generally, however, there are three main criteria for major projects: Purpose, Product, and Production (or Process).

PURPOSE. How effectively does the document accomplish its intended task for its intended purpose and audience? Is the document persuasive? informative? interesting? Does the assignment/document ...
- have a clear and definite point?
- provide relevant, useful, accurate and timely information?
- show careful and considerate thought about the subject?
- show adequate understanding of the subject?
- provide ample demonstration of its points? provide a sound argument in support of its claims? (is there enough "evidence"?)
- treat alternative points of view and adequately address complexities about the topic?
- meet the requirements of its context? (does it meet the parameters of the assignment? "parameters" include such things as due date, length, content requirements, and format requirements)
- meet the needs of its intended audience(s)?
- solve a problem or address a significant need?
- help people? improve people's lives? improve relations between people?

PRODUCT. How well constructed and stylistically crafted is the document?
- orderly and coherent presentation of material?
- readable? accessible? comprehensible?
- effective design and formatting? correctness?
- effective use of visuals and graphics?
- clear, concise, and syntactically sound style?
- professional tone and style?
- grammatically correct, carefully proofread, no obvious lapses or mechanical errors?
- overall document neatness and correctness: You are expected to produce high-quality professional documents, whether they are print pages, online resumes, web pages, electronic reports, PowerPoint slides, etc. A part of that quality is the appearance of your work. Neatness, visual appeal, and mechanical and grammatical correctness do matter — especially for professional writers — though of course neatness and correctness by themselves do not guarantee that a document is well written. Your documents should have appropriate margins, spacing, pagination, alignment, and formatting. (Exact document specifications will vary from assignment to assignment.) Assignments with spelling, grammatical, or mechanical errors will be downgraded.

PRODUCTION/PROCESS. How effectively was the document produced?
- quality of planning, collaboration, research & invention, drafting, editing, proofreading?

MIDTERM PROGRESS REPORT. At midterm the instructor will send out short progress reports informing each student of her/his grade in the course to date.

ATTENDANCE AND PUNCTUALITY

Attendance at every class is required. You are expected to be in class. You are expected to be there on time. And you are expected to pay attention and participate. However, because life is complex, some misses may be inevitable. For that reason, you are allowed a maximum of 4 absences over the semester. (An absence is an absence, whether you have a legitimate reason or not.) If you are absent from class and you miss an in-class miscellaneous exercise, you will receive a "fail" for that exercise.

More than four absences is excessive. If you miss five or more classes, then your final grade in WRA 202 will be lowered 0.5 per each absence over the four allowed. Being excessively or regularly late for class counts as an absence.

CELL PHONES AND OTHER SIGNIFICANT INTERRUPTIONS

Do not allow your cell phone to ring audibly in class. The instructor will overlook one lapse (with a pained expression of deep disgust), because, he must admit, sometimes mistakes do happen. A second lapse will be viewed as significacnt disrespect for the instructor and your classmates — and thus will affect your participation grade as an unwillingness to support the communal atmosphere of the class. When you are in class, we need your full attention, concentration, and commitment to class activities.

ETHICS, PLAGIARISM, AND ACADEMIC HONESTY

In WRA 202, the assumption is that the writing you submit is your own, original writing. An additional expectation is that you will appropriately identify that portion of your work which is collaborative with others, or which is borrowed from others, or which is your own work from other contexts. In other words, you must follow this basic ethical obligation: You should credit others’ contributions to your work. You should not claim, as your own, work (or writing) that is not your own.

It is perfectly appropriate in academic writing to borrow graphics, to quote passages, and to use ideas from others. However, whenever you do that, you are legally and ethically obliged to acknowledge that use, following appropriate conventions for documenting sources. To borrow someone else's writing without acknowledging that use is an act of academic as well as professional dishonesty, whether you borrow an entire report or a single sentence. The most serious forms of academic dishonesty are to "buy" a research paper; or to have someone else write your papers for you; or to turn in someone else's entire report or paper (or significant portions of an existing piece of writing) and call it your own. Those forms of academic dishonesty will be dealt with harshly.

If you wish to recycle writing that YOU have done in a previous (or even current) class, you may do that as long as you have the approval of your WRA 202 instructor. If you recycle writing from another context, then the instructor expects that you will do significant revision for purposes of the WRA 202 course (not simply turn in the exact same paper).

If you have doubts about whether or not you are using your own or others' writing ethically and legally, ask your instructor. Follow this primary principle: Be up front and honest about what you are doing and about what you have contributed to a project.

In addition to following the basic principles of fair use of others' work and honesty and forthrightness in crediting the contribution of others to your work, you are expected to adhere to another basic professional principle: treat others with the respect that you would wish them to grant you. "Others" includes the people you work for and with (classmates, instructors, corporation, clients); the people you write to (audiences); and the people you write about.