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English 481, section 01 -- Managing Document Projects

1. General information 2. Course information 3. Overview and Objectives 4. Homework & schedule 5. Assignments & Grading

NOTE: This syllabus may change as class needs dictate.

This course is to help you prepare to showcase your work for graduate school or the workplace. You will fine tune your skills at managing projects, interacting with clients, and meeting the demands of your project supervisor (me!).
"Kermit reclining on the printer"	Reminders:
	Reviewing the Attendance policy, the Assignments policy, and the SVSU policies is beneficial. You will also find specifics on grading and the minimum effort.
	If you need to contact me by e-mail at "fidallas@svsu.edu," the subject line should contain your last name, course and section number [for example, using my name the subject line would be: Dallas, English 481-01] to prevent your e-mail from being misplaced as possible spam. Please ensure that you use your SVSU e-mail account for a reply within 48 hours, otherwise a reply may take up to 96 hours.

 

Charlene is pooh-poohing your project efforts...

ENGL 481 Managing Documentation Projects (3) Students complete significant professional projects, creating documents for clients/users. Topics include planning projects, managing resources, conducting usability studies, working with clients and other professionals, and preparing documents for implementation. Emphasis on developing complex projects over time. Prerequisites: ART 260, ENGL 300 or 304, and ENGL 400.

Overview: This course is designed to help you manage professional projects, by creating documents for clients/users. You will work with clients to plan projects, and managing your resources to prepare documents for implementation. A major emphasis will be setting up a project management process. The goal of the capstone course is to ensure PTW majors are equipped with the knowledge to address the curriculum outcomes as delineated in the course objectives.
animation courtesy of animationfactory.com	Course objectives are designed to enable students to: Audience, Purpose, Genre, Context—The student demonstrates that s/he has developed effective, responsible documents in multiple genres that serve audience needs and purposes in-context [projects 1-5]. Language and Conventions—The student demonstrates that s/he makes appropriate style and language choices, and edits documents effectively [capstone portfolio]. Document Design—The student demonstrates that s/he applies professionally appropriate design strategies (at the page and project level) [capstone portfolio]. Collaboration—The student demonstrates that s/he has worked in teams with peers from professional and technical writing and subject matter experts from other disciplines [project 6 or 7; class discussions/peer reviews/blogs]. Project Management—The student demonstrates that s/he has managed projects, including conducting research and managing resources such as budgets, time, personnel, and tools [project 6 or 7; weekly status reports]. Tools and Technologies—The student demonstrates that s/he can use a variety of communication tools and technologies [capstone portfolio; PTW mini-conference; weekly status reports].

If you need to contact me by e-mail at "fidallas@svsu.edu," the subject line should contain your last name, course and section number to prevent your e-mail from being misplaced as possible spam.

NOTE: All work for the course (capstone portfolio) will be burned to as an Adobe Acrobat portfolio and turned in at the final examination period.

Required Texts:

• Horine, Greg. Absolute Beginner's Guide to Project Management. Que, 2005. ISBN 0789731975

Recommended Text:

• Dallas, Fenobia. The Pedagogy of Practice: Technical Communicators Interrogating the Raced Audience. VDM Verlag, 2008. ISBN 3836468239
• Richardson, Gary & Charles Butler. Readings in Information Technology Project Management. Cengage Learning, 2005. ISBN 0619217502

Other resources:

• Project management software options:
  both - OpenProj Various ZD Net (sort by "free")
  PC - AceProject Yutiti Project Engine Personal XL-EasyGantt CNet various (sort by "free")
  Mac - GanttPV RationalPlan Project Viewer WorkTimer CNet various (sort by "free")
• Student Technology Center, 2nd Floor, Zahnow Library http://www.svsu.edu/stc
• The Writing Center, Science East 123 http://www.svsu.edu/writingcenter/
• Research assistance at SVSU Zahnow Library here
• Information Technology Services @ SVSU here
• Your local public library *elsewhere*
• Wild Tangent Games (Plant Tycoon) here

Course weekly schedule:
Activities are DUE on the date indicated by the course schedule. Please review to plan your time wisely.
Class days: T=Tuesday; R=Thursday
Assignments: indicated by bold text
Texts: ABGPM=Absolute Beginner's Guide to Project Management

Format for assignments:
Any assignment requiring a response will be typed for this class. The cover page of the document should be formatted as such:

[your name]
English 481-01
Dr. Dallas
[date]

Then start your response on the next page. For each calendar day (or portion thereof) that your assignment is late, two (2) points will be deducted.

Technical Writing Projects

Five (5) short projects -- five points each for a total of 25 points:
These projects are short one- to two-week projects, that focus on revising existing content or materials. Use the project information sheet located in the Resources section of VSapce and your choice of project management software from the listing above to track the projects, and include the project status on your weekly status reports--it will be useful to assign your various projects specific project names. Each short project will be graded as thus:

1 point-on weekly status reports
1 point-on tracking with project management software
3 points-complete project management sheet and attach completed project document.

Project 1: review the document provided. Contact the client and revise the document. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 3.

Project 2: review the document provided. Contact the client and revise the document. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 5.

Project 3: review the document provided. Contact the client and revise the document. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 8.

Project 4: review the document provided. Contact the client and revise the document. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 12.

Project 5: review the document provided. Contact the client and revise the document. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 14.

One (1) medium/mid-sized project -- 25 points total:
This project is a one-month project that focuses on creating or revising existing content or materials. This project will focus on a user manual or similar document. Use the project information sheet and project management software to track the project, and include project status on weekly status reports--it will be useful to assign your various projects specific project names. This medium project will be graded as thus:

6 points-on weekly status reports
4 points-on tracking with project management software
15 points-complete project management sheet and attach completed project document.

For students who wish to collaborate on this project, please indicate so on the project information sheet.

Project 6: review the document provided or obtained. Contact the client and discuss creation or revision of the document. Students should meet with the project supervisor at least once for feedback. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 7.

One (1) major/large-sized project -- 50 points total:
This project is a two-month project that focuses on revising existing content or materials. This project will focus on a process or similar activity, and will require that you undertake brief usability study. Use the project information sheet and project management software to track the project, and include project status on weekly status reports--it will be useful to assign your various projects specific project names. This medium project will be graded as thus:

10 points-on weekly status reports
5 points-on tracking with project management software
35 points-complete project management sheet and attach completed project document.

For students who wish to collaborate on this project, please indicate so on the project information sheet.

Project 7: Contact the client and discuss the project. Students should meet with the project supervisor at least two times for feedback. This project will be considered completed when the client signs off on the delivered revision and should be completed by week 11.

Weekly status reports -- points are incorporated within projects:
These status reports are a means to help you monitor your projects and report to the project supervisor. There are sample status reports in the Resources section of VSpace which offer some guidelines for you to follow. These are status reports used by Dr. Dallas when she was employed as an operations research analyst.

Class discussions/Peer reviews/Blogs on VSpace -- 0 points:
Each student will be expected to contribute to the class discussions, peer reviews, and VSpace blogs. Minimum discussions, peer review or blog contributions will be reflected in the loss of points.

APTW Mini-Conference -- 0 points:
Each student is expected to submit a proposal for the mini-conference. The mini-conference replaces the PTW Showcase, and incorporates the venue for PTW majors to showcase their work. The details are linked above as a PDF file, and can also be found in the Resources section of our VSpace site. The deadline for response is January 31, 2009 (week 3).

Capstone Portfolio -- 0 points:
The capstone project is a requirement of the PTW program and will be used to assess the effectiveness of the current curriculum. This portfolio will be submitted on CD, and projects will be manipulated using Adobe Acrobat.

Final exam -- 0 points:
The final exam details will be provided during the examination period.