Syllabus

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English 3110 Syllabus

Time:                2:00-3:15 pm, Mondays & Wednesdays
Place:                Classroom South 303
Professor:        Dr. Baotong Gu
Office Hours:  1:00-2:00 pm MW and by appointment
Office:               25 Park Place, Suite 2433
Phone:              404-413-5845 (O)
Email:               bgu@gsu.edu
Website:           https://sites.gsu.edu/bgu

Textbooks
No textbook is required for this course. Instead, you’re required to conduct research on the internet or through other sources on the concepts covered in class. 

Course Goals
English 3110 aims at preparing you to be effective communicators—particularly, effective writers—in your future professional careers. It helps you to develop workplace writing skills and to understand—and ultimately to apply—the rhetorical principles guiding and underlying workplace writing practices. During the semester, this course will introduce you to the basic issues, elements, and genres of technical writing, including

  • writing for various audiences for various purposes
  • addressing social issues related to writing, such as ethics, politics, gender, culture, etc.
  • defining and analyzing workplace writing problems
  • conducting research for writing
  • writing collaboratively
  • developing an effective professional tone and style
  • incorporating effective visual elements into document design
  • writing various technical documents, such as memos, proposals, letters, reports, etc.
  • learning effective oral presentation techniques

Attendance & Participation
Blunt Version
Class participation is mandatory. You are allowed ONE EXCUSED absence. Anything beyond one excused absence may affect your grade (at instructor’s discretion). For any absence, you must inform me in writing before your absence or as soon after it as possible. This writing can be in either hard copy (a formal memo) or email. You must convince me why your absence should be excused. You’re responsible for finding out about and completing any assignment you may have missed due to your absence.

Reasoned Version
The environment of this class is intended to emulate that of a professional workplace. Just as tardiness is not acceptable at workplace settings, it is not tolerated in this class either. In a writing class, much of the work is done in class, whether it’s group work or class discussions. If you’re not there, you’re not contributing. In most cases, if you have a legitimate reason for your absence, you’ll be excused. To be fair, anytime you miss a class, you get an exciting writing opportunity to showcase your superior persuasive writing skills to explain and justify your absence.

Tardiness
Just as punctuality is valued and expected at a workplace, so is it in our class. DON’T come to class late! If you have a valid reason being late for class, contact me well in advance. Every third tardiness counts as an absence.

Bonuses and Penalties
Each excused absence beyond 3 will result in a penalty of 20 points (out of 1000). Each unexcused absence will cost 30 points whether you have any other absences or not. On the other hand, if you have perfect attendance, you will be awarded a bonus of 40 points. Here is a summary of how your absences will affect your final grade:

0 absence:
1-2 tardiness:
1 absence/3 tardies:
each additional absence:
each unexcused absence:		 +40 points
+30 points
0 points
-30 points
-40 points

Other Policies
Late Assignments
No late assignments are accepted! Justification? At a workplace, try how many times you can miss a deadline without being talked to by your supervisor or getting fired. My 30+ years of teaching experience tells me most late work is of subpar or poor quality because they are often completed in haste due to a late start. Start early and give yourself enough time so that the work you turn in can represent your true capabilities. The only exception to this policy is if you have a debilitating injury or illness or very extenuating circumstances that render you incapable of doing school work. I reserve the right to make the final assessment whether your excuse for late turn-in is valid.

Assignment Turn-ins
Turn in all your assignments as email attachments to bgu@gsu.edu, unless you’re told otherwise.

Cellphones
No cellphone use is allowed in class unless I tell you otherwise. Please put it on silent and keep it out of sight.

Computer Use
Since our class is held in a computer classroom, it is tempting to surf the web or check your email during class time. Please refrain from using the computer when you’re not supposed to. I do NOT expect you to be using a computer when, for example, I’m lecturing or your classmate is doing a presentation. On the other hand, since we’re in a computer classroom, we should take advantage of the technologies available to enhance our learning.

Assignments
The course work consists of reading and writing assignments. The reading assignments are indicated in the course schedule. The writing assignments consist of the following:

Introductory Memo (50 Points)
This will be your first memo in this class as a way to introduce yourself to me: who you’re, what you major is, what career goals you have, what writing courses you’ve taken, what you hope to gain from this class, what your writing strengths and weaknesses are, etc.

Visual Design (150 Points)
For this assignment, you’ll find a one-to-two-page document that’s poorly designed in both content and format. You’ll carefully revise and redesign this document to make it an effective one. You’ll also write a memo to the author of the document, who happens to be your boss, to explain why the original document was not well designed and why your revision is effective.

Job Search (200 Points)
This assignment requires you to design a packet, including, for example, a resume and cover letter, that could be used for a real job search.

Instructional Design (200 Points)
You’ll write some effective instructions for a certain product, such as a software feature, for an appropriate audience.

Final Project (400 Points)
This will be a group project. You’ll work in groups of 3-4 to do a real technical writing design for a real client. You’ll be responsible for finding the client and the project. The project could be a brochure, a grant proposal, a consulting proposal, a recommendations report, an annual report, a web site, a policy manual, a user’s guide or tutorial, or any other technical writing product. This project consists of three parts:

  • A short proposal (50 points)
  • The project (250 points)
  • Oral presentation (100 points)

Important*
A passing grade for all the assignments is a prerequisite to, but not a guarantee for, passing the course. Observe the following rules closely:

  • You must complete all the major assignments. If you miss any of the projects, you will automatically fail the class.
  • Your reports and assignments should be presentable. If you hand in poorly proofread documents, they will be returned to you for correction before they are graded.
  • If you miss a class, it is your responsibility to find out the assignments you missed. An excused absence will not get you off the hook for a tardy assignment.
  • A Special Note: Submit your work on time. Late assignments are generally NOT accepted unless for extenuating circumstances. Work is considered late after class begins on the due date, unless noted otherwise. In cases where late work is accepted, there is a 10% grade reduction for each day your assignment is late.
  • All projects must be submitted electronically via email unless you’re instructed otherwise.

Plagiarism
No plagiarism or any other forms of academic dishonesty will be tolerated in this class. Any plagiarism, as defined by GSU’s Policy on Academic Honesty (available online at http://www2.gsu.edu/~wwwdos/codeofconduct_conpol.html), will result in a grade of F at least for the assignment (and most likely an F for the entire course at the instructor’s discretion). In addition, all university policies related to academic honesty apply.

Grade Conversion
Your grades are calculated as follows:

980-1000
930-979
900-929
870-899
830-869
800-829
770-799
730-769
700-729
670-699
630-669
600-629
599 & below		 A+
A
A-
B+
B
B-
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
F

Grading
Since your final course grade will be based predominantly on writing assignments and the grading of writing cannot be reduced to simple quantitative measures, I will grade your writing on a holistic basis. Each assignment will have specific grading criteria, which I will explain in class. Generally, however, the three general criteria below will be applied to all the major assignments:

Purpose
How effectively does the document accomplish its intended task?

  • Does it meet its goals and the demands of its context (both academic and organizational)? Does it solve a problem or address a significant organizational need? help people?
  • Does it provide a sound argument in support if its claims?
  • Does it meet readers’ needs and expectations? Improve relations between people?
  • Does it provide relevant, useful, and accurate information?

Product
How well constructed is the document?

  • Is the presentation of material orderly and coherent?
  • Is design and formatting effective?
  • Are the sentences grammatically correct?
  • Does it use visuals effectively?
  • Does it have a professional tone and style?

Production
How effectively was the document produced?

  • Was the project well planned?
  • Were research and invention well conducted?
  • How did drafting, editing, proofreading go?
  • Was collaboration successful?

The following is a general description of expectations for assignments for each grade:
A
Your project is of impeccable (or almost impeccable) quality in both content and format design, with no major weaknesses in any area. It provides adequate information that users need and effectively fulfills the intended purposes. Presentation is of professional quality. There’re few to no mechanical errors.

B
Your project is of high quality in most of the major areas. It fulfills the user’s needs and your intended purposes quite effectively. Presentation is quite professional. There’re only a few mechanical errors.

C
Your project is of reasonable quality in most areas. It fulfills the user’s needs and your intended purposes to a large extent, although major deficiencies are observable. Presentation is of semi-professional quality. There’re some mechanical errors, but not to the extent of seriously affecting readers’ comprehension.

D
Your project is of acceptable quality in most areas. It fulfills the user’s needs and your intended purposes to some extent, but major deficiencies exist in several areas. Presentation quality is acceptable but low. There’re quite some mechanical errors.

F
Your project is unacceptable in quality. It does not fulfill the user’s needs or your intended purposes. Major deficiencies are observed in most areas. Presentation quality is poor, and there’re too many mechanical errors.

Contact Info
I strongly encourage you to communicate with me about any issues concerning this course. It doesn’t help for you to be confused or frustrated about certain aspects of the course without letting me know. At the same time, you have nothing to lose by communicating with me.

You can communicate with me through any of the following means:

  • Email—-Typically the most effective way to communicate with me is through email. I’ll respond as soon as I can. At the same time, please be aware that sometimes, especially on weekends, I may not be checking email as often as I do on week days. If you don’t get a response from me, including acknowledgement of your assignment turn-in, within a couple of days, feel free to send me an email reminder.
  • Office Phone—-Feel free to call my office phone any time (and leave a message if I’m not in). However, please keep in mind that I’m not on campus every single day. Therefore, if you leave a message on my office phone, say, on Thursday afternoon, I may not get it until the following Tuesday. Therefore, it’s always a good idea to send me an email at the same time. If you have anything of urgent nature, please contact the front office of the English Department. They will try to get hold of me.
  • Office Visits—-Please feel free to stop by my office during or outside my office hours. If you do stop by outside my office hours, please make sure to let me know in advance if you can so that you won’t waste a trip. I welcome every opportunity to talk with you, to get to know you better, to help you with any of the assignments, or to help you better understand any of the course materials. One thing I don’t recommend doing is coming to my office, handing me a project, and asking me what I think. This is because with only a few minutes I won’t be able to read your project carefully and give you detailed, comprehensive feedback on your project. Rather, if you want to ask me about a project you’ve just finished, come with specific questions.

Portfolio
For those of you majoring in English, especially Advanced Composition and Rhetoric, please be aware that you are required to turn in a writing portfolio as part of your graduation requirement. For this portfolio, you’re going to include a set of writing samples as representing your best work or your development as a writer. Therefore, for each of the courses you take, you should carefully evaluate and assess all the projects you do and see which one is a good candidate for your portfolio.

For this particular course, I strongly recommend that you include your final project as part of your portfolio.