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Sections 41-W Tuesday / Thursday 8:15 - 10:20
Number of Credits 3
Prerequisite WRT 200; CIS 110 or 115
Instructor Douglas Anderson
Office, H101
Hours Tuesday, Thursday 3:30 - 5:30
email anytime at Doug@RicciStreet.net
instant message when I'm online at dougand
Grades on your papers will reflect standard English usage. The Modern Language Association's (MLA) bibliographic style is generally used at Medaille.
This course teaches advanced skills for those who write for academic disciplines. Half the course gives hands-on computer experience in using library and other professional research tools, applying techniques of analysis, using research as evidence, and writing and editing. The other half of the course gives workshop experience in the give-and-take of constructive criticism to reinforce writing as a process. This course is especially useful for those who will write on the job in business, industries, academics, agencies, and organizations.
to develop and refine research skills
to analyze
and evaluate research data
to
effectively report research
As professional research and report writing become increasingly computerized and networked, you will need to create, find, evaluate, analyze, manipulate, organize, embed, and link digital resources. After completing this course, you will be better able to:
use email and a browser to find, acquire, and exchange information on
the Internet
evaluate information for problem-solving and decision-making
compare theories and models of information design
adapt writing to common media -- print, e-text, display, and
hypermedia -- by designing pages and screens best suited to each
revise your texts to discover and develop their visual potential and
their connections to other texts
use webmaking software to organize and present information,
especially to supplement oral presentations
explore and discover visual language to supplement written and spoken
language
You may also be able to:
use database and charting software to analyze and display information
use presentation software to supplement oral presentations
In order to prosper in business, you must be able to do many things other than write. These five also apply to meeting the course objectives listed above.
It's called a PC or Personal Computer partly because you can personalize it. How you manage your files on the computer is probably as personal and inscrutable to others as how you manage them in your physical office.
There's so much information and computer programs are so bloated with features. You have to be able to learn on your own and just keep clicking.
You'll never have only and exactly the information you need. You'll never have enough time. You'll rarely find that one path to the future is clearly correct and all the others are wrong. You will have wicked problems and compromises that are guaranteed not to please everyone.
Transcend your and your organization's concrete situation into an intelligent awareness of broader, often abstract, contexts. A good test would be the ease with which you can draw valid inferences from articles in the news. For example, do you understand why the Department of Justice is so upset with Microsoft for bundling the Internet Explorer browser? Do you understand how the DOJ's pursuit of Microsoft affects your ability to send email to your boss? Your big thinking helps me distinguish an A project from an A- or B project. In organizations, it helps the boss distinguish who gets promoted.
Your ongoing evaluation of your progress as a business communicator is the most useful tool for your improvement.
Did I emphasize that enough? Let me try again. Careful and effective writers are, at times, very self-conscious. I highly recommend that starting now you write about your work in some form of journal or file. After you have done everything else for the course, answer three questions:
You must email this self-assessment to me. It's your way of telling me that you have finished the course. When I have the self-assessment, I will turn in your course grade based on everything you did before that date.
Any student with a disability who believes he/she needs accommodation(s) in order to complete this course should contact the Office of Disability Services as soon as possible. The staff in the Office of Disability Services will determine what accommodations are appropriate and reasonable under the Americans with Disabilities Act. The Office of Disability Services is located in the Main Building, room 021 and can be reached by phone at (716) 884-3281, extension 280.
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