(Return to the English 2311 Table of Contents) (Return to the English 2311 Syllabus) . Instructions for the Course Exercises The exercises for this course will demonstrate your learning from the readings from your textbook, examples, and online resources. Each one is designed to reinforce your familiarity with important patterns, formats, and elements of style that are practiced in technical and business communications throughout the working world. . How to Begin To begin each exercise, read the instructions carefully (For an introduction to an effective reading strategy, see "Tips for Active Reading.") Review examples found in your text and in the supplementary materials in the Sample Course Exercises and guidelines in the PowerPoint Study Guides. While the basic organizational principles should govern your development and organization of each composition, the content will vary from student to student, as the instructions generally provide quite a bit of latitude in your choices and creativity. In other words, be confident in your ability to create content and to adapt it to the various formats. . The Purpose of the Examples Drawn from both student and professional compositions, the examples and samples provide formats and frameworks for the content of your exercises. . Securing Help with your Exercises If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact me at geoffrey.grimes@navarrocollege.edu or by calling me at (972) 740-3125. I will be happy to review your work before submission and to accept revisions on any assignment. The final grade will be a simple average of the grades assigned for the first and revised copies. . Submitting Your Exercises To submit your work, please follow the instructions found in the Word document, "How to Send Me E-Mails (Manual)." These instructions have been updated. Please consult the changes posted in Red throughout the document. Exercises for English 2311 The exercises for our course are found in the textbook or in instructions provided in the website. Those found in the textbook are located in the exercises at the end of the chapters or in the "Projects" at the end of the text. Textbook Anderson, Paul V. Technical Communication: A Reader-Centered Approach. Thomson/Wadsworth, 2007. This textbook is available in the Ellis Center Bookstore at the Waxahachie Campus of Navarro College. Course URL’s Link to the Course
Website: Course Exercises The following learning activities should be completed only after reading the chapter materials. Diagnostic Exercise Link to the Diagnostic exercise. Exercise 1 – Writing For Employment: The Letter of Application, Experiential Résumé, Skills Résumé, and Scannable Résumé (Project 1, page 687) For this exercise, you will complete three compositions: a letter of application and two types of resumes--the "experiential résumé" and an electronically submitted or "scannable résumé." You will find examples of each composition in Chapter 2. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 2 – Description (Partitioning an Object) (Exercise 3, page 255) For this exercise you will describe an object. "Partitioning" means to "break it apart," to describe its various features. You will find examples of describing processes or objects in Chapter 7. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 3 – Description (Segmenting a Procedure) (Exercise 5, page 255) Like partitioning an object, you can also describe or explain a process. This composition focuses on a short process. You will find an example in your textbook. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 4 – Writing a Letter of Inquiry, Letter of Thanks, Letter of Introduction Following the formatting instructions for setting up a business letter--the margins, line spacing between elements of a business letter, headings, and closings found in Chapter 20, you will compose three very common business letters: a letter of inquiry, a letter expressing thanks or appreciation, and a letter of personal introduction. Click on the links for a sample letter of each kind. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 5 – Writing Memos: Announcing a Meeting, Comparing Two Options, Reporting Results Memos are the most common forms of interdepartmental correspondence in a corporate or organizational setting. They may be prepared for either electronic or print distribution. Following guidelines for reader-centered style and formatting found in Chapter 5, compose three memos: 1) announcing a meeting, 2) comparing two options, and 3) reporting results. 1) Announcing a meeting - prepare a memorandum for a college or social organization of which you are a member. Include the time and place, the purpose of the meeting, and the proposed duration of the meeting. Explain any additional information that may be important to the successful business of the meeting. Use a separate short paragraph for each element of the memo. 2) Comparing Two Options - write a short memorandum directed to a student colleague comparing one of the following topics: two course options, two directions to the same place, two ways of performing the same task, two different products in the same category (two word processing programs, two cell phones, etc.). 3) Reporting Results - compose a report in memo format addressed to your teacher reporting your findings on different career opportunities in technical or business writing. Identify your sources of information and describe at least two different jobs that employ expertise in technical and/or business communications. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 6 – Writing E-mail: Submitting an Assignment, Requesting a Letter of Support, Forwarding a Document Chapter 6 addresses the protocols for writing and sending e-mails and other electronic correspondence. The quality of an email is often the first introduction to a person. For this reason, e-mails composed in a business or corporate setting must reflect all of the consideration that you give to preparing a final draft of a printed document. In other words, any e-mail should be free of errors in grammar, style, and construction. At the same time, they must reflect appropriate content and effective organization. For this assignment, consider that I am your reader/audience. For the first exercise, send me an assignment that reflects the protocols I require in submitted work to me. For the second, ask for a letter of recommendation. Include all relevant information about yourself that you want me to include. For the last e-mail, forward an academic document of your choice to me. It may be in the form of a text file or a link to an electronic resource. This exercise is due on Saturday, December 22, 2007. Exercise 7 – Writing a Proposal (Project 8, page, 693) Write a one-page proposal to a supervisor or some other appropriate corporate official suggesting an improvement in operations of a department or workgroup. See samples of proposals and discussions in Chapter 7. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 5, 2008. Exercise 8 – The Writer’s Style (LIC Expressions, Punctuation) Following considerations of style discussed in Chapter 8, complete the sentence exercises for revising "low-information content" expressions (wordiness) and punctuation. You should send only the revised sentences simply in a numbered list for both exercises. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 5, 2008. Exercise 9 – An Informational Page (Project 3, page 689) An informational page--often considered as a flyer or single-page brochure--presents important information both visually and textually. Compete the exercise as outlined in Project 3. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 5, 2008. Exercise 10 – Writing a Proposal - "Re-visioning" a Communication (Project 8, page, 693) This is a revision of Exercise 7 above. After I have returned your proposal, I want you to revise the proposal, this time wording it for colleagues in the same department. Consider the use of language, the amount of detail, and other nuances of presenting this proposal to colleagues rather than to a supervisor. Take into consideration relationships in the department, who will be affected by the proposal; does this proposal represent "good news" or "bad news" to those involved? How much detail do you need to provide? Do you need to change the organization of your text? This exercise is due on Saturday, January 5, 2008. Exercise 11 – The User Manual Compose a User Manual, explaining how to perform some job-related task or how to operate a job-related piece of equipment. Imagine that you must leave work for a week and that your supervisor has asked you to prepare in instructional manual for the new temporary employee who will substitute for you in your absence. The User Manual must be a minimum of 700 words. Note: I will not accept a paper on how to change a tire or how to change the oil in a car. (I am serious about this; after 40 years of college teaching, I believe I know just about all that can be known on those two topics!) This exercise is due on Saturday, January 10, 2008. Exercise 12 – The PowerPoint Outline Prepare a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the User Manual. This is not merely dumping your User Manual text into the screens of a PowerPoint! Rather, this should be only a five- or six-screen presentation of just the major headings and any appropriate accompanying graphics or illustrations. The text component on each screen should reflect the outline of the explanation--the major steps without any explanation of each task. In other words, this PowerPoint presentation would be used as a visual outline of a live demonstration or explanation before the work group. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 10, 2008. Exercise 13 – Complete any assigned revisions or late work. Generally, I do not accept revisions of exercises. Under certain circumstances, however, I may ask a student to make a revision, but, otherwise, please do not ask to revise returned work. If I have approved late submissions for any assignments, this is the week to complete those and send them to me. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 10, 2008. Exercise 14 – Final Exam – See the instructions online. This exercise is due on Saturday, January 10, 2008. and is maintained by Dr. Geoffrey A. Grimes. . 
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