Schedule

This class is conducted totally online. You are always welcome to "talk" with me about class readings and projects electronically by e-mail, via the "Course Comments" discussion forum on Blackboard, or on Skype or Blackboard during online office hours.

The assignments, readings, and due dates on the schedule below are set for the semester. I will, however, add details and notes about the work as we go through the course. Make sure to check the schedule weekly for expanded information.

Links (and url's) are fragile and sometimes transient. If you have difficulties accessing the url for a link, please let me know by e-mail.

Week

Readings Due

Projects Due

Week 1
Summer I: May 20

Summer II: June 26

Read thoroughly all the information on the syllabus and schedule. Look over the projects you'll be doing for the course so that you're familiar with what's involved in each.

You'll notice that some of the projects overlap; for example, you'll start planning for Project 4, Writing a Proposal, before you begin Project 3. That's because Project 4 will require more planning on your part.

Start-Up. Read the start-up materials and make sure that you have all the necessary tools to participate in the course.

Readings:

Project 1

E-Collaboration

In Harty: "E-Mail: Presenting a Professional Image" page 145.
I will expect that all e-mails to me will be professionally written after this week.

In Harty: Pgs: 1-20; 26-48; 369-372

Discussion 1

Post any questions, comments, or concerns you have on the Discussion Forum in Blackboard that I've set up for that purpose. Remember: If you have a question, it's likely that someone else does too.

Post your introduction/bio to the group on Blackboard.

Our course space is now available to you and I’ve set up a discussion thread called “Hello” so that we can do a quick practice posting and responding by introducing ourselves. My post is up now. Try to respond to this thread before next Wednesday. In Blackboard, click on our course, and go to Discussion from the left navigation. You’ll see the forum that's been started.

Week 2
Summer I: May 26

Summer II: June 30

Readings:

Project 2

In Harty: 49-114; 349-360

(optional resource) Burnett Chapter 10: Organizing Information (Available in course Docs)

Discussion 2

Project 1, Part A DUE

Summer I: May 26

Summer II: June 30

Week 3
Summer I: June 2

Summer II: July 7

Readings:

Project 3

In Harty: 135-144; 167-206

To develop Project 3, you'll need to read about activity theory, genre, and report writing.

Activity Theory Basics (a link to this text is also available from the assignment page)

Discussion of Genre (a link to this text is also available from the assignment page)

Here's a sample paper in which a student discusses a genre that is part of an activity system. Sample Paper

Discussion 3

Project 2 DUE

Summer I: June 5

Summer II: July 7 (**changed July 1)

Week 4
Summer I: June 9

Summer II: July 14

Readings

BWH: 211-233

(optional) Report Writing. Since the work you'll be submitting will take the form of a report, I've provided some additional information about reports and report writing. Reports take many different forms from informal, memo-style progress reports to lengthy, multi-section documents that include all the necessary tools that readers need to manage longer documents (such as tables of contents and figures, indices, appendices, and lists of references).

Report Basics

Steps for Preparing a Report

More (much more) on report writing

Also read any of the materials in the lectures or in the Course Docs section that haven't been assigned but that might pertain to the type of document you plan to write about. You'll get a lot of information from your interview, but you should also read more generally about the type of writing that you'll be analyzing particularly in terms of what we might call "accepted practices." Thinking about genres of communication as they operate in activity systems will reveal that users of types of documents pick and choose among the "conventions" to create documents that work for participants with a community. Still, it's helpful to know what the conventions are.

Discussion 4

We'll be discussing Activity Theory as a framework for think about communication, the concept of "genre," several example professional texts, and a sample student paper that incorporates activity theory.

Project 3 DUE

Summer I: June 11

Summer II: July 17

Week 5
Summer I: June 16

Summer II: July 21

Readings:

Project 4

In Harty: 207-274; 361-368

BWH: 420-442

Link to even more information and tips about proposals.

Discussion 5

Draft of Project 4--post for peer review: