[ATTW-L] Release of ten online lessons on technical writing

[Alley, Michael P]

Dear Technical Writing Colleagues-

At Penn State, because many engineering and science students do not take technical writing until their senior year, we have a gap between what students have learned about scientific or technical writing from general writing courses and what those students are expected to demonstrate in their laboratory courses, design courses, and summer internships. To address this gap, the Leonhard Center in the College of Engineering has launched a site with ten online lessons on technical writing:
http://www.craftofscientificwriting.com/lessons.html
You are more than welcome to use this resource at your institution.

Although designed primarily for students who have not yet taken a technical writing course, you as a technical writing teacher might find value in these online lessons for the three reasons given below.


  1.  Make-up assignment for students who have missed one of your classes. The videos are less than 10 minutes, focus on one aspect of scientific (or technical) writing, and are anchored with professional examples. In addition, we are incorporating quizzes into the site so that you can check whether a student has learned the lesson's content.

  2.  Substitute guest lecture for laboratory course or design course. At your institution, students might have to write reports for laboratory courses and design courses before taking your technical writing course. If you do not have time to give guest lectures for all such courses, you might consider recommending the site's summary lesson (www.craftofscientificwriting.com/summary.html<http://www.craftofscientificwriting.com/summary.html>). In effect, we based this lesson on a guest lecture that I have developed for many such courses.

  3.  Source of professional examples for use in your own lectures. I do not mind you using my professional examples in your lectures as long as you credit the source. Because I have taught professional workshops on technical writing at more than 100 companies, laboratories, agencies, and universities, I have had the opportunity to collect a number of enlightening examples.

During this academic year, we will gather feedback from the comments of these lessons to incorporate into a major revision next summer. Your input would be most appreciated.

Sincerely,

Michael Alley


________________________
Michael Alley
Teaching Professor, Engineering Communication
Pennsylvania State University
201 Hammond Bldg
University Park, PA 16802
1-814-867-0251
http://www.assertion-evidence.com/
http://www.craftofscientificwriting.com/

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