[ATTW-L] condensing a 15-16 week business and tech writing course to 5-6

[Suzan Last]

There is a lot of very useful data in the following article made available on Google docs (creative commons) by the Professional Writing Program at North Carolina State University:     https://docs.google.com/document/d/1pMpVbDRWIN6HssQQQ4MeQ6U-oB-sGUrtRswD7feuRB0/edit

Students in the program interviewed over 1000 professionals from various professionals (business, engineering, programming, etc).  they found that “over 70% of engineers and almost 50% of programmers rated the quality of their writing as either ‘very important’ or ‘extremely important’ to the performance of their jobs.”

I’ve also used this image from their document:
[https://pressbooks.bccampus.ca/technicalwriting/wp-content/uploads/sites/296/2017/12/Importance-of-writing-to-career-advancement-in-Engineering.png]

Suzan


From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org> on behalf of Drake Gossi <drake.gossi at gmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, March 12, 2019 at 5:17 PM
To: "attw-l at attw.org" <attw-l at attw.org>
Subject: Re: [ATTW-L] condensing a 15-16 week business and tech writing course to 5-6

Does anyone have a reference for the extent to which professional engineers value communication skills?

I'm beginning to write this course description, and I want to begin with something like, "Johnson and Johnson interviewed 100 managers who hire engineers, and. lo and behold, Johnson and Johnson found that 79% of managers selected "writing and communication" as one of the top three skills they look for in a potential employee."

And, just as before, I invite words of wisdom in general and/or relevant assignments, syllabi, etc., in particular.

Drake

On Fri, Mar 8, 2019 at 5:09 AM Robert Irish <r.irish at utoronto.ca<mailto:r.irish at utoronto.ca>> wrote:
Hello Drake and all,

For most business audiences, 5-6 weeks is a long commitment given the workplace. I regularly teach engineers in this environment. I like the advice to not condense but to build.
I make sure there’s lots of time for little exercises to reinforce ideas and shift their practice from what’s old and familiar.
 I have them do homework exercises each week but try to leverage work they’re already doing — so their homework is to send me an email they have written using a particular concept, for example. It makes a lot of marking.
Generally, I focus on the following areas:
- audience and purpose
- argument, structuring it, using rhetorical patterns, etc
- organization and making structure visible
- paragraph and sentence-level style for efficiency
- how to revise strategically
I use a short textbook (my own) and I actually find they read it with some diligence.
Good luck with it. I find working in industry informs my academic teaching wonderfully.

Rob Irish
Sent from my iPhone

On Mar 8, 2019, at 7:54 AM, Raymond Boxman <boxman at tauex.tau.ac.il<mailto:boxman at tauex.tau.ac.il>> wrote:
Dear Drake,

For 16 years I taught a full semester course (26 frontal hours) on scientific writing, to PhD students in the Faculty of Engineering, centered on the “research report”. Approaching retirement, my wife Edith and I prepared a 12 hour crash course on the same subject (see the link below). There were two elements needed for the condensation. The most important was selecting which material was truly essential, and the second was curtailing class exercises and class discussion to a minimum.

To succeed in your task, your “mind frame” should not be “how do I condense?”—it will lead to failure. But rather you should start with the time available as a given, and ask yourself “what are the 15 weeks of material which is most important for the target audience?”  In other words, think in terms of selection, not condensation.

Good luck!

Ray Boxman,

From the home of:
Prof. Emeritus Raymond (Reuven) Boxman
School of Electrical Engineering
Tel Aviv University
Tel:  +972-3-640 7364
Cell: +972 544 634 217
Room 507, Computer and Software Engineering Building
http://www.eng.tau.ac.il/~boxman/index.html
CEO Clear Wave Ltd. – http://clrwave.com<http://clrwave.com/>
Scientific Writing Courses – http://communicating-science.com<http://communicating-science.com/>

My email server changed, but my address remains:
boxman at eng.tau.ac.il<mailto:boxman at eng.tau.ac.il>
Also mail sent to boxman at post.tau.ac.il<mailto:boxman at post.tau.ac.il> and boxman at tauex.tau.ac.il<mailto:boxman at tauex.tau.ac.il> will get to me.
Please do not send double messages.


From: ATTW-L <attw-l-bounces at attw.org<mailto:attw-l-bounces at attw.org>> On Behalf Of Drake Gossi
Sent: יום ה 07 מרץ 2019 23:37
To: attw-l at attw.org<mailto:attw-l at attw.org>
Subject: [ATTW-L] condensing a 15-16 week business and tech writing course to 5-6

Hi there!

I've been asked to design a 5-6 week business and tech writing course for a non-academic audience.

If anyone is willing to share his/her regular, 15-16 week business and tech writing course syllabus, I will gladly take that, too, since it might prove helpful as I begin to embark on this massive condensing job.

But, more importantly, if anyone has already performed such a feat of condensing, and, if you would be willing to share materials, that would also be much appreciated.

I will also happily take words of wisdom.

Best,
Drake
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