English 3764: Technical Writing will enable you to gain an understanding of the theories, issues, and practices of technical communications you might encounter in the workplace, such as general correspondence, proposals, reports, and presentations.

From a foundation based on the principles of rhetoric, you will learn to analyze writing situations, consider the needs of your audience, assemble evidence, and design final documents that are user-friendly and visually persuasive. By the time this course is over, you should be able to understand these documents and produce them with ease and confidence.

Course Objectives

Having successfully completed this course, students will be able to perform the technical writing tasks defined by the learning objectives for the course:

Expand information literacy (researching primary and secondary sources) to find, evaluate, integrate, and synthesize the necessary information and visuals to complete projects. [CLO 1]
Analyze the context; determine appropriate audiences for or users of planned communications; assess needs of global audiences and people with disabilities. [CLO 2]
Practice workplace genres related to specific fields (e.g., proposals, instructions, correspondence, reports, technical specifications and slide decks); illustrate how genre conventions can serve as heuristics and as principles of arrangement [CLO 3]
Practice team and collaborative work in all phases of project management: planning, researching, writing, revising, and presenting information; include genres associated with team work (e.g., meeting minutes, summaries, poster presentations; pitches) [CLO 4]
Design and evaluate strategies for testing the usability and overall effectiveness of documents [CLO 5]
Illustrate the ethical and human implications of research findings and workplace products on diverse audiences [CLO 6]

Texts & Materials

Original course modules as well as selections from these free online textbooks:

Technical Writing Essentials: Introduction to Professional Communications in the Technical Fields. Suzan Last. University of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada. 1 January 2019.

Technical Writing. Michele DeSilva, et al. University of Alaska, Anchorage, Alaska. 1 October 2017.

An Introduction to Technical Communication. Sherena Huntsman. Boise State University, Boise, Idaho. No date.

Howdy or Hello? Technical and Professional Communication. 2nd ed. Matt McKinney; Kalani Pattison; Sarah LeMire; Kathy Anders; and Nicole Hagstrom-Schmidt. Texas A&M, College Station, Texas. 2022.

Instructor Contact

Please feel free to reach out to me for any questions or concerns.

Name: Call me Traci or Ms. Gardner please.
Pronouns: she, her, hers
Email: tengrrl@vt.edu
Office: 214 Shanks Hall (Because of COVID-19, I will limit my time in the office.)
Office Phone: None in our department. Use Canvas Inbox or GroupMe to reach me. See the Get Help with the Course page in the Short Guide for more information.
Office Hours: My office hours are asynchronous, through Canvas and GroupMe.
Details of Contact: I check Canvas messages and GroupMe several times a day, every day. I try to answer student messages within 24–48 hours on weekdays. I take a break from email on weekends and holidays.
Questions about Your Grade or Work: For personal questions, send a private message in Canvas, using the Inbox tool. Because Canvas messages are secure, they meet all FERPA requirements and protect your privacy. I only answer messages about grades and course work via Canvas for this reason. We cannot discuss your grades via GroupMe.