Navigating the Highline College Technical Writing Class: A Comprehensive Syllabus Overview

Technical writing is a crucial skill in various professional fields, demanding clarity, precision, and conciseness in conveying complex information. A well-structured syllabus serves as a roadmap for students embarking on this journey. This article explores the key components and considerations involved in developing a comprehensive syllabus for a technical writing class, drawing on insights from various sources and perspectives.

The Role of a Syllabus: A Foundation for Success

A syllabus is more than just a list of assignments and deadlines; it's a contract between the instructor and the students, outlining expectations, learning objectives, and assessment methods. It sets the tone for the course and provides a framework for student success.

Project Syllabus: A Model for Excellence

Project Syllabus serves as a valuable resource for instructors seeking to create effective syllabi. This initiative operates much like an academic journal, employing a peer-review process to ensure quality and rigor. Faculty volunteers review submitted syllabi using a standardized rubric, providing feedback and suggestions for improvement. This collaborative approach fosters a culture of continuous improvement and ensures that syllabi are aligned with best practices in teaching and assessment.

When creating a syllabus for posting in Project Syllabus, it is important to remember that all resources must be the original work of an author, must not contain any libelous or unlawful statements, and must not infringe on the rights of others.

Key Components of a Technical Writing Syllabus

A comprehensive technical writing syllabus should include the following elements:

Course Description and Objectives: A clear and concise overview of the course content, learning outcomes, and how the course contributes to students' overall academic and professional goals.
Instructor Information: Contact information, office hours, and a brief biography to establish credibility and facilitate communication.
Required Materials: A list of textbooks, software, and other resources necessary for the course.
Course Schedule: A detailed outline of topics covered each week, along with corresponding readings and assignments.
Assessment Methods: A description of how student learning will be evaluated, including the types of assignments, grading criteria, and weighting of each component.
Late Submission Policy: Clear guidelines on late submissions, including penalties and exceptions.
Academic Integrity Policy: A statement on plagiarism and other forms of academic dishonesty, along with consequences for violations.
Disability Services Statement: Information on how students with disabilities can access accommodations and support services.
Diversity and Inclusion Statement: A commitment to creating a welcoming and inclusive learning environment for all students.

Integrating Technology for Enhanced Learning

Technology plays an increasingly important role in technical writing, and the syllabus should reflect this reality. Integrating technology into the curriculum can enhance student understanding of course concepts.

Exit Measures: Assessing Student Learning

Exit measures, such as writing portfolios, are used to assess student learning and ensure that they have met the course objectives.

The Writing Portfolio: A Holistic Approach

The writing portfolio is a collection of student work that demonstrates their skills and progress in technical writing. It typically includes a variety of genres, such as reports, proposals, instructions, and presentations.

Implementing an Exit Writing Portfolio

Implementing an exit writing portfolio requires careful planning and consideration of local factors. The following steps can help ensure a successful implementation:

Define Clear Requirements: Establish clear and specific requirements for the portfolio, including the types of documents to be included, the length and format of each document, and the criteria for evaluation.
Provide Examples: Provide students with examples of high-quality portfolio submissions to guide their work.
Offer Feedback: Provide students with regular feedback on their portfolio progress, both individually and in group settings.
Develop a Rubric: Develop a detailed rubric for evaluating the portfolio, outlining the criteria for each performance level.
Involve Stakeholders: Involve faculty, administrators, and students in the development and implementation of the portfolio assessment process.

Balancing Uniformity and Autonomy

When implementing an exit writing portfolio, it is important to strike a balance between program uniformity and teacher autonomy. While it is necessary to have common requirements to ensure consistency and comparability, instructors should also have the flexibility to tailor the portfolio to their specific course objectives and teaching styles.

Read also: Your Guide to Highline College

Contextualized Views and Practices

Contextualized views and practices-situating formative and summative assessments as different but closely related practices within specific contexts-should be emphasized to new teachers who are about to face teaching contraries.

Eastern Washington University: A Case Study

At Eastern Washington University, the English Composition program offers over 150 annual sections of writing in a quarter system, employing an average of 40 instructors including graduate teaching assistants, full-time lecturers, and adjunct instructors. Each late summer the Program arranges a mandatory 3-Day Pre-Fall Teaching Workshop for all new incoming graduate teaching assistants and instructors.

Transitioning to a Writing Portfolio System

Eastern Washington University successfully transitioned from a single timed essay to a multiple-essay writing portfolio system. This transition involved careful planning, data collection, and collaboration among faculty and administrators.

Program Goals and Outcomes

The Exit Portfolio satisfies the main goals of the Program, which are to teach writing as social discourse that values both process and product, enhance student ownership of text, underscore the holistic nature of revision, and embrace various genres in public and academic writings (largely based on the Writing Program Administration Outcome Statements published by the National Council of WPA).

Shared Criteria and Exit Portfolio Rubric

The Program seeks to communicate student writing needs and instructor teaching needs transparently via two different but complementing kinds of assessment. Students need to concretize their strengths and weaknesses, through practice per paper, and instructors (especially new instructors) need to meet such identified needs, again per paper, as their teaching takes place during the term.

The Program therefore practices both kinds of assessment by using, throughout the term, the Shared Criteria to assess individual papers and by using, at the term’s conclusion, the Exit Portfolio Rubric to assess Exit Portfolios.

Student and Instructor Feedback

Based on teacher and student survey responses, the exit portfolio implementation has been a success.

Addressing Instructor Concerns

Instructors’ major concerns include a needed time window and a pedagogy for them to guide students for completing the required pieces without teaching to the test and a revision of the reflective assignment as a critical new genre.

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