Details about daily assignments will be posted here and announced at class sessions on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Check this website as you prepare for each upcoming class period. See the schedule posted in the syllabus for the tentative course outline.

Assigned April 28
Continue to work on your portfolio and to study for your exam.  Also, think about how to help others find your web pages as you read Stone, "Hotwiring Your Search Engine" and Jerz, "Blurbs."  Lastly, please bring a pencil to class for course evaluations.

Assigned April 23
For Tuesday, April 28: Read critically (as always) these two pieces on web authoring: Petersen, “Web Commandments: Ten Deadly Sins and How to Overcome Them” and Dordt College’s WWW Policy and Guidelines. Also consult Stanford Copyright & Fair Use for information about how you may use others' work—including their photos and other images. Continue to work on your portfolio and prepare for your exam.

Assigned April 21
For Thursday, April 23:

1. Type and print a confidential memo to me:
   • Discuss your process for writing the team documents and formal report. What worked well, and what (in hindsight) would you do differently?
   • Discuss both your team documents and formal report as written products. For each: what works well, and what would you change if circumstances would allow?
   • What would you like me to know about your individual and collaborative work?
2. Read the requirements for the Portfolio Exam.
3. Study sample Web portfolios. There are links to examples on our course site (see the bottom of the Readings & Resources page); you should also study additional samples located via search engine. What do portfolios in your field tend to be like?
4. Begin work toward your Web portfolio.
   • Read OBA Ch. 15, “Writing for the Web: Rhetorical Principles.”
   • Play with the Frontpage software. In a practice file, attempt the first six technical skills on the list required for this project.

Assigned April 16
Final hard copies of your documentation and formal report are due at the beginning of class on Tuesday, April 21. Check your work carefully against the instructions and against what we've studied so far in class.

Assigned April 14
For Thursday, April 16: Work on your team project as scheduled; follow the instructions on the assignment handout. Aim to have completed drafts of your documentation and your formal report, and prepare for detailed draft conferences with me.

Assigned April 9
For Tuesday, April 14:

1. Make a list of your spelling gremlins. Then read Sipe, “Does Spelling Count?” for insight about why and how to improve your spelling. Think about how her ideas might also apply to your grammar gremlins.
2. Work on your team project as scheduled. Follow the instructions on the assignment handout. Aim to have completed drafts of your documentation, as well as a healthy start on your formal report.

Assigned April 2
Tuesday, April 7 is Dordt’s Assessment Day, so we will not meet as a class. For Thursday, April 9:

1. Read Dragga, “A Question of Ethics” and Huff, “How to Lie with Statistics.” Write briefly (about 200 words) about specific ways that your team will need to write ethically within your documentation and formal report.
2. Work on your team project as scheduled. Follow the instructions on the assignment handout. Aim to have substantial work finished on your documentation.
3. Individually, write a brief status report e-mail to me. Tell me what your team has accomplished so far and how you have contributed; also inform me about any challenges your group is facing.

Assigned March 31
For Thursday, April 2:

1. Read OBA Ch. 11, “Writing Formal Reports”; write a suggested outline for your formal report to share with your team. Make note of questions that you have about how to write formal reports.
2. Work on your team project. Follow the instructions on the assignment handout.

Assigned March 26
For Tuesday, March 31:

1. Complete your team plans and policies, and then share your Google doc with me.
2. Read Lannon, “Designing and Testing the Document for Usability”; consider how best to conduct usability testing in relation to your project.
3. Read OBA Ch. 12, “Writing Instructions”; consider how best to write any necessary instructions in your teams documents.
4. Work on your team project, beginning with step 1, the team proposal.

Assigned March 24
For Thursday, March 26:

1. Read closely the written proposal for the project (other than your own) that you would be most excited about working on. Using the “Reply” tool in the discussion forum, write a note to the author. Indicate your level of interest in joining in on the project; also explain what you could contribute to the project, and ask any major questions you have for the proposal’s author. You will be able to finalize your collaborative project groups at class on Thursday.
2. Read and prepare to discuss OBA Ch. 5, “Collaborative Writing.” Type a list of your expectations for a good collaborative experience; bring an e-copy of this list to class.
3. If you don’t already have a Google Docs account, sign up for one so that you can use this service in class on Thursday.

Assigned March 10
Thursday, March 12 is a project work day (no class), as I will be presenting at CCCC in San Francisco. For Tuesday, March 24: Your proposal with presentation is due. Please post copies of each to Courses@Dordt and also bring hard copies to class. (For the slides, you may print 4-6 to a page.)

Assigned March 5
For Tuesday, March 10:

1. Read OBA Ch. 13 for guidance about writing proposals. Be prepared to discuss specific ways that you are applying the authors’ advice.
2. Write a substantive draft of your written proposal, and continue to work on your presentation slides.
3. If you need a review or oral presentation basics, see OBA Ch. 14, “Giving Presentations and Conducting Meetings.”

Assigned March 3
For Thursday, March 5:

1. Review the instructions for the proposal with presentation. Outline your proposal.  (Feel free to look ahead to OBA Ch. 13 for guidance about writing proposals.)
2. Read the article(s) assigned to you at class from among the following critiques of PowerPoint (originally collected by Michael Alley ).

• Group A: Keller, "Is PowerPoint the Devil?"
• Group B: Parker, "Absolute PowerPoint"
• Group C: Schwartz, "The Level of Discourse Continues to Slide" AND Tufte, "PowerPoint is Evil"

Make notes about the criticisms of PowerPoint and think carefully about these criticisms so that you can discuss them in writing.

3. Read Alley's presentation slides about presentation slides ("Rethinking the Design of Presentation Slides"). Alley is writing for professors, but think about how his ideas could be adapted for YOUR use inside/outside the classroom. Feel free to study some of the model slides and templates linke to Alley's site.

Assigned February 26
For Tuesday, March 3: The printed, finalized version of your Document needs Assessment Report is due at the beginning of class.

Assigned February 24
For Thursday, February 26: Read Goldfine’s “Making Word Processing More Effective in the Composition Classroom,” and be prepared to discuss and apply her ideas. Bring a substantial draft of your Document Needs Assessment Report (hard copy, please).

Assigned February 19
For Tuesday, February 24:

1. Read Flower & Ackerman, “Evaluating and Testing as You Revise.”  Then read OBA Ch. 2 on organizing information; be prepared to discuss how the ideas from the textbook chapter could help writers achieve the goal of reader-based prose described in the article.
2. Work on steps 2 & 3 of the Document Needs Assessment Report; be prepared to show and discuss your progress.  A rough/partial draft will be due on next Thursday.

Assigned February 17
For Thursday, February 19:

• Complete step 1 and begin step 2 for the next project, the Document Needs Assessment Report.
• For OBA Ch. 3, “Writing the Draft,” read closely the 3 sections that will best help you to improve your writing; skim the remainder of the chapter.
• Read Sommers, “Revision Strategies of Student Writers and Experienced Adult Writers.” Be prepared to discuss specific contrasts in the two approaches to revision.

Assigned February 12
For Tuesday, February 17: The completed version of your Investigative Report is due. Also, read OBA Ch. 10, “Writing Informal Reports” and prepare to answer this question: if you were to alter your investigative report so that it could be described as an informal report, what specific changes would you need to make?

Assigned February 10
Note that the final due date for the Investigative Report has been postponed to the beginning of class on February 17. For Tuesday, February 12:

• Write a rough or partial draft of our Investigative Report.
• Read Zuidema's definition organizer and Jerz's "Writing a Mechanism Description" from the coursepack. Be prepared to apply to your writing for your Investigative Report.

Assigned February 5
For Tuesday, February 10:

1. Find at least 3 high-quality secondary sources for your investigative report. Create a list of these references (according to your field’s prevalent documentation style), and write an annotation of approximately 80 words for each source in which you (1) assess the authority, accuracy, bias, and currency of the source (as described by OBA) and (2) summarize the author’s key points. Bring your printed copy and copies of the secondary sources to class.
2. Read Graff & Birkenstein “‘As He Himself Puts It’: The Art of Quoting,” as well as Kennedy & Montgomery’s “The Ethics of Performing Research.” Respond in writing in the margins (questions, reactions, extensions, reminders to yourself), and be prepared to discuss these pieces as they apply to your current projects for this class and beyond.
3. Continue to work on steps 3 and 4 for your investigative report, which is due on February 12. In addition to collecting data/information, think about how you will organize the content and design the layout of your handout.

Assigned February 3
For Thursday, Feburary 5:

1. Revise your résumé and letter of application. Print to hand in; attach a copy of the job ad to which you are responding.
2. Read the instructions for the investigative report, and then read Oliu, Brusaw, and Alred Ch. 6, “Researching Your Subject” while considering how you could best conduct the research for this project.
3. Complete steps 1 & 2 for the investigative report.

Assigned January 29
For Tuesday, February 3:

1. Create a résumé to submit in application to the job/internship ad that you found. Bring your printed résumé and a copy of the job advertisement or job description. Be prepared to write at class about (a) how your résumé is tailored for the specific field of work that you are applying for and (b) how you will need to develop professionally in order to add key items to your résumé.
2. Write a letter of application to submit with your résumé. Be sure to tailor your letter for the specific job you are applying for with your résumé—including addressing it to the appropriate recipient.
3. Read Armstrong & Paulson, “Whither Peer Review?” and Thomas & Steinberg, “The Alligator in the Fishbowl” to prepare for peer review of your application documents.

Assigned January 27
For Thursday, January 29:

1. Read Oliu, Brusaw, & Alred Ch. 16, “Finding the Right Job.”
2. Imagine that you work for a career counseling service and receive from Jane Doe a request to read over her current résumé “to see if it’s good enough to send out.” (She is applying for a position as an administrative assistant at a local business.) Write a letter to Jane Doe that communicates to her a specific evaluation of her résumé and what she should do to make it more effective. Apply the advice on sensitive correspondence and on résumés from OBA. Make up the contact information for your company in order to fill in the appropriate spots in the letter. Print to hand in.
3. Find a description or advertisement for a job or internship that interests you (other than your current position). Bring an electronic or hard copy to class.

Assigned January 22
For Tuesday, January 27:

1. Read OBA Ch. 7, “Designing Effective Documents” and Lank, “Making 1040s a Bit Less Taxing.”
2. Design contest: Apply what you learn from your reading by redesigning Prof. Elgersma’s English 100 syllabus. Bring both a hard copy and an e-copy to class. Do not change the content (beyond the types of changes that Schriver makes to the 1040); remember the audiences and the need for a document that can be photocopied in black and white. Be ready to explain and justify your design.
   

Assigned January 20
For Thursday, January 22:

• Finish the two pieces of correspondence regarding the February interviews. Print to hand in.
• Read OBA Ch. 9, “Writing Business Correspondence.” Take careful notes on the patterns for sensitive and negative messages—be ready to write refusals, complaints, adjustments, and collections.

Assigned January 15
For Tuesday, January 20:

• Read OBA Ch. 8, “Understanding the Principles of Business Communication.” Instead of taking notes in traditional style, do some writing for your future self: make full page templates for letters in full-block and semi-block style; also write some reminders about how to choose between a full-block or semi-block letter, memo, e-mail, or IM.
• Be prepared for discussion about the ethics of OBA’s advice about negative messages and the indirect pattern.
• Finally, find (and bring) samples of professional correspondence that you have received.

Assigned January 13
For Thursday, January 15: At class, you will be asked to analyze several sample e-mails, giving specific evidence from each of the following to justify your opinions. To prepare, take careful notes as you complete the assignments below.

• Interview one professor about the characteristics of successful and unsuccessful e-mails. Ask about e-mails from students as well as work-related e-mails from nonstudents.
• Read Oliu, Brusaw, & Alred Ch. 1, “Assessing Audience and Purpose.”
• Read Van Rys, Meyer, Sebranek, “The Business Writer’s Code of Ethics” and “Business Writing Ethics.”

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