Suggested Activity Plan

Teachers should adapt these ideas to their style, specific schedule, and student needs.

Before Classes Start

Attend the Orientation
The Orientation is the week before classes begin, usually in the evening on Tuesday or Thursday. You will generally receive information about the date soon after you are hired. Please call the Course Coordinator (at 732-932-9273) or the Writing Program office (732-932-7570) if you have not been informed of this date.

Put together a short course description or syllabus
You will find it useful to put together a course description of some sort to make basic information available to your class on the first day. This should contain a way to contact you (phone, e-mail, and/or mailbox location); information on the texts and where to purchase them; basic rules of the class; and assignments for the first few sessions. Most new teachers should not prepare a detailed syllabus right away, but should announce assignments a week or so in advance (much like teachers of 101 do). This will allow you maximum flexibility. Only once the semester is underway and you have a better sense of the assignments and time issues should you issue a formal syllabus.

Arrange a library tour
You should arrange a library tour as early as you can with a library on your campus. Alexander Library (College Avenue) and Chang Library (Cook) offer excellent electronic tours of library resources.

• Kilmer Library (on Livingston Campus): 732-445-3613 or 3614
  
• Alexander Library (on College Avenue Campus): 732-932-7129 x-129 (Kevin Mulcahy)
  
• Chang Library (on Cook Campus) 732-932-0305, x. 137
  
• Douglass Library: 732-932-9411 (Reference Staff)
  

Tell the librarians that you want them to cover electronic searching for juniors and seniors writing research papers in science related fields. You might mention a specific topic area that might be interesting to search with the class.

Week 1
Introduction to the coursepack
Coursepack sections on the resume and cover letter
Career Services Guide (when available)
A sample proposal in the coursepack
Exercises in the Introductory section of the coursepack

A Note on Enrollment and Add/Drop
Send all students who are not registered for your section to Add/Drop on your campus (The Learning Resource Center on College Avenue, Lucy Stone Hall on Livingston or Busch campuses, and the second floor of the Douglass Student Center on Douglass/Cook). Under no circumstances should you give permission to add your class. We are trying to keep class sizes at a minimum of 20 and a maximum of 25 per section. We now offer more than enough class sections (including the Summer Session, evening, and Saturday classes) to accommodate all students.

Attendance and student information
You will find it useful to collect student's telephone numbers and e-mail addresses within the first week of class. Most teachers pass out a student information sheet asking for useful information (a sample should be included with your course materials). You might also use notecards or have them include the information on the top of the first day writing sample, writing questions on the board. Since 101 (or equivalent) is a prerequisite for 302, you should ask about what other English courses they have taken. Some of our students have transfered into Rutgers and it is usually a good idea to identify them as possibly needing extra attention. You may also find it helpful to have student schedules, so that you will know when best to hold office hours and whether you can arrange extra-curricular meetings (for example, if you intend to schedule the library tour on another campus or outside of class time you can use student schedules as a guide).

Introduction to the Course
Try to explain all of the "moving parts" of the course, including the resume and cover letter, the brief proposal, the library visit(s), the midterm paper, the presentation, and the project proposal (a.k.a. formal report). Explain that we have students prepare their resume and cover letter as the first assignment mostly for their own benefit. This first assignment also offers an opportunity to talk about the importance of audience ("consider your reader's needs in light of your purpose") and carefully crafted prose, while allowing those students who have no idea what sort of project to undertake to develop an idea in light of their career objectives. After the resume, the work is focused around the final project, which they need to propose, research, and develop through successively more complete revisions. The initial proposal is usually written as a white paper, shared in class for peer feedback, and as a short e-mail message, forum posting, or memo to the teacher for feedback. You might also explain that there will be other assignments for the class, such as in-class writing exercises and coursepack readings, which are intended to help them improve their writing and their understanding of technical communication. You may wish to assign them to read or review a specific sample final paper in the coursepack for next class, so that they will have a better idea of what's expected of them for the final project.

Modeling the Final Project
On the very first day you can discuss and model a potential project for your students. Most experienced teachers offer the class examples of projects that former students have undertaken. Those who haven't taught the class before can consult examples of previous work in the coursepack (or available from the course coordinator). Many teachers also get the class to engage in imagining a project from "the ground up" -- beginning with a problem that needs to be addressed. I usually put an article with a large headline on the overhead projector for our discussion, such as "Credit Card Debt among College Students on the Rise" or "Students Complain about Limited Parking on Campus" or "Teachers Complain about Uncivil Students." Local examples will usually get the most response from the class. I might read a little of the overhead article out loud and ask them what could be done about this problem, guiding them through the parts (in about the following order), and making lists of ideas on the board:

PEOPLE (audience and population to be served).
Who might do something about it? Who is affected by the problem? Are they necessarily the same people or group? Who has the power or money to address this problem? What group or institution might take action? Why would that group want to do something to solve this problem (what's the motivation)? Might the audience for your proposal (the funding source) have different motives than the population to be served for solving the problem? Might their motives or philosophy differ from yours as the proposal writer? What standing would you need to write the proposal? What real-world position can you imagine for yourself (one within your grasp) that would give you standing to write such a proposal?

PROBLEM.
First of all, how can we define the problem more fully to understand the problem better? What would we like to know about the problem? Can we quantify the problem in some way (or ways)?

PARADIGM.
How might the problem be addressed? What research might you undertake in trying to find a way to address the problem? What sort of questions might you ask? Would you be able to find all the information you need at the library, or would you have to find other ways of getting information and facts? What research terms might you try on the internet or in electronic bibliographies?

PLAN.
Based on our common sense and the ideas we have developed, what possible solutions can we imagine? To whom would you present these solutions? What arguments might you expect to be most persuasive to that audience? What sort of actions might be taken to address the problem? Who would act? How much would it cost?

PRICE
How much will the plan cost to implement? How can you find out how much it will cost?

COMPLEX INTERACTION OF THESE ELEMENTS.
How does the way you define the problem impact the way you approach it? How does the funding source impact the definition of the problem, the approach, or the likely action? How should research guide your action? How might the type of action you want to take impact your research? How might population to be served affect your research or the way you define the problem?

First Day Writing Sample
This is an optional 30-minute exercise (which should be included with your course materials). Some teachers end the first class with a first day writing sample that basically asks students to write instructions on "how to tie shoes." The purpose of the assignment is to get students to intuit the importance of considering context and audience when writing any business or technical document. Who is the audience for instructions on how to tie shoes, after all? That is, who has learned to read but not to tie shoes? Is it first grade students who are simultaneously learning how to read and learning to tie their shoes correctly? Is it parents seeking guidance in teaching children how to tie shoes? Is it for shoe salespeople at a fancy department store (for whom directions on proper customer interaction will be as important as technique)? Is it for people with arthritis, older people, or the handicapped? Is it for aliens from outer space? Students will unconsciously direct their responses to a presumed audience, usually without making that explicit. This can create some interesting opportunities for group work or class discussion. You might copy several examples of student work and distribute them to groups, asking each group to determine who the "ideal" or assumed reader of this document seems to be. You might simply have students exchange papers and ask, "To whom is this written?" -- that is, what assumptions about the reader has this writer made? If you want to focus on the technical elements of writing instructions, you might have a student volunteer (one wearing shoes with laces) come in front of the class and demonstrate shoe tying while following, verbatim, some especially poor examples. You can then lead a discussion in which the class develops some good rules to follow when writing instructions (e.g.: consider the audience, break things into numbered steps, offer illustrations, etc.) For other suggestions for first day writing samples, see Things That Work.

Resume and Cover Letter
Since you will begin with the resume and cover letter, you will want to spend some time discussing these assignments, usually in the second class session. You might put a sample resume and/or cover letter on overhead (you are welcome to use any in the coursepack, for example) and engage the class in a discussion of how well it addresses the audience. if you are in a smart classroom, you can access the online sample from the 302 page. Though it can be very tempting to lecture here, most teachers ask the students to engage in the process. What you should get the students to realize is that there is no single best way to write the resume, and that these documents can be rather individual -- based on the specific job or situation. As with all business documents, the resume and cover letter need to be designed with the audience and context in mind. You might wish to have the class come up with grading criteria here (see note above on grading the resume and cover letter). Have the class come up with a list of important things to do in the resume and cover letter, write them on the board, and then make them a central part of your grading criteria.

Discuss a Sample Paper in the Coursepack
Most teachers discuss the sample papers at various times during the semester, but it's a good idea to have them at least review one early in the term so that they have a sense of what a final project looks like. The projects in the coursepack are intended to be models and vehicles for class discussion. Not all of them are A-level work. The philosophy of the class is that all writers use models when learning to write within a specific "culture of writing." These models will not always be worth emulating (in fact, a lot of writing in the business world is pretty bad), but they always help establish a bench mark and give the writer a sense of the organization's expectations.

Week 2
Scientific and Technical Writing Coursepack, "Resumes and Cover Letters"
Career Services Booklet Coursepack sample papers and resumes
Samples from The Portable Technical Writer
The New York Times and other newspapers
Specific "Readings" in the Coursepack (such as Barker or Hooper)

Peer Revision of the Resume and Cover Letter
A sample peer revision guide is included in the coursepack. It works best, though, if you xerox this for the class so they can exchange with their partners.

Discuss Sample Resumes in the Coursepack
Most teachers find that these discussions are most effective when you put the resume or cover letter to be discussed on transparency and use the overhead projector. If you are ambitious, you can scan it and use PowerPoint. You can also turn this into a group exercise.

Peer Revision of the Resume and Cover Letter
Peer Revision Guides are included in the coursepack. The resume and cover letter can either be perceived as a distraction from beginning work on the final project or as an opportunity to think about the project in the context of their career objectives. The resume assignment might be a burden for those students who have never prepared a resume before, but it gives most students something of a lull, during which they can start thinking about their project ideas and doing the preliminary research and leg work (e.g.: talking to advisors or checking out library resources). In almost every case, each student who comes into the assignment with an already prepared resume ends up revising and strengthening the level and kind of detail. Cover letters, especially, become much more detailed and geared to a specific audience. Most students are happy with the revisions they have made and feel good about instantly learning something practical in the course. The exercise also provides a chance to discuss audience awareness and issues of revising and polishing a document; in addition, it gives them an opportunity to get to know each other.

Newspaper Exercise
There is a newspaper exercise included in the coursepack (this can take an entire class session). Articles from the newspaper can be used as a way of modeling possible problems that inspire project ideas. One way to do this is as follows: ask the class to read The New York Times and two local newspapers (e.g.: The Home News and The Daily Targum) on a particular day before the next class meeting (if you meet on Wednesday, you might ask them to read the papers on the Tuesday before that class meeting). Tell them to circle at least one article in each paper that presents a problem or business trend (one they can imagine serving as the basis for a proposal). They should bring in each newspaper in its entirety so that they might have access to other articles in the paper(s) that other students found interesting. Divide the class into groups of three or four and have them decide upon the single most interesting article that they think could serve as the basis for a class project. Tell them to develop the idea as best they can among themselves (either following the newspaper exercise in the coursepack or a list of questions you put on the board). They should elect a group leader to present their ideas to the class, and the class can offer feedback. A variation of this exercise is found in the coursepack

Discuss Other Parts of the Newspaper
The newspaper can become an excellent resource in class, not only for developing topics but for discussing effective visual graphic aids, the concerns of the business world (as reflected in The Business Section), possible jobs, and changes in the economy. You might be surprised to learn that the majority of students have never read a paper regularly, and most do not follow the news. Some teachers have asked students to buy newspapers (or a particular paper) at least once per week, making it an occasional part of class discussion. Again, if you have Internet capabilities, you can access newspapers online and project articles for them to read.

Discuss the Coursepack Readings
Most readings are accompanied by group activities or questions in the coursepack. I would like to encourage teachers to try out practices that get the students to engage with these works -- including group work activity reminiscent of 101. The chief purpose of the readings is to help us frame the concerns of the class and to get the students to think about the world of work. Encourage students to have their own responses to these readings and to talk about how they relate to their own experiences or thoughts about entering the job market. Remember, the students will not be writing about these readings directly, so they do not necessarily have to understand them accurately or fully. Instead, students should be encouraged to find something of value for themselves in the readings and to use them to understand the objects of the course (such as the social situation of writing or the importance of using research and writing to take a leadership position.) Since the concept of paradigm is generally unfamiliar to them and it will play an important role in the persuasive measures of their final projects, it is good to highlight the existence, limitations, and expansion of paradigms in the readings. (Although very good at memorizing scientific facts, most of our students know very little about the history of scientific thought or that paradigms shift constantly. Those who still perceive science as universally "true" and factual may have difficulty with the idea that perspective exists within the scientific community. This may hamper their ability to identify the paradigms informing their own projects.

RESUME AND COVER LETTER DUE
It's best to get this out of the way within the first three weeks of class so that it does not become a distraction from developing the project proposal. You can return to the issues raised by the resume and cover letter when you return them. Please consult the section on "Resumes and Cover Letters" in the "Grading Criteria" (above) as you grade them.

Sentence Revision Exercises
Examples of writing exercises are included in your course materials and in Things That Work. The best exercises, though, come out of student papers and drafts. Though we want always to emphasize the importance of content over form on early drafts, we do not want to neglect talking about the advantages of polished writing in the workplace. The resume and cover letter thus offer an excellent opportunity to introduce issues of careful writing early in the term, in the context of polishing a specific document for style and emphasis, without getting the students too wrapped up with questions of style in their development of the course project.

Library Tour
Arrange a library tour with a reference librarian (see above, under Before Classes Begin). The librarians will conduct this tour for you, and you need not make any special preparations for it (beyond discussing with the librarian what you'd like to see covered). Try to announce the tour at least a week ahead of time. You might also post a note on the blackboard for forgetful students and include a special notation on your online syllabus.

Discuss the Coursepack Readings (See description above)

Peer Review of Project Ideas
There is a peer review guide included in the coursepack and there are sample exercises in Things That Work. Have the students bring in a draft of their topic description for peer discussion and feedback. You might make a list of important questions that students ought to consider. It's a good idea to use this time to connect with those students you are worried about and to comment on their proposals during class time.

Short Topic Proposal Due (by the beginning of week 4 at the latest)
Some teachers ask for these proposals via e-mail or online forum posting over the weekend so they can comment on them quickly and begin a dialogue with students on developing their ideas.

Week 4
Coursepack, sample papers or readings
Sections in The Portable Technical Writer on research
Drafts of student papers

Resume and Cover Letter Returned and Discussed
You can take more time to return these, but the sooner the better. I usually put a good resume and cover letter on overhead to share with the class after I return the graded copies, and use it to reinforce important points of our earlier discussions. I also offer to look at revised versions of the resume for students who are on the job market. However, you should generally not allow students to revise for a better grade on any assignment.

Topic Proposals Approved
If you have reservations about a student's project, meet with him or her outside of class to discuss the proposal. Push students to decide quickly upon a topic, and to seek subject area experts for the technical guidance that you cannot offer. Everyone should have an approved topic by Week 5 at the latest. Require an Annotated Bibliography of at least 6 sources Since several students will dangerously delay researching their topics, it's important to require some sort of bibliography before the midterm paper is due. Requiring annotations encourages students to read their references with some attention at this point.

Discuss the MIDTERM PAPER Assignment
There is a detailed description of the midterm paper in the coursepack and online at the 302 page. Have students read this description and discuss it with you in class.

Discuss Sample Papers in the Coursepack
There is a sample midterm paper in the coursepack, and you might have them look at a sample final paper at this point (if you didn't do so earlier) to get students thinking about the larger project. Begin Peer Work on the midterm paper. Peer revision sheets are included in the coursepack (Again, xeroxing these can help encourage students to comment wisely. Mention that you would like to see all peer revision sheets along with the final drafts. This provides an additional emphasis on the grave responsibility of peer revision, and their own accountability.) If you were able to get students to choose a topic by Week 3, you might require a draft of the midterm paper by late in Week 4. You should definitely have them drafting by Week 5. Some teachers ask students to first write a preliminary draft of the midterm paper that focuses more on the audience than the research to encourage students to think about the reader's concerns. However, we always need to push our students to reference their research in the midterm paper since many will be slow to do so, and it might be worthwhile to stress research first.

Discuss Research
Since the majority of our students are juniors and seniors, many of them are rather skilled in using computers to access information, and most report familiarity with using computers to conduct library and internet research. Where they run into trouble is in figuring out what to research. Therefore, it's important to get students to think about the sort of questions they might look into at the library or on the internet. How can they better define the problem? What sort of paradigms or accepted approaches are there for addressing the problem? Is there theoretical research in this area? Has anyone addressed this problem before and are there models they can look at? What sort of statistics would help them? What subject area experts might offer help or guidance? Encourage them to keep trying to find the best keywords and combinations to guide their searches, and encourage them to not stop until they have the best possible sources.

Consider a Second Library (or Computer Lab) Research Session (optional)
If students have not done enough research, you might consider having another session devoted to research, either at the library or a computer classroom. You might also be able to arrange an extra session at a library you have not used, where you might be able to arrange for a reference librarian to answer questions from students. Meet with individual students and help those you can to develop better or more complex research agendas.

Week 5
Annotated Bibliography due
Sample papers in Coursepack

DRAFT OF MIDTERM PAPER FOR PEER REVISION

SECOND DRAFT OF MIDTERM PAPER FOR "POLISHING"
This is a good point to discuss polishing a finished document. Some teachers reserve the second drafting session for discussion, practice, and peer revision of common stylistic or grammar problems (such as overuse of passive voice, mistakes in parallelism, or problems with dangling modifiers).

Writing Exercises
The best exercises come out of student examples, of which you will have been able to collect many by this point in the term.

Week 6
Sections in The Portable Technical Writer dealing with graphics and presentations
Newspaper with special attention to visual aids
Student papers
Coursepack readings

Teacher / Student Conferences (optional)
Some teachers find it very useful at this point to meet with students about their projects. You are welcome to cancel a class to help you schedule these meetings. Some teachers will cancel a class before the final draft of the midterm paper is due to meet with students. I generally cancel the class after folder review in order to meet with each student individually to return and discuss each paper.

MIDTERM PAPER DUE (with eight references)

Discuss Visual Aids
There are sections in our textbook that cover visual aids. You can also have students bring in interesting visual aids from the newspaper to discuss. While most teachers do not cover how to use computer graphics programs aside from those available on PowerPoint, most students should have little trouble learning how to use them for the purposes of the course.

Discuss Giving Oral Presentations
Here you might refer to the textbook. Most teachers deliver a presentation of their own, perhaps connected to a discussion of visual aids (see below). I also have a video tape of sample student presentations that you can show to your class for discussion.

Week 7
Peer review of student papers
Coursepack readings

Lecture: Giving Effective Oral Presentations
Most experienced teachers give a little presentation at some point on "How to Give a Presentation." This offers you a chance to model good (or bad) presentation strategies while giving some basic advice. Although you have inadvertently been a model for them all semester, this is your opportunity to be more aware of your own presence in front of an audience, and can be fun. You should also show the video tape of a student presentation for discussion.

Group Work on the Visual Aids
I usually ask students to bring their visual aids to class for peer evaluation and discussion.

Mid-Semester Teacher's Conference (a.k.a. Folder Review)
You will receive a memo in your box announcing specific dates. The folder review is a great opportunity for us to talk about how the course is going and to find ways of helping students through difficulties. Bring graded midtern paper. Bring two copies of the midterm paper, if possible, and any other assignments or activities you'd like to share.

Week 8

PRESENTATIONS (Day 1)
Three of four oral presentations and discussion per session. Most teachers find it useful to keep strict time limits -- either with an egg timer or an appointed time-keeper. There are oral presentation response forms included in your teaching materials which you can distribute to members of the class for peer evaluations (which can be helpful in the process of grading). If time allows, you might also ask for students to bring in parts of the final paper for peer revision. For example, you might ask them to bring in the abstract one day, the cover letter the next, and other small parts on other days when oral presentations will not take up all of class time.

Week 9

PRESENTATIONS

Week 10

PRESENTATIONS

Initial Drafts of Project Proposal
Since it is important to encourage students to begin revising the final project, you might ask for parts of the project during the presentation weeks -- either for in-class peer review (if time permits) or for your own review. Some teachers find it helpful to have students bring in a draft of the cover letter one day, the abstract the next day, the table of contents, etc.

Week 11

PRESENTATIONS
Optional Procedures Manual assignment

Week 12
Suggested Readings:
Sample Student papers from coursepack
Peer review

Draft of Project Proposal
A peer review sheet is included in the coursepack (have students fill them out in their partner's coursepack). In-class workshop and peer revision of the formal report.

Week 13

Draft #2 of Final Proposal
In-class workshop and peer revision of the finished draft. Here you might focus revision around writing issues. Course evaluations.

Weeks 14 and 15

Cancel class?
You might cancel one class this week to hold office hours or meetings with students having difficulties. Urge students to use that time to work on their projects.

PROJECT PROPOSAL DUE
Remember to ask for two copies, or an extra copy in electronic form (either as an attachment file via e-mail or on disk).

Final Teacher's Conference (a.k.a. Folder Review)
You will receive a memo in your box announcing specific dates (generally, the last day of classes through the following week). You must collect two copies of the final paper from each student. Come to the conference having graded papers, but do not assign any final grades on your class roster. Bring student papers (and copies), your roster, grade book, and copies of any special assignments or exercises you would like to share. Here the focus is on determining final grades, especially in borderline cases.

Meet at Loree 006.
Schedule a time at 135 George Street, or by calling Emma (732-932-8856). During the summer session, when fewer classes are taught, you should schedule your folder review directly with the coordinator or by calling 732-932-7570.