Getting Started 1: Registering on the Site

To get started with ENGL 420Y, you'll need to complete a few steps, which include

• Registering for the course website (here).
• Logging in for the first time.
• Editing your account for the first time.

Registering for the course website

1. Go to the course website.
2. Click on "create new account" under "User Login" in the navigation menu on the left.

   

3. Create a username that will identify you in the system and that you will use for logging in. Because this site is public on the Internet, your username should not include your last name. You are welcome to use any username (e.g., your IM screenname) that would not be offensive to others or otherwise inappropriate for a course website. Capitalize your username as you intend to use it; usernames are case sensitive.

   

4. Enter your email address. You may use your Purdue email address. If you have an alternate one, use the one that you check most regularly.
5. Provide your real name and home page URL (web address, if you have one). Note that your real name will not be visible publicly but only to students registered at the site.
6. Click on "Create new account." Registration information will be sent to the email address you listed, so check your email soon after you register. You will need the password that it sends you.

Getting Started 2: Logging in for the First Time

To get started with ENGL 420Y, you'll also need to complete this second step:

Logging in for the first time

1. You should have received an email from the system that includes your new password. With that email handy, return to the course website.
2. Enter your username and password in the "User login" box. Your initial password can be retyped or cut-and-pasted into the password box. If you cut-and-paste it, make sure you don't include any extra spaces before or after the password characters. The password and user name are case sensitive.

   

3. Click on Log in. When you've successfully logged in, you will see a block of links in the left sidebar with your username above it as a title. This is a navigation menu that provides you with links to many services and content on the site. If you are unable to log in successfully, try re-entering your password. Remember that usernames and passwords are case-sensitve, so make sure you don't have Caps Lock turned on by accident and that (if pasting in your password) that you don't include extra spaces. You may also request a new password if you ever forget yours.

Getting Started 3: Editing Your Account for the First Time

To get started with ENGL 420Y, you'll also need to complete this third step, which will take a bit more time than the previous two.

Editing your account for the first time

Once you've logged in successfully, you need to edit your account and provide some additional information about yourself.

1. Click on my account link in the navigation menu on the left.

   

2. On the next screen, click on the edit tab.

   

3. On the account settings screen, scroll to the Account information area.
   
4. Change your password by entering a new one into the password boxes. Choose a password that you can remember but that is secure. Remember that passwords are case sensitive.
5. Scroll to the Picture area.
   
6. Upload a picture of yourself or avatar (an image that represents you well) that you would use in a public context. You may have to find one and edit in an image editor, so you just try to have this step completed by the end of Week 2. If you need help editing an image, send a copy to your instructor for help. See Creating Avatars and Images for Your Profile for more information.
7. Scroll to Contact settings.
   
8. Check the Personal contact form box.
9. When you have made your changes, click on the Submit button at the bottom of the page.

The following steps ask you to complete information for your profile. This will enable the instructor and fellow students to learn a little more about you and help the instructor tailor this class to your background and goals, as well as arrange collaborative projects.

1. Click on the edit tab again, then on the Personal Information link at the top of the next page.
   
2. Enter the required information in the boxes. If you don't have a home page, leave that box blank.
3. Click on Submit to save.

That's it! You have completed all the steps of the Getting Started process. If you ever need to change any of the information, you can always edit these pages again.

If you have any trouble along the way, please be sure to let your instructor know.

Week 1

By Monday, June 11, at midnight

• If you have not done so already, read Welcome to English 420Y, Business Writing (Distance Learning).
• Complete:
  • Getting Started 1: Registering on the Site
  • Getting Started 2: Logging in for the First Time
  • Getting Started 3: Editing Your Account for the First Time
• Review carefully the Course Description, paying particular attention to all requirements. It is important that you become very familiar with the course policies so you can understand what is expected of you in this class. It might be best if you read through the course description twice; ignorance of the course policies will not be an excuse for failure to complete an assignment properly. Please do not fall behind on the first day. This course will proceed at a quick pace, so don't wait a few days to get going!
• Read Learning to Navigate the Site. Then explore the class website. Make sure that you login; some class website features are not available to guests. It'll be easier as we move forward if you take the time now to explore. Get familiar with where things are located, which links take you further into the class website and which take you outside to other resources.
• Read through the rest of this page so that you know when assignments are due the rest of the week.

By Tuesday, June 12, at midnight

• Now that you have had a chance to read the course description and explore the class website, email your instructor with a note letting him or her know that you have finished registering for the course. Your email should include a subject line, a greeting, a short message, and your real (full) name. It is important that you complete this task so that you know how to get in touch with your instructor.
• Review How to Post Your Individual Weblog and then How to Post Comments and Replies
• Read Instructor Blog #1: Welcome to Professional Writing. Post a comment in response that elaborates or reacts to the ideas presented.
• Respond to the "Let's introduce ourselves" prompt on the home page. Add a new comment in which you:
  • describe where you are from
  • give your course of study and year
  • talk about your career goals
  • tell what you would like to get out of this course
  • share at least one thing personal about yourself (a hobby, your favorite sport, a favorite activity, etc.
• Reminder: As you work on assignments for this course, always read ahead a few days to give yourself time to ask questions about future assignments.

By Wednesday, June 13 at midnight

• You should have received the course textbook by today: The Thomson Handbook (Comprehensive Edition), by David Blakesley and Jeffrey L. Hoogeveen. Boston: Thomson/Wadsworth, 2008. This book is available at local bookstores and may also be purchased online (e.g., through Amazon, here). You can buy the hardcover or paperback versions.

Reading

• Familiarize yourself with the content and structure of The Thomson Handbook. Scan the frontmatter (including the the table of contents) and the backmatter (the "Glossary of Web Terms" and the "Glossary of Usage") so that you know what the book contains.
• "Writing for Business and the Workplace" (TH, 217-238)

Reading Response

• Post a reading response. Respond to this prompt: based upon what you have read in the The Thomson Handbook and your own experiences, what do you expect the substance of this course to be? What do you expect to get out of it? How are you going to use this opportunity to augment your own skills? In your response, point to specific material in The Thomson Handbook. Since this is your first Reading response, you'll want to follow the tutorial for using the class site software, How to Post to Your Individual Weblog. Use the tag "Reading response Week 1" in the category field.

By Thursday, June 14, at midnight

Employment Project

• Read the Employment Project description. You can ask questions about the project by emailing your instructor. Try to answer your own question before emailing it too hastily.
• Read Instructor Blog #2 on Getting a Job. Post a comment in response.
• Step 1: Skills Inventory, Job Description and Rationale. Start this step by completing the Job Search Activity 12-1 (p. 221) in The Thomson Handbook. In a blog post, respond to each of the questions with a few sentences, or a list. Don't forget to post it under the "Skills inventory" category.
• Begin searching for a job for the Employment Project. Consult the following sites:
• http://www.careerbuilder.com/
• http://www.collegegrad.com/
• http://www.job-hunt.org/
• http://www.truecareers.com/
• http://www.monster.com/
• Purdue Center for Career Opportunities
• yahoo jobs
• yahoo career fields

By Friday, June 15, at midnight.

• Finish Step 1 of the Employment Project by doing the Job ad analysis and posting it to your blog. Reference the sample job ad and sample response in The Thomson Handbook (p. 223-24). Remember to copy and paste an actual job ad (or provide the link) that you will be applying for in your project. Don't forget to post under the "Job ad analysis" category.
• Continue posting comments and replies using Principles for Comments and Replies. You need to contribute five (5) comments to classmates' posts each week, so check the tag for Reading response Week 1 frequently and participate in the conversations. For reference on how to do this, review How to Post Comments and Replies. Your posts should adhere to the guidelines found in chapter 28 of The Thomson Handbook (beginning on page 621). Pay particular attention to the Project Checklist for Networking in Online Forums on page 627.
• Check out Week 2. No later than today, you should read through the course calendar for the following week. Make sure that you understand all of the assignments. If you have any questions, contact the instructor.

Week 2

By Monday, June 18, at midnight

• Read the Instructor Blog on Resumes. Post a comment in response.
• Read this fantastic Career Journal article by an HR coordinator.
• Read "A Glimpse and a Hook" and scan the corresponding comments.
• Read the Purdue Owl's information on resumes.
• Begin working on Employment Project Step 2: Resume Draft, due Wednesday.

By Tuesday, June 19, at midnight

Reading

• "Reading and Writing Email Purposefully" (TH, Chapter 27, 603-20)
• "Boss's Angry Email Sends Shares Plunging"
• "A Stinging Office Memo Boomerangs" (.pdf file)

Reading Response

• Post a reading response by Tuesday at midnight. Remember to set "Reading response Week 2" as the category tag. Pick one or more of the readings from Monday or Tuesday to discuss. Suggested Prompts: You might describe one instance when you sent an email message that worked wonders or that proved to be a huge mistake. What happened? Why? Which of the "Ten Habits of Successful Emailers" seemed to be missing? How does emailing differ from text messaging or instant messaging, and why do you think email is used more frequently in business and industry for project management? What surprised you about how HR personnel treat resumes? What can you do to ensure that yours gets adequate attention?

By Wednesday, June 20, at midnight

• Employment project Step 2: Resume Rough Draft Due. Post your resume draft as an attachment to a blog posted in the "Resume peer editing" category.
• Respond to two student resumes with helpful peer editing feedback. See Peer Review of Resumes for advice.
• Send an attachment of your resume with your name and contact info removed (replaced with fake information) to the instructor as an attachment.

By Thursday, June 21, at midnight

• Read the Instructor Blog on Cover Letters. Post a comment in response.
• Read about the rhetorical concept of kairos ("the right or opportune time to speak or write") in Kairos and the Cover Letter, which includes some exaggerated approaches that you should avoid in your cover letters.
• Begin writing Employment Project, Step 3: Cover Letter, due Monday, June 25th.

By Friday, June 22, at midnight

• Complete the Resume Extravaganza Assignment! Remember to post your response with the "Resume extravaganza" tag.
• Continue posting comments and replies using Principles for Comments and Replies (you need to contribute five [5] each week). We are now dealing with Reading response Week 2.
• Check out Week 3. No later than today, you should read through the course calendar for the following week. Make sure that you understand all of the assignments. If you have any questions, email the instructor.

Week 3

By Monday, June 25, at midnight

• Employment Project Step 3: Cover letter due. Post your cover letter to a blog in the "Cover letter peer editing" category.
• Respond with peer feedback to two other student letters. Reference the Peer Review of Cover Letters Handout.
• Begin working on Employment Project Step 4: Project Assessment Document.
• Begin revising resume and cover letter for Employment Project Final Draft.

By Tuesday, June 26, at midnight

• There's a lot of reading that needs to be done by Friday of this week, so make sure to schedule carefully to get it all done.
• Read the description of Project 2: Corporate Communication Project. Email your instructor with any questions.
• Read the news story about Jet Blue's crisis in February. Also visit JetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights page. Be sure to watch the video from President David Neeleman. Read Be the Guy with the Megaphone. Read 10 Steps to Recovery for "Jet Black and Blue."
• Find one other interesting article about the JetBlue situation and post it to the blog under the "Corporate project research" category. Include a short summary of the article and its usefulness for the project.

By Wednesday, June 27, at midnight

• Read Thomson Handbook Ch 38 on Effective Word Use.
• Read Frank Luntz's Words That Work (Chapter 1: "The Ten Rules of Effective Langauge," attached at bottom of page). Luntz studies the effects of words on audiences of advertising and political campaigns. It is tempting to accuse Luntz of teaching people how to spin the truth, and many have, but as you read, consider the perspective that Luntz is informing people about how to shape their message effectively in a world where language is always framing perspectives.
• Read Ethics in Public Relations: A Guide to the Best Practice (Selections, attached at bottom of page).
• Read Case Studies in Business Ethics (Selections, attached at bottom of page).
• Read Managing Communications in a Crisis (Chapter 3: "Stakeholders and Audiences," attached at bottom of page)

By Thursday, June 28, at midnight

• Employment Project Final Draft Due. Post projects in the "Employment final project" category. Your final submission will include the following items, in a single PDF file, in this order:
  1. Job ad that you have replied to (Step 1)
  2. Discussion of job ad (Step 1)
  3. Job Application Letter
  4. Resume
  5. Project Assessment Document.

  Attach this file to a blog post with the subject "Employment Project Final" and include brief submission notes explaining the nature of the attachment. The file should be in PDF format, and the file name should follow this naming convention: lastname-EmploymentProject.pdf. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process.

By Friday, June 29, at midnight

Reading Response

• It's time to put together all the readings for this week. As you begin to reflect on your writing for next week, consider the JetBlue crisis in light of the Luntz reading, the ethics readings, and your own research that you posted earlier in the week. Do you think JetBlue handled the crisis in an effective way? In an ethical way? How can you connect the Luntz reading, the ethics readings, and your own research with JetBlue's handling of this situation? How do you plan on responding to this situation in your own documents next week? How will the readings inform that response? Use the tag "Reading response Week 3" in the category field.
• Continue posting comments and replies (you need to contribute five [5] each week). We are now dealing with Reading response Week 3.

Week 4

By Monday, July 2, at midnight

• Read sample press releases before writing your press release. Press releases are available here:
  • FDA Press Release
  • Marler Clark Press Release
  • Diamond Pet Food
  • MPAA Press Release
  Also read:
  • 10 Essential Tips for Press Releases
• Corporate Communication Project Step 1: Press Release Due. Post your press release draft to the "Press release draft" Category.
• Respond with peer feedback to two other student press releases.

By Tuesday, July 3, at midnight

• This project focuses heavily on concise writing. Read Thomson Handbook Chapter 36 on Concise Sentences. Also read the Purdue Owl's page on Conciseness. Keep these principles in mind as you write, and edit your letters heavily with conciseness in mind.

By Wednesday, July 4, at midnight

• University Holiday. Enjoy your fourth!

By Thursday, July 5, at midnight

• Read Thomson Handbook Chapter 1 on Writing and Rhetoric in Context.
• Watch this Youtube video to get an impression of the JetBlue customer reaction.
• Find one other JetBlue customer online written or video response (for reading response).

Reading Response

• Consider the chapter on writing and rhetoric in the context of your writing for JetBlue. Then consider the audience materials you have collected. Who is the audience that you are addressing? What feelings, expectations, predictions, and desires do they hold? (Reference specifics from the audience documents you watched and located.) How do you plan on addressing them? How will the context shape that response?

By Friday, July 6, at midnight

• Corporate Communication Project Step 2: Letter Due. Post your business letter draft to the "Letter draft" category.
• Respond to two other student letters with feedback.
• Begin revising Corporate Communication Project, Due Wednesday, July 11.

Week 5

By Monday, July 9, at midnight

• Read the project description for the Service Learning Project.
• Read the client and document descriptions for the service learning project corresponding to your instructor:
  • Weber's Service Learning Project
  • Tirrell's Service Learning Project
• Email instructor with any questions.
• Read Instructor Blog #5 on Working in Groups. Post a comment in response.

By Tuesday, July 10, at midnight

• Read the article "Feuds in Student Groups"
• Receive group assignments for the service learning project. Communicate with group members via email or the wiki page set up on the course site.
  • Weber's Service Learning project groups.
  • Tirrell's Service Learning project groups

By Wednesday, July 11, at midnight

• Corporate Communication Project Due. Put all three documents into one pdf titled "LastnameCorporate." Post the project to a blog in the "Corporate project final project" category.

By Thursday, July 12, at midnight

• Read Thomson Handbook Chapter 25 on Desktop Publishing and Graphic Design.
• Find one professional brochure or visual document that you like online. (Type brochure.pdf into Google if you're having trouble finding anything.)

Reading Response

• Considering the principles of design given in chapter 25, what works about the design of the brochure you found? Reference specific principles from Chapter 25 to analyze the design of your brochure. Explain how this document will influence your own design on the service learning project.
• Read and comment on your group member responses.

By Friday, July 13, at midnight

• Service Learning Project Step 1 Due. Post your Gantt chart to one blog called "Gantt Chart" in the "Service Learning Gantt chart" category. Reference the sample Gantt charts attached below as your group completes Step 1. They are student samples updated July 11.
• Post individual work blog giving a detailed summary of your contribution to the team. Post work blogs in the "Work blogs" category.
• Don't forget to send an activity report to the instructor on Sunday. Activity reports are due every Sunday until the end of the semester.

Week 6

By Monday, July 16, at midnight

• Read Thomson Handbook Chapters 24 and 37. Take these principles into account as you are producing your documents, because Thursday's reading response asks you to comment on them in relation to your draft. Also remember the principles of concision and design as you work.

By Tuesday, July 17, at midnight

• Work on draft with group members.

By Wednesday, July 18, at midnight

• Service Learning Project Step 4: Draft Due. Post the project draft to a blog in the "Service learning Draft 1" category.
Remember that the draft must be posted in a format that everyone can access. You can export to .pdf or an image format such as .jpg. There is also a 5mb file upload limit on the site, which is more than enough, but it is something to keep in mind.

By Thursday, July 19, at midnight

• Read Thomson Handbook Chapter 24 and 37 by today.

Reading Response

• Consider your draft of the project. In a reading response, explain how the principles of variety, conciseness, audience, and design are shaping your draft. Reference specifics in your document in your reading response.
• Read and comment on your group member responses.

By Friday, July 20, at midnight

• Continue revision of drafts with your group, accounting for instructor feedback on your work.
• Don't forget to do the work blogs and activity reports for this week.

Week 7

By Monday, July 23, at midnight

• Finish Draft 2 of group project.

By Tuesday, July 24, at midnight

• Service Learning Project Step 4: Draft Due. Post the project draft 2 to a blog in the "Service learning Draft 2" category. Please give your draft post the heading "Instructor Group #" - such as "Tirrell Group 3."
• Remember, this draft will also be reviewed by the client to provide feedback to the students.

By Wednesday, July 25, at midnight

• Service Learning Project Step 5: Peer Editing. Peer edit the project of one group in the other section of 420. Your instructor will partner your group with a group in the other section. Each group member should post 200 word review comments to that project by midnight.
• To avoid conflicts of interest between groups doing the same project, the groups will peer edit across classes. Each group in Weber's class will peer edit one of Tirrell's groups, and vice versa. The peer editing exchange is as follows:
• Tirrell Group 1 - Weber Group 1.
• Tirrell Group 2 - Weber Group 2.
• Tirrell Group 3 - Weber Group 3.
• Tirrell Group 4 - Weber Group 4.
• Tirrell Group 5 - Weber Group 5.

By Thursday, July 26, at midnight

Reading Response

• Use your current brochure drafts and take The 5 Minute Brochure Design Trash Test
• Read and comment on your group members' responses. You only need to do 3 comments this week (those on the responses of your fellow group members).

By Friday, July 27, at midnight

• Continue revision of drafts with your group, accounting for instructor, peer, and client feedback on your work.

Week 8

By Monday, July 30, at midnight

• Review client feedback.

By Tuesday, July 31, at midnight

• Continue work on Service Learning Project Step 6: Final Draft due Wednesday, August 1.

By Wednesday, August 1, at midnight

• Service Learning Project Step 6: Final Draft. Post final drafts as pdf attachments titled "Group#Final" to a blog in the "Service learning Final draft" category.

By Thursday, August 2, at midnight

• Work on Service Learning Project Step 7: Project Assessment (the form is attached at the bottom of this page).

By Friday, August 3, at midnight

• Complete Service Learning Project: Step 7: Project Assessment. Email Project Assessment to your instructor as a pdf attachment titled "LastNameProjectAssessment."
• Individual work blogs for week 8 are due today. Activity reports are due on Sunday, but you may wish to turn them in early.

Creating Avatars and Images for Your Profile

Some of you may be in search of an avatar or image to use in the profile that you created for yourself when you registered. If so, here are some suggestions:

An avatar is just an image that "stands-in" for your picture and can be an object, artwork, a photo, or something else that might convey some aspect of your identity, personality, or interests. So, for example, someone interested in biking might use an image of a bike as an avatar rather than a personal picture. The image works best if it's in jpg, gif, or png format, and the dimensions should be (about) 85x85 so that it displays correctly (and doesn't get squished when displayed, for example).

To find an existing avatar to use for free, you could look at a site like these. If you have a Yahoo! ID (free to get, if not), you can get some nice ones:

http://avatars.yahoo.com/

or try

http://www.avatarity.com/

You could also take an existing image of yourself and then create a picture by cropping out the part you don't want. If you haven't used an image editing program before, that can be a bit tricky. But if you have, just use the crop tool to draw a box around the part of the image you want to use, crop it, and then resize it so that it's about 85x85 pixels.

If you have a larger photo and would like help to make it into an avatar, send it to your instructor as an email attachment. Your instructor can help you from there.

Creating Hyperlinks

For this class, you'll have to learn at least one HTML tag, the one for making hyperlinks.

It's easy to learn. Check it out:

1. Make sure that your rich-text editor is enabled. Click on enable rich-text below the Body box.
2. Highlight the text you want to turn into a link.
3. In the buttons below the Body box, click on the chain link button.
4. This box should appear.
   
5. In the Link URL box, cut and paste your full URL there. Then click on insert.

Your link will now show up in your test.

Here is how you make links in traditional HTML coding. Still easy, but it doesn't show up with our rich-text settings and input format.

<a href=""></a>

is the tag itself without any information in it. Within the quotes, you'll put the url, or web address, for the site which you want to link to. In between the ><, you'll put the text you want displayed on the screen.

For example, the url for slashdot is http://slashdot.org/. And if you want to make the word Slashdot a link in a sentence to the website in a blog post, type in,

<a href="http://slashdot.org/">Slashdot</a> is a well known community blog site.

To get

Slashdot is a well known community blog site.

HTML is picky and it's easy to make a careless mistake. Don't include any extra spaces in the HTML tag. Make sure that you include "http://" as a part of your web address. In fact, one of the easiest ways to make sure that you get the URL correct is to copy and paste it from the address bar of a browser window currently displaying the page.

See? Not too difficult. But there's one more thing . . . .

Avoid merely posting the URL as a link:

http://slashdot.org

Notice how this doesn't convey much information. Better to have put the page title (often found either on the page or in the window bar at the top) or link to part of your text (think of the examples in this site). At the same time, really long URL's won't word wrap at the end of a line. They may cause problems with the way that text is displayed on web pages.

For review, check out Chapter 30 in The Thomson Handbook, "The Basics of HTML Coding" (p. 664).

Creating PDF Files

Portable Document Format (PDF) is a file format created by Adobe Acrobat and useful for sharing printer ready versions of documents. Unlike when files are shared between different productivity applications (i.e., word processing, spreadsheet) or different versions of the same productivity software, the same layout and typographic styles are maintained regardless of the computer environment. What the author sees when creating a PDF is exactly what the receiver of the file sees and can print out on their computer. Consequently, PDFs are particularly useful for sending resumes, cover letters, and other business documents where layout and presentation is critica. Writers want all of the effort they put into formatting professional-looking documents to be maintained.

PDFs are typically viewed using Adobe Reader (which is free to download). However, Adobe Reader will not produce PDFs. As you will soon be submitting drafts of cover letters, resumes, and other documents in PDF format, make sure that you can successfully generate a PDF using one of the following means:

• Adobe Acrobat Professional, Standard, or Elements are three versions of Adobe's productivity program for producing PDF files. These programs are not free and do not generally come installed when purchasing a computer. However, some public computer labs (i.e., most of Purdue University's main campus labs) may have Acrobat Professional installed. When Acrobat Professional is available, from your word processor or browser (or any screen that can be printed), select File -> Print. On a PC, you will be able to select, under Printer Name, "Adobe PDF" instead of sending your file to a printer. (See the figure below.) On a Mac, you will see a button "Save as PDF" on the print dialog box. In both cases, you will be asked where you want the created PDF to be stored.

  

• Adobe offers a free PDF trial service online. However, you may need to produce PDF's more than allowed by the free trial.
• CutePDF is a free application which you can download and install on your home computer.
• Google Docs: You can use these free applications (word processor, spreadsheet, and more) for collaboration and, conveniently, to export a document file to PDF format. (Upload your Word document, for example, then export it as PDF later.)
• OpenOffice is a free, full-featured, open source office productivity suite comparable to Microsoft Office that has PDF generation built in. From within OpenOffice, choose File->Export as pdf

Eliciting Good Response

Imagine the following scenario:

You have a great idea for a project for your department at work. Because it will require significant resources and funding, the senior manager in your department has asked you to prepare a ten-page proposal.

After working on the proposal for a while, the senior manager sends you an email requesting to see your draft in progress. The proposal is far from complete, but you fire off a reply saying "Here is my working draft," and attach it. The next day, you receive another email from the senior manager full of feedback which you are obligated to take. However, the feedback asks you to revise your proposal in new directions, quite contrary to what you had planned, effectively taking over the direction of the proposal. You now have to discard many good ideas you had for development. Those sections where you knew you needed the most help--they were not addressed at all.

This happens all the time in getting response to our writing. We get proofreading corrections when we need ideas; we get heavy revision suggestions when the draft needs to be proofread to meet a deadline.

To elicit useful and focused responses from readers (during peer review, for example), we must solicit good response. In the above scenario, if the writer had explained to the senior manager where she needed help in the draft and what her plans were for further development, it's quite possible that the feedback would have been more focused and helpful. So when asking for feedback on a document, explain to the responder

• your concerns about the current state of the draft (i.e., where, specifically, you need help)
• where you are in the process of drafting (i.e., ready to polish to meet a deadline, planning to do more revision)
• your target audience
• any plans you might have for further development of the text

Once you've defined your needs, your reviewer is more likely to shape their feedback effectively for you. As a reviewer, it's much easier to address the writer's concerns than to try to guess what might or might not be useful to the writer.

Five Steps of Storyboarding

1. Find or create a storyboard template that you can use to draft your outline, like the one attached to this post..
2. Each frame of your storyboard should represent a unique page, a step in a sequence, or some other individual component of your work (such as a PowerPoint or Keynote slide, a keyframe in Flash, or a Web page).
3. In each frame, identify your content. Use shorthand to describe the content (including images and audio) that you want to include and approximately where it should be placed, as in the example below.
4. Add notes to each frame in your storyboard on design, source files, material, and anything else that will help you remember what each frame should contain and how it should be presented.
5. When you have completed a rough draft of your storyboard, read back through it to see whether it has an order that makes sense and includes the multimedia you want to use. Move frames around as necessary.

How to Post Comments and Replies

Posting comments, as you will soon see, is easier than creating and sending an email.

1. You must be logged in to the site in order to post comments.
2. While you can click on the add new comment link on any post from the course home page, instead, first click on the title to access the full post and all comments. Always make sure you view the full post first. There may already be a comment conversation thread begun about what you are interested in discussing. Rather than starting a new thread, join in the existing one.
3. Choose add new comment to reply directly to the main blog post and start a new thread or reply to respond to an individual comment.

   If you don't see an add new comment link, you are most likely not logged in.

4. Enter a title for your post in the Subject field. Your title should describe the content of your post. If you do not enter a title, the system will automatically use the first few words of your comment post.
5. Enter the text of your comment in the Comment field. You may use plain text or some HTML. Some people may have the "enable rich text" link visible. If you use that feature, Drupal will give you a set of buttons much like a word processor's to help you input your message. Be careful to review your input, however, since this feature will do some strange things with your text on occasion.
6. Remember that comments must be minimally 100 words long.
7. Click on "input format" to learn about your formatting options. Drupal will use a filter to convert line breaks and URLs when you select "Filtered HTML." If you want to format your posts nicely, include images, or insert more sophisticated HTML, then choose "Full HTML." Generally speaking, leave the Input format on Filtered HTML unless you have used HTML tags other than those allowed.
8. Select Preview comment at the bottom of the page.
9. Always review what you have written in preview mode. You will not be able to edit your comment once you have posted it.
10. If you are ready to submit your comment, select Post comment at the bottom of the page. Don't forget this step! The most common way people lose posts is by forgetting to submit after previewing their comments or blog entries. If you have made changes to a post, preview it again.
11. Verify that your comment has been posted. It should be visible on the page. If something went wrong, try using your back button to get to the input screen. Review and resubmit if it's still there.

Note: You can use the Comment viewing options to change the way that comments are displayed on the page. Experiment with this feature and see which configuration works best for you.

How to Post to Your Individual Weblog

Posting to your individual weblog is a little more complex than posting a comment, but after a couple of times, you'll find it as easy as email.

1. You must be logged in to post to your weblog.
2. From any page on the site, choose the create content link in the main navigation block on the left hand side. That will bring you to the create content page. [You can also click on the blogs link and then the "my blog" sublink.

   

3. The first time you visit the create content page, read the descriptions under personal blog entry and story.
4. To post to your individual weblog, choose blog entry. This will bring you to the Submit blog entry page.

   

5. Review the Project Checklist in The Thomson Handbook on "Networking in Online Forums" (p. 627) to refresh your memory on posting successful weblog messages. (All of Chapter 28 would be a good review at this stage.)
6. Enter a good Title for your post.
7. Choose a Category tag for your post from the drop-down box.
8. Enter the text of your post in the Body field. You may use plain text or HTML in creating this post.
9. Leave the Input format on Filtered HTML unless you have used HTML tags other than those allowed.
10. Under URL path settings, you can give your post a short and unique URL alias. For example, you might want to use "team3projectlog" to identify your team's project log. If you use that URL, the full path would be something like http://digitalparlor.org/up07/420Y/team3projectlog.
11. Optional: If you need to attach a file,
    • Click on the File attachments link.
    • Use the Browse button to locate the file on your hard drive.
    • One you have located the file, click the Attach button.
    • A bar will show the progress of the upload. You should then see your attachment listed.
12. Choose Preview.
13. Review your post. If you make any changes, preview it again.
14. When ready, select Submit to post.

Notes:

• The system will not offer you a Submit button if you do not give your post a title.
• Choose story on the create content page to post to the course home page. The rest of the procedure is the same as for creating a personal blog entry.

Learning to Navigate the Site

For the first day of class, you'll want to explore some of the features of the site. This document gives an overview of a few features you might want to take a look at that will help you to navigate the site.

Navigation

In the header visible at the top of every page, you'll find one row of links:

• The first four take you to important sections of the course guide.
• The others take you to useful resource sites at Purdue.

Once you've logged in to the site, directly beneath the header on the left, you'll find the main navigation block, accessible from every page:

The navigation block is your gateway to many areas of the site useful for creating and viewing content and managing your work. For example,

• blogs
  Lists all the blogs on the site and includes a direct link to your blog in its submenu.
• create content
  From here you can post to your individual weblog or the front page (see How to Post to Your Individual Weblog).
• image galleries
  These are useful for uploading screenshots and other images that groups need to review and discuss.
• members
  Need to find out someone's email address? Use the members list. You can also click on any username to access the personal account page. Only registered users have access to the private portion of account pages.
• my subscriptions
  Our site allows you to "subscribe" to blog posts and other content so that you can keep tabs on follow-up responses. You can set your default subscription settings in my account > edit.
• recent posts
  This display allows you to access all of the recent content posted by everyone. Note how it provides red astericks to denote pages you have yet to read and notices of new unread comments.
• search
  Search the content of blog posts, stories, book pages, and galleries; also search for users by name or username
• my account
  Links to your profile information, site settings, and more. Adjust your account profile here.
• log out
  Use this to log out of the website, which is recommended after each session.

Book Navigation

All of our course materials on the site are integrated into the course guide:

The course guide is a hypertext with many levels of pages.

• You can use the book navigation links that show previous and next pages below the main text or use the breadcrumb navigation at the top.
• Use the printer-friendly version link beneath any page to get a text-only version of that page and all of its subpages collated into one. For example, if you go to the top page of the guide and click on printer-friendly version, you will see the entire course guide, including the calendar, on one screen (a very long one).

Principles for Comments and Replies

Because there will be no face-to-face meetings in this class, posting comments and replies to the reading responses and drafts of others will be the primary means of class interaction and discussion. Each time there is a reading response, the instructor will promote at least two blog posts to the front page of the course website. There, everyone will respond to and discuss the readings, drafts, or other work posted to our course website. The course description explains the purpose of this coursework:

You are required to post five (5) comments and replies (e.g., follow-up responses) each week to the blog posts (reading and other responses posted by others) appearing on our course's front page. Each should be, at minimum, 100 words each.

All comments and replies to another's blog post should follow effective rhetorical strategies for networking with others on the Web. (Readings from the course text provide guidelines to follow.)

• Keep threads alive and relevant.
• Follow-up comments with further discussion.
• Think of your comments and replies as part of a lively class discussion in which everyone participates.

Our activity online substitutes for in-person discussion in interesting (and sometimes deeper) ways. Of course, you are always welcome, and encouraged, to post beyond thsese minimum requirements. The course calendar includes reminders about meeting this ongoing obligation for participating in class discussion.

When commenting and replying to blog posts on the course's front page, you are required to

• Read through the posts on the course home page referred to by the assignment.
• Before using the comment and reply features for the first time, you might want to consider reviewing How to Post Comments and Replies .
• Strive to be thoughtful and analytical in your comments.
• Try to find something new to say instead of saying what has already been said in the original post and in other comments already posted.
• Feel free to share personal experiences which shape your views on the topic discussed.

You should also

• Provide links to additional resources on the web which would better inform the discussion. You should always link to any other texts on the Web you mention, even those on the course website.
• Contend with and/or support the original blog post. If you are criticizing what the blogger has said, remember to do so respectfully, which encourages further dialogue. "This sucks" would not be an appropriate response. Neither would "That's great!" if you don't explain what you mean.
• Direct attention to related and relevant issues. You may find that none of the posts on the class website about a particular set of readings confront what you feel is an important issue on the assigned texts. As long as it is related to the general topic of the readings or the topic of this class, feel free to post a comment which turns the conversation in a new direction (use the subject line to clearly specify this new direction).
• Use emoticons and acronyms to convey additional information (such as tone and intonation) where appropriate.
• Review Chapter 28, "Networking with Others on the Web" in The Thomson Handbook (p. 621)

For those of you wishing to do more than the minimum requirements of the course, you might visit the class website additional times per week and post new comments and/or replies to any of the blog posts.

Principles for Posting to Your Weblog

You'll do a lot of the writing for this class in your individual weblog space on the course website. You can access your weblog via your my account page.

One way to think of a weblog or blog is as a journal. However, unlike a journal that you might keep at home (as well as most if not all of the writing you have done in school before), your blog space is public. Your fellow class members will be invited to read your blog. Classmates will respond to your posts with comments and replies. Group members will review notes you take when doing research. And, of course, since it's on the Internet, other Web readers may encounter your writing and take a look at what you have to say.

In addition to the individual weblog space that everyone has, the home page of our course website is a community blog space where anyone can post. While most of your blog writing will be posted to your individual weblog, we'll use the home page as a place to promote discussion among all class members. For example,

• When there is a reading response assignment, your instructors may promote someone's post to the front page for community discussion.
• Groups may be asked to lead discussion by posting their reading responses or blog posts to the course home page instead of to their individual weblogs.
• Groups may be asked to share proposals and progress reports with the entire class during Project 2 or 3.

Good Blogging Practices

• Titles for blog posts should reflect the context of what you have written, not merely restate the name of the title of the assignment or reading. Interesting and informative titles draw more interesting responses from others.
• Blogs should demonstrate the principles of writing for the Web as they are covered in this course.
• Bloggers link. Use hyperlinks when referring to another post on the public Internet and follow good attribution practices. Hyperlinks mean converting text to a link, not merely cutting and pasting in an URL. To do so, you'll have to know a little HTML for creating hyperlinks.
• People visiting the course website from the Internet won't know what you mean if you just mention "the reading assignment for today." Since PW Online is password protected, others on the Internet cannot access it. Treat it like a printed text. At minimum, you should mention the name of the text and the title of the chapter or section you are referencing.
• Good bloggers always keep in mind that they are writing for a public audience.

To Learn More

• To receive credit for your work, be sure to follow the course requirements for reading responses and project logs.
• Read Chapter 28, "Networking with Others on the Web" in The Thomson Handbook (p. 621)
• Optional: Read Meg Hourihan's What We're Doing When We Blog for a brief description of weblogs. For further reading on weblogs, take a look at The Weblog Webliography on Kairosnews.

Principles of Reading Responses

Each week, you will be responsible for creating a reading response. Each reading response should be specifically focused on the reading and the prompt provided on the calendar, clearly indicate that you have read and thought seriously about the reading, and be sufficiently developed. Reading responses should be 300 words or longer. Post your reading response as a blog entry and tag it with the corresponding week under "Reading response."

Sometimes, you and each of your group members will be assigned to post your reading response to the course home page by submitting a story. The posts on the course home page will then be the focus of full class discussion. Selected reading responses will also be promoted to the front page for more lively community discussion.

In composing your reading response you should:

• Be sure to focus your response on the subject of the prompt.
• Link your response to recent class discussions online, your current project work, something you might have read elsewhere, and/or previous professional, academic, or personal experience writing and communicating in other contexts.
• Discuss how the reading contributes to your understanding of the current project, expands your understanding of recent discussions, or suggests ideas for your work in the class.
• Be sure to properly cite the original reading and any other sources you might mention. Good citation practice is critical in all writing and especially so on the Web.
• You can apply the rhetorical considerations discussed in Principles for Posting to Your Weblog to your reading responses.
• When it is your group's turn to post reading responses to the course home page, consider that the goal of these blog posts is to share new information and stimulate discussion. If your group is reponsible for posting about an assignment, check to see if anyone has already posted a response on the reading. If so, read through it. Shape your blog post to take the conversation in different directions.

Project Log Guidelines

Purpose

Because you will have a weekly record at the end of the project, your project log will help you to complete the Peer Collaboration Evaluation Form due at the end of each project. Project logs also provide evidence of each group member's contribution to the project. And detailed project logs lend more credibility to your evaluation of others in your Peer Collaboration Evaluation Form.

After college, you may find keeping a project log useful in your professional career:

• In the busy life of a professional, it can often be difficult to remember all aspects of a project when compiling monthly or quarterly progress reports.
• Consultants can use project logs to provide supporting evidence of work done on a project in preparing invoices or in case a client questions billable hours.
• Once a project is completed, a project log can be useful as a record for planning similar, future projects that will be completed by others.

Requirements

Post a short report to your weblog covering all of the following:

• Use informative titles (e.g., Project Log for Week 5: Project 2 Takes Shape)
• Tag your post with "Project Log"
• Report on the status of the project: Is it in early drafting? Is it production ready? Is your group conducting research? Etc.
• Record your contributions to the project that week.
• Record the contributions of others in your group.
• Record the time and date of group meetings and communication and describe briefly what was accomplished. Did the group have a large email discussion? Did you IM with another group member? Etc.
• Report on any scheduled plans for completing specific tasks in the project. What group members have taken on which specific tasks? What are the prospective deadlines?
• Plan out ideas for completing the project, including ways to collaborate and communicate more effectively with your group.
• Reflect on any lessons you have learned about collaboration and electronic communication.

Remember. Your project logs are public and can be read by other group members. Be diplomatic. Do not write about what other group members failed to do or negatively evaluate their participation. Simply record what others have agreed to do and the tasks which they have completed. You will have ample opportunity to assess the work of others at the end of the project.

You can of course post more than once a week.

Questions about Assignments (Ask Them!)

At some point in the semester, almost everyone is likely to have some questions and concerns about how to complete an assignment. In a normal face-to-face class, these questions might be answered in regular class discussion.

Because this is an online class, each week, one of the instructors will blog about the following week's assignments, inviting open discussion. If you have any questions or concerns, check out the FAQ course home page. If your questions and concerns are not answered there, post them as comments.

Know that all class members are encouraged to respond to questions--not just the teachers--so that we can discuss the assignments. If you can help clarify or answer any concerns of your classmates, please do so. Plus, participating in these discussions is one way to demonstrate more effort than just the minimum requirements of the class.

While some of you might think, "I'd rather just email the teacher directly," sharing your concerns on the class website can benefit everyone. The question you ask might help someone later, someone who hasn't thought about the assignment in the way that you have. Yet, they still might arrive at the same question later on. They need only read through the blog and comments to find the question that you already posted, as well as an answer.

If you feel you need a more immediate response, still post your question or concerns, then email your instructor, who will be sure to respond to your email by replying to your comment ASAP.

If you have something personal to discuss, something not to be shared with the rest of the class, you are, of course, welcome to email your instructor privately.

Employment Project

During the Employment Project, you will learn strategies for seeking and securing employment or an internship, with particular attention to the documents people normally use to represent themselves and their prospects to potential employers. This project asks you to work individually, but there will also be chances for you to work with your peers to exchange ideas and feedback in your blogs.

project prompt and summary

Locate a real and specific job or internship for which you are qualified and prepare the application materials for it. If you already have a good job, find one that would be an advance for you, then prepare application materials for that position. Step 1 of the project asks you to learn about and use various web-based resources for job seekers and ultimately to select one real job to pursue. Step 2 asks you to prepare the all-important cover letter (i.e., "Job Application Letter"). Step 3 asks you to prepare a print resume suitable for such a position. In Step 4, you will assess your experience in a "Project Assessment Document." In the process of completing each step, you will work closely with your peers and your instructor to shape your writing so that it represents you and your experience fully and effectively.

project goals

This project emphasizes several important goals that all professional writers should bear in mind and that are consistent with those of the Professional Writing Program at Purdue. In the Employment Project, you will learn to shape your writing for very specific situations and purposes:

Writing in Context
Analyze professional cultures, social contexts, and audiences to determine how they shape the various purposes and forms of workplace writing, such as persuasion, organizational communication, and public discourse, with an emphasis on

• writing for general audiences and decision makers

Writing Process
Develop and understand various strategies for planning, researching, drafting, revising, and editing documents that respond effectively and ethically to professional situations and audiences.

Research
Understand and use various research methods to produce professional documents

• analyzing professional contexts
• assessing and using information resources

Document Design
Learning the generic conventions of the design of workplace documents including

• understanding and implementing various principles of format and layout
• interpreting and arguing with visual information.

deliverables

Step 1: Skills Inventory, Job Ad Analysis. Start this step by completing the Job Search Activity 12-1 (p. 221) in The Thomson Handbook. In a blog post, respond to each of the questions with a few sentences, or a list. Then, using the resources listed on page 222 of The Thomson Handbook ("Using Print, Campus and Internet Resources") and the course calendar, find a job ad and copy and paste it (or provide the link) in a blog post. In the same blog entry, write a one-paragraph description of the position in your own words (see the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p. 223-224), and a two-paragraph discussion of why you have chosen this position and why you believe you are qualified for it. Be sure to match your specific skills and experience with kew words from the job ad. Your skills inventory, job announcement, and job ad analysis should be posted to your blog by Friday, June 15, by midnight EST. See the Calendar for Week 2 for additional details.

Step 2: Print-Based Resume. Your printable resume (one page in length) should adapt features drawn from the samples presented online or available for review at the Online Writing Lab. It's critical that you shape your resume to the specific job or internship you have chosen to apply for (that it's suited to the context), so be sure to include only the relevant aspects of your professional experience. Your writing needs to be error-free, concise, and presented in an easily readable format. Draft due for peer review: Wednesday, June 20 , by midnight. Your resume draft should be posted to your blog as a PDF attachment to a blog message that explains the nature of the attachment and invites peer feedback. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. You should also review the principles, guidelines, and resume samples in The Thomson Handbook (Chapter 12, pages 226-232). Pay special attention to the Project Checklist "Evaluating Your Resume's Content" and "Evaluating Your Resume's Design" on pages 228-229. Ask yourself these questions as you prepare your final draft.

Step 3: Job Application Letter. The job application letter is critical to your efforts to secure a job, perhaps as critical as your resume itself. For Project 1, your letter should be no longer than one or two pages (one is preferable in most cases), following the suggestions and models discussed during class. You should submit the draft of your application letter to your blog for peer review by midnight on Monday, June 25. Your letter should be attached to a blog post that includes a cover note that follows guidelines for Eliciting Good Response and the PDF version of the letter. (Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process.) Review the sample in The Thomson Handbook, p 225. Your letter should be context-specific and should contain the required five parts (heading, greeting, opening, persuasion, closing) in the format shown.

Step 4: Project Assessment Document: As you near the end of your work on the Employment Project, prepare a two-page overview and analysis of your deliverables and the process you used to complete them. Your Project Assessment Document should answer most of the following questions, each of which is tied to the major goals of the assignment:

Writing in Context
How did the particular job you applied for affect how you wrote your letter? Did it change or affect how you presented yourself? How did applying for this position help you understand aspects of your experience you might need to develop more?

Process
What was the most challenging document to produce and why? Briefly describe and explain one of the significant revisions you made to this document after your initial draft.

Research
Which research resource proved to be the most beneficial for you? The least? Explain.

Collaboration
What was one way that peer feedback helped you improve your work? How did responding to the work of others help you improve your own work?

Project Management
How well did you plan your work on this project? What might you have done differently?

Document Design
What is the most effective aspect of your deliverables in terms of presentation or design? Have you deliberately adapted a standard form in an unusual or creative way? If so, why?

Your Project Assessment Document is due when you turn in your completed Employment Project on Thursday, June 28, by midnight. Your final submission will include the following items, in a single PDF file, in this order:

1. Job ad that you have replied to (Step 1)
2. Discussion of job ad (Step 1)
3. Job Application Letter
4. Resume
5. Project Assessment Document.

Attach this file to a blog post with the subject "Employment Project Final" and include brief submission notes explaining the nature of the attachment. The file should be in PDF format, and the file name should follow this naming convention:: lastname-EmploymentProject.pdf. Read these directions for converting your documents to PDF format if you have any questions about the process. Final Employment Project Due Thursday, June 28th.

grading

The Employment Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Skills Inventory and Job Ad Analysis (10%); Step 2: Print Resume (40%); Step 3: Job Application Letter (40%); Step 4: Project Assessment Document (10%).

grading criteria

When grading your project, your instructor will pay particular attention to see whether you have effectively adapted your documents to the job for which you have applied. Your writing will need to be precise, accurate, and well-suited to the context (the job/field) and to the rhetorical occasion (in terms of tone, style, and content). In this case, a generic, catch-all resume and cover letter will not satisfy the requirements of the project. Specifically, the following criteria will apply:

• All documents conform to the design principles established by the genre and course readings.
• Documents are catered to a specific job at a specific company, and reflect how the applicant would correspond with the company goals and environment.
• Resume is well formatted, includes all necessary components, and reflects knowledge of resume conventions.
• Resume job descriptions are concise, specific, catered to job ad keywords, and utilize parallel verbage.
• Cover letter is concise, specific, and professional. Cover letter builds on and adds to the information in the resume, reflecting job ad keywords to present the applicant comprehensively as a desirable addition to the company.
• Documents are professional and error free.
• Documents could function within a professional environment. If you could not send the resume and cover letter to the prospective employer and stand a good chance at getting an interview, the project will not receive an A.

revision

You will have opportunities to revise your work throughout the process and will be permitted to revise once again after receiving your grade on the project, subject to these restrictions: 1) you make substantial revisions (a few fixes alone are not enough to raise a grade); 2) you turn in your revised project within one week of the date that it was returned to you with a grade; 3) you include submission notes that specify precisely what you did to improve your work.

Corporate Communication Project

The Corporate Communication Project asks students to examine and respond to a real world corporate crisis—the grounding of several JetBlue airplanes due to ice storms in February 2007. After analyzing the situation through several texts, students will write a press release and business letter from the company that addresses the crisis.

project prompt and summary

Students will read articles about JetBlue's crisis and visit the page of The JetBlue Customer Bill of Rights, JetBlue's official response. After reading and analyzing this material, students will write a press release to the general public and a letter to JetBlue customers. After completing these documents, students will analyze the official JetBlue communication in comparison to their own rhetorical strategies.

deliverables

Step 1: Press Release. Following the models provided, students will write a press release from JetBlue to the general public addressing the crisis. Students must decide the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategy that will be both commercially and ethically effective. The press release should be between 250-500 words and follow the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course. The rough draft for peer editing is due Monday, July 2.

Step 2: Business Letter. Based on the principles outlined in the Thomson Handbook, students will write a business letter from JetBlue to the customers affected by the crisis. As with the press release, students must decide the tone, content, vocabularly and rhetorical strategy that will be both commercially and ethically effective. The letter will be a single page and follow the conventions of the genre as well as the standards of clarity, conciseness, correctness, audience awareness, and professionalism discussed in the course. The rough draft for peer editing is due Friday, July 6.

Step 3: JetBlue Text Analysis: After completing their own documents, students will analyze JetBlue's official letter to customers (attached below) to determine how its rhetorical strategy compares with their own. Students should first contrast the difference between the two documents and then discuss the different effects that each will have on an audience. Finally, students should determine which documents would be more effective and how they would revise their own work after seeing this document. The Analysis is due along with the final project on Wednesday, July 11.

Instructors' Note: Obviously, because press releases and business letters are provided, the temptation exists to borrow heavily from these documents while writing your own. However, the project requires you to produce an original document as a learning experience, so the instructors will be watching for blatant similarities between the official and student versions of these texts.

grading

The Corporate Communication Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Press Release (30%); Step 2: Business Letter (30%); Step 3: Analysis (40%);

grading criteria

The Corporate Communication Project will be graded based on its rhetorical effectiveness, professionalism, and ethical consideration. The instructor will grade based on the following criteria:

• The project responds appropriately to its various audiences.
• The project demonstrates awareness of the specific context and addresses it appropriately.
• The project follows the principles of professional, clear, correct, concise writing as elaborated in the course.
• The project follows genre and length conventions.
• The project shows a careful consideration of the professional ethical implications of their writing.
• The analysis provides insightful examination of the differences between documents, using specifics to discuss the rheorical and ethical effectiveness of each.
• The project is ready to function in the appropriate professional environment.

revision

You will have opportunities to revise your work throughout the process and will be permitted to revise once again after receiving your grade on the project, subject to these restrictions: 1) Your revision should be substantial (a few fixes alone are not enough to raise a grade); 2) you turn in your completed revision within one week of the date it was returned to you with a grade; 3) you include submission notes that specify precisely what you did to improve your work.

Service Learning Project

During the Service Learning Project, students will learn how to work collaboratively to produce a professional project for a real world client. Groups of 3-5 students will produce specific documents for a local non-profit organization determined by the instructor. While producing these documents, students will demonstrate their understanding of audience awareness, research, documentation, ethos, professionalism, conciseness, document design.

project prompt and summary

The instructor will form student groups and assign each group professional documents based on the demands of a specific non-profit agency. Based on an analysis of the non-profit agency, an understanding of their specific requirements, and comprehension of the course principles, the groups will research and produce the necessary documents. Because each group will be producing the same documents as the other groups in its section, clients will vote at the end of the project to select the documents they will use. This means that there is a competitive element to this project.

deliverables

Step 1: Group Gantt Chart. In a thoroughly executed Gantt chart, students should lay out group goals, a time table for the completion of each goal, and the individual responsibilities of each member. Each Gantt chart must include all duties and deliverables necessary for project completion as well as color coding and a key that specifies which group member will complete each duty. There are many resources online to help you produce your chart, including instructions for using Microsoft Excel to make it. Just Google "gantt chart" for more information, and use the samples provided on Week 5 of the calendar. Due Friday, July 13.

Step 2: Group Activity Reports. Groups are also responsible for weekly activity reports (250 words) in order to keep the instructor informed of the progress that the group has made over the week. Activity reports (submitted as professional emails) are due by midnight, each Sunday, starting with week five (week five's report is due Sunday, July 15, and so on) and concluding in week eight. Please always give this email the subject "Group # Activity Report."

Step 3: Weekly Individual Work Blogs. Because the course and the professional world stress the value of documenting work, individual students are required to keep weekly work blogs of the tasks they have completed. These blogs (200 words each) should briefly and professionally describe work completed by the author and how this work contributed to the goals of the group. Work blogs (posted to the "Work blogs" category) are due by midnight, each Friday, starting with week five (week five’s activity report is due Friday, July 13th, week six's is due Friday, July 20, and so on) and concluding in week eight. Please label all work blogs "LASTNAME Work Blog Week #."

Step 4: Group Document Drafts: Because these documents are for a professional client, several drafts are required to ensure quality. Groups will turn in a draft of the project in weeks six and seven, July 18th and 24th. Each draft should demonstrate significant progress towards completion of the project.

Step 5: Group Peer Review: Each group will have their project peer reviewed by members of the other section. Your instructor will partner your group with a group in the other section. Each group member should post a 200 word review comment to that project by midnight of Wednesday, July 25th. For peer review to run smoothly, it is vital that each group posts its draft by midnight of Tuesday, July 24th.

Step 6: Group Final Draft: A final draft of the project is due at the end of the course. The final draft should meet all of the standards specified by the client and be ready for professional use. Final drafts are due Wednesday, August 1st.

Step 7: Individual Assessment: At the end of the project, each student will fill out the Project Assessment Form evaluating the final project and each group member's participation. Project Assessment Forms are due Friday, August 3rd.

grading

The Service Learning Project is worth 20% of your course grade. The group portion of the project is worth 80% of project grade, and the individual portion is worth 20%. The breakdown for each of its components is as follows: Step 1: Group Gantt Chart (5%); Step 2: Group Weekly Activity Reports (10%); Step 3: Individual Work Blogs (10%); Step 4: Group Drafts (10%); Step 5: Group Peer Review (5%); Step 6: Group Final (50%); Step 7: Individual Assessment (10%).

grading criteria

For the service learning project, the client will contribute to the final grading process. The client will select one project for professional use, and that project will be the only project that receives an A. Other projects will receive an A- or less based on the following criteria:

• The project conforms to the demands and needs expressed by the client.
• The project effectively addresses its specific multiple audiences.
• The project follows the principles of professional, clear, correct, concise, writing as elaborated in the course.
• The project demonstrates awareness of design principles discussed in the course.
• The project is ready to function in the appropriate professional environment.

revision

The final course project cannot be revised because of time constraints. However, multiple drafts will ensure that groups get plenty of feedback to improve their projects.