Welcome to English 229--Technical and Professional Writing.  During this term we'll be analyzing the types of writing done in the non-academic workplace, and you'll have opportunities to practice some of this writing.  I've divided the course into four parts that I think will facilitate that analysis and practice:

Part One:  Introductions
Part Two:  Technical and Professional Writing in Context
Part Three:  Genres of Technical and Professional Writing
Part Four:  Projects, Presentations, and the Portfolio

English 229 is unusual for technical writing course.  In most colleges and universities, technical writing is taught primarily as a course for engineering and/or science majors to help them to become more adept as writers in their professions.  Many schools also offer technical writing majors or concentrations in English departments in which students train for the profession of technical writing.  Thus technical writing courses are most often taken by people specializing in a technical field or in technical communications.

Few techies, however, have taken this course since it was first offered in the Winter of 1999. Most of the students have been on their way to the B-school or have been humanities majors.  They have been students who want to be ready to do the writing they'll do when they begin their careers.  These students haven't been techies, but they know that as lawyers, accountants, managers, etc., they'll need to be able to communicate with techies and with many other kinds of readers.

Thus, English 229 is a course for generalists.  That's great, and I've tried to make this course flexible enough so that it will meet the needs of all students, and most student evaluations suggest that it has been successful at this.  If you, however, have had a great deal of experience writing in the "real" world or if you've already taken a business or technical writing course at another school, you might want to check out the assignments and texts to see if this course will be covering material you already know.

Before wrapping up this overview, I need to define the term "technical and professional writing."  Since the students in this class will almost certainly work in a wide array of fields, it makes sense to make this definition as broad as possible.  Perhaps it is best if we define technical and professional writing as the writing primarily done in non-academic, science and technological fields and/or writing done by professionals--doctors, lawyers, accountant, brokers, managers, administrators, real estate agents, customer service representatives, marketers, etc.  If you think about it, there aren't too many people who at sometime in their careers won't fall into one of these categories. Therefore,  I think this course will benefit anyone who will write as part of her/his work.