Overview of Short Assignments

Process for Short Assignments

Description of Short Assignments

Overview of Short Assignments

Throughout the term, you will work on four Short Assignments.  Three of these assignments will ask you to prepare short workplace documents--memos, letters, résumés, and/or self promotion messages--and one assignment will ask you to write a short analytical essay (see below for details).  You have the option to write the Short Assignments either individually or collaboratively (in groups of 2-3 students).

You will be required to write at least a rough draft and a first revision of all these assignments.  Failure to have completed a rough draft or a first revision  by the beginning of the class on the day it is due will lower your In Class Assignment grade by 2/3rds of a grade (from an A- to a B, for example). Failure to bring copies of your assignment for peer review will lower your In Class Assignment grade by 1/3 (from an A- to a B+, for example).
 

Process for Short Assignments

The following is the process I'll ask you to follow for the Short Assignments.  You will

1.   read material from Boiarsky and Soven and/or from the course pack that relates to the assignments;

2. write a rough draft (it does not need to be typed);

3.  bring at least 5 copies--one for me (for my records but not to be graded) and the others for your peers--of the  rough draft to class;

3.  get feedback on your document from a peer review group (or a series of groups) and give feedback to your pees on their writing;

4.  use the feedback from the group(s) and your own analysis to revise the document;

5.  turn this first revision into me for feedback;

6. decide if you want to further revise the document for your portfolio after you receive my feedback on the document.
 

Short Assignment 1--Getting Your Feet Wet

In Chapter One, Boiarsky and Soven provide, to use T.S. Eliot's term, an "objective correlative" for their overview of technical writing by revealing how ineffective writing contributed to the 1992 flooding of Chicago's Loop.  The April 2, 1992, memo written by the Chief Engineer for the Bureau of Bridges, Louis Koncza (Boiarsky and Soven 10), did not persuade John La Plante, the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Transportation to authorize the immediate repair of a leaky tunnel under the Chicago river.  Eleven days later, the leak became a flood, and both Koncza and La Plante lost their jobs.

Re-write Koncza's memo to La Plante so that La Plante would have been more likely to recognize the urgency of the problem of the flooding and approve the immediate repair of the breached tunnel.  As you prepare the memo, use Boiarsky's and Soven's overview of technical writing in Chapter One:  the conventions, legal and ethical responsibilities, and contexts.  Also use the information they provide about the situation and context Koncza and La Plante functioned in as writer and reader.
 

Write an analytical essay of 800-1000 words on one of the following options:

Option 1--According to NASA's Lawrence Mulloy, "there were a whole lot of people [at NASA and at Morton Thiokol, manufacturers of the solid rocket booster] who weren't smart enough to look behind the veil and say, 'Gee, I wonder what that means'" (qtd. in Boiarsky and Soven 398).  We learn from Boiarsky and Soven in Chapter 9 that this "veil"  was a major cause of the Challenger disaster.  Use the documents, background, and analysis provided by Boiarsky and Soven along with Killingsworth's and Gilbertson's essay in the course pack to consider how differences between discourse communities contributed to the existence of "the veil" and the failure of NASA's and Morton Thiokol's engineers and managers to look behind it.  Make sure that you consider the impact of both local and global discourse communities.

Option 2--In Chapter 10, Boiarsky and Soven include an excerpt from "Research Design for Archaeological, Historical, and Bioanthropological Investigations of the African Burial Ground," a report to the General Services Administration (GSA) regarding how it should handle the remains of a burial ground that was discovered at the proposed sight of new federal courthouse in New York.  Soven and Boiarsky also include several responses to the report.  Write an essay that discusses how at least three of these responses reflect the values and concerns of the discourse communities to which the responders belong.  The essay should also consider how the responses reflect the expectations members of these discourse communities have about writing in terms of outcomes, genres, style, tone, format, etc.

As you prepare your essay, consider whether Killingsworth and Gilbertson's "Pragmatic Taxonomy of Discourse Communities" (172-173) is adequate.  In other words, you might argue that some of the responders belong to discourse communities not included in K & G's chart.
 

Choose one of the following:

Option 1--Rewrite the memo from Pete McClain to Wayne Valley (Boiarsky and Soven 90).  Use Boiarsky's discussion of discourse strategies and their analysis of effective correspondence (Chapters 2 and 3) to write a memo that more effectively achieves McClain's purpose(s) and that better serves his reader.

Option 2--After receiving D.G. Hallman's August 3, 1978, memo (Boiarsky and Soven 373), Babcock and Wilson Company Manager of Plant Integration, B.A. Karrasch, failed to take immediate action because, he believed "that it was a routine matter" (qtd. in Boiarsky and Soven 371).  Thus, a set of new procedures that might have prevented the Three Mile Island nuclear accident were not put into effect.  Use the appropriate information form Boiarsky's and Soven's case study of the Three Mile Island incident in Chapter 8 and their discussion of discourse strategies and business correspondence in Chapters 2 and 3 to re-write Hallman's memo so that it would have achieved its purpose and more effectively served its reader.

Option 3--Follow Boiarsky's and Soven's "Chapter Suggestions for Discussion and Writing," number 3 on page 430.

Prepare a résumé and a self promotion letter (cover letter or or application letter) or essay (Thus, you need to do a résumé and one other message).