English 103 is a technical and report writing course that, in the words of the course catalog, "[i]ntroduces the various types of writing and communication used in business and technology." To pursue this goal, we'll focus on the process of producing successful technical communication and on using technology tools to produce written documents.

Technical writing is specialized writing in at least two ways. First, technical writing is writing about technical subjects. As such, technical writing helps accomodate technology to users of technology. For instance, a well-written software manual makes it easier to understand and use the software. Second, this suggests that technical communication serves a very practical purpose and is directed at specific audiences. Technical documents are meant to be used by someone to do something or to help someone make a decision. (The adjective "technical" is derived from the Greek word techne, which means practical or productive knowledge. Aristotle identified carpentry, medicine, and navigation as examples of techne because they involved reasoned production or knowledge in the service of practice.) Consequently, technical communication relies upon identifying and analyzing both the purpose and use of something, and the target audience.

Finally, businesses increasingly use collaborative, team-based, and internet-enabled approaches to project work. We, too, will use these approaches. The fact that this is an online class provides us with a good opportunity to investigate the way professionals collaborate in electronic environments. Likewise, in this online class you will gain experience with some of the technology tools used by professional writers.

This particular section of English 103 at Harper is an online, or internet-based, section. In practice, this means that Internet technology will be the primary delivery vehicle for the content of the course, instead of, say, lecture and discussion in a classroom. This means that students will complete their classwork by using computer and internet technologies, such as word processors, e-mail, e-mail file attachments, discussion forums, chat applications, and so on. More abstractly, it means that Internet technology will mediate the work of the class: the technology will enable your work, but it will also affect it in significant ways.

Yet--and in regards to student success this is very important for students in this course to understand--this is not a self-paced, correspondence course. While all writing is in many ways an independent activity, it is just as much a collaborative, social, rhetorical activity, especially in professional contexts. So, for instance, students will be asked regularly to contribute substantively to asynchronous (that is, not in real time) discussion conferences about assignment topics; to participate thoughtfully in small- and large-group chat sessions (real-time conversation), and to respond collaboratively to classmates' drafts of essays. If this sounds a lot like the instructional method of an academic class, you're right, because it is. The goals and objectives of academic instruction are desirable and practical; neither technology nor the goals of professional writing instruction give us no reason to abandon them.

Please keep in mind, though, that English 103 Online is not a computer course. We must not let the technology co-opt the course. In other words, the goal is to use the technology to make learning more flexible, not to make learning the technology the focus of the course. Of course, many students will need to spend a little time getting used to those technologies. But everyone should all be aware that no technology, not even pencil and paper, is without limitations. Information technology is no different; and it often creates problems seemingly out of thin air.

So, please expect to be frustrated with and by the technology at one time or another. And more importantly, please never be afraid to ask for help with technology-related problems as well as with writing-related problems.