Harper Technical Writing
Course Goals
There are five basic writing goals for this course, which are listed below in no particular order:
  • Write documents that exhibit the conventions, style, and format of technical documents.
  • Write documents that achieve a particular, identifiable purpose.
  • Write documents intended for a particular, identifiable audience.
  • Write documents that accommodate technology to users of technology.
  • Write documents that exhibit appropriate grammar and usage.

Additionally, there are several other goals that we will pursue, again in no particular order:

  • Gain an awareness of the social and ethical aspects of technical communication.
  • Investigate the rhetorical nature of technical communication.
  • Gain an awareness of the impact of information technology on business communication.
  • Work collaboratively.

In sum, the goals of this class are both practical and academic. In other words, our goals deal as much with specific writing skills as they do with conceptualizing the nature and practice of business communication.

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