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SWA 1

Page history last edited by Jared 9 years, 2 months ago

Short Written Assignment 1: Course Application Email

and

Group Work Assignment 1:  Course Wiki-Workspace Design


 

Course Application Email

Due: Wednesday (midnight) Jan 14th 13th 

Recommended Length for email: 1-2 pages, single spaced, professional email format (on page 481 of Anderson)

Submit as an email to me at jaredgrogan@wayne.edu

 

Rationale. Correspondence is the most common form of technical communication. Email can be used for many different purposes, but it is most often used to convey information from one person directly to another. A well-designed and written email is informative and persuasive.

 

Assignment. Imagine that it is the end of the last semester. You’re at the office of your advisor to declare your desire to register for ENG 3050. Upon doing so, you are told that registration for this course is by instructor permission only and that you need to submit a letter of application.

 

Write a one to two page single-spaced email that persuades me to accept you into this course. You may use whatever source material you wish (the syllabus, the college catalogue, professional websites, etc.), but you must at least cover the following topics:

  1. An explanation of the course’s relevance to either your career goals or your academic careers;

  2. A discussion of what you  perceive to be your strengths and weaknesses as writers;

  3. A discussion of what you believe you have to offer the class.

 

Your email should be professional. It should follow the generic features of a business email. Pay attention to the email example on pg. 481 of Anderson.

 

Also focus heavily on proof reading this assignment. Correspondence with typos is likely to limit you in your professional work. I fully expect this email to be error free.

 

Format. Your email should be brief—approximately 1-2 single spaced pages. It should be sent as an email to me from your Wayne State email address.

 

Rubric. SWA #1a will be worth a maximum of 2 percentage points toward your final grade in English 3050. The following rubric will be used to evaluate your email:

 

______Audience and Purpose -- 5

  • The email is written concisely and persuasively for your instructor.

 

______Content and Organization -- 5

  • The email covers all required areas as described above.

  • The email organizes from most important information to least.

 

______ Grammar and Style -- 10

  • Grammar and mechanics are perfect, and style is appropriate to a professional audience.


Course Wiki-Workspace Design

Due: Friday (midnight) Jan 16th

 

Rationale. While correspondence is the most common form of technical communication, collaboration in online environments is increasingly the most common writing space for technical communication. A well-designed and usable workspace on a basic webpage should be established in a way that it can 'grow' as you begin work in this course. 

 

Assignment. We will begin this assignment in class Thursday, with the expectation that it can be completed after class.  Using our Class Roster Page to link to your personal page, design a personal workspace for the course.  The purpose of this is to build a 'presence' in the course that introduces you to your peers, and allows you to create a space to build with your class-mates/team-mates.  The first iteration of this workspace must contain the the following key elements:

 

  1. Post the first two sentences from your email to me, and a link to a new wiki page where the remainder of your email can be found in a readable format.

    1. *NOTE*  this link must have a "unique name" to avoid cross-linking to other student emails.  For example, if everyone creates a page called "my email" on our shared workspace, it will be difficult for others to find their page, thus hindering the 'usability' of our wiki.  If you name your page "Jared's introductory email" there will likely be no confusion (WIKI-ETIQUETTE TIP 1).

  2. Create a Link to Help your readers navigate to our syllabus.

  3. Create Links to the Four main assignments.

  4. Create one Link to our Short Writing Assignments (SWA) and Group Work (GW) page. 

  5. Add an interesting and suitable image somewhere on your page, and cite it.

    1. If you cut and paste the image, replace it with an uploaded file on our wiki. 

      1. do this by first saving an image to your computer,

      2. then upload it as a file to the wiki (in edit mode, click on "images and files" to right of your page, then "upload file")

      3. then, clicking on the select file will embed it wherever your cursor is placed on the page 

  6. Reformat your picture by changing its size 

  7. Add a Heading for "Group Work" and create a link to a new page titled: "{your name}'s Group Work" 

  8. Add a Heading for "Short Writing Assignments" and create a link to a new page titled" "{your name}'s SWAs" 

  9. Upload and paste a picture of yourself above your email.  Format its size.

  10. Change the color and font of your headings 

 

Format. Your page should apply *basic* principles of good website design discussed in our Kramer & Bernhardt reading from week 1— including:

 

  1. seeing the page as a grid
  2. "active" use of white-space
  3. using text structures to guide the reader (including functional links)
  4. proportional fonts and spacing
  5. controlling style features (in this case, font and color) 
  6. use of images and color to enhance your message and readability    

 

 

 

Rubric. SWA #1b will be worth a maximum of 2 percentage points toward your final grade in English 3050. The following rubric will be used to evaluate your webpage:

 

______Audience and Purpose -- 5

  • The wiki-page is functional as an introduction to you, and shows that you've mastered basic wiki-page workspace creation.

 

______Content and Organization -- 5

  • The wiki-page covers all required areas as described above

 

______ Grammar and Design -- 10

  • Grammar and mechanics are perfect, and the design follows the guidelines from the reading and is appropriate to your audience (the class and your instructor).

 

 

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