Analyzing Writing Practices: researching and selecting documents

Doing research for documents.

• Web search strategies
• Library research strategies

Technology Checklist due in printed form by the end of class.

Continue researching documents; email the instructor with the two documents you've selected by Friday.

• Read Types of Arguments
• Read Introduction to the Toulmin Method (web version or printer-friendly version)

Analyzing Writing Practices: Analyzing Arguments

Using the Toulmin method to analyze arguments.

Small group activity to practice using the Toulmin method.

• Group 1 article
• Group 2 article
• Group 3 article
• Group 4 article

Finish Toulmin Activity (if you didn't finish it in class).

• Read Analyzing Workplace Writing Situations

E-mail the instructor a description of the two documents you've selected for the project with a brief rationale.

Labor Day: No Class

Analyzing Writing Practices: Constructing your analysis

What's your argument? Constructing the analysis for your memo.

In-class activities

• Interactive Document Worksheet for the AWP memo (whole class activity)
• Summing up the main ideas of your paper (pair activity)
• Writing an outline for your memo (individual activity).
  Resource: creating outlines in Word 2001

E-mail me a copy of your memo outline by the end of class.

Interactive Document Worksheet for your two documents due by the end of class.

Peer review of memo: Higher Order Concerns

In-class activities:

• Review using comments and highlighting in Word.
• Using peer review questions: higher order concerns, review a partner's memo using comments and highlighting.
• E-mail a copy of the reviewed memo to your review partner and to the instructor.

• Continue working on memo.
• Send a copy of your peer-reviewed memo to your partner and to the instructor.

Peer review of memo: Lower Order Concerns

In-class activities:

• Using peer review questions: lower order concerns, review a partner's memo using comments, highlighting, and track changes.
• Instructor conferences with students (~5 min).

• Continue working on memo.
• Send a copy of your peer-reviewed memo to your partner and to the instructor.

Analyzing Writing Practices: Final draft of memo due

Introduce Revising Professional Document project

Introduction to wwwthreads

• registering a username
• accessing course message board
• posting a test message

Choose the document that you will revise for the project.

Post a message to the course message board telling the class what document you'll be revising.

Read Types of Revising and Editing

Read Understanding Readers

Bring a copy of your document to class.

Revising Professional Documents: Revision Plan

• Determining the readers of your document and making a plan to revise for your readers
• Determining content revisions: Using ISIS to analyze your text for higher and lower order concerns

In class activities:

• identifying readers activity
• structure-information-style activity

Revising Professional Document

• Organization and Structure: cueing your reader

In class activity:

• organization and structure activity

Revision memo due.

Read Style, Audience, and the Arrangement of Information

Read Style and Editing

Post a two-sentence summary of the article to the class message board and answer the discussion question posted there.

Revising Professional Document

• Sentence structure and document purpose

In class activity:

• editing activity

Read Thinking About Document Design

Revising Professional Document: Layout

• Page and document layout
• Graphics and visuals

Discuss Design of Public Information Exercise

• Group 1
• Group 2
• Group 3
• Group 4
• Group 5

In-class activity: Make this document annoying

Read Talking Heads

Answer discussion question on the class message board.

Revising Professional Document: Layout

• Headings, fonts, and formatting
• Time to work on document revision drafts in class.

NO CLASS: October Break

Document Revision Draft Due.

Revising Professional Document: Peer review

In-class activity: peer review (higher order concerns)

Document Revision Draft Due.

Documentation project

Introduce Midterm Progress Report

Introduce documentation project.

In-class: work on midterm progress report, brainstorm documentation ideas

Final draft of Revising Professional Documents project due.

Work on Midterm Progress Report

Propose a documentation idea on the class message board.

• Read understanding tutorials
• Read types of tutorials
• Read tutorial analysis

Documentation Project

• what is documentation?
• documentation activity
• getting ready to form project teams

Midterm Progress Report due

Vote on documentation ideas using the documentation poll by class time on Friday.

• Read Collaborative Work/Team Writing
• Read Selecting a Team Work Structure
• Read Drafting and Revising Large Scale Projects
• Read Troubleshooting Team Problems

Documentation Project: User analysis

• Introduce preliminary analysis component
• Researching your users: conducting preliminary user analysis
• Researching your users: questionnaires

• Group work: user analysis grid
• Group work: write a short user questionnaire

• Finish questionnaire (if your group didn't finish it already)
• Work on drafting your preliminary analysis memo.

Documentation project: user analysis

• Group work: questionnaire administration (give your questionnaire to another group in the class)
• Questionnaire analysis

Work on drafting your preliminary analysis memo.

• Read about the task list

Documentation Project: Project plan

• project plan guidelines
• choosing a format for documentation: print or web?
• In class activity: researching documentation and design criteria
• In class activity: work on your project plan

Preliminary analysis memo due

Research related documentation to your project; post a link to documentation that you want to evaluate to the class message board.

Read Designing Online Documents

Read Designing and Writing Instructions

Documentation Project: Project plan

• In class activity: evaluating the design of online documentation
• In class activity: Apply the principles from your evaluation to your project plan.

Read Designing With Color

Documentation Project: Drafting documentation

• Go over guidelines for documentation draft.
• Introduction to making web pages.
• Setting up a directory structure.
• Creating a navigation structure for your tutorial.

Project plan memo due

Work on drafting your documentation.

Read Constructing Visuals

Documentation Project: Drafting documentation

• Go over principles for Designing and Writing Instructions
• Ways of illustrating documentation: illustrations and screenshots
• Taking screenshots
• Editing screenshots in Fireworks or Photoshop.
• Inserting screenshots into web pages using Dreamweaver.

Work on drafting your documentation.

Take necessary screen shots and/or design visuals.

Documentation Project: User testing

• Go over guidelines for the user testing plan
• What is usability testing?
• Art vs. usability.

Documentation draft due

• Read Usability Basics.
• Read Introduction to Web Accessibility

Documentation Project: user testing

• Usability checks
• Accessibility checks
• In-class activity: apply the following usability checkers to the pork rinds home page and one page of your choice:
  • Bobbycast Accessibility Checker
  • The WAVE
  • Site Viewer
  • WC3 HTML Validator
  • Web Page Backward Compatibility Viewer
• Write up a brief (1-2 page summary) of what you found in your testing and e-mail it as an attachment to the instructor.
• In-class activity: discuss which usability and accessibility checks you're going to be using in your usability testing.

• Read Getting Started With Usability Testing
• Read Why You Only Need to Test With 5 Users

Documentation Project: user testing

• Go over guidelines for usability testing report.
• Schedule usability tests with other groups.
• Schedule lab time for doing usability tests.
• Create user-testing forms.
• In-class: Perform general usability/accessibility testing.

User testing plan due

Make sure you've scheduled usability tests with five users.

Make sure you've started general usability/accessibilty testing.

Work on user-testing report.

Documentation Project: user testing

• In-class: usability testing with users
• In-class: continue working on usability testing

Continue usability testing in all areas and work on user-testing report.

Documentation Project

Independent Work Day: Instructor available by e-mail

Documentation Project: final drafting

User testing report due

• Course evaluations.
• Go over guidelines for final draft and project submission.
• Go over peer collaborative evaluation form.
• Introduce final progress report.

Documentation Project: final drafting

• Work on final draft of documentation (in class or outside of class)

Instructor available for consultation.

All work must be turned in by Wednesday, December 11.