English Department Course Proposal

English 301: Technical Writing

The field of English studies opens a wide range of career opportunities for its graduates.
Although many students entering this field have a passion in reading/studying literature or
creating their own fiction, more in more increasingly students are exploring the world of
business writing. Lorelei A. Ortiz argues that employers are selectively seeking job candidates
who possess both the technical and specialized knowledge required by their profession as well as
the ability to communicate clearly, correctly, and convincingly; this understand, then, offers an
opportunity for our department to expand itself to promote writing studies as a profession (227).
By offering courses such as Technical Writing, will encourage students inside the English
department to explore professional writing and students outside the department to develop skills
that will help them in their own professional pursuits. This proposed course in encouraged to be
thought of as the beginning to a new branch of English studies that hopes to invite students to the
field who may not have thought English and business are connected.
Who: This course will be open to any student who has passed the Common Core courses
(English 101 and 102).
Course Design: A more detailed syllabus and course outline will be attached to this portfolio;
however, this course will offer an in-depth study of how professional writing differs from
academic writing, encouraging students to understand knowledge transfer. Liberty Kohn tells us
that studies have found that the goals of academic writing and workplace writing differ
significantlymainly due to the differences that school and workplace ask of individuals when
constructing knowledge and conveying it to audiences (168). This course will force students to
identify the differences and learn how to transfer appropriately accommodate for professional
writing requirements. Typically, students will engage in academic conversations followed by
professional writing that mimics professional writing (including in-class actives that will create
the feeling of a workplace deadline).
-For further information on the course design please see the annotated Syllabus attached
to this portfolio.

Benefit for the university: By developing professional writing, our university will be able to
send more students to a professional workplace, which will continue to build upon our
universitys reputation. The more prospective students learn about our developments in this
field, the more these potential students will invest in the university that promotes a high success
rate. Kohns article, argues, One may be emotionally, economically, and socially invested in
ones career because of its real world eects or energies, unlike in a college setting, in which the
emotional, economic, and social value of ones writing remains at a distance or unconnected
from the communities which dene the workplace writers burgeoning workplace identity
(172). By developing a community promotes workplace transfer, we will increase the students
awareness of professional development and increase investment in our technical writing courses,
which will begin with this proposed course.
Literature Review: Current Research on the Need for Technical Writing Development
Note: This section will further elaborate on the research mentioned in the course proposal and
offer and understand of the research done in this field to further elaborate on the importance of
this type of course for our students and our university.
Business writing and English writing often differ from the classroom to the professional
application. Scholarship in professional/technical writing is exploring the ways in which
technical writing courses, such as this one, can create an easier transition for the students, and
more, just as importantly, increase the higher-ability of the student body. Liberty Kohn points ou
that education [writing] asks for different forms of constructed knowledge and social relations
between the individual and the social structure. Thus, students who become employees are
caught between varying systems of knowledge construction and socialization of writing practices
when shifting from school to the workplace (168). What we find, then, that the transfer between
educational writing and technical writing does not happen so easily. Lorelei A. Ortiz draws our
attention to The Wall Street Journal that identifies the shortcomings noted by employers and
recruiters of recent MBA graduates (227). In addition to MBA shortcomings, studies find that
students are not coming into the workforce with enough expertise and skill in communication to
be effective in their jobs, despite having the technical knowledge of a specialized degree (Ortiz
227-8). What, then, scholarship shows us is the need to develop transferable skills from the
classroom to the professional world.
Chris Anson and Lee Forsberg identify three stages on transition from the academic world to the
professional world that shows the need for professional writing classes to help students change
domains more effectively. Anson and Forsbergs first stage, expectation argues that the new
employees expect their skills to transfer from one situation to anther easily; however, the second
stage, disorientation argues that the unfamiliarity of professional writing causes the employees
to become frustrated and have to initiate extra work to adjust; this finally brings us to the
transition and resolution which claims that after some time the employee becomes comfortable
in their setting through reflection and intellectual change (208). The field of study, and this
intended course, is attempting to bring about the transition stage much quicker so to allow for
students to enter the workforce with a higher level of self-confidence.
Pedagogy fields seem in agreement that technical writing courses should allow students to focus
on entering a discourse community that mimics that of the professional world where the stakes
are the projects and not the grades given to the students. Developing technical writing courses
will offer what Kohn argues as epistemic in the way that the course will allow students to
experience a reader-oriented, focused on reader affect [classroom]because workplace writing
is used indefinitely, and collaborative, because the reader and writer both have a stake in the
writing (168-9). Not only do these courses offer the ability for students to enter a workplace
type where they become invested in their project and focus on the outcome rather than the
evaluation; Kohn draws from Beauforts argument that [i]n contrast to writing in the
workplace, writing for school is generally for evaluative purposesIn the workplace, projects
grow and develop, keeping interest and response high (172).
 Works Cited
Anson, CM, and LL Forsberg. "Moving Beyond the Academic Community - Transitional Stages
In Professional Writing." Written Communication 7.2 (n.d.): 200-231. Social Sciences
Citation Index. Web. 9 Feb. 2017.
Kohn, Liberty. "How Professional Writing Pedagogy And UniversityWorkplace Partnerships
Can Shape The Mentoring Of Workplace Writing." Journal of Technical Writing &
Communication 45.2 (2015): 166-188. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web.
31 Jan. 2017.
Ortiz, Lorelei A. "A Heuristic Tool For Teaching Business Writing: Self-Assessment, Knowledge
Transfer, And Writing Exercises." Business Communication Quarterly 76.2 (2013): 226-
238. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 31 Jan. 2017.