Austin Community College
Fall 2008 - CLOSED COURSES
Course Descriptions All Courses Classroom Courses Distance Learning Courses
Updated: 07/06/2008 18:00:26
BUSINESS AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
16 Week Session August 25 - December 14
8 Week Session October 20 - December 14
16 Week Session August 25 - December 14
12 Week Session September 22 - December 14
8 Week Session October 20 - December 14
ETWR 1372 Grammar/Style
A study of the principles of an effective professional or technical style, stressing clarity, exactness, and readability. Topics include a review of grammar and punctuation, an introduction to copy editing, and editing and revision skills. Prerequisite: ENGL 1301.
ETWR 1373 Government and Business Correspondence
A course focused on business correspondence delivered through common media (business letters, memos, e-mail, and reports), across organizational hierarchies (work associates at lower, same, and higher organizational levels), and based in typical situations (good news, bad news, policy and schedule changes, information requests, reprimands, rationales, denials, and other tricky business-communication situations). Emphasizes clear, tactful, succinct, direct, well-structured writing that gets the job done. Prerequisite: Basic computer familiarity and typing skills.
ETWR 1374 Graphics for Business, Government and Technical Information
Focusing on graphics commonly required of technical writers, this course begins with rhetorical principles relating to graphic design; challenges students to envision graphics for plain text; introduces software such as Photoshop for editing graphics; including techniques for importing and positioning graphics into desktop publishing software such as FrameMaker and Word; introduces editing existing hardware vector graphics; provides practice creating relatively simple graphics such as geometrical, conceptual, and flowchart-type graphics using applications such as CorelDraw, Illustrator, or AutoCAD; and provides a thorough introduction to scalable vector graphics (SVG). Prerequisite: Strong computer skills.
ETWR 1376 Grant Proposals and Business Plans
A study of two important forms of the proposal: the grant proposal and the new-business plan (also known as business "prospectus"). Students learn how to find grants, analyze their requirements, and then write a successful grant proposal. Students also plan a business startup, do funding and marketing research for it, and then write a business plan promoting the startup to potential investors. Prerequisite: Strong writing and computer skills.
ETWR 1391 Special Topics in English Technical and Business Writing
Topics address recently identified current events, skills, knowledge, and/or attitudes and behaviors pertinent to the technology or occupation and relevant to the professional development of the student, including portfolio development. May be taken a second time for credit when topics vary.
Student Project - Course topic, schedule, and requirements negotiated by individual instructor and student. Students engage in writing projects involving tutorials, user guides, and researched reports covering such areas as special techniques with FrameMaker, Word, Dreamweaver, RoboHelp, Author-IT; entry-level tutorials for mainstream software in demand by area employers; and research topics such as corporate implementation of usability review, inclusion of formal editing in the documentation process, and other such topics.
ENGL 2311 Technical and Business Writing
Principles, techniques, and skills needed to conduct scientific, technical, or business writing. Instruction in the writing of reports, letters, and other exercises applicable to a wide range of disciplines and careers. Emphasis on clarity, conciseness, and accuracy of expression. Research techniques, information design, effective use of graphics, and preparation and presentation of oral reports will be covered. This course does not satisfy the prerequisite requirement for Literature courses. Students planning to take Literature must take ENGL 1302 English Composition II or an equivalent as a prerequisite. Prerequisite: ENGL 1301.
ETWR 2364 Practicum (or Field Experience) -- English Technical and Business Writing
Practical general training and experiences in the workplace. The college with the employer develops and documents an individualized plan for the student. The plan relates the workplace training and experiences to the student's general and technical course of study. The guided external experiences may be for pay or no pay. This course may be repeated if topics and learning outcomes vary.
ETWR 2374 Online Helps and Help-Authoring Tools
Workshop-style course in which students study the evolution and function of online helps; critique existing online helps; learn structuring principles and navigation tools common in online helps; create online helps using several leading online help-authoring tools such as RoboHELP and AuthorIT; and write their own online helps for a software product. Prerequisite: Strong computer and writing skills.
ETWR 2379 Editing Government, Business and Technical Information
Instruction and practice in proofreading, copyediting, and substantive editing skills necessary to ensure high-quality, readable, usable, well-designed documents in business, government, and industry. Gives students a working understanding of the role of the technical editor as collaborator and decision maker in the entire publication process. Topics include online editing, revising, hypertext, graphics, visual design, and project estimating. Prerequisite: Strong writing skills.
ETWR 2472 Book-Length Documents with Adobe Frame Maker
Workshop-style course in which students use Adobe FrameMaker to practice the structure and design of user documents; create fully "automated" book-length technical documents complete with automated tables of contents, indexes, table and figure numbers, and cross-references; and learn other FrameMaker features for rapid updating. Emphasis on teamwork and the project title in addition to organization, format, and style of printed technical documents. Prerequisite: Strong computer and writing skills.