Austin Community College
Summer 2011 - CLOSED COURSES
Course Descriptions All Courses Classroom Courses Distance Learning Courses
Updated: 11/30/2011 12:37:21
BUSINESS AND TECHNICAL COMMUNICATIONS
9 Week Session May 16 - July 17
5.5 Week Session May 23 - June 29
11 Week Session May 23 - August 8
11 Week Session May 23 - August 8
9 Week Session June 6 - August 8
5.5 Week Session June 30 - August 8
8 Week Session May 23 - July 17
11 Week Session May 23 - August 8
11 Week Session May 23 - August 8
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 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. ENGL 2311 meets the General Education written-communication requirement for workforce education degree plans. Students planning to transfer to a 4-year university should take ENGL 1301 and ENGL 1302 to satisfy Core Curriculum requirements for English Rhetoric/Composition. Workforce educational programs require either ENGL 2311 or ENGL 1301 for the General Education requirement. Students should consult the college catalog or an advisor to determine which course is required by their degree plan.
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 2375 Writing Statistics for Information Specialists
This course focuses on summarizing and explaining statistical information, not only with words but also with tables, graphs, and charts; emphasizes the proper design and placement of tables, charts, and graphs; and features methods for converting these materials to other media and for dynamically linking statistical information contained in electronic databases and spreadsheets. Prerequisite: Strong computer and writing skills.
ETWR 2472 Technical Publications with Adobe FrameMaker
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.
ETWR 2477 Documentation Process and Content Management
Working in teams and using unformatted text, students take a documentation project from competitive proposal straight through to completion, moving through important phases such as team building, initial proposal, documentation plan, scheduling, prototypes, style guide, drafts, edits, peer reviews, revisions, and final deliverables. Dividing into typical roles such as coordinator, writers, editors, and graphics specialists, team use content-management and document-control software to track and manage their projects. Prerequisite: Strong writing skills.