Technical Writing is a field and a profession with a unique history and distinctive practices. Likely few, if any, of you will become professional technical writers. But you will become professionals possessing specialized knowledge and information in the field of Computer Science. To convey your knowledge to diverse audiences in unique settings necessitates that you become accomplished, professional technical communicators. As technical communicators you will craft messages using ever changing and increasingly powerful, integrated, and convenient media. While writing remains the undeniable focus of this course, you will also have opportunities to develop your speaking and visual design skills. Ultimately, this course will prepare you to communicate knowledge and information through various means to multilevel audiences of experts, professionals, and lay persons

The Technical Writing CS100W option focuses on the concepts and terms of technical writing and on such forms as definitions, descriptions, process explanations, and technical reports.

Students will read, analyze, and interpret material from technical fields, and will practice research and writing skills appropriate for technical topics.

Course Outcomes:

1.  Students will understand and know how to follow the stages of the writing process (prewriting/writing/rewriting) and apply them to technical and workplace writing tasks.

2.  Students will be able to produce a set of documents related to technology and writing in the workplace and will have improved their ability to write clearly and accurately.

3.  Students will understand the basic components of definitions, descriptions, process explanations, and other common forms of technical writing.

4.  Students will be familiar with basic technical writing concepts and terms, such as audience analysis, jargon, format, visuals, and presentation.

5.  Students will be able to read, understand, and interpret material on technology.  They will have an appreciation for some of the ideas, issues, and problems involved in writing about technology and in workplace writing.

6. Students will be familiar with basic sources and methods of research and documentation on topics in technology, including on-line research.  They will be able to synthesize and integrate material from primary and secondary sources with their own ideas in research papers.