ENG 202

Technical Writing

David H. More

MWF    3:00 - 3:50

Reg. No. 051976

This course is designed to serve the written communication needs and skills for a wide range of professionals who will be writing in the work place. The standard essay form which UB students concentrate on in the required ENG. 101, 102, & 201 course offerings develop and enhance literacy skills appropriate for college level writing in other undergraduate and graduate courses.  While many of the same standards do apply (for example: certain grammatical concepts, punctuation, coherence, sentence structure, and paragraph construction, etc.), technical writing in the professions places unique demands depending on the writing context. Authors must understand and master certain principles and conventions appropriate to the writing situation. Engineers, architects, educators, people working in the medical and legal professions, nuclear scientists, and social scientists all need to produce written communications consistent with the technical expectations for their particular institutional setting.

 

 Professional writing generally occurs in an administrative, business, or institutional setting where the author(s) and reader(s) are part of a management structure. The objective of this form of communication is usually to initiate some form of action on behalf of the organization’s management; hence, this type of writing can be termed “results oriented.” Consideration of purpose, audience, and the writing situation will be continuous threads as we explore the tapestry of various types of professional writing. The quality of your writing produced in this course will, in large measure, depend upon an understanding of and sensitivity to these dynamics, which, in turn, determines the probability of achieving the intended result--whether that means landing a job, being awarded a contract, convincing your boss of the best course of action, or response to an important business decision.

 

 On a practical level the writing assignments will range widely and may include documents such as: various types of business letters and memoranda, resumes and cover letters, government documents such as prepared statements for public hearings,

ENG 206

Writing Prose Fiction

Staff

TTh     7:00 - 8:20

Reg. No. 041996

Course description not available at this time.

press releases, short and long reports with appropriate front and back matter, field reports, feasibility reports, executive summaries and abstracts, policy and procedure manuals, instructional sets, proposals and grant applications. Due to the increasingly pervasive use of e-mail throughout business, industry, educational establishments, and government, the role of e-mail, websites and associated graphics presentations will be closely examined. We will attempt to understand and analyze how this technology has and continues to revolutionize older forms of written communication. Ultimately, I will expect students to develop professional standards for all forms of communication.