Class Goals
| 1. Intro to the course |
| 2. Intro to Technical Writing |
| 3. Professional Bio models, tips, and drafting |
| 4. Intro to you! |
Class Overview
| 1. Course Themes & Goals |
| 2. Policies & Readings |
| 3. Calendar |
| 4. Assignment Sequence |
| 5. Canvas |
| 6. Community Partner Clients |
Intro to Tech Comm & Multimodal Basics
Sample Bios
Bio Drafting Activity
| Please take 8-10 mins to respond to the following. When drafting time is up, you’ll share your bios with a partner and then with the rest of the class. |
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| 1. Write your name & title: name and title choice is rhetorical–for example including or excluding an honorific (Dr., Mrs. Rev., etc.) depends on context and audience. |
| 2. Decide on POV–do you want to write in first or third person and what difference does the choice make? Again, how does this choice depend on the context, audience, and/or purpose? |
| 3. List your current position or professional tagline, and explain what you do. If you have multiple positions, how do you decide which to include and which to exclude? |
| 4. Identify your company, employer, or school, and explain what they do. Typically, institutions do all sorts of things, so how do you tailor your explanation to your audience & purpose? |
| 5. Describe one professional accomplishment of which you are most proud OR which supports/develops the throughline of your Bio. |
| 6. Briefly state your values, philosophy of work, and/or research area. How do your values and/or philosophy of work inform your career? |
| 7. Consider telling audiences about your life outside of work, e.g. hobbies, pets, interests, etc. |
Reading for Wed, Grabill, J. T. & W. & Simmons, M., “Toward a critical rhetoric of risk communications,” (415-441)
| Consider the following as you read Grabill & Simon’s Essay: |
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| 1. What are the problems/failures with linear communication models predominate in risk communication? |
| 2. What sorts of models do Grabill and Simmons suggest? |
| 3. What’s your assessment of the authors’ solutions to the problems the outline? |