ENG 201: 1.1 Introduction(s)

Today’s Plan:

  • Syllabus and Stuff
  • Reading ABO on emails, UNCO Style Guide
  • A Brisk Walk Across Campus
  • Composing and Sharing Emails
  • Homework

Syllabus and Stuff

Let’s take a look at the ENG 201 Syllabus.

A First Day Assignment

The first genre we are going to work with this semester is emails. I expect all correspondence between us to reflect the principles laid out by ABO on pages 164-168.

A few other resources for today:

I’d like you to compose a short email to me (marc dot santos at unco dot edu) that does three things:

  • introduces yourself (and your academic/professional trajectory) and
  • explains your interest in the course (what are you hoping to learn? why are you here?)
  • asks me a question that I can answer

I’ll give you time to compose your emails and then we will read them collectively as a class.

Homework

To prepare for project one, read Brumberger and Lauer’s (2015) “The Evolution of Technical Communication: An Analysis of Industry Job Postings.” You can find a .pdf of the file in Canvas (Files section). I would like you to print out a physical copy of the article and annotate it as you read.

By annotate, I mean I would like you to write comments in the margins and on top of the page. There’s a lot of different methods for annotating, and I wouldn’t force any one method on you. I tend to underline text that either highlights the author’s purpose/argument or that I find difficult or disagree with. BUT every time I underline something, I try to write a word or phrase at the top of the page that captures the essence/importance of that passage. Underlining without writing isn’t useful. Writing notes in the margins helps with retention and comprehension. Throw away your highlighter.

After you read and annotate, please post a 150-250 word response to the article in Canvas. In the future, I might ask you to focus your response on a specific element of a reading. For our first reading, I simply want to know what in the article surprises you. I also want to know what else you wished the author’s elaborated.

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