For your final project in our “Advanced Technical Writing” class, you have just created a technical writing document that does not look like a traditional technical writing document. You have used the styles and conventions of another genre of communication to create a new kind of document.

For your final paper, which should be no less than three pages, please write reflection on your final project that addresses the following issues and questions:

* What differentiates your final project from a typical technical writing document?

* Why did you choose the particular genre of communication that you did? How did the styles and conventions of that genre affect the ways in which you conceived of and produced your project?

* In what ways (and in what new ways) does your project address and/or challenge traditional technical writing issues such as audience, style, and specialized knowledges and vocabularies? In what ways does your project challenge traditional ideas about explanation, expertise, and specialization?

Papers should be written and documented according to MLA Format. For help with various aspects of the paper writing process, please consult my teaching website.

3-D Animation Programs
Xtranormal

Scenecaster

Big Stage

——————————-
Midterm project resources:

Here are some tools to help you while you finish up your midterm projects:

Pixlr – web-based photoshop alternative.

Jing – create screencasts

Flickr Creative Commons Image Search – search for images licensed under Creative Commons

Picnik.com – free online image creation and manipulation tool

Free Icon Sets – great, free icon designs. Make sure that you examine the license on whichever icon set you choose — you may need to give attribution if you use a set.

Image Map creator – use this to create navigation bars on wikis. On WordPress, you can use built-in page listing widgets.

Remember:
– You should not break copyright! Make sure that the images you’re using are either used with permission of the creator or are licensed under Creative Commons. If you use a CC image, make sure that you fulfill the Attribution requirement of the license by giving credit to the creator of the image.

– You can use many sorts of media to create your manual. Options include videos, screencasts, wiki pages, blog posts, and others. You can create an entirely new blog devoted only to this project and you can use pages (as opposed to posts) for each section of your manual.

Remember: Have fun, be imaginative, and be creative!!h

For Monday, May 11: Lawrence Lessig, Remix, Chapters TBA

For Wednesday, May 13: Remix readings TBA

Audience (language/jargon, explanations/examples of technical terms, tone/mode of address):

Borrowed Style/Conventions/Genre:

Ways in which your project takes issues of audience into consideration:

Reminders:

– Include an introduction that orients readers/viewers to the project
– Writing style, grammar, and mechanics
– Document and cite your project. Don’t break copyright. Look for creative commons material or material in the public domain

RESOURCES:

Video:
Internet Archive: http://www.archive.org/details/movies

Audio
Audacity: http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

Examples of cultural objects include music videos, phonebooks, take-out menus, company brochures, musicals, novels, poems, slasher films, radio programs, road signs, paintings, and grammar books.

Whatever technical writing product you create (manuals, procedures, instructions, quick reference cards, reports, proposals, or memos) must adapt recognizable conventions of your chosen cultural object.

Your project will have three parts:

– A blog post (no less than 250 words) that sets out the technical subject about which you will write (Due April 29)
– A blog post (no less than 500 words) that includes links and images to examples of the cultural object whose conventions you will reproduce (Draft Due May 4; Final Post Due May 6)
– A technical writing document (or video) that uses those conventions to convey technical information (Due May 18)
– A formal essay of not less than three pages (Due May 20)

sample project ideas:
– use the conventions of a baseball box score to present technical information
– use the conventions of a comic strip to present technical information
– use the conventions of an action film to present technical information

Pixlr – web-based photoshop alternative.

Jing – create screencasts

Flickr Creative Commons Image Search – search for images licensed under Creative Commons

Picnik.com – free online image creation and manipulation tool

Free Icon Sets – great, free icon designs. Make sure that you examine the license on whichever icon set you choose — you may need to give attribution if you use a set.

Image Map creator – use this to create navigation bars on wikis. On WordPress, you can use built-in page listing widgets.

Remember:
– You should not break copyright! Make sure that the images you’re using are either used with permission of the creator or are licensed under Creative Commons. If you use a CC image, make sure that you fulfill the Attribution requirement of the license by giving credit to the creator of the image.

– You can use many sorts of media to create your manual. Options include videos, screencasts, wiki pages, blog posts, and others. You can create an entirely new blog devoted only to this project and you can use pages (as opposed to posts) for each section of your manual.

Remember: Have fun, be imaginative, and be creative!!h

http://youtube.com

1. Identify the video you want to add
2. You can add a simple link to a video
3. Click “insert video button and add URL, following directions for adding YouTube post.

Part 1: Literature Review
– First step: find at least three tech writing documents that already exist for your subject
– Second step: compare them and analyze them using criteria found in A Concise Guide to Technical Communication

Perform an analysis on each document that critiques the way it is constructed — the way it is written, designed, disseminated. What works well in the document, and what doesn’t? Does the document use images and text? How do they fit together? Does the document adhere to the principles of usability?

Required Length: roughly 1000 words/equivalent of a three page paper

Format: MLA. But posted on the blog and conceived of AS a blog post. Include links, images, screen captures, etc.

DUE NEXT WED 18

Part 2: CREATE YOUR OWN TECH WRITING DOCUMENT
Purposes:
– to address the weaknesses you’ve identified in the existing documentation.
– to make use of the social web in some way, given what we’ve learned from Here Comes Everybody
– think creatively about format. This can be images only, text/images, a movie, a blog or a series of blog posts, a song, a tv show, a series of text messages, a video game, a book, a manual, a wikipedia article
– think creatively about distribution. How will you make your project available? Ideas include posting on a blog, advertising, YouTube (viral video), games

Assignment: Recreate a piece of technical writing for your chosen topic.

DUE: MONDAY, MARCH 30