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Mary Massirer <Mary_Massirer -at- baylor -dot- edu> writes: "What suggestions do you
have for topics to cover in such a [Advanced Tech Writing] course?"
I have some suggestions. IMHO, it helps to have everyone write about the
same topic. In one program, we give 'em a text editor (EDT on the Vax) and
they have to plan & write a full document - TOC, Front Matter, text,
Index, Appendices, etc. all in a 14-week semester. In another, I give 'em
a functional spec, a demo, and have 'em write a chapter of a bigger book
as well as the corresponding online help.
The biggest problem that I've had to contend with is the subject matter
consumes more time in class than the teaching about writing. In the Intro
course, I had 'em pick their own project topic - one that they were
familiar with. This is OK, but the range of projects is amazing, with
about half either being too light or too large.
BTW, this is more along the type of subject material I expected to see on
this board.
John Garison
jgarison -at- zdi -dot- ziff -dot- com
