TechComm 496: Advanced Technical Communication for EE, CS & CE
Completed: A
Advanced technical communication for EECS. Design and writing of user and task analyses, requirements documents, proposals, reports, documentation, and web design for design projects, all aimed at diverse organizational audiences. Usability and performance test design and testing. Preparation and delivery of final oral presentation and written report on design.
Winter 2003, Fred Ward
To be honest, this was a very good class. At the start, I did not want to pay too much attention here, nor did I wish to do any work. I assumed that a tech. comm. class would be pretty boring. However, the instructor did a really great job of making sense of certain issues. This really was a technical communications course that got directly to the point without focusing on boring things. Ward was also a comical guy that has a lot of 'ye olde war' stories and comes from an engineering and math background. Some of the articles we read were actually quite interesting and meaningful. I know it's only a two credit required course, but if one can take the class from Mr. Ward, I would highly recommend it.
There were no oral presentations, but three main papers and a few minor ones. The major papers followed a few steps: planning, draft, peer review, revision, write final, write critiques of peer reviews. The papers were written semi-fictitiously, but the technical facts behind each are completely correct, only the organizational context is exaggerated.
- Report 3: Recommendation for new product line(PDF - 9.8KB)
- Report 4: Recommendations for optimal audio system characterization technique(PDF - 17.5KB)
- Report 5: Plan for upgrading C-Band radiometer to polarimetric operation(PDF - 14.6KB)
P.S.: The most interesting thing I learned having nothing to do with the class was about Lewis Carol's Jabberwocky. It's often bandied about because it seems as though it is nonsense. When it was written, cute nonsense things were the rage. However, Jabberwocky is an interesting story written brilliantly in old English. Look it up.
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Information provided on this page is a result of undergraduate studies at the University of Michigan. Material may be copyrighted by the University of Michigan, James Glettler, and/or the various co-authors noted in group projects. Finished assignments are offered only for reference.