Dr. Carol Siri Johnson, Humanities, NJIT

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	STS 101 & 316
	ENG 340
	ENG 352-FTF (001)
	ENG 352-DL (451)
	PTC 605
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Technical Communication Analysis Assignment

This is a major writing assignment for the semester. Each student should choose a type of technical communication to analyze and compare such as car manuals, professional articles, machine instructions, technical textbooks, computer documentation, etc. Students then see how the documentation is different between brands or across time. The final paper should be at least seven pages of text and images with a title page, a table of contents, an abstract, and a works cited list and an annotated bibliography. There are four steps to this assignment:

Step	Description (Face-to-face and DL classes slightly different)
PowerPoint on Technical Communication Analysis	Create a 5-minute PowerPoint presentation on the type of technical communication you plan to analyze using mainly images, few words. Email me the presentation at cjohnson@njit.edu or bring on jump drive so you can present it in the class. Five minutes is the EXACT time you will be allowed to speak – I will time it and cut you off. Therefore, you need to practice this before you present it.
Annotated Bibliography for Technical Communication Analysis	Research your type of technical communication in the library (or wherever else necessary) to gather data for your analysis. List at least three sources in a Word document and write a brief description of each using the annotated bibliography template.
Technical Communication Analysis - 1st Draft & Peer Review	Come to class on the scheduled day with FOUR (4) copies of your first draft. The textual body of your analysis should be three pages. Three copies will be reviewed by your peers in class and the 4th will be reviewed by me. This is a very important class – print out the papers ahead of time and BE ON TIME. Peer Review Sheet.
Technical Communication Analysis - Final Draft	The final draft should be done in the technical communication analysis template. As noted above, the body (everything except the cover page, table of contents, works cited and bibliography) should be three pages of text. At the end should be a Works Cited list as well as your complete annotated bibliography.

TCA Samples

If you can't think of a type of technical communication to analyze, go to the library and find two editions of the same book from different decades - compare them and see how they changed over time - or pick any journal and do the same.

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