This course helps prepare you, a student in a technical profession or professional field, for the types of research, writing, and information presentation that you will encounter in your career after graduation. Writing has many purposes and uses beyond just relaying information, and even in the most concrete of professions, the facts do not “speak for themselves.” Your task as a writer is to articulate, explain, and interpret the information you are dealing with. Throughout your career, you will need to understand the social context of your writing and its audiences, and you will need to master the techniques of crafting your writing to suit your purposes and the interests of your audience. This course covers important professional writing genres, including resumes, proposals, presentations, and research reports. 

This section of ENC 3241H is a designated HIP-Research-Intensive (RI) course. This designation will be noted on students’ transcripts. Research-Intensive is one of UCF’s four HIP course designations, along with Service-Learning, Integrative Learning and Global Learning. HIP courses are among the most challenging and rewarding at UCF.

In this course, we will examine the broad field of technical editing and explore how it has changed over time. After developing foundational knowledge about the history and practice of technical editing, we will spend the remainder of the semester learning about editing strategies and the function of technical editing in a range of professions. Students will have opportunities to practice technical editing individually and collaboratively. Major projects will include a special topics presentation, individual copy-editing challenges, and a final team-based substantive technical editing project. Although there are no scheduled class meetings, students in this course are expected to attend a one-on-one conference with the professor as well as 2 Zoom meetings with their team for the final editing project. By the end of the course, you should have multiple samples of your professional editing work to share with potential employers, in a portfolio, or on a professional website.