Writing for Government: Course Description

Course Details

Instructor: Susan Doyle (sdoyle@uvic.ca)

Office: CLE C352 (250-721-7240)

Office Hours: Monday and Thursday 1:00–2:00, or by appointment

Classroom: CLE A103 (Clearihue computer lab)

Class Meeting Times: M, Th 11:30–12:50

Who Can Register

This course is part of the English Department's Professional Writing Program. However, we welcome students from all faculties and all programs.

The skills and practice highlighted in this course will be of value to you if you are studying in any program that leads to government or public sector work—from nursing, education, health information sciences, and social work to business, political science, history, and many others in the social sciences and humanities. They will also help prepare you to work as a writer in any workplace setting, public or private. For details about the Professional Writing Minor in English, contact Dr. Elizabeth Grove-White (grovewhi@uvic.ca), Program Director.

Course Objectives

Welcome to English 302, Writing for Government!

The goal of this course is to give you practice in the writing tasks commonly done by those who work for government, either as communications professionals or content specialists.

After completing the course, you should understand and be able to practise the skills required to write effectively for government, which include being able to:

• analyze a communication task, identifying the message, purpose, and audience, and develop a production plan
• write and edit at a professional level, with an expert command of standard written English and the principles of plain language and readability
• gather and, as required, paraphrase, summarize, analyze, or interpret complex information from print and electronic sources
• describe complex policies and procedures in a style and form appropriate to the audience
• apply the principles of document structure and design, using headings effectively, chunking information, adding visuals, and choosing a form and design appropriate to the purpose and audience
• design and develop the types of documents commonly required in government, including briefings, policy descriptions, correspondence, and media releases

The Skills Required for This Course

The English Department expects that students enrolled in professional writing courses already have university-level grammar and composition skills.

For this course, you must be able to:

• write clear, concise, and correct formal prose
• define topics and generate early drafts
• revise and edit subsequent drafts
• argue coherently, using logic and evidence
• read and criticize the writing of others, recognizing slanted language and flawed logic
• use the methods and conventions of research

Although we do not expect complete mastery of these skills, we do expect competency. Work that does not demonstrate a basic command of these skills will not receive a passing grade.

Ground Rules

As a professional writing course, ENGL 302 is meant to give you practice as a writer and as a professional — that is, someone who can meet the expectations typically held of professionals in the work place. The following are academic equivalents of those expectations.

• You are expected to attend all classes and workshops, to come prepared, and to participate actively. Missing class, coming unprepared, making excuses after the fact, relying on others to know what's going on — all will be regarded the same way they are in the workplace.
• If you miss or have not prepared for workshops that are part of an assignment, you will lose marks from your grade for that assignment. Unless you have a legitimate excuse for missing a class, please do not ask to be filled in on what you missed.
• If you are going to miss a deadline, make sure to let me know beforehand. You can send me an e-mail, leave a phone message on my office phone, put a note under my office door, or come to see me before class. If I do not hear from you before the deadline, I will consider your work late and will deduct marks or not accept your work, depending on the circumstances.
• Please try to be on time. Late students are disruptive to the whole class. If another instructor is not giving you enough time to get to class, let me know and I will talk to the instructor.
• The work you submit in this course must be entirely your own. If you are uncertain about the university’s policy on plagiarism, make sure to read the section on academic integrity in the university calendar.
• You must submit every assignment in this course in order to receive a passing grade. If you fail to submit every assignment, you will receive a grade of N (a failing grade) even if you have achieved a final grade of 50% or higher based on the assignments you have submitted.

Required Text & Software

Text: The Canadian Style, Dundurn Press, 1997. About $26.

Software: Peer Scholar. $12.95. Purchase access at www.pearsoned.ca/peerScholar

Assignments & Grading System