Written & Technical Communication

Course Description

Written & Technical Communication develops the writing skills computing professionals actually need: clear documentation, honest status updates, and technical explanations a non-specialist reader can follow. Assignments are drawn from realistic scenarios — a project readme, a bug report, a design memo.

Learning Outcomes

Write clear, well-structured technical documentation for a mixed audience.
Revise a draft for clarity, precision, and appropriate tone.
Explain a technical concept to a reader without specialist background.
Give and incorporate constructive written feedback.

Weekly Topics

Examines audience & purpose from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.

Builds directly on the previous week to extend structuring technical documents, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.

Combines a short lecture on clarity & precision with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.

Focuses on common mistakes and misconceptions around writing bug reports, using student work from the previous assignment as material.

Introduces writing project documentation and immediately puts it to use in a small design or implementation task.

Situates explaining technical concepts within the broader arc of the course, showing how it connects to what comes next.

Uses a guest dataset or scenario to explore mid-semester review in a setting closer to professional practice.

Introduces giving feedback through short lectures and worked examples, building the vocabulary the rest of the course relies on.

Works through revision practices in a lab-driven session, with guided exercises students complete and discuss in small groups.

Covers presenting technical work in depth, connecting the underlying theory to a concrete example the class builds together.

Examines email & professional communication from a practical angle, using a case drawn from real systems to motivate the concepts.

Builds directly on the previous week to extend capstone writing exercise, with an emphasis on where the earlier techniques stop working.

Combines a short lecture on revision with an in-class exercise students carry into the week's assignment.

Assessment

Assignments — 40%

Practical Work — 10%

Mid-Semester — 20%

Final Examination — 30%

Prerequisite Map

Related Courses

No related courses listed for this course.