Technical Communication
This class was unique because it situated all of our print documents, designs, and rhetorical situations, around the book Dune, by Frank Herbert. I read this book at the beginning of the semester, and then in me along with several other students designed our class projects according to the parameters' of the book. The first project was an assassination report we created that was similar to manual in form and style. This report highlighted the different peoples mentioned in Dune, their respective threat levels to the royalty, and the methods to which they were prone to attack. In addition, this report was designed within a community of practice and was the first experience I had with such a learning environment.
I also completed another report that looked at only one particular people group in Dune, described how they interacted in their respective communities of practice, and what methods they used to survive in their environment. I chose the fremen people because I found them to be the most interesting. Unfortunately, if you have never read Dune, this will be a bit confusing. As the very least it should serve as an example of how I can work within a community of practice, and how I can perform many of the duties of a professional technical communicator, such as manual design.
The third major project in the course required us to select an object that was frequently used in Dune and create a manual for the end-user. This project was particularly enjoyable because it combined several different aspects of design, including both text and graphics creation. We chose the poison snooper, a device used to detect poison in food or drink and thus thwart any assassination attempts on the royalty. We each had a hand in designing the document and generating the appropriate text, and I designed the graphics and diagrams that served as visual representations for the end-user.
Course Listing
Information Design
Technical Editing
Senior Capstone