WR 227
WR 227 focuses specifically on technical and professional communications in healthcare settings and as such is particularly relevant for those students interested or currently enrolled in a healthcare program at PCC. However, because we are all people who have bodies and have and will continue to engage in healthcare at some point in our lives, having this specific focus for the course is relevant to all of us and gives us a way to examine the function of technical and professional communication on a deeper level. It is my hope that you will find this course useful to your future career endeavors, even if you don’t end up writing the exact same things I ask of you for this course. I try to design the course in such a way that the skills you must use to complete your writing assignments for this specific course—such as learning how to identify a document’s purpose and write for specific audiences—will transfer to different contexts.
The course is structured around four major projects: the Health Narrative; a Usability Report on Existing Patient Education Material; Usable and Accessible Healthcare Materials; and a Health Writing Philosophy. To help you gain/develop the skills needed to accomplish each major project, I will assign several supporting assignments and readings to be completed before each major project. Part of completing the readings will require you to use hypothes.is, which is a software you will access through our course D2L site that will allow you to annotate the assigned readings and see your classmates’ annotations, as well as mine.
Student work is assessed using a grading contract. [https://writingcommons.org/article/so-your-instructor-is-using-contract-grading/?doing_wp_cron=1635441724.6528089046478271484375]
My online version of this class has been dynamically formatted to include interactive readings and videos, meaning you will be able to practice the skills you are learning as you are reading about them/watching them be explained.
My remote version of this class has required weekly Zoom meetings.
Required textbooks: I use Open Educational Resources (OER) and provide materials through our course learning management system (D2L Brightspace).
Required technology:
- Microsoft Office (free for students) or equivalent (e.g. Google Docs). You must be able to save files as doc, docs, rtf, or pdf format
- Firefox, Chrome, or Safari browser
- You must be able to work with documents and upload to Assignments in D2L. Directions to use Google Drive in D2L Brightspace.
- The technical requirements for most online classes include access to a computer with a modern operating system and a supported web browser