Welcome
We are pleased that you selected this independent study course to fulfill your unique educational needs. You are now a member of the Center's large and diverse student body—a student body that comes from all parts of the United States and many parts of the world.
Although the freedom to choose when and where to study is a privilege, it is also a responsibility that requires motivation and self-discipline. To succeed at independent study, you will need to develop a study plan by setting realistic goals and working toward them.
Please contact the office of MU Disability Services if you need to arrange accommodations for completing your coursework.
Course Introduction
Highly competitive market conditions combined with an ever-increasing number of highly technical products have forced marketing communicators to rethink how they approach consumers and potential business partners with information about a new product or service.
Consumers, in general, are much more diverse than they once were. While younger generations have grown up with hi-tech products, many older consumers are playing catch-up with their own children and grandchildren. The result is a marketplace that is a combination of savvy consumers and business owners and beginners who understand very little about the latest hi-tech products.
More now than ever before, new products and services that rely on technology need to be explained to both groups and marketed according to their features. As technology continues to expand at an increasing rate, technical communication will be critical to educating customers about the benefits of new products and to persuading consumers and business owners alike that they can benefit from new hi-tech products.
Technical communication can be viewed as a combination of persuasive elements of communication and educational material developed on the basis of audience analysis and writing theory. Using the skills developed in this course, you should be able to create effective marketing documents that use hi-tech information to persuade, rather than confuse, potential customers and corporate partners as to the value of your product.
Course Description: Practice in writing, editing, and designing layouts of technical publications using the personal computer for desktop publication. Prerequisite: English 65 or TCH COM 65 (Co-listed with English 260).
Time Limit for Course Completion: 9 months. All assessments must be submitted and graded within this time.
Course Keycode: 2307
Textbooks
Required Textbooks
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King, Janice. Copywriting That Sells High Tech: The Definitive Guide to Writing Powerful Promotional Materials for Technology Products, Services, and Companies. New York: WriteSpark Press, 2006.
- Harner, Sandra W., and Tom G. Zimmerman. Technical Marketing Communication. New York: Longman Press, 2002.
How to Study for This Course
Your progress evaluations and exams should show that you have command of the concepts discussed in both the textbooks and the supplemental commentaries. As you read the commentaries, consider how the topics discussed relate to the textbook and to your own experiences. Review the study questions in both the textbooks and the study guide before responding to progress evaluations or taking exams. When creating written documents for this course or completing examinations, consider the following:
- Write clear and complete statements. You may need to research materials on the Internet or at the library to add credibility to your claims.
- Use appropriate headings in documents.
- Proofread all documents. Spell-checking a document will not assure that your work is free of grammatical defects, which can cost you valuable points. Marketing materials must be clean, neat, and error free.
- Understand what you are writing about before you start writing. Your documents will deal with products that are intended for real companies and consumers. Therefore, you need to understand those audiences before you begin writing.
- When you write progress evaluations and exams, develop a thesis and include a thesis statement to guide your discussion. Focus on a main point in short answers.
- On progress evaluations and exams, support your conclusions and recommendations with evidence from the text, commentary, or other sources. Don’t simply state your opinion.
Additional Study Hints
- Submit your first progress evaluation early. For university courses, a minimum of six weeks must elapse between the date you submit your first progress evaluation and the date you take your final exam.
- Know how you will be assessed. Look at the grading scale and read all the information on any assignments, projects, and exams.
- Review the exam information page before taking any exam. This page includes descriptions of the exam(s), if any, required for this course. Keep in mind that, unless otherwise stated on the exam information page, CDIS exams are supervised and must be taken at an approved site. Approved sites will be listed when you are prompted to request an exam during the course.
- Be able to do all lesson objectives. Learning is active, and courses at any level are often designed with objectives or actions that can be done as evidence that you have learned something. One advantage of independent study is that learning objectives are clearly written for each lesson.
- Review the hints for independent study. This is an independent study course and is likely different from other courses you have taken. Begin by reviewing these hints, which will help you adjust your computing and study habits so you will have the best chance of earning the grade you want.
- Download an "Independent Study Planning Sheet" (pdf) to track your progress. The number of lessons, progress evaluations, and exams will directly affect how long it takes to complete any given CDIS course. As you work through this course, check your schedule often to make sure you're on track. Keep in mind that all progress evaluations and exams must be submitted and graded within the course time limit.
About the Course Developer
Dr. David Wright received a BS in Organizational Psychology in 1992, an MS in Higher Education Administration in 1995, and a PhD in technical communication in 2007—all from Oklahoma State University. His dissertation, Technology Diffusion and the Beef Industry: A Communication Investigation, is a study of the effects of communication networks on technology diffusion in the cattle industry and the efforts of the USDA to promote animal identification within the cattle industry.
Dr. Wright has worked for the NASA Education Contract as an aerospace education specialist, as an instructional development specialist at the Oklahoma Department of Career and Technology Education, and as a business development and communications manager for Paradalis, Inc. From 2003 to 2005, he taught English 3323: Technical Writing at OSU. Currently Dr. Wright teaches courses in technical communication at the Missouri University of Science and Technology and conducts research in the field of organizational communication and technology diffusion.
Technical Specifications
To complete this course, you will need access to a computer with a modern Web browser (see recommended browsers below), a working Internet connection (56k dial-up or broadband), word processing software, and disk space to save your work.
Recommended Web Browsers
- Windows: Internet Explorer (version 7 or 8) or Firefox 3.5.
- Mac OS: Safari 4 or Firefox 3.5.
Your browser should support graphics at a screen resolution of 800 × 600 or higher, run JavaScript (the browsers above do by default), and accept cookies, which are used solely to verify your login. This course has been designed to be accessible to all students, including those using assistive technologies.
Portions of this course may require Adobe Flash Player.
Word Processing Software
You will be required to upload documents in Word 97–2003 (.doc) or Rich Text (.rtf) format. These documents can be created in Microsoft Word or another office suite that saves in the .doc or .rtf format, such as the open-source OpenOffice or GoogleDocs online. The Center does not provide or support any word processing software; however, both OpenOffice and GoogleDocs are available free-of-charge at the above links.
or 
You may need to view PDF documents as part of this course.
Virus Protection
It is suggested that you have virus protection software on your system. Symantec AntiVirus or McAfee VirusScan are recommended for PC users, and Norton AntiVirus is recommended for Mac users. Virus protection software will help to protect your system (and ours) against computer viruses. MU students can download virus protection software at the Division of IT software distribution site.
Presentation Software
The assignment for Lesson 10 requires you to create a presentation in the PowerPoint (.ppt or .pptx) format. You can create these using Microsoft PowerPoint or another software, such as GoogleDocs or OpenOffice (see section above), that exports to this format.
Begin Coursework
Starting with the first lesson, study the lesson's purpose, objectives, and commentary. Then complete the reading assignment and any recommended study activities. Take notes and make sure you understand all the material presented in the readings. Follow this procedure for each lesson. Complete progress evaluations and exams in the order they are presented in this course.