语言教学 | 普渡大学写作教学系列Teacher&Tutor Resource14-Writing Instructor(14)

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征稿：二语写作

10.Teaching Detailed Writing and Procedural Transitions

Students new to writing lab and research reports often underestimate the importance of consistency of terminology and detail as well as appropriate and precise procedural transitions. One reason for this is that they may not clearly understand the purpose of this kind of writing beyond a school setting.

In the professional world, a lab or research report serves to both publicize new information and to give future researchers a framework for testing and applying the original researchers’ methods. As all instructors who deal with writing understand, it is difficult to reproduce the conditions of scientific publication for students. However, the following activity emphasizes the function of an audience with needs and expectations, while simplified, that mirror those of the scientific community they ought to have in mind as they write.

Activity: Describe Setting a Mousetrap

Put students into groups of two or more. Give them a standard mouse trap and ask them to write a set of directions for setting and disabling the trap. Make sure they do not have access to directions for setting mousetraps (e.g. discard the directions and limit access to the Internet). Prohibit students from using visual elements in this exercise. Students may think at first that the assignment is easy and beneath them, but will soon understand the difficulty of inventing terms that describe each part of the trap and the operations that must be performed in order to set the trap correctly and safely. Students will need at least 10-15 minutes to write the first part of the exercise. Expect a lot of noise as students verbally work on defining their terms as a group.

Next, select a volunteer to set and disable a mousetrap according to the directions of another group for the entire class. The volunteer should be provided only with the written directions of the selected group. Have the volunteer read the directions aloud as s/he attempts to set the trap and instruct him or her to follow only the directions as stated. S/he should also be instructed to let the class know when s/he is confused or cannot proceed. Chances are, the volunteer will run into problems right away. Here’s a list of common problems:

• Unclear, wordy, or imprecise descriptions

• Inconsistent use of key terms

• Missing or imprecise procedural transitions

This activity can be a good way to socialize new lab partners and simply introduce the importance of precision, consistent use of terms, and procedural transitions. If this is your aim, you can end the activity at the end of class and perhaps ask students to write a reflection of why the activity was interesting or important. You can also use this activity to introduce the challenges of writing a methods and materials section. Ask students to work with their directions over the course of a few class periods. They should be asked to revise together for accuracy and clarity and, importantly, the genre conventions of methods sections (e.g. using past tense, passive voice etc).

A good way to extend this exercise is to require students to refine their instructions and add graphics to their explanations as homework.

11.Teaching OSDDP

（1）Summary and Description of the Project

What Is OSDDP?

Implemented by the professional writing program at Purdue in the fall of 2004 as a new approach to networked learning, collaborative education, and public writing, OSDDP (the Open Source Development and Documentation Project) has produced many success stories among students and instructors in various business and technical writing classes at Purdue. However, teaching the OSDDP project also presents many challenges to instructors of professional writing, especially new instructors, as it requires a thorough understanding of Open Source products and the concepts and philosophy underlying these products as well as genre knowledge about the deliverables that students are expected to produce throughout the project. This guide introduces new PW instructors to one particular OSDDP project, the OSDDP usability project and provides tips and resources that aid teaching.

What Does the OSDDP Usability Project Entail?

For the OSDDP Usability Project, students are expected to complete two main tasks: 1) conduct usability testing of an open source application (software, content management system etc.) or documentation (tutorial or user manual); 2) write up the test results in the form of a usability report and present it to the open source community by posting it to Purdue's OSDDP site under creative commons.

Why Assign the OSDDP Usability Project?

This project provides students with an opportunity to 1) learn more about how users/customers in real-world situations interact with commercial and non-commercial products (in this case, software applications and manuals); 2) use usability testing as a research method to generate raw data about such interactions; 3) practice public writing or writing that is subject to public reviews and revisions.

Although this project involves some individual elements, the majority of the project is the result of collaboration. This project involves approximately 6-7 weeks of work with each week typically consisting of two 75-minute class meetings or three 50-minute class meetings.

What Can This Teaching Guide Do for Me?

This teaching guide includes a brief summary of the project, suggested group and individual deliverables as well as evaluation criteria, week-by-week suggested activities with annotations, resources for instructors, and sample deliverables produced by business writing students at Purdue.

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