Project Design [Template]

This is a template for designing your next project in our Technical Writing course. As your instructor, I very open to what you want to work on in relation to technical communication. I am, however, going to require that each of these elemnets be present in the design of your project.

We’ll spend time workshoping and drafting this design plan in class.

When composing this design plan, I encourage you to imagine that you are writing this for another student or or a group of collaborators whom will be completing this project with you.

Project Description/Overview

In this section, give an overview of the project:

Big picture – What is it that you will work on?
Beyond yourself and me, who is the potential audience(s) for this project?
Approach this like an abstract or executive summary.

Project Rationale

In this section, give the reasons why for this particualr project – Specifically:

How will this project benefit you as a student of Technical Writing?
How does this project support your meeting the learning outcomes of the course?
How does this project support you meeting your personal learning outcomes?
How does this project contribute to the learning or support or work of audiences beyond you or me as the instructor? Meaning – are you going to produce a deliverable for this project that others might use?

Project Deliverables

In this section identify and describe the project deliverables. Each project is expected to have at least:

1 primary deliverable
a research deliverable (i.e. a means of documenting and sharing project research)
at least TWO “smaller” deliverables in addition to the primary and research deliverables.

So, specifically:

What is the primary artifact that your project will deliver to its audience(s). For example, if my project is to design and draft an initial template for a Technical Writing OER that I could use in futire classes – the primary deliverable might be “Chapter 1” of this OER.
How will you document/deliever the research components of your project. An example of this would be an annotated bibliography.
What other deliverables will your project contain?

Project Milestones

In this section, identify project milestones. Specifically:

What components of your project will you share with me and others in order to demonstrate progress of the project?
When will you share these milestones? We’re talking dates here.
Our last day of class is Weds. March 18. That’s approximately 6 total weeks of proect time, contining the time it takes to draft this plan, so realistiaclly more like 5 weeks. Your project requires a minimum of 4 deliverables, so…almost 1 milestone a week.

Project Assessment

In this section, as best you can articulate you we will determine the success of this project. Specifically:

Meeting deadlines, completion of deliverables
In addition to meeting deadlines and completing work, what will make for a successful project?
What conventions, qualities, or standards are relevant to measuring the success of your deliveables?
How will we measure this success? (A rubric? A survey?)