English
307, sections 7 & 793
A Welcome Letter
Instructor: Danielle Mitchell
Office: CCIT #236, cubicle M
Offices Hours: T, 3:30 - 5:45
Engl Dept: ML 445,
621-1836 (leave msg)
Email: mitcheld@u.arizona.edu
Web Address:
www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm/teaching/dmitchell307/dmitchellf01.htm
Section 7:
T/TH, 2-3:15
ECON 306
Section 793:
T/TH, 6-7:15
M LNG 403
Profcomm Center
Composition Program
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
August 21, 2001
Profcomm Interns, Fall 2001
English 307, sections 7 & 793
University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721
Dear Interns:
Welcome to English 307, a course dedicated the production and analysis of professional communication. Should you choose to remain in this particular section of Business Writing, you will be entering into a scenario or a context in which you will be considered an intern for the Profcomm Center, a virtual center designed to study professional discourse. Your internship will begin today, end December 4th, and include a variety of reading, writing individual, and group activities. In addition to the description of the internship in this letter, the Profcomm Center is described in greater detail at http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm .
Profcomm exists for students of the University of Arizona's Business and Technical Writing courses and has been developed as a model for analysis projects, often regarding the use of technology in professional communication, but not limited to that focus. The organization is "virtual," meaning that it exists as resources and sites of online collaboration and as an online clearinghouse of analytical projects conducted by students in business and technical writing. Your work for the semester will become part of the organization as a resource for other students and organizations in the community. We look forward to your contribution to this developing critical resource for professional communication.
How your internship works
Should you choose to accept this internship by remaining registered in this
class, you will work with assignments throughout the semester designed as
"scenarios" for The Center. The internship project completed with
your groups will be an analysis of an organization, industry, social practice,
or even an academic field that you and your group are interested in. While
there will be flexibility in terms of the project's subject, you will be asked
to analyze the underlying assumptions and the implications of the practices
discussed.
During the course of your internship, you will be learning and using forms of business communication (letters, memos, reports, proposals). You will also be utilizing communication technologies to interact with your colleagues, get course materials, discuss issues and readings, and communicate with each other and your instructor. You will be working and collaborating as a team and defining collaboration strategies. Finally, you will be presenting the results of your work both to the class and as a product that can be placed in The Center's resources. Your internship, then, will give you valuable experience with professional communication, technologies relevant in professional settings, and collaboration.
Preparing for your
internship
You will receive plenty of guidance and information in order to undertake
your role as a Center intern. In order to proceed with this opportunity, please
notify your course leader with your intention to accept this internship (Letter
of Acceptance). Before accepting the intern position being offered you, please
review the website for ProfComm at http://www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm.
Also, please review the contract/syllabus included in your orientation materials
(also available online: www.ic.arizona.edu/~profcomm/teaching/dmitchell307/dmitchellf01.htm).
Finally, familiarize yourself with the online environment where I will be
holding office hours, Workplace™ (by Teamwave). You will need to download
a Teamwave Workplace client at http://www.teamwave.com
and read the instructions on how to connect to our server. Log in names and
passwords will be distributed in class.
If you have questions at this time, please contact me at danielle@dakotacom.net. Welcome to The Center and best of luck on your internship experience.
Sincerely,
Danielle Mitchell
Instructor, Profcomm Center