COMP 915
Fall, 2009

Assignment 6 for Friday, October 9, 2009

Study:  McKeachie, Chapter 4 (Reading as Active Learning)   (It’s only five pages.)

Read:  Chapter 18 (Technology and Teaching), 
and all the material on textbooks identified as such in the Index.

Write:

I have placed on Comp 915 Reserve in the Reading Room (and on a table there) a collection of texts on technical writing.  (All of these are on Reserve, whether labeled as such or not.  Please do not remove any of them from the Reading Room for two weeks.

1.  Scan the texts and select Gopen, The Sense of Structure, and two others to study.

2.  Study the
	•  Preface
	•  Table of Contents
	•  Index, and 
	•  Sampling of the body of each of the three books.

3.  Choose the book you would use to teach Comp 911, Professional Writing in Computer Science.

Hint:  Choose two or three topics that are foundational for how you would teach the course  (e.g., organization, grammar).  Look them up in the index and then read those portions for  (1) how early they are treated in the text,  (2) how important they are in the organization of the text,  (3) how well they are treated.

4.  Explain in 2-3 pages why you choose your pick over each of the other two.  (In your essay, identify the books by lead author.)