Results

1. Survey
1. Professors at California State University, Fullerton and professional and
programmers working in their field were surveyed on three questions pertaining to
writing within their field.

Respondent 1

Respondent 2

Respondent 3

Emails
Spreadsheets
Memos
Documentation

Technical
documents

Memos
Documentation
procedures

What writing would be

most practical to be
taught?:

Standard writing
mechanics

Exposition
Description
Persuasive

APA style

Standard Conventions of
your field?:

Clarity in
information

APA formatting

Disseminating
information effectively

What writing has been

used most in your career?:

2.

Summaries of
technical documents

Online Research
i e

1. Wilhelmiina

e e i

hei

e Scientific Writing for

Computer Science Students that elements that make a good paper in this field are
eci e

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O he de i

report also urges for wri e

e ie :

Weed u

jec i e (

de i ed de c i i

) hi

. E.g. whe y u

describe previous work, avoid unnecessary details. Give a reference to a general

u ey

e iew if

e (

). The ex d cu e

Writing from The Miller Lab at University of T

ex

Computer Science
d

he e ide . Y u

need to know the rules, even the small rules about when to capitalize and where to
put commas. When you deviate from the rules, you draw a reader's attention. Be sure

this is intentional and that what is receiving the attention is your ideas, not your
w i i g ( 14).
3.

Review of Course Catalog

1. The course catalog at California State University, Fullerton was examined for courses
that fulfill the conventions that were expressed as important by the working
professionals in the survey. The courses found are as follows: CPSC 121
(Programming Concepts) which in addition to surveying important concepts for
computer science majors has a focus on documentation of those processes. CPSC 311
(Technical Writing for Computer Science) is a semesters worth of practice in
documentation processes. Topics covered in this course range from business
communication and proposals to technical manuals and professional ethics. CPSC
103 (Introduction to Personal Computer Applications) is a survey course of basic
computer use which also walks through data processing and email usage.