192 F19 Lamont

E N G L   1 9 2   C o u r s e   S y l l a b u s                   

192

Q. What’s the difference between ENGL and SPCom 192?

A. Nothing. Just different departments teaching the course.

ENGL 192

Communication in Electrical and Computer Engineering

Revised Aug. 27^th, 2019 

Overwhelmed?

See Section 5 for help. UW wants to help you. Still overwhelmed? Come see me. I’ll help you.

Instructor: Dr. George Lamont

Class hours and location:

• Section 2: Tuesday, Thursday; 10:00-11:20, E5 4106.

Email: glamont@uwaterloo.ca.

Office hours: additional times available by appointment.

• Mondays: 12:30-1:30; 2:30-3:30
• Tuesdays & Thursdays: 11:30-1:30

Office location: Hagey Hall (HH) #156

Course Description

In this course, you will enhance your written and oral technical communication competencies in contexts relevant to the engineering profession as well as to your future career. By participating in classes and completing course assignments, you will practice genres of communication crafted for audiences that might include employers, clients, peer groups, technical staff, public audiences, and regulatory and policy-focused stakeholders. By focusing on genre, design, and audience, you will come to better understand concepts including meaning-making, perception, and responsibility. In addition, by completing written and oral assignments, you will develop confidence as a reader and writer, and as a listener and presenter.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course students should be able to do the following:

1. describe and apply conventions, genres, norms, and values of communication in an engineering discipline and in an engineering-related co-op context;
2. compose persuasive technical arguments, appealing to internal and external audiences, including employers, peers, non-technical clients, and others;
3. analyze and understand technical arguments and summarize documents in clear and concise ways;
4. appraise and reflect on their own compositions and that of their peers to strategically revise and edit documents and presentations.
5. explain the role of reports, the press, and advertising in engineering,
6. demonstrate good literature research skills.

Textbook and Reading:

1. Graves, Heather & Roger Graves. A Strategic Guide to Technical Communication. 2nd edition (Canadian).

2. Additional readings will be provided in class or posted to the LEARN website.

2. Course Assignment and Requirements

How and Where to Submit Written Assignments

• Electronic format: Microsoft Word .docx format or PDF, online through LEARN.
• Paper format is accepted as an alternative, but electronic is preferred.
• All physical assignments must be put personally in my hands to be counted for grading.

Assignment Project Phases: How They Fit Together

Assignments in this course all build on your project idea, and form four stages of how you would undertake a project in the engineering world:

Phase 1

Initiate

1. Article Analysis

2. Project e-mail

Phase 2

Develop

3. Progress Report

4. Technical Manual

Phase 3

Present

5. Oral technical presentation

Phase 4

Propose

7. Engineering Proposal

 7. Contribution to colleague development

Assignment #1: Engineering Article Analysis: (Presentation 5-8 mins)

You will apply your learning of the Swales model of introductions from engineering documents to examine the introduction from a recent peer-reviewed article in Engineering. Then, you will work with a group to design a highly instructive presentation in which you report how and where the article applies the Swales model and synopsize the work and contributions of the article.

Assignment #2: Engineering Pitch E-mail

You will create an e-mail message that demonstrates your specific learning of the conventions of e-mail authoring and storage used in the engineering profession. Your objective is to communicate potential assets and ideas for an engineering project, and convince readers that your project is worth the investment of company resources.

Assignment #3: Progress/Status Report (2-3 pages)

As you are developing your project, you will complete an engineering-style progress report to update your team/project lead on your progress, any setbacks, and any changes to budgets or timelines.

Assignment #4: Engineering Technical Manual (at least 2 pages)

You will analyze a three-dimensional device, determine how it works, and produce a high-quality technical manual that will allow new users to use the device. You will then test this document for usability with a sample of users.

Assignment #5: Oral Proposal Presentation to Engineers (5-8 mins.)

As you develop your project proposal, you will build a presentation that explains the project to your colleagues and supervisors. You must persuade them that the project is feasible and valuable, and that the engineering firm should fund your project. Your colleagues will ask questions to evaluate the feasibility and value of your project. 5-8 minutes.

Assignment #6: Project Proposal—Written Report (6-10 pages)

You will draft a technical report for internal stakeholders in the profession. Your report will summarize known information about a problem, support this description with research from credible sources, and articulate why and how the problem must be addressed. Your concepts and report must show specific research and all original work. Your idea can change and grow over the process, but your objective is to meet the emerging needs of the fields of electrical and computer engineering.

Assignment #7: Contributions (rubrics, throughout course)

Engineers work in teams to review each other’s work and suggest improvements. You will do the same. To do so, you must contribute to our common lessons in this training, and you must participate professionally and vigorously in all class activities. I will use rubrics to grade you for your participation in some in-class activities. I will also evaluate your responses in our lessons. You can earn contribution grades in the following ways:

1. Participating in class discussion,
2. Showing professional courtesy to colleagues,
3. Reviewing others’ work,
4. Helping others’ succeed.

3. Course Schedule

Important Dates: Travel plans NOT accepted reasons for absence.

Terms:

1. “Drop, no penalty”: no record of the course appears on your transcript.

2. “WD”: this means the word “Withdrawn” will appear on your transcript. This will let readers know that you attempted the course but decided to leave the course.

3. “WF”: this means “withdrew/failure.” This will let readers know that your withdrawal constitutes a failure in the course. This course will be calculated as a grade of 32% and will be included in your overall grade average.

4. Course Policies

Equipment you need:

• Your note-taking methods: paper/pencils, laptop, etc.

Professional Behaviour:

1. Attendance: Every lesson specifically supports your program and career. Attendance here is like attendance at a job.
2. Punctuality: Everyone gets delayed, but be on time here as you would for a job. If you are late, come in quietly and minimize your disruption.
3. Emergencies: Communicate with me as soon as possible.
4. Electronic devices: No headphones in class unless directed by me for class activity, and devices will be used only for class work
5. E-mail: all e-mail must come from your official uwaterloo.ca address. You must have a specific subject line that begins with “GENE 199.” Use a professional salutation to greet me, write a specific message, and sign your name as you would complete a letter.

Late work, missed work, grade concerns, “incomplete” courses

• Extension requests: You must request an extension 48 hours or more before a due date, and provide a reasonable justification, subject to verification by me. Last-minute extension requests will be denied unless there is medical documentation to support the need.
• Late submissions: 5% penalty per day unless the late submission is justified by medical documentation.
• Late/absent for presentations: 5% per day while the presentations are still being delivered. Once each presentation’s phase is complete, you will not be able to submit the presentation for grading.
• Missed tests, quizzes, contributions: If your absence is supported by medical documentation, your grade will be re-weighted to your other quizzes or contributions. Otherwise, you will receive a grade of 0 for the quiz or contribution.
• Medical documentation: You must submit a “University of Waterloo Verification of Illness” form, available at https://uwaterloo.ca/campus-wellness/sites/ca.campus-wellness/files/uploads/files/VIF-online.pdf.
• No “incomplete courses”: I will not grant an “incomplete course”. All course work is due by the final day of lectures (December 3^rd).
• Grade challenges: You may re-submit an assignment for regrading only if you provide a detailed letter explaining why the concepts and criteria of the course justify a different grade. I do not accept any requests to challenge a grade while I am returning any papers in class. Please make an appointment to visit me, and we will have a fair conversation about your concerns.
• Grade concerns: If you are struggling, I want to help you. However, don’t procrastinate. The sooner you consult with me, the sooner we can address the problems.

Academic Integrity and Plagiarism—Official Policy

Academic Integrity: In order to maintain a culture of academic integrity, members of the University of Waterloo are expected to promote honesty, trust, fairness, respect and responsibility. See the UWaterloo Academic Integrity webpage and the Arts Academic Integrity webpage for more information.

Discipline: A student is expected to know what constitutes academic integrity, to avoid committing academic offences, and to take responsibility for his/her actions. A student who is unsure whether an action constitutes an offence, or who needs help in learning how to avoid offences (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) or about “rules” for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course professor, academic advisor, or the Undergraduate Associate Dean. When misconduct has been found to have occurred, disciplinary penalties will be imposed under Policy 71 – Student Discipline. For information on categories of offenses and types of penalties, students should refer to Policy 71 - Student Discipline. For typical penalties check Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of his/her university life has been unfair or unreasonable may have grounds for initiating a grievance. Read Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances, Section 4. When in doubt, please be certain to contact the department’s administrative assistant who will provide further assistance.

Appeals: A decision made or penalty imposed under Policy 70 - Student Petitions and Grievances (other than a petition) or Policy 71 - Student Discipline may be appealed if there is a ground. A student who believes he/she has a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Using Turnitin in this Course

Text matching software (Turnitin®) will be used to screen assignments in this course. This is being done to verify that use of all material and sources in assignments is documented. Students will be given an option if they do not want to have their assignment screened by Turnitin®. In the first week of the term, details will be provided about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin® in this course.

5. Services and Additional Support

If you are struggling, do realize that there are services here that will help you and protect your privacy.

Accommodations for Students with Learning Challenges

If you have any concern about a learning challenge or learning disability, please feel free to consult with me about how to support you. You may also wish to register with the AccessAbility Services office. This office is located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension (1401), and collaborates with all academic departments to arrange appropriate accommodations for students with disabilities without compromising the academic integrity of the curriculum. If you require academic accommodations to lessen the impact of your disability, please register with the AS office at the beginning of each academic term.

Counselling Services

Counselling Services provides support free-of-charge and protects your privacy. Find them at https://uwaterloo.ca/counselling-services/.

Student Success Office

The Student Success Office also provides support free-of-charge and protects your privacy. This office provides academic and personal development services, resources for international students, as well as study abroad and exchange support. They are located at South Campus Hall, second floor. Office hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday, 8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.; and Tuesday and Thursday, 8:30 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.

The Writing and Communication Centre

The Writing and Communication Centre works with students as they develop their ideas, draft, and revise. Writing and Communication Specialists offer one-on-one support in planning assignments, synthesizing and citing research, organizing papers and reports, designing presentations and e-portfolios, and revising for clarity and coherence. You can make multiple appointments throughout the term, or drop in at the Library for quick questions or feedback. To book a 50-minute appointment and to see drop-in hours, visit www.uwaterloo.ca/writingand-communication-centre. Group appointments for team-based projects, presentations, and papers are also available.

Please note that communication specialists guide you to see your work as readers would. They can teach you revising skills and strategies, but will not change or correct your work for you. Please bring hard copies of your assignment instructions and any notes or drafts to your appointment.