Writing for Engineering

 English 210-07: (Section P) / Fall 2020 Syllabus

Course Site: https://otteengl210p.commons.gc.cuny.edu/

Instructor: Nicholas Otte                                                           Class Time: Tu/Th 2:00-3:15pm

Email: notte@ccny.cuny.edu                        Office Hours: Thurs 3:30-4:30 (zoom), or by appt

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Course Description

Welcome to Writing for Engineers!

In this course we will learn various forms of technical writing specific to the engineering profession. We will read and discuss texts on engineering, technology, technical communication and science in order to explore ideas and identify compositional strategies. We will learn how to communicate our technical knowledge, plans, and ideas effectively and clearly in a professional manner to a variety of audiences.

 

Learning Outcomes

• Acknowledge our class community’s range of linguistic differences as resources, and draw on those resources to develop rhetorical sensibility
• Enhance strategies for reading, drafting, revising, editing, and self-assessment
• Negotiate personal writing goals and audience expectations regarding conventions of genre, medium, and rhetorical situation
• Develop and engage in the collaborative and social aspects of writing processes
• Engage in genre analysis and multimodal composing to explore effective writing across disciplinary contexts and beyond
• Actively reflect upon the writing process in real time
• Practice using various library resources, online databases, and the Internet to locate sources appropriate to your writing projects
• Strengthen your research and techniques of composition (including evaluating, integrating, quoting, paraphrasing, summarizing, synthesizing, analyzing, and citing sources)

 

 

Course Requirements

 A typical day in this course will consist of posting on a Blackboard forum – one initial post of no less than 250 words, and substantial responses to posts made by two of your classmates. Initial posts are to be made during class time, and responses may be made until the end of the day.

Assignments will include a Technical Description, a Collaborative Memo, a Lab Report, an Engineering Proposal, and finally a Digital Portfolio and reflective Self-Assessment essay. Many of these assignments will include self-assessment and peer review components.

You will also keep a reflective journal, housed on your own personal CUNY Academic Commons site, where you will write freely about the material covered that week. In this 16 week course, each student will make a minimum of 10 journal entries.

 All assignments, large and small should reflect thoughtful and thorough engagement with the work of this course. Discussion posts, responses, and peer reviews should concisely convey original thought, composed with the respect and care. This means no cursory posts, no copy-and-pasting, and no rude language. It means reading carefully, responding appropriately, providing textual evidence and citation, and proofreading. This is a class about representing yourself and your ideas through writing, and forming a community through intellectual integrity and respect for one another and for language. Adhere to these standards and you will be successful in this class.

This is a Zero Textbook Cost course. All assigned readings will be made available via Blackboard. There will be no exams.

Grading

• Discussion Forums & Peer Review – 15%
• Technical Description – 10%
• Memo – 10%    
• Lab Report – 15%
• Engineering Proposal – 20%
• Reflective Journal Entries – 10%  
• Final Digital Portfolio/Self-Assessment – 20%   

 

Course Policies

All students are expected, first and foremost, to treat each other with respect and dignity. Hateful speech or ill treatment of others will be met with zero tolerance. This is a class about sharing ideas and expressing yourself, and it is our collective duty to make sure we do this safely and respectfully. For further information on campus conduct, please see: CCNY’s Statement on Community Standards.

Plagiarism: Plagiarism is unacceptable. No exceptions. The importance of this rule and the reasons for it will be discussed in class, but more information can be found here: CUNY Policy on Academic Integrity.

Attendance & Participation: Students are expected to engage with every week of this course. Participation conflicts must be stated ahead of time, excepting only cases of serious emergency.

If a student misses more than four discussions, the final grade will be dropped by one half letter (from 90 to 85, for example). If you miss six discussions, your final grade will be dropped one full letter. If you miss seven discussions, you will not be able to pass the course. I will notify you by email if this is becoming an issue. If special circumstances or difficulties arise, please see me during office hours. I’m happy to work with you to help you successfully complete this course.

Late Assignments: Assignments should be submitted on time. Submitting promptly and being on time is key to academic success (and success overall). A late assignment will drop one half letter grade for each day it is late. This goes for all graded assignments, as well as discussion posts.

 

Student Resources

 

A full list of CCNY’s student affairs and academic resources—Including the Writing Center, which every student is encouraged to explore— is available on our course site, along with links to contact each of the services.

 

You can use your CCNY email to attain subscriptions to programs and services like Microsoft Office, as well as free subscriptions to the New York Times and other publications. I encourage every student to take advantage of the oppurtunity to eqquip yourself with all the tools and resources you can.

Links to additional school-wide policies and helpful resources can be found on our class site.