191 F19 Hancock

191

ENGL 191: Communication in the Engineering Profession

Fall Term, 2019

E5 5106

11:30-12:50 T Th (04)

University of Waterloo

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Dr. Michael Hancock

Office: 369 Hagey Hall

Office Hours: 02:00 pm – 4:00 pm T Th, and by appointment

Email: m3hancoc@uwaterloo.ca (please put the course name ENGL 199 in your email subject lines)

Course Description

This course will teach written and oral communication skills applicable to civil, environmental, and geological engineering. Students will practice internal and external genres of communication relevant to groups that might include clients, peer groups, technical staff, public audiences, and regulatory and policy-focused stakeholders. Students will enhance their critical thinking skills and creative competences to better understand meaning-making, perception, and responsibility. Through an iterative communication design process that emphasizes agency and confidence, students will craft audience-specific messages through writing, presenting, and multimedia.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

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

• Explain the role of reports, the press, advertising, video and other communications media in engineering
• Demonstrate good command of basic writing skills (grammar, sentences and paragraphs)
• Demonstrate good literature and research skills: gather, assess and analyze information in terms of data and argument
• Organize and deliver a convincing oral presentation
• Produce a multimedia work that instructs on some subject
• Learn the relationships between written communication and oral and visual supplements
• Experience writing as a process, including planning, drafting, reviewing, revising, and criticizing
• Collaborate effectively in teams to review documents
• Construct a persuasive technical argument
• Write an effective engineering report
• Become more self-conscious and reflective writers by being asked to analyze and justify the strategies you use in your writing

Suggested Reading

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

Broadview, 2011. ISBN: 9781554810239/155481023X. $54.95.

Guidelines for Contributions

• 90-100 Excellent: With few, if any, exceptions, the student is making frequent, substantive, useful and original contributions to class discussions; the student consistently engaged and participating, and attends all peer review sessions and classes
• 80-89 Good: the student is a regular contributor to discussions; the student is consistently engaged, and attends all peer review sessions
• 70-79    Satisfactory: The student demonstrates occasional contributions and inconsistent engagement
• 60-69    Marginal: Minimal contributions and/or significant lack of engagement
• 50-60 Failure: repeated disruptive, inappropriate or unethical behaviour; behaviour disrespectful to others; consistent lack of commitment and/or effort

Assignment Descriptions

More detailed descriptions of the themes will be available prior to your proposal due date. For your assignments, you should develop a problem you wish to address, and stick with that general topic throughout the term; in particular, it’s assumed your technical report will directly follow your proposal. If you do wish to change your topic after the first assignment we can explore the most effective way to do that, but the goal is to demonstrate your capacity to explain problems and concepts you're familiar with, so choosing one for the term helps you focus on the main aspect of the course, communicating that information to different audiences. For each of the following assignment, a more detailed description of the assignment will be provided later in the course.

Instructional Media

Your instructional text should explain some engineering-related issue (ideally) to a lay audience. This is designed to be a short assignment, so we will talk about strategies to compress an appropriate amount of information in a succinct manner.

Non-technical Presentation

For this presentation you will want to communicate to a non-technical audience in five minutes or less. You can imagine a case where you may have to present information about your project to a town hall meeting or perhaps a public commission. One way to approach it would be to think about it as a pitch for your proposal and technical report project, but accommodate your arguments and delivery of that information to a non-expert audience.

Proposal

A proposal is a plan for solving a problem. Your major project for this course is to produce a professional technical report that is related to an important issue/problem in Engineering, present that report to a lay audience, and construct an instructional video relating to some element of that report. But before any of that, you need to convince people that you can solve the problem, through a proposal. A good proposal clearly identifies a problem, explains how it will be addressed (including budget and work schedule) and presents your qualifications for completing the work.

Report

You will draft a technical report for internal stakeholders in the profession (ie—other engineering professionals). Your report will summarize known information about a problem, support this description with credible sources, and articulate why the problem must be addressed. You will further make specific recommendations on how to address this problem and argue for the feasibility of your solution. While you may review drafts of the report with your peers, your assignment must be individually completed, and you should conduct your own research, craft your own arguments, and write your own draft.

Note Set

Throughout the term, students will submit three sets of course notes, each of which describes, in the student’s own words, what was done in class that week, as well as the student’s reflections on the material, and any connection they can make to other courses, their future careers, or the world at large. In the second week of class (ie, Sept 10/12), students will sign up for one of three groups; they are then responsible for submitting course notes for the weeks corresponding to that group. Notes must be submitted by the next class period (extensions are permitted upon request). (For example, if a student signs up as group 2, their first note set will be about what we discuss in week 4, or on September 24^th and 26^th; they must submit their note set online by October 2^nd.) The note sets will be anonymized and made available to all students; if a student doesn’t wish for their set to be made available, they may request that they not be made so, and I won’t put them up. Note sets are to be at least 500 words. More information on note sets will be provided in weeks 2 and 3.

Schedule (Update With Correct Dates )

Course Policies

Course policies are essentially based on respectful communication and setting clear expectations. If something about the course, be it an assignment or policy, is not clear to you please write me and we will sort the issue. Please take the time to read the syllabus and the assignments carefully and ask me questions if you’re not sure about something. A syllabus functions as a kind of contract between instructor and student, but more importantly it is a resource and connects you to resources both in the classroom and around campus. I want to make this course as useful to you as possible, and that means—as is always the case in technical communication—clearly communicating our expectations of each other and making sure everyone is on the same page.

Accessibility Statement

Students may also wish to register with the AccessAbility Services office, located on the first floor of the Needles Hall extension (NH 1401). AccessAbility Services 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, please register with AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Mental Health Support

All of us need a support system. The faculty and staff in Arts encourage students to seek out mental health supports if they are needed.

On Campus

• Counselling Services: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / 519-888-4567 ext 32655
• MATES: one-to-one peer support program offered by Federation of Students (FEDS) and Counselling Services
• Health Services Emergency service: located across the creek form Student Life Centre

Off campus, 24/7

• Good2Talk: Free confidential help line for post-secondary students. Phone: 1-866-925-5454
• Grand River Hospital: Emergency care for mental health crisis. Phone: 519-749-433 ext. 6880
• Here 24/7: Mental Health and Crisis Service Team. Phone: 1-844-437-3247
• OK2BME: set of support services for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender or questioning teens in

Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 extension 213

Full details can be found online at the Faculty of ARTS website Download UWaterloo and regional mental health resources (PDF)

Download the WatSafe app to your phone to quickly access mental health support information

Emergencies and Absences

In the event of a major campus emergency, course requirements, deadlines and grading percentages are subject to changes that may be necessitated by a revised semester calendar or other circumstances beyond the instructor’s control. Relevant changes to this course will be posted onto the course website or can be obtained by contacting the instructor via email. You are expected to read your @uwaterloo.ca email on a frequent basis. Personal emergencies should be communicated to me as soon as possible, but attend first to you and your family’s well-being. Whatever happens to be your particular situation is not my business and all I need to know is there was a medical emergency. You do not need to provide any details. For extended absences I would like a note from a doctor, but again no details about why you were away ever need to be provided in these notes and you do not need to disclose the reason to me.

Grade Concerns and Incompletes

Should your grades concern you then you must speak with me within the first 3/4 of the term; the last quarter of the term will not provide sufficient time to markedly improve your final grade. Finally, I will not grant an incomplete in the course; if you have concerns about completing your term please write to me as soon as possible.

Missed or Late Work

Late assignments will be penalized at 5% per school day. If you know you will need an extension, speak with me at least 48 hours prior to the due date. (In general, I try to be very generous with extensions, so please take them if needed.)

Academic Honesty

All work in this course should be original. Any material that you paraphrase or quote must be cited according to an accepted style format (e.g., APA, Chicago, MLA). Over citing will not be penalized and, in fact, I’m always happy to see you’re doing research. If you’re not sure if you should cite something, go ahead and cite it. We can chat about it later, but when in doubt give credit. Remember you want to give credit for words and ideas.

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 Office of 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. Check the Office of Academic Integrity for more information. 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.

Grievances and Appeals 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.

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.

Territorial Acknowledgement

We acknowledge that we are living and working on the traditional territory of the Attawandaron (also known as Neutral), Anishinaabe and Haudenosaunee peoples. The University of Waterloo is situated on the Haldimand Tract, the land promised to the Six Nations that includes 10 kilometres on each side of the Grand River.