119 W22 Hancock

ENGL 119: Communications in Mathematics& Computer Science Winter term, 2022

Sections 3, 4, 5, 6

English Language and Literature University of Waterloo

Instructor Information:

Instructor: Dr. Michael Hancock

Office: 363 Hagey Hall (though all meetings will conducted online) Office Hours: F 03:00 – 5: 00 pm on Zoom (or by appointment) *

Email: m3hancoc@uwaterloo.ca (please put the course name ENGL 119 and the section number in your email subject lines)

Class Hours:

Section 003 400:-5:20 pm M W HH 150

Section 004 1:00-2:20 pm T Th EV3 3408

Section 005 4:00-5:20 pm T Th EV3 3408

Section 006 1:00-2:20 pm MW EV3 3408

Note: Since we're conducting online classes until at least January 23^rd, the video lectures for the course will be posted on MW, by 2 PM that day.

*Specifically, if you email me between these hours and ask for a Zoom meeting, it will be granted. I'm also willing to schedule meetings at different times, on request.

Course Description

In this course you will learn about effective written, oral, and visual communication in mathematics and computer science. You will have the opportunity to shape these communication skills through iterative design processes that emphasize attention to your audience, the purpose of your communications, and student agency. You will work individually and collaboratively to craft messages for internal and external audiences, including scientists, employers, affected communities, or broader publics. You will learn a variety of genres such as research reports, summaries, conference abstracts, conference posters, public talks, blog posts, and podcasts. Overall, this course will help you enhance your capacity to conduct research and report findings, communicate ethically, and thereby effect important change.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

• design, draft, and persuasively deliver communication to expert and non-expert audiences;
• justify decisions about the language, content, and genre used when communicating;
• practice collaboration and peer review in support of iterative communication design processes, including revision;
• practice research processes to find, assess, document, incorporate, and cite research resources and communicate research findings;
• describe and appraise the purposes and ethical concerns of mathematics and computer science communication.

This term in particular is going to be challenging. With COVID-19 necessitating the need for online courses (at least for the start), our connections to each other become more tenuous, and more easily frayed. It's going to take discipline to stay on track in the weeks ahead. I'm committed to doing what I can to help. If you feel like you're falling behind, or that you're overwhelmed with the material, please contact me. We'll figure out what works best for you

Required Reading

Penrose, Ann M., and Steven B. Katz. Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse. 3^rd edition. 2020: Open Access Version. (Available online)

Other readings/videos will be posted to LEARN as relevant.

General Course Format, for the first three weeks

I'm going to aim for posting new lectures each Monday and Wednesday and you have until a week following that lecture to post your thoughts on the readings and exercises in the discussion board. (students in sections 4 and 5 can wait until Tuesday and Thursday, with the posts due a week after those dates instead). After that, we will presumably be returning to lectures in person. More information regarding the assignments will be posted as their respective due dates approach. This course is designed to be asynchronous—that is, we won't have a mandatory “live” component.

Guidelines for Contributions

Your participation consists of three parts—responses to exercises in the online lectures, draft posting and feedback, and participation during in-class discussion. For each recorded lecture in the first three weeks of the course, you're responsible for responding to at least one exercise and at least one other student (though the response to a student doesn't have to be to the same exercise!). For this portion, I'm looking at quality and quantity. Quantity means that each post and reply is of a minimum length (at least 250 words for the main post, and 100 for the reply—the exception here is for writing-related exercises, where fulfilling the objective can be under 250 words) and, barring an emergency, the post and reply have been submitted before the following school week. Quality means that for the writing-based posts, you've done exactly what the exercise have requested, without errors. And for the close study-based posts, you've illustrated that you've thought deeply on the reading, the lecture, or both.

Part of the participation mark will be participation in all three of our draft classes. For these classes, you are to bring a full draft of your assignment to class (or rather, post it to the class discussion board). And by full draft, that means at least 2/3 of its minimum final length (and Works Cited and title page don't count towards that length), with a point form outline for the rest of the submission, and a Works Cited page, when relevant. You are also to read/view and comment on at least three other students' submission, under a format that will be discussed later. The participation mark here depends both on submitting a proper draft, and commenting in detail in your feedback. If you have some sort of emergency, exceptions are possible, but they must be granted by me in advance of the draft submission deadline.

Additionally, there will be a classroom participation component. Occasionally, students will be given be small assignments involving minor exercises and activities that are conducted in class. Students will not be graded on these assignments, but completion will contribute to participation mark. Finally, the participation mark will also be a measure of participation in classroom discussions. If you feel uncomfortable participating in such discussions, that’s fine—not everyone excels under the same conditions, and there are certainly circumstances where I’m not comfortable speaking in group situations either. Contact me early in the term, and we’ll talk about some alternatives (more writing, finding alternative sources for the topics, sketching infographs) you could do instead. If you don't get the opportunity to share your results in class, be sure to post them to the course discussion board, or email them to me directly.

Assignment Descriptions

For your assignments, the basic principle behind them is called scaffolding. What that means is that many of them are related to each other; finding the information to complete one will give you a structure, or scaffold , you can draw on for the next assignment. The benefit of this approach is that it reinforces a basic principle of scientific writing: the various genres of scientific writing are closely related, and the skills you develop for one genre carry over to others. The potential drawback is that if you fall behind in one assignment, you need work extra hard to avoid falling behind in others. That drawback is why you should contact me as soon as possible if you think you need assistance with a particular assignment.

Reflection (10%)

This assignment will consist of a personal reflection on how you developed your mathematics or computer science literacy, focusing on how a specific event or events led you to your interest and career. It will also grant you practice in presenting yourself, and your thoughts, in a cohesive narrative.

Summary and Annotated Bibliography (20%)

This assignment (as the title may suggest) has two parts. First, the summary. Before you can write your documents, you need to be able to read existing articles. In particular, you need to be able to practice active reading, which requires familiarity with the genre you're reading, and familiarity with the practice of skimming and summarizing. In this first assignment, you will demonstrate your active reading skills by summarizing a mathematics or computer science related article from a list of possible candidates.

The annotated bibliography is the intermediary step between a summary and a larger article. It's a tool that researchers of all fields, from the sciences to the humanities, use to determine how existing research relates to their own. The annotated bibliography consists of bibliographic entries, each with their own description (the annotation). The entries themselves should be formatted in APA style, and placed in alphabetical order in accordance to first author; at least three entries should be scholarly sources written for a scholarly audience. The annotations should include at least four pieces of information: the context for the text, such as the intended audience and journal or book it appears in; a brief summary of the paper's findings; the relevance of the text for your overall project; and its relation to other texts you are investigating.

State of the Field Article (25%)

Your next assignment will be to write a report on the state of a particular phenomenon in mathematics or computer science and how it is currently being represented in both the scholarly field and the public sphere. This assignment will let you trace the origins of an idea and understand how that is translated and changed to present its information to different publics. It takes what you've learned previously, and expands outwards.

Using your annotated bibliography, select two popular non-scholarly accompaniments which also discuss that particular scientific phenomenon. Use the CARS model of introductions to frame your research. You may structure your piece either as a more traditional academic essay or an IMRAD-report style piece. Analyze your texts in a cohesive argument as follows:

1. Science content (how true/accurate is the science in each publication)
2. How the science is framed (what are we supposed to see the raw content as? Pay attention to language, metaphor, and imagery for each text)
3. Critical analysis: what does the content mean and how does it reach that meaning? What should the framing in question 2 be seen as? Relate to wider issues and debates.

Presentation/poster (25%)

Being able to read and present the results of research papers is an important part of your career. Increasingly, however, in terms of that career as well as the opportunity to create large-scale change, it's also important to be able to speak to audiences outside of your expert group. Researchers outside of the mathematics and computer science, politicians, the general public and other groups also have a stake in your research, and a stake in deciding your funding. To that end, you need to be able to write for multiple audiences. In short, the presentation and poster focuses on Public Understanding of Science. You are to choose a math- or computer science-related topic , and present for four to five minutes on some aspect of that topic that may be of interest to the general public, as well as construct a poster that would be appropriate for a public audience. (Example: the topic could be early programmer Ada Lovelace, and subtopics could be her relevance for computer science and the significance of her portrayal in popular culture) Ideally, this topic will relate to at least one of your articles from the previous assignments, so you may draw on that material. Some negotiation may be required to find a topic that suits everyone; I'd be happy to assist with that endeavour.

Schedule

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 course and at the university. 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. And I can personally attest to their value; in my own time as student at UW, I found counselling services and other resources to be extremely helpful.

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 Coun- selling 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. 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 2% per school day. If you know you will need an extension, speak with me at least 48 hours prior to the due date. Extensions for group assignments are much more difficult to manage than for individual projects, so please think ahead. (In general, I try to be very generous with extensions, especially under current conditions, 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 (in this course, that will generally be . 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.