119 W22 Van de Kemp

ENGL 119 : Communications in Mathematics and Computer Science Winter 2022

Online/Asynchronous

Instructor: Dr. Jessica Van de Kemp

Office Hours: Fridays, 3:00-4:00, via MS Teams

Email: jvandekemp@uwaterloo.ca (Replies within 24h between Monday and Friday)

Tech Support: If you experience any technical problems with LEARN, email learnhelp@uwaterloo.ca

Course Description

This course aims to build students' oral and written communication skills to prepare them for academic and workplace demands. Working independently and in collaboration with others, students will analyze and produce various written and spoken forms of communication. Projects and assignments will draw on some readings/resources of interest to Mathematics and Computer Science students. By the end of the term, you should gain confidence in your ability to complete research and communication projects. You should also improve your skills in working as part of a team, communicating, practicing professional behaviour, and making oral presentations.

Course Goals and Learning Outcomes

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

• demonstrate critical thinking, reading, and writing skills;
• practice finding, assessing, documenting, and citing research and communicating findings;
• work effectively in groups;
• deliver effective oral presentations;

Readings Available on LEARN

There is no required textbook for this course. All readings and resources are open access and will be made freely available to students as links or PDFs posted on LEARN.

Course Requirements and Assessment

In this course, a passing grade is 50%. You will need to complete the following assignments and activities. Assignments will be submitted and feedback will be provided through LEARN. This course has no midterm or final exam.

Assessment	Due Date	Weighting
Participation (Various Activities)	Throughout The Term	20%
Peer Review Workshops (3x5%)	January 20; February 17; March 24	15%
Critical Review	January 25	20%
Career Goal Statement	February 3	5%
Job Application Package	March 1	20%
Oral Presentation (Group Project)	March 29	20%
Total		100%

Participation (Various Activities) (20%)

Throughout the term, you will complete various writing activities for participation grades, including worksheets, rough drafts, discussion posts, and reflections (e.g. memos, reports, etc).

Peer Review Workshops (15%)

For the workshops, you will submit rough drafts of your assignments for peer review, and practice giving and implementing constructive feedback. There will be 3 peer review workshops, graded for participation, and each is worth 5%.

Critical Review (20%)

For this assignment, you will write a critical summary and analysis of a peer-reviewed article from a top Math/CS journal to demonstrate your critical thinking, reading, writing, research, and citation skills. The instructions for the Critical Review will be outlined in the assignment prompt. This assignment will be graded using a rubric.

Career Goal Statement (5%)

For this assignment, you will write an expression of your career goals, steps to achievement, and personal motivations, and then deliver an oral presentation using the ‘video record’ tool in the dropbox folder. The instructions for the Career Goal Statement will be outlined in the assignment prompt. This assignment will be graded using a rubric.

Job Application Package (20%)

For this assignment, you will demonstrate your critical thinking, reading, and writing skills by creating job application documents/email templates tailored to a job ad that matches your qualifications/skills. The instructions for the job application package will be outlined in the assignment prompt. This assignment will be graded using a rubric.

Oral Presentation (20%)

For this assignment, you will work with your (randomly assigned) group to deliver a 3-5 minute Math/CS talk by translating a peer-reviewed journal article into a PowerPoint presentation (complete with slides, visuals, and most importantly audio/video). The instructions for the Oral Presentation will be outlined in the assignment prompt. This assignment will be graded using a rubric. All group members will receive the same grade on this assignment.

Course Schedule

Course and University Policies

Late Policy: You are required to submit all assignments in this course by their due dates. I am happy to discuss the possibility of an extension or accommodations on an assignment if you email me at least 48 hours in advance so we can agree on a new deadline. Otherwise, late work will be penalized 5% per day.

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 an academic offence and to take responsibility for their 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, etc) or about ‘rules’ for group work/collaboration should seek guidance from the course instructor, 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 the Guidelines for the Assessment of Penalties.

Grievance: A student who believes that a decision affecting some aspect of their 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 they have a ground for an appeal should refer to Policy 72 - Student Appeals.

Note for Students with Disabilities: AccessAbility Services, located in Needles Hall, Room 1401, 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 AccessAbility Services at the beginning of each academic term.

Turnitin.com: Text matching software (Turnitin®) may be used to screen assignments in this course. Turnitin® is used to verify that all materials and sources in assignments are documented. Students' submissions are stored on a U.S. server, therefore students must be given an alternative (e.g. scaffolded assignment or annotated bibliography), if they are concerned about their privacy and/or security.

Students will be given due notice, in the first week of the term and/or at the time assignment details are provided, about arrangements and alternatives for the use of Turnitin in this course. It is the responsibility of the student to notify the instructor if they, in the first week of term or at the time assignment details are provided, wish to submit alternate assignment.

Cross-Listed Course (If Applicable): Please note that a cross-listed course will count in all respective averages no matter under which rubric it has been taken. For example, a PHIL/PSCI cross-list will count in a Philosophy major average, even if the course was taken under the Political Science rubric.

Intellectual Property: Students should be aware that this course contains the intellectual property of their instructor and/or the University of Waterloo. Intellectual property includes items such as: lecture content, spoken and written (and any audio/video recording thereof); lecture handouts, presentations, and other materials prepared for the course (e.g. PowerPoint slides); questions or solution sets from various types of assessments (e.g. assignments, quizzes, tests, or final exams); and work protected by copyright (e.g. any work authored by the instructor or used by the instructor with permission of the copyright owner). Course materials, and the intellectual property contained therein, are used to enhance a student’s educational experience. However, sharing this intellectual property without the intellectual property owner’s permission is a violation of intellectual property rights. For this reason, it is necessary to ask the instructor and/or the University of Waterloo for permission before uploading and sharing the intellectual property of others online (e.g. to an online repository). Permission from an instructor and/or the University is also necessary before sharing the intellectual property of others from completed courses with students taking the same/similar courses in subsequent terms/years. In many cases, instructors might be happy to allow distribution of certain materials. However, doing so without expressed permission is considered a violation of intellectual property rights. Please alert the instructor if you become aware of intellectual property belonging to others (past or present) circulating, either through the student body or online. The intellectual property rights owner deserves to know (and may have already given their consent).

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

On-Campus (due to COVID-19 and campus closures, services are available online or by phone)

• Counselling Services: Email: counselling.services@uwaterloo.ca / Phone: 519-888-4567 ext. 32655
• MATES: One-to-one peer support program offered by the Waterloo Undergraduate Student Association (WUSA) and Counselling Services

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: 519-749-4300 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, trans, or questioning teens in Waterloo. Phone: 519-884-0000 ext. 213

Academic Freedom: Policy 33, Ethical Behaviour states, as one of its general principles (Section 1), that “The University supports academic freedom for all members of the University community. Academic freedom carries with it the duty to use that freedom in a manner consistent with the scholarly obligation to base teaching and research on an honest and ethical quest for knowledge. In the context of this policy, 'academic freedom' refers to academic activities, including teaching and scholarship, as is articulated in the principles set out in the Memorandum of Agreement between the FAUW and the University of Waterloo, 1998 (Article 6). The academic environment which fosters free debate may from time to time include the presentation or discussion of unpopular opinions or controversial material.