EngE 3714: Communicating Engineering Research



Michael Alley
331 Durham
Virginia Tech
Phone: 231-2426
Email: alley@vt.edu

Dr. Jenny Lo
Virginia Tech
Phone: 231-2825
Email: jlo@vt.edu

Class
Course Assignments
Course Schedule
Course Texts

Course Links:
Undergraduate Research
Writing Guidelines
Writing Exercises
This course is designed for engineering undergraduates who have completed a summer research experience and want to communicate that research. That research is to be communicated through a journal article, formal presentation, and poster. The course includes participation in a research symposium in which engineering undergraduates display their research in a poster.










Course Assignments

Abstract (10%): Submit an abstract of your summer research that follows the format guidelines for the Undergraduate Research Symposium.

Poster (20%): Submit a poster that presents at least a portion of your summer research. Follow the design guidelines from the following site.

Formal Presentation (25%): Make formal presentation about your summer research. The presentation will follow a typical conference symposium format. You will speak for 15-17 minutes. Following that will be 3-5 minutes for questions. Submitted with your presentation will be a copy of your presentation slides. For the slides, follow the design guidelines from the following site.

Formal Article or Report (35%): Submit a journal article or report that presents your summer research. If you are submitting your research to a conference or a journal, follow the format of that journal or publication. Otherwise, follow the report format presented in class.

In-Class Exercises and Workshop Critiques (10%): In the course, you will be asked to perform in-class exercises and prepare critiques of documents and presentations prepared by others in the class.








Course Schedule

Class Period Topics for Class Period Assignment Book: Chapters
8/26 Abstracts, Energetic Verbs Survey on research experience CSW: pp. 18-24, Chap. 6
9/2 Critiquing of writing Abstract Draft No reading
9/9 Illustrations Abstract CSW: Chapters 10, 11
9/16 Posters In-class exercises CSP: Appendix A
9/23 Presentations Lab Tours CSP: 1
9/30 Being Concise Posters CSW: 8
10/7 Presentations In-class exercises CSP: Chapters 2 and 3
10/14 Undergraduate Research Symposium Participation at Symposium Chapter 4
10/21 Design of Presentation Slides In-class exercises CSP: Chapter 4
10/28 Delivery Draft of presentation slides CSP: Chapter 5
11/4 Presentations Presentations No reading
11/11 Structuring an Article or Report In-class exercises CSW: Chapters 2, 3, 17
11/18 Being Clear and Precise
Being Fluid 		In-class exercises CSW: Chapters 4, 5, 9
12/2 Being Familiar and Concise
Avoiding Errors of Forms		 In-class exercises CSW: Chapters 6 and 8
Appendix B
12/9 Conclusion In-class exercises CSP: 6





Course Texts and Web Resources

Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 3rd edition (New York: Springer-Verlag, 1996), 282 pages. (required)

Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Presentations (New York: Springer-Verlag, 2002), 242 pages. (required)

Writing Center at Virginia Tech, http://www.english.vt.edu/~writing/center.html (Blacksburg, Virginia: Virginia Tech, 2002).

Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students, edited by M. Alley, L. Crowley, J. Donnell, and C. Moore (Blacksburg: Virginia Tech, 2002).





Course Objectives

  1. Students should know where to begin writing a research document and preparing a research presentation
  2. Students should be able to articulate the stylistic differences between strong research writing and speaking and weak research writing and speaking
  3. Students should know how to finish writing documents, even long documents,
  4. Students should know how to make documents and presentations look professional




Course Outcomes

Objective #1: Knowing Where to Begin

  1. Students will have to begin creating one journal article and one poster in the course
  2. Students will have to begin one formal presentation in the course

Objective #2: Articulating Stylistic Differences Between Strong and Weak Writing and Speaking

  1. Students will have to critique the style (structure, language, and illustration) of five journal excerpts in a roundtable workshop
  2. Students will have to write reviews for five document excerpts
  3. Students will have to critique the style (speech, structure, visual aids, and delivery) of five informal and five formal presentations
  4. Students will have to critique the style of five sets of presentation slides in a roundtable workshop
  5. Students will be called upon continually to critique writing and speaking examples in class

Objective #3: Meeting Deadlines

  1. Students will have to meet deadlines for four writing situations in the course: title page and summary, journal excerpt, journal article, and poster
  2. Students will have to meet deadlines for two speaking situations in the course: informal presentation and formal presentation

Objective #4: Preparing Professional Documents and Presentations

  1. Students will have to prepare a journal article and poster
  2. Students will have to prepare a formal presentation



Last updated 5/03
http://fbox.vt.edu:10021/engr/mech/writing/courses/research2.html