Professional Communication for Engineering Students

Curriculum guideline

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Course
CMNS 1135
Discontinued
No
Course code
CMNS 1135
Descriptive
Professional Communication for Engineering Students
Department
Communications
Faculty
Language, Literature & Performing Arts
Credits
3.00
Start date
End term
202010
PLAR
No
Semester length
15 weeks
Max class size
30
Contact hours
4
Method(s) of instruction
Lecture
Seminar
Learning activities

Some or all of the following methods will be used:

  1. lecture/discussion
  2. group work
  3. peer review
  4. projects
  5. instructor feedback on students' work
  6. individual consultation
  7. presentation (individual or group)
Course description
In this introductory course, students will learn the fundamentals of the communication and teamwork skills required in an engineering career. Students will learn how to use the writing process to produce informative and persuasive research papers, email, résumés, cover letters, and presentations. Students will also learn strategies for communicating effectively and persuasively with different audiences, addressing political, ethical, and social issues facing engineers.
Course content

Course Content:

  1. The Writing Process

1.1   Planning

1.1.1  Purpose and scope

1.1.2  Audience analysis

1.1.3  Form and format conventions

1.1.4  Organizing and outlines

                1.2   Drafting

1.2.1  Clarity, coherence, and conciseness

1.2.2  Tone

1.2.3  Effective sentences and paragraphs

        1.3    Revising

1.3.1  Drafts

1.3.2  Peer review

1.3.3  Final submission

2.  Rhetorical principles and strategies

2.1   Audience analysis

2.2   Persuasive correspondence, proposals, and reports

3.  Critical thinking

3.1   Identifying technical, ethical, and social issues in engineering

3.2   Analyzing technical, ethical, and social issues in engineering

4.  Research strategies

4.1   Library resources

4.2   Online resources

5.  Graphics

5.1   Documents

5.2   Oral presentations

6.  Oral presentations

6.1   Informative presentations

6.2   Persuasive presentations

6.3   Presentation aids and graphics

7.  Job search tools

7.1   Résumés and cover letters

7.2   Online job application tools

8.  Academic integrity

8.1   Citing sources

8.2   Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers and American Psychological Association reference citation styles

9.  Teamwork, project management, and professionalism

 

 

Learning outcomes

Students who successfully complete this course will be able to:

  • Use the multi-step writing process to plan, draft, and revise reports, correspondence, and presentations.
  • Use rhetorical and audience analysis strategies to produce persuasive research reports and presentations.
  • Use research strategies to produce informative and persuasive research reports.
  • Produce and deliver oral presentations on engineering issues.
  • Produce effective graphics for documents and presentations.
  • Use engineering conventions in form, format, and reference citation.
  • Produce cover letters and résumés and use job application strategies.
  • Demonstrate effective use of teamwork skills to complete communication tasks.
  • Demonstrate academic integrity.
  • Use critical thinking to identify and analyze contemporary political, ethical, and social issues in engineering.
Means of assessment

Students will be assessed using a variety of evaluations, both written and oral, such as the following:

Quizzes/tests/short writing assignments                      10%

Research paper topic proposal (purpose, audience)        5%

Annotated bibliography (draft introduction, references) 10%

Informative research paper and presentation                20%

Persuasive research paper and presentation                 25%

Cover letter and résumé                                             15%

Participation                                                              15%

Total                                                                       100%

Textbook materials

A coursepack or a current edition of a relevant engineering communication textbook such as one of the following may be used:

Beer, D., and McMurrey, D. A Guide to Writing as an Engineer. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

Irish, R., and Weiss, P. Engineering Communication from Principles to Practice. New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Stevenson, S., and Whitmore, S. Strategies for Engineering Communication. Toronto, ON: John Wiley & Sons.

Prerequisites
  • Any College entrance Language Proficiency Requirement EXCEPT the Douglas College Course Options in ELLA or ENGU, OR
  • a minimum grade of C- in ELLA 0460, or a minimum grade of C- in both ELLA 0465 and 0475, OR
  • a minimum grade of C- in ENGU 0450, ENGU 0455 or ENGU 0490, OR
  • Mastery in ELLA 0330 and any two of ELLA 0310, 0320, or 0340.
Corequisites

None

Equivalencies

None

Which prerequisite

None