RHET 102 Rhetoric (for Engineers) syllabus

Course Description

Rhetoric involves the effective use of language to persuade others. For engineers, rhetoric embraces much more than speaking and writing -- you must also consider the way your data is collected, organized, and presented, and even your approach to problem-solving. Engineering is not performed in a vacuum, but rather must be done with effects on others always in mind.

Here you will enhance your skills in formulating engineering hypotheses and conducting research of your own, and in evaluating the work of other engineers. You will be exposed to the need for clear communication in the technical world and to engineers who communicate issues well to the general public.

There are two major paths being followed concurrently in this course. Along one, we work on finding the best ways to present technical information in oral and written form. Along the other, we examine case studies of practicing engineers and engineering projects. Each week, therefore, there will be lecture and discussion (and sometimes experiments) involving concepts of both paths.

Required Text

Florman, S. C. The Civilized Engineer. St. Martin’s Press, 1987. (FLO) -- should be available in the bookstore. It can be purchased from amazon.com as well. This text is a reader, covering a range of topics that will be discussed in class. I will provide students with extra readings.

There is a useful reference, Strunk & White's The Elements of Style, which you may buy at any bookstore or via amazon.com if you want a hardcopy (highly recommended -- you'll use it for the rest of your career), but for use in this course alone, you can find the entire text online HERE, in classic form (that is, it's not completely up to date, though what's there is pretty close to timeless for our purposes).

Many students used the Ramage & Bean text Writing Arguments for Rhetoric I. That text will make a useful reference for this class, so don't throw it away or re-sell it -- but we won't have any assignments from Ramage & Bean either.

Most of my lecture notes are already available online. Look for the individual entries HERE. Look HERE for a sample speech evaluation worksheet.

Course Grade

Project	Percentage of final grade
Individual research report, including both rough draft and final version, 1000-1500 words, depending on topic	20
Individual presentation 5-10 minutes, on the same subject as the above research report	20
Group project with report and presentation, report 3000-4000 words, depending on topic, presentation 15 minutes w/Q&A	30
In-class assignments, class participation, experiments, "two-minute drills," and quizzes	30

The following represents a change over previous years. You will have an individual project, as previous classes, but in this project you will be expected to define and solve an engineering problem. This is not a research paper; it is a problem-solving paper. There will be one group project this year, and it will not be free-form: your group will write a business plan for a technology start-up. This means that you will define some product or service, and write as though you intend to present this product or service to investors.

Both individual and group projects must be approved by the instructor before they will be graded; projects with strong engineering content are most likely to be approved.

As you no doubt also have noticed, there is no final. I will, however, offer an optional exam during finals week to any students who are concerned about their classroom participation grade -- the exam results will be factored in with the rest of your semester participation. This exam will be REQUIRED if you miss three or more sessions of this class.

Policies

• The class schedule is subject to change on short notice. Everything listed on the schedule will be covered, but since there is a required library tour yet to be scheduled, and since I reserve the right to bring in guest speakers when possible, there is a possibility that some things will be out of the order given here. You will be responsible for keeping up with such changes.
• Unless I specifically tell you otherwise, assignments are due on the dates given in the class schedule. Unexcused late written assignments will be accepted for a short time after the due date, with the loss of a letter grade. Unexcused late presentations get one week to be made up with the loss of a letter grade; after that it's too late. Lateness may be excused under certain circumstances, but not after the fact. I must be contacted in the event of circumstances requiring you to turn in any assignment late, and when contacted with need for a late presentation, I will reschedule it.
• Plagiarism, the use of someone else’s words without attribution, as though they were your own, is illegal. Any case of plagiarism in this class is grounds for failing the class. If you are uncertain about exactly what plagiarism IS, look HERE.
• Readings (if any) will be handed out the week before they're discussed in class.

Schedule