Writing Across Engineering: A First Year Implementation

The second and third trials: exposition, argument and engineering for everyone (Cont.)

The shape of the writing opportunities

The first course, English 111, requires use of exposition and argument to develop each student’s writing proficiency. The first three assignments follow:

English 111

(i) TOPIC: Analyze an advertisement that utilizes aspects of "engineering" to sell its product. The choice of advertisement is yours, but it must be an ad that relies to some degree on engineering.
METHOD OF ANALYSIS : Here are some ways to look at your ad: What publication is it in ? Who is the target audience, and does the ad hit its target ? How accurate or extensive is the use of engineering ? Does the ad accurately use words or phrases like "unique", "improved", or "state of the art" ?
FOCUS: Grade will depend on a clear thesis statement, an opening paragraph that forecasts your argument about the ad, and a level of analysis that goes beyond a surface reading
SCHEDULE: Draft, draft return with workshop that includes peer review, teacher conference, and final version all required.(same schedule for all major writing assignments)

(ii) TOPIC: "Research the day you were born and analyze the growth of a particular technology since that time. Perhaps a new product was introduced on the market, or the military tested a new weapon. At what point was the US in its space program? What kind of research and development was occurring in medicine, industry, and at the university? Your task will be to focus on a particular technology and to discuss its development and its impact"
PURPOSE: To show you that technological development continues beyond a discrete moment in time to influence society today"
REQUIREMENTS: This paper requires that you research the popular media at the time of your birth. It does not have to be extensive research; I am not looking for how many sources you find. Since the technology may have affected or is affecting your life, you are free to use the personal "I" when discussing impact; however, do not overuse it and be sure to make the tone academic"
ANALYSIS will be the major feature of this paper. You need to convince your reader that (1) your chosen technology has followed some particular line of continued development since your birth, and that (2) it has impacted current society.

(iii) RESEARCH PAPER (RP)
What is a RP? A RP is a paper that makes an argument based on well researched evidence. To construct a good RP, four major skills are required:
(1) The ability to find source material and to select data most useful to your argument.
(2) The ability to synthesize outside sources so that they support your thesis.
(3) The ability to subordinate outside "voices" to your own, (so that the takeover of a paper by an "authoritative" reference voice is avoided).
(4) The ability to analyze the information you choose to give to your audience. (Analysis encourages your reader to "see’ information the way you do, as well as explaining its significance.)

TOPIC: "Choose a topic related to your field of study.
EVALUATION: My first and formost concern is how well you logically construct and analyze your topic. A clear and well defined thesis will be a critical aspect of your work. I will pay particular attention to how you integrate supporting material through your work. Adherence to the conventions of Standard Written English is expected.

(iv) FINAL EXAM (take home; must be typed)
After reading "Technology and the Tragic View" by Samuel Florman, complete the following rhetorical tasks: Develop an introduction that leads to a clear thesis statement about the article’s central argument. Do not look for a sentence to pull out of the article; instead, determine what you think is the article’s main pont and write it in a clear thesis statement. Choose three examples from the text, and analyze how each supports the central argument. Define the tone of the article. Does it assist or detract from the article’s central point ? In ending this work, write a paragraph that explains whether or not you agree with the argument of the text, and why.

ENGLISH 112

Readings to date include the following:
"Prologue" and "Journey’s End" from The Axemaker’s Gift: A Double- Edend History of Human Culture by James Burke and Robert Ornstein.. These selections give context to the entire semester as they introduce a great challenge to engineering students. The main argument is that with the advent of technology, human beings stepped out ot the natural cycle of the world and created an alternative reality that we live today. This alternative reality exists because our thinking about the world is inextricably intertwined with technology.
The following excerpts from Beyond Literacy evidence this argument clearly. These show that how we think about information gathering, storing, and presenting is dominated by the technologies we use to perform these tasks. "The Electronic Revolution" by Frederic Turner, and "Imagination and Information", by R. Patton Howell, both in Beyond Literacy, R. P. Howell(ed).
An article about Benjamin Franklin, "Information Highwayman", by Walter Isaacson shows how Franklin used information technology to disseminate his work and how it influenced how he "imagined" its presentation.
Ethics and responsibility are topics for discussion and writing introduced through "Computer Mistakes: Who Is Responsible?" (Hooper) and "Its Midnight: Do You Know Where Your Data Is?" (Mandell)
The science fiction, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?, by Philip K. Dick provides an illustration of an imaginative way to look at how we think about technology and its impact. This piece provided the story for the film, Blade Runner.

Assignments to date:
(i) TOPIC : Target a design problem, explain why it is a problem, and give a possible solution the problem. PROCESS: Follow the model below

Introduction

Problem
Solution

Analysis

Background
Causes
Scope, significance, implications

Solution

Work and management: people, time, and costs
Drawbacks
Benefits

Conclusions

Reiterate problem statement (I.A)
Give final push for your solution

EVALUATION: Precision of introduction and how it frames the work and helps reader understand your solution(25 pts) Level of detail in solution section (35 pts). Organization (15 pts). Style(10 pts) . Grammar (15 pts)

(ii) TOPIC Respond to the Axemaker reading. Burke and Ornstein claim in their introduction that with each new technological advance we (humanity) "...used to change the world. And when we changed the world, we changed our minds, for each gift redefined the way we thought, the values by which we lived, and the truths for which we died." Respond to this statement by choosing any example of technology and discuss how it changed the world and how it changed us, especially the way that we think. This is essentially filling in the "missing text" of this work.
METHOD A two part paper. "...give thought to process of how the world is physically changed by your example and to how our minds are changed by both the example and its effect.
AUDIENCE: consider Burke and Ornstein to be your audience.
EVALUATION: An introduction that frames the discussion, and a thesis that clearly states your argument. An organizational structure that unifies both requirements of the assignment. Tone appropriate to your audience. A well proofread paper.

These examples of implementing Writing Across Engineering in the firt year at NCSU indicate steady progress in permanently establishing this approach as part of a first year introduction to engineering. Over the next five years, we will continue to grow the experiment, and hope to reach 30-50% of each incoming first year engineering class by the year 2000.

Assessment: Beyond conventional course evaluations, we will design ,distribute, collect, and analyze a questionnaire which explores the introduction to engineering rceived by these students vs. those taking other or no introduction to engineering.

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