Re: If you were asked to design a course for undergrad engineering students...

[Peter Lewicke <plewicke -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

I would design a course to serve as a broad overview
of technical communications, because it would provide
competency that the students would be able to use in
most any field. 

I can understand why someone would want to tailor a
technical communications course to a particular
discipline, but how many people end up working in
exactly the field they major in as undergraduates? 

As a compromise, it might be a good idea to have
classes on the specific style, nomenclature, standard
abbreviaitons, etc. used in each of those majors.



--- Tissa Salter <tissa55 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:

> Hello all:
> 
> We are in the process of reviewing our technical
> communication program
> and I thought I would ask this group for your
> opinions.  I apologize
> in advance for the redundancy if I have already
> contacted you via
> other lists or directly.
> 
> Background: Texas A&M University has opened a new
> campus in Qatar and
> we are only offering degrees in Electrical,
> Mechanical, Petroleum, and
> Chemical Engineering.  In addition to the
> engineering courses, the
> predominantly Qatari and other Middle Eastern
> students must, by Texas
> State law, take all the normal core classes required
> on the home
> campus.  I teach Technical Communication, a
> generalist
> sophomore/junior level required English class.
> 
> Issue: It has been mentioned by some engineering
> faculty that this
> class should be tailored to separate the students
> and teach
> industry-specific documentation  to each of the four
> engineering
> specialties.
> 
> Without biasing your opinion, I would like to know
> how you would teach
> technical communication to this student body if you
> could design the
> course. Would you design a course to serve as a
> broad overview that
> yields the core competencies the students will need
> in most any field,
> or would you support an industry-specific approach? 
> Why?
> 
> Your thoughts and opinions would be EXTREMELY
> valuable to us as we
> study this issue.
> 
> Thank you,
> 
> Tissa Salter
> English Faculty
> Texas A&M University at Qatar
> 
> 979-216-1223 US line ringing in Doha (+ 9 hours)
> US Forwarding Address:
> c/o TAMUQ Support Office
> PO Box B-6
> College Station, TX  77844
> 
> 
> -- 
> .............................................
> Tissa Salter
> US line ringing in Doha home (+8 hours):
> 979-216-1223
> Texas Mobile ( voicemail checked weekly):
> 979-218-3462
> US Forwarding address:
> c/o TAMUQ Support Office
> PO Box B-6
> College Station, TX  77844
> .............................................
> "Life is ten percent what happens to you
> and ninety percent how you respond to it."  ~ Lou
> Holtz
>
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