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

["Sharon Burton" <sharon -at- anthrobytes -dot- com>]

I am currently, with Bonni Graham, teaching this exact course to CE, EE, CS,
and IT majors at UC Riverside as part of the general engineering program.
Over the next 2 years, it will be required of all other engineering majors.
The class is required of junior and seniors. It is a requirement for
graduation AND a prereq for their senior project. It is assumed they can
generally write when they take the course. We do 2 hours of lecture and 6
hours of lab every week.

We teach the 10 week class in 3 modules:

communicating with your boss - how to address the issues your boss (and
those above him/her)  care about. Includes a lot about business cases and
what details these people care about and want to know.

communicating with your peers - how to write clear functional specs and what
that includes. What else do your peers need and how to give that to them.
How to give a presentation and then do one.

communicating with your users - how to find out about your users and then
give them what they need.

Thru the class, we emphasize how communication is reflected in both your
written/spoken work and the products you are creating; these are all
communication. We chose to not teach them to write but rather teach them
what communication is for these 3 groups and how it has to be managed.

The class is one of the most highly rated in the program by the students.
The professors love us because they are getting students who understand how
to communicate with them. The Dean of Students love the class because it's
teaching the students important info. We love teaching it because it's just
very fun - the students are great.

sharon

Sharon Burton
CEO, Anthrobytes Consulting
951-369-8590
www.anthrobytes.com
Immediate Past President of IESTC

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sharon=anthrobytes -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On
Behalf Of Tissa Salter
Sent: Friday, October 27, 2006 10:58 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: If you were asked to design a course for undergrad
engineeringstudents...


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.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help 
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content 
delivery. Try it today! http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l

Easily create HTML or Microsoft Word content and convert to any popular Help file format or printed documentation. Learn more at http://www.DocToHelp.com/TechwrlList

---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- infoinfocus -dot- com -dot- 

To unsubscribe send a blank email to 
techwr-l-unsubscribe -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
or visit http://lists.techwr-l.com/mailman/options/techwr-l/archive%40infoinfocus.com


To subscribe, send a blank email to techwr-l-join -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com

Send administrative questions to admin -at- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.techwr-l.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.