MTPW Defense

ENG 3604 Independent Study

Your defense is the last thing you do in the MTPW program. It culminates in a two-hour oral exam in which you present your project, journal, and portfolio, and answer questions from the members of your defense committee.

Setting Up Your Defense

In the quarter before or during which you expect to graduate:

1. Register for ENG 3604 Independent Study. Include the name of your defense advisor on your registration sheet, or the Registrar will reject it.
2. Ask three people to be on your defense committee: two from Northeastern, one from your professional sequence area.
3. Ask one of the Northeastern people to be your advisor for the defense. (Please note that your defense advisor does not have to be your regular academic advisor.)
4. Set a date for your defense You must coordinate with your committee members, but once the date is decided, your defense advisor will arrange for a suitable meeting room.
5. Submit a three to five page project proposal early in the quarter to your defense committee explaining what you are doing, your methodology for accomplishing it, and how it is the logical culmination of your professional sequence.

Pieces of the Defense

Project

Your project may be the product of an internship, although you may propose and complete a project that does not require an internship.

Deadline: Submit three copies of your project to your defense committee one week before your defense.

Journal

Your journal is a chronicle of work on your project detailing what you did, how you did it, what problems you encountered, how you dealt with them, etc. The audience for the journal is your defense committee and MTPW students who follow you in the program. Be creative but professional.

Deadline: Submit three copies of your journal to your defense committee one week before your defense.

Note: Copies of other MTPW projects and journals are available for your consideration in the Tech Writing Library.

Portfolio

Your portfolio is a sampling of the work you've done for the MTPW or done while enrolled in the program. It demonstrates the depth and breadth of your talent.

Deadline: You need only one copy of your portfolio. Do not submit it with your project and journal; bring it to your defense.

Arrange your portfolio logically, because you will be asked why pieces are there and why they are in that order. Divide and tab your portfolio as follows: your resume, table of contents, and your work. Include a cover page for each section or piece of work. The cover page should be very brief and cover audience, purpose, and any comments about the section or piece.

Additional Requirements

1. Students must have their project proposals approved before registering for the course. The proposals should be sent to all committee members for approval. Committee members will initial the proposals and date them, then deliver the approved documents to the student's permanent file.
2. The project advisor must see at least one draft of the project and the journal prior to the versions submitted for the defense. Students must allow enough time for the advisor to read the material and respond in a timely fashion. (Arrange for delivery date with the advisor.)
3. Students may not update or revise the material once the project and the journal have been submitted to the defense committee members.
4. Students should submit the following items to the defense committee along with their final projects (one week before the defense):
   • Resume
   • Table of contents for the portfolio
   • Cover pages (abstracts) for portfolio entries
   • Graduation Clearance Form
5. If students choose to have someone from outside the University as a member of their defense committee, that person must be in a supervisor position, not a peer colleague. The external committee member should also be given the Guidelines for Industry Participants in MTPW Defenses handout (available from all MTPW advisors).
6. Full-time MTPW faculty members may sit on up to seven committees per quarter. Students should make arrangements for these committees well in advance.

28 May 1996
9 August 2001