ESG 21W.732 Syllabus, Fall 2007

Tentative
ESG 21W.732 Syllabus
Expository Writing
Fall, 2007

21W.732 is a CI-HW. Successfull (C- or better) completion of 21W.732 means you have consumed your minimum yearly communication (CI) requirement.

Instructors: Dave Custer Office: 24-611, 2nd door, first desk on the left Office Hours: Mondays, 5:00 to 7:00, and many other odd times Phone: x3-7787, x3-2872(message) E-mail: custer@mit.edu Marc Graham E-mail: polo@mit.edu

Text:

No text is required for this course. We encourage students to own and cherish a copy of their favorite style guide. We will gladly recommend one. Additionally, style and grammar help is available on the world wide web; for example, "The Mayfield Handbook of Technical and Scientific Writing," a handy reference, available wherever MIT web certificates are accepted, and 21W.783 Class Notes, Dave Custer's pet peeves about writing (from a class Dave once taught)

Subject Description:

This subject is designed to improve writing ability and writing habits. Additional improvement is expected in students' attitude towards writing; as the semester progresses, students should feel confident of their ability to write. Satisfactory performance in 21W.732 indicates a mastery of grammar, style, sentence/paragraph structure, and argument sufficient for success at writing tasks assigned in MIT classes. More details about CI-HW dosage levels and side effects can be gleaned from MIT's policy statements concerning introductory writing subjects: Guidelines for writing in CI-HW courses and Goals of the MIT introductory writing subjects (CI-HW).

The ESG section of 21W.732 introduces writing, graphics, and oral presentation as tools for product development. The communication instruction will be embedded in a 6 unit Introduction to Design seminar that requires students to work in teams to conceive, design, prototype, and evaluate a product. The communication instruction focuses on the communication tasks that are integral to this design process, ranging across design notebooks, e-mail communications, informal oral presentations, meeting etiquette, literature searches, white papers, reports, and formal presentations. The ultimate deliverables of the class are a patent application, an oral project report, and a proposal for further development of the product. Further information concerning the general trajectory of the design seminar can be gleaned from http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/Mechanical-Engineering/2-9712nd-Summer-Introduction-to-DesignJanuary--IAP-2003/CourseHome/index.htm.

Expect 4.5 hours of class time per week (including both writing and design), Monday evenings 7:00=>10:00 and Thursday afternoons 3:00=>4:30. It is a good bet that we'll meet in ESG's large seminar room, 24-619. Expect bi-weekly individual meetings with the instructor(s) and bi-weekly team/instructor meetings outside of class.

There is NO final exam in 21W.732.

Teaching Approach:

21W.732 is based on the following premises:

Writing is a process. Good writing is not just a decent written manuscript: it is also the series of actions and thoughts that goes into producing a decent manuscript. Students will both examine writing as it appears on the page and determine how to produce good writing through the processes of planning, organizing, writing, review, editing, and rewriting.
Writing improves with practice. There is no other way. Students will practice writing by writing. Feedback on this writing should produce better writing and better writing habits.
Writing is a collaborative activity. Writing is a collaboration between the writer and the audience. Both expect cooperation from the other. Without this cooperation, nothing is communicated. Writing can also be a collaboration among writers working together on a common task. You will collaborate often to improve your habits as readers and writers.
Writing and speaker are complimentary skills.
To write the write, you need to read the read.
Authors put more time and effort into writing when subject matter is near and dear.

Almost all work in 21W.732 is based on the PREP design cycle, whereby individual thought develops into a collaborative project. This cycle applies to both the communication work and the product design. For more info concerning this design cycle, see Teaching high school students and college freshmen product development by deterministic deisgn with PREP, which will be assigned reading during week 2.

Assignments:

Written assignments cover a range of lengths (1=>10 pages) and, genres, and degrees of formality. See the ESG 21W.732 schedule for more detail). Expect assignments to be completed in installments; it is expected that each will progress through a series of drafts. Please keep all your drafts in a safe place so you can turn in all of your work (portfolio) at the end of the semester. Stellar will be used to mediate the turn-in of written assignments: http://stellar.mit.edu/S/course/21W/fa07/21W.732-ESG/

Reading assignments: Expect to comment briefly on all reading assignments and be prepared to discuss the reading in an intelligible and intelligent manner.

Design Notebook: a place for informal writing, to jot ideas, to respond to the reading assignments. Early in the semester, notebook entries will be suggested; do not limit yourself to the suggested topics. Notebook installments will be collected at the middle and end of the semester.

Assessment of Writing:

You will receive suggestions and constructive criticism of your writing in the form of:

written response from your peers
in-class response from instructors and peers during workshops
meta-commentary on the responses from your instructors
if need be, written and oral comments from your instructors

Grading:

One aim of this subject is to effect a shift from an emphasis from "grades" to an emphasis on productive, peer feedback.

Nonetheless, come Dec. 21, a grade must be given. At some level your grade is a measure of your intructors' subjective impression of your work. To provide an idea of what aspects of your work might contribute to this impression, expect that your written work will account for half your final grade; assignments will count roughly proportional to their page length and degree of formality. The remainder of the grade will be derived from oral presentations and class participation. Oral presenations grading is digital; deliver and full credit will be delivered; fail to deliver and credit will fail to be delivered.

Perennial tardiness and loud snoring during class are both likely to tarnish the impression you make on your instructors.

Please note that we reserve the option of failing any student who misses more than five classes.

Come to class; do the work; strive; live long and prosper.

Firing Students:

Team work is central to functioning of this class (and any modern engineering endeavor) and time will be devoted to the dynamics of team formation during the early part of the semester. It is expected that students will work together in a safe, professional, and collegial manner and that each student will carry his/her own weight. The consequences of failing to do so are dire; shortly after teams are formed (about week 4), team dissolution implies the departure of team members from 21W.732.

So, during the first weeks of class, satisfy yourself that you'll be able to work together with the other students in this section. And, in the first weeks of team work, identify problems promptly, document them, bring them to the attention of your team members and your instructors, and diffuse them using the best diplomacy available to you.

And, in the event that problems are not diffused and grievous team discombobulation has resulted, a formal, written complaint may be brought either against an errant team member or team members. This complaint is submitted to the instructors and the defendent. In such a situation, the following course of events is expected to occur within one week (slightly more if a holiday falls within a week of complaint submission):

The defendent must produce a written rebuttal.
Plaintiff(s), defendent(s), instructors, and a non-aligned ombudsperson must meet together in person to attempt to resolve the conflict.
Should no resolution result, other team configurations MAY be considered. The placement of a dissolved team member on another team is only possible with the full consensus of the instructors and all of the members of the receiving team. Consider such placement an unlikely option.
Dissolved team members drop 21W.732.

The big, bad P word:

Plagiarism: Using someone else's language and/or ideas without proper attribution is dishonest. As members of ESG, this 21W.732 class, and the larger scholarly community, you are expected to abide by the norms of academic honesty. While a good deal of collaboration is encouraged in and out of class, failing to acknowledge sources or willfully misrepresenting the work of others as your own will not be tolerated. Everything you submit must be your own work, written specifically for this class. (Such re-use may be appropriate in some circumstances; if you choose to re-use, cite yourself.) Plagiarism can result in withdrawal from the course with a grade of F and/or suspension or expulsion from MIT.

The booklet Academic Integrity at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology: A Handbook for Students explains these issues in further detail, and you are responsible for understanding its contents. We will work on citing sources in class and discuss ways to acknowledge them properly. When in doubt, consult with your instructor(s).

author = custer@mit.edu
location = http://web.mit.edu/custer/www/732syll.f07.html
Spiral over to the 21W.783 notes.
Spiral over to Dave's writing world page.

Tentative ESG 21W.732 Syllabus Expository Writing Fall, 2007