Overview

Mission Statement

The mission of the Language Support Unit is to serve the students of the Faculty of Engineering by assisting them to acquire the English proficiency and communication skills they need for their current studies and future careers as engineering professionals.

General Objectives

The course is aimed at developing the students’ writing, presentation and technical communication skills in English. The course will provide students with the tools to complete background and in-depth reading, design research tools, do research, write reports and make recommendations based on the research. The course will also provide students with the tools to make presentations based on their own research using computer-based presentation programmes. The course will further extend the students’ use of spoken English at the upper Intermediate and advanced levels.

Aims of the Course

In this course,

1.       Students will write reports and technical documents using the AIMRAD model based on their own research.

2.       Students will read, research and discuss current topics related to general and technical issues, (specifically issues regarding ethical problems related to general engineering.)

3.       Students will engage in lifelong learning activities.

4.       Students will present their research findings in PowerPoint presentations.

5.       Students will identify and analyze key texts and other professional and scientific sources of information and write literature reviews.

6.       Students will identify universal and important concepts, research and structure the content and ensure that it is accurate, clear and concise.

7.       Strudents will visit the library and make use of its resources

8.       Students will create a project portfolio of completed work.

Textbooks/materials

1. Markel, Mike. (2006) Technical Communication, (teacher reference)
2. Woolever (2002) Writing for Technical Professions (teacher reference)
3. Writing in English: A Practical Handbook for Scientific and Technical Writer. Svobodva et al. 2000
4. Face to Face with Basic Research & Communication: A Process & Project-based Course. LSU Team. 2010

Attendance Rules

Attendance for the whole course: 80% minimum. DN grade will be given to students who have 20% unexcused absences (1 absence = one period of 50 minutes).

Students should come to every class on time and ready to participate fully in the lesson.

Students who arrive more than 15 minutes late are recorded absent. 

STUDENT PORTFOLIO

Organization is the key to a successful life. Students, and more so engineers, MUST be organized.  As a student, it's very important to organize yourself from the very start of your course.  This is true for all courses, not just this one. One of the ways to organize your work is by keeping a portfolio. IE204 requires you to keep your portfolio in an A4 two-ring binder with an A4 writing pad always ready to take notes, so bring your portfolio to EVERY class you attend!

You are also required to organize and label your portfolio dividers in the following way, an example of this should be presented to you by your tutor together with this document;

Front Cover:    Your name

                        Student number

                        Course title, code and date

                        Institution

                        Your email address and your phone number

                        Your Teacher's name

1st Divider:     Course Outline

                        Contents page

                        Any other official administrative documentation

2nd Divider:     Classwork

                        Notes taken in class (which is EVERYTHING your tutor presents to you!)

                        All handouts (including samples, class quizzes and activity sheets)

3rd Divider:     Research Material

                        All collected data

                        Graphs, diagrams, charts or any information gathered through surveys conducted by you.

4th Divider:     Write Up

                        Include proposal and abstract if submitted in writing

                        Include all complete drafts 1st, 2nd and Final

5th Divider:     Presentation Material

                        A full printout of all the slides used in presentation

                        Presentation written speech notes if used

Evaluation  (Mainly formative

To pass the course you must get at least 60% final grade.

There will be no exception to the rule

WEEKLY Breakdown

Name:

Class:

Faculty of Engineering

LSU Course Outline (IE204) QUIZ

1- What does LSU stand for? L ________________, S ___________________, U__________________________

2- In which divider will you put the ‘course outline’?

3- Which book will you be using most often in the 204 course?

4- What is the difference between ‘summative’ and ‘formative’ evaluation?

5- What did you do on your first day of this course?

6- How can you prove that you are a well-organized engineer?

7- How many periods will you miss to get a DN in this course?

8- What is the highest word count you may have in your final report?

9- How can you communicate your project findings to an audience?

10- Answer the following questions with True or False.

a- The topic I will select for my project must be technical.  _____________

b- The course will develop my writing and research skills only. ______________

c- I will bring my portfolio to class only when my teacher asks me to. ________________

d- My teacher will show me an example of a portfolio. _______________________