Postechian Core Capability: Global Citizen 100%

Purpose: Students will study, discuss and write about what it means to be a competent writer of the sciences and technology. Student work will primarily be completed in-class, with a focus on his or her own area of research.

Organize and write with clarity, coherence and concision components of a scientific research paper.
Summarize, paraphrase, cite, and quote scientific research articles
Gain a perspective on peer review by evaluating and editing classmates' works.

The course will have two components:
1) How to organize, write and revise documents. This component will focus on the technical aspects of composition. It will be fulfilled by a combination of lectures and examples by the instructor, and writing by the students.
2) How to express ideas in English. This component will focus on the craft of writing, ie. sentence and paragraph-level construction tips and practices.

The instructor will prepare lessons on common forms of scientific writing, and students will analyze papers in their field as models of study.

Expectations.
Students will attend all classes, complete all assignments, submit assignments on time, and participate in classroom exercises.

Students will read and respond to each other's work in a workshop setting. That is an informal, constructive process, whereby students give productive feedback to one another, in effort to improve the written work.

You can be at any stage of your research process to take this course. Students without ongoing research will be tasked with working on a Review Paper, and similar preliminary projects.

Recent discussions have suggested the need for an evaluation of student progress in this course. However, since this is not a major class, assigning grades seems unrealistic. As a compromise, students who complete all class assignments and regularly attend class will receive an S. Those who do not will receive a U. This policy should make this a more productive class.

Attendance:
Graduate students must manage constantly changing demands on their time. Frequently, important obligations may conflict with this course; the English faculty recognize this and understand that other obligations may be more important than attending this class on any particular day. However, distinguishing between acceptable, excusable absences and unexcused absences is a subjective matter that we want to avoid. Thus, as a compromise, we will allow a very generous six absences, with no distinction between excused and unexcused. Upon the seventh absence, for any reason, you will receive a U.

I will post the two listed textbooks and any additional materials on the PLMS system.

The first half of the class will focus on studying and analyzing examples of scientific writing within the context of your own field, as well as some general instruction and practice in sentence and paragraph-level construction.

The second half of the course will focus on peer workshops, where we actively read and offer constructive feedback on each other's work. Students are able to submit any type of writing that they are currently working on, or interested in working on.