This course counts toward the 24-credit Certificate in Technical Communication. The Certificate helps meets industry and government agencies demands for engineers who are skilled oral communicators. The course supports program objectives by providing an education in principles and processes for communicating about technical subjects and emphasizing the importance of audience analysis to make technical material accessible. Assessment of student progress toward course objectives This course requires both oral presentations and written assignments. An Incentive Unit is given for class participation, teamwork, and attendance.
Students also submit a written evaluation of the presentation.
A brief Teleconference presentation, of which students write a short evaluation. A team Persuasive presentation, which is videotaped for later review. A Final Project, which may be a live presentation or on videotape. Students complete several short written assignments on presentation skills during the semester. These include a weekly memo discussing their readings in the text, an abstract of an article on presentations, a short essay on the use of evaluation forms, two reports on observations of outside speakers, and a summary of all the work done during the semester.