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ECS 3390

Professional and Technical Communication


Fall 2005

Dr. K. Polk
Kent.polk@utdallas.edu
972-883-2175
JO 5.608-G
Office Hours: M, W 8:15—9:15 & 3:30—5:30, and by appointment

Course Description:
This course will help you develop skills and competency in both oral and written communication as they
occur in engineering and technology work environments. You will work with industry-specific projects, de-
termine technical communication needs, develop professional-quality documents, and make formal presenta-
tions on technical topics to technical and non-technical audiences. We will learn the basic genres of technical
communication: technical specifications, white papers, technical summaries, memos, and oral presentations.
Engineering and programming are collaborative activities; therefore, this course uses a collaborative-learning
environment where you will work in teams to practice the fundamentals of collaborative decision making and
communication in professional contexts.
Course Objectives:
Using both team and individual technical writing and presentation assignments, this course meets the fol-
lowing ABET Objectives.
• d: An ability to function on multidisciplinary teams
• f: An understanding of professional and ethical responsibility
• g: An ability to communicate effectively
• h: The broad education necessary to understand the impact of engineering solu-
tions in a global societal context
• j: A knowledge of contemporary issues
• k: An ability to use the techniques, skills and modern engineering tools neces-
sary for engineering practice

Other Objectives:
• To teach students to adapt written and oral communications to both technical and non-technical
contexts and audiences
• To give students successful collaborative work experience approximating the industry work envi-
ronment
• To enhance students’ ability to analyze and interpret professional ethics as practiced by engineers
• To refine students’ skills to develop written and oral projects through rhetorical processes of inven-
tion, arrangement and revision
• To teach students how to give and receive critical feedback on written documents and oral presenta-
tions
• To enable students to create professional quality technical documents such as specifications, memos,
and letters
• To develop students’ skills in planning and delivering effective technical presentations
• To extend students’ ability to use PowerPoint and other computer generated visual aids to enhance
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Course Requirements:
Professional and Technical Communication focuses on technical writing and presentation skills for pro-
fessional settings. As an upper-level class, students should have at least college-level writing skills and both
written and oral proficiency in English. Students should also have sufficient technical knowledge to contrib-
ute to project design and to write and speak knowingly about technical content. Furthermore, the course cur-
riculum is fast-paced and does not cover basic subjects, such as language mechanics, Microsoft Office
functions, or WebCT operations. The course instead emphasizes developing a sense of professionalism and
responsibility to produce high-quality assignments both individually and in teams.
Technology Requirements: Students need an active UTD NetID and password and reliable and fre-
quent access to internet connectivity and the Office suite. The course is taught using WebCT, and students
should develop the habit of checking it often for assignments and announcements. Students have the re-
sponsibility to ensure that the course remains accessible to them for the duration of the semester and must
submit all assignments, except for presentation booklets, through WebCT. Students should prepare materials
with enough time to avoid being denied access by WebCT’s cutoff function. Instructors are not responsible
for tracking assignments submitted through the email and will assign zeros to all assignments not submitted
through the WebCT assignments module.
Additionally, to protect students’ privacy rights, your instructor will only send email through your official
UTD email address or WebCT email. If you choose, you can redirect both of these addresses to external ad-
dresses. Visit the Department of Information Resources’ User Account Management Tools to forward your
UTD email to another account. In WebCT, go to the Mail module and click the Message Settings button.
On the Message Settings screen, click the box next to “Forward my mail to:” and enter your external email
address, then click the Update button.
Textbook: Technical Writing Style by Dan Jones (Allyn & Bacon, 1998). The textbook is required.

Assignment Requirements: Professional and Technical Communication allocates approximately 60%


of its total grade points to individually completed assignments and 40% to team generated assignments.

ASSIGNMENT WEIGHT
Team Specifications Report 25%
Individual Report 15%
Individual Delivery for Team Presentation 15%
Individual Presentation 15%
Team Presentation 1 5%
Team Presentation 2 5%
Other Assignments (may include team contract, tests, 20%
homework assignments, drafts, revisions, or in-class as-
signments)

All assignments must be completed to pass this class, and late or incomplete work is not acceptable. No late
or makeup submissions will be accepted for minor assignments, such as homework, process or class work.
Similarly, because of scheduling constraints and the logistical problem of creating an audience, presentations
cannot be rescheduled, extended or made up. Late submissions of individual papers and team specifications
reports will receive a penalty of 10% of the total possible assignment points each day the assignment is late.
According to UTD policy, an incomplete will not be given unless the student has completed 70% of the
course work, the delay is unavoidable, and the school approves the petition/documentation form.
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Course Policies:
In addition to the course requirements, Professional and Technical Communication students must adhere
to both university and course-specific policies.
Plagiarism: Plagiarism is the intentional or unintentional use of other people’s ideas, words, phrases, en-
tire paragraphs or single sentences without acknowledging the source in timely and appropriate citations. Pla-
giarism is a form of scholastic dishonesty that is punishable by failing the assignment, failing the course, being
put on academic probation or in extreme cases dismissal from the university. If you borrow content or graph-
ics from other books, course lectures, websites or other forms of print or electronic media, you must cite
them according to specifications mandated for this course. Everything you submit for peer or instructor re-
view for this class is bound by the academic honor code that requires it to be your unique work with bor-
rowed content properly cited.
In contrast to plagiarism’s inappropriate use of other sources’ information, cheating, or scholastic dishon-
esty, includes a wide range of behaviors. The UTD Scholastic Dishonesty page lists eighteen types of behav-
iors, including copying another student’s work, making work or information available for another student,
accessing information at inappropriate times, and submitting an assignment that you did not prepare. This
list is not exhaustive but does provide a sense of common ways cheating occurs. While you can (and in fact
should) seek the help and advice of friends, classmates, and tutors, including the Writing Center in McDer-
mott Library, be sure that your individual work is completely your own.
Students should be familiar with UTD’s policies on scholastic dishonesty and conduct UTD's policies on
student discipline and conduct, which includes a description and examples of scholastic dishonesty and mis-
conduct.
Non-Disclosure and Intellectual Property: Students in this course share their ideas through collabo-
rative work, projects, and oral presentations. Consequently, instructors cannot guarantee proprietary rights to
an idea, document, program, etc. When selecting topics for projects, assignments, and presentations, consider
whether you intend to pursue intellectual property rights such as patents or copyrights. If so, please be ad-
vised that everything discussed or produced in this course belongs to the public domain and as such
will not give you any copyright or patent benefits. If that is a concern to you, we strongly recom-
mend that you select another topic for the assignment. Additionally, students employed with local com-
panies should review the employer’s non-disclosure agreements and avoid revealing proprietary information
in the course. UTD and the faculty assume no responsibility when employees choose to disclose such pro-
prietary information.
Americans with Disabilities Act Compliance: UTD provides reasonable accommodations for quali-
fied individuals who are students with disabilities. This university will adhere to all applicable Federal, State
and local laws, regulations and guidelines with respect to providing reasonable accommodations as required
to afford equal educational opportunity. It is the student’s responsibility to contact the Office of Disability
Services in a timely manner to arrange for reasonable accommodations.

Room and Equipment Use: In addition to these UTD policies, students will need to observe the fol-
lowing policies specific to the Professional and Technical Communication classrooms.
• Tampering with or destroying any of the computers, printers, Smart Board, white boards, networks
or wiring in the classroom is strictly prohibited. Violations will result in a disciplinary referral to the
Dean of Students’ office.
• No cell phones, pagers, or other electronic messaging services may be used in the classrooms unless
you have cleared it with the instructor first and only on an emergency basis.
• The room may be used only for ECS 3390 related activities. You may not work on other class pro-
jects, check your e-mail, print, work for other classes, burn CDs that are not part of the ECS 3390
assignments, install software (games, music, executables, programming languages, or any other unap-
proved software). Violations will result in a disciplinary referral to the Dean of Students’ office.

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