1
TECHNICAL, PROFESSIONAL, AND SCIENCE WRITING ENG 347 (Summer 2011): e-learning Doris Zames Fleischer, Ph.D. E-mail address:
[email protected] or
[email protected] Office telephone: 973-596-5607 COURSE DESCRIPTION PLEASE NOTE THAT THE CATALOG DESCRIPTION OF THIS COURSE IS OUTDATED. SEE BELOW FOR THE CORRECT COURSE DESCRIPTION. The purpose of this course is to acquaint students with samples of significant technical, professional and science writing, sharpen skills in identifying the theses and the major supporting elements in these works, while making judgments on their contributions. In addition, students will be required to demonstrate their ability to do the necessary research to integrate related sources other than the assigned texts. When students make a judgment, they must provide specific reasons why the author's arguments are (or are not) convincing. Furthermore, students will be expected to demonstrate their capacity to write more than summaries, but rather distillations of assigned readings and other sources, which they relate to one another, as well as to the assigned topics. PREREQUISITES: HUM 101 and two from among HUM 102, HUM 211, HUM 212, and HIST 213, or their equivalents. ASSIGNED TEXTS: Gardner, Martin, ed. Great Essays in Science. Buffalo: Prometheus Books, 1994. (G) [ISBN: 0-87975-853-8] Teich, Albert H., ed. Technology and the Future (11h ed.). Boston, MA: Wadsworth, 2009. (T) [ISBN: 0-495-57052-4]
2
GENERAL STUDENT RESPONSIBILITIES 1. IF STUDENTS ALERT THE INSTRUCTOR AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER REGARDING THEIR SPECIFIC SCHEDUING NEEDS, SOME FLEXIBILITY MAY BE AVAILABLE. 2. ALL STUDENTS MUST HAVE AN ACCOUNT FOR MOODLE IN ORDER TO BE PROPERLY REGISTERED FOR THIS COURSE. STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ALL MESSAGES AND DOCUMENTS SENT THROUGH MOODLE. PLEASE CHECK MOODLE REGULARLY. 3. STUDENTS ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THAT FROM THE START OF THE SEMESTER I HAVE THEIR CORRECT EMAIL ADDRESSES, ID NUMBERS, TELEPHONE NUMBERS, MAILING ADDRESSES , AND ALL OTHER RELEVANT PERSONAL INFORMATION. PLEASE INFORM ME OF ANY CHANGES. THIS IS ESSENTIAL. 4. PLEASE SECURE ALL OF THE REQUIRED TEXTS BEFORE THE START OF THE FIRST SUMMER SEMESTER. THE BOOKSTORE WILL NOT HAVE THEM AVAILABLE AFTER THE BEGINNING OF THE SEMESTER. 5.
PLEASE COMPLETE THE COURSE AGREEMENT, WHICH WILL BE EMAILED TO EACH STUDENT INDIVIDUALLY PRIOR TO THE START OF THE SEMESTER, AND RETURN IT TO ME BY EMAIL.
6. IF STUDENTS HAVE QUESTIONS OR CONCERNS, THEY SHOULD NOT HESITATE TO GET IN TOUCH WITH ME BY EMAIL OR TELEPHONE (973596-5607). I WILL FORWARD MY HOME TELEPHONE NUMBER VIA MOODLE EMAIL FINAL GRADES will be based on the following formula: Essays: 50 points (Five essays worth ten points each submitted to Moodle Assignment site) Forum Postings: 35 points (Sent to Moodle Forum site) Final requirement: 15 points (See final page of syllabus) To be submitted to Moodle Assignment site. All of the above must be submitted in order for students to receive a passing grade for the course. Note that students have the opportunity, if they wish, to rewrite graded and corrected essays in order to have such grades reconsidered.
3
REQUIRED WORK Students will be provided with suggested study questions to stimulate their thinking for Forum Postings and Essays. 1) FORUM POSTINGS (35 points): Students are required to post on the Forum site substantive comments about each week’s readings and research. Also, each week students are required to respond to at least one other student comment. 2) ESSAYS (50 points) On the indicated dates, students will submit an essay of approximately 750-1,000 words, fully documented according to Modern Language Association [MLA] parenthetical style. The link to MLA specifications is as follows: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/675/01/. A Works Cited list, following MLA style, must also be included. Students are required to submit essays to the Moodle Assignment site. Your essay should analyze each reading and relate it to the topic (the title above the group of essays assigned for the week), as well as to the other readings for that assignment. Also, students should briefly integrate one related, reliable, and retrievable source, other than the assigned readings The topics are purposely broad and open to individual interpretation. Each essay must have the student’s name, topic, number of the essay (#1, #2, etc.), and date of submission clearly indicated. If students use ideas or words drawn from a source, that source must be cited. Do not write separate summaries of each reading; rather, write one coherent essay discussing all of the readings assigned, as well as briefly integrating at least one additional related, reliable, and retrievable source other than the assigned reading. The title above the assigned readings for the week should be the title (and the topic) of your own essay analyzing these readings. For example, the title of your first essay should be “Perspectives on the Planet and the Universe.” Students are mainly to paraphrase. Direct quotations should be brief and will not be considered part of the word count. It is the student's task to show that he or she has carefully read all of the assigned readings and succinctly expressed the essence of all of the works. By having these “conversations" with the authors, each student is expected to reveal his or her ability to comprehend, connect, and assess, while expressing his or her own unique voice. To illustrate, with regard to the first assignment (“Perspectives on the Planet and the Universe”), a student might discuss—in connection with the required readings—the question of whether or not “intelligent design” should be taught as an alternative to evolution. Use peer-reviewed sources and other reliable sources such as the New York Times, Google Scholar, National
4
Science Foundation (nsf.gov.) Do not use Wikipedia or encyclopedias. Be careful of online sources. Choose only web sites that are reliable and retrievable. A peer-reviewed source has been subject to a “blind” review by other experts in the field to determine if the manuscript is worthy of publication. Since the material is anonymously reviewed prior to acceptance for publication, peerreviewed publications are the most reliable. Examples of scholarly, peerreviewed reliable sources of information journals include Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society; Technology and Culture; Technology in Society; Scientific American; Futurist; Information, Communication & Society; The New England Journal of Medicine; and Technology Review: MIT’s Magazine of Innovation. Some examples of NJIT Library Data Bases are the following: Academic Search Premier, Business Source Premier, Omni file, Lexis-Nexis, and Medline. For help with research, contact the NJIT Librarian:
[email protected] PLEASE NOTE THAT ESSAYS ARE DUE BY 11:50PM ON THE DATES LISTED BELOW. ALTHOUGH LATE ESSAYS MAY BE ACCEPTED IF THE EXPLANATION FOR THE LATENESS WARRANTS SPECIAL CONSIDERATION, I CANNOT GUARANTEE PROMPT RETURN OF SUCH LATE ESSAYS GRADED WITH MY COMMENTS AND CORRECTIONS.
3) FINAL REQUIREMENT (15
POINTS):
SEE DESCRIPTION ON FINAL PAGE OF SYLLABUS
STUDENTS MUST SUBMIT ALL REQUIREMENTS (1, 2, AND 3) TO RECEIVE PASSING GRADE IN THIS COURSE SCHEDULE OF ASSIGNMENTS AND DUE DATES FOR FORUM POSTINGS AND ESSAYS: Essay Topic 1: Perspectives on the Planet and the Universe May 28 (Saturday): Forum postings due May 31 (Tuesday): Essay #1 due . Charles Darwin, "Recapitulation and Conclusion," 5G . Stephen Jay Gould, "Nonmoral Nature," 32G. . Lewis Thomas, “Seven Wonders,” 421G . Carl Sagan, "Can We Know the Universe? Reflections on a Grain of Salt," 102G . Jonathan N. Leonard," Other-Worldly Life," 181G
5
Essay Topic 2: Potential and Peril in the Evolution of Technology June 4 (Saturday): Forum postings due June 6 (Monday): Essay #2 due . Jose Ortega Y Gasset, "The Barbarism of 'Specialization'," 121G . Ernest Nagel, "Automation," 173G. . Samuel Goudsmit, “The Gestapo in Science,” 349G . Laura Fermi, "Success,” 336G . Albert Einstein, "E=mc2," 413G
Essay Topic 3: Bioethics June 11 (Saturday): Forum postings due June 13 (Monday): Essay #3 due . Christopher T. Scott, “Stem Cell Research: The Great Moral Divide,” 193T . R. Alta Charo, “And Baby Makes Three—or Four, or Five, or Six: Defining the Family after the Genetic Revolution,” 213T . Michael J. Sandel, “The Case Against Perfection,” 229T . Henry T. Greely, “Some Possible Legal and Social Implications of Advances in Neuroscience,” 240T
Essay Topic 4: Futures Studies June 18 (Saturday): Forum Postings Due June 20 (Monday): Essay #4 due . Bill Joy, “Why the Future Doesn’t Need Us,” 101T
6
. John S. Brown and Paul Duguid, “A Response to Bill Joy and the Doom-and-Gloom Technofuturists,” 125T . Ray Kurzweil, “Promise and Peril,” 131T . Paul Ceruzzi, “An Unforeseen Revolution: Computers and Expectations, 1935-1985,” 265T Essay Topic 5: Cultural Dimensions of Technology June 25 (Saturday): Forum postings due June 27 (Monday): Essay #5 due . Leo Marx, "Does Improved Technology Mean Progress?" 3T . Robert Pool, “How Society Shapes Technology,” 13T . Alvin M. Weinberg, "Can Technology Replace Social Engineering?" 28T . Samuel C. Florman, “Technology and the Tragic View,” 36T . Langdon Winner, “Do Artifacts Have Politics?” 45T
July 5 (Tuesday): Final Requirement due Final Requirement (15 points)—Students will write two succinct essays based on several additional readings in Teich, as well as brief integration of student-selected related, reliable, and retrievable sources other than the assigned readings. Details will follow.
