Composition Forum 26, Fall 2012
http://compositionforum.com/issue/26/

Appendices from “Integrating Communication into Engineering Curricula”

Julie Dyke Ford

This page contains most appendices from “Integrating Communication into Engineering Curricula: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Facilitating Transfer at New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology”. Appendix 1 is delivered as a separate PDF.

1. Appendix 1: Sequence Chart for NMT Mechanical Engineering
2. Appendix 2: MENG Senior Design Clinic Syllabus
3. Appendix 3: MENG Design Clinic Proposal Guidelines
4. Appendix 4: Design Clinic Proposal Communication Grading Rubric
5. Appendix 5: Weekly Status Report Template
6. Appendix 6: MENG Design Clinic Weekly Status Report Rubric
7. Appendix 7: Junior/Senior Design Midterm Project Presentation Evaluation
8. Appendix 8: Junior/Senior Design Final Project Poster Presentation Evaluation
9. Appendix 9: Undergraduate Technical Writing Syllabus
10. Appendix 10: Graduate MENG Communication Syllabus

Appendix 1: Sequence Chart for NMT Mechanical Engineering

Appendix 2: MENG Senior Design Clinic Syllabus

INTRODUCTION

Welcome to New Mexico Tech's Senior Design Clinic Course, MENG481. In this course we will continue using the mechanical design process discussed in the Junior Design Clinic to complete an actual mechanical design project. This will include defining the problem, developing an objective and specification, creating multiple design concepts, evaluating the concepts, selecting one concept to carry to detailed design, completing a detailed design, building a prototype and determining how well the prototype design met objectives. It will include development of program plans that cover all the key aspects of the design process. It will also include discussion of those topics which are critical to incorporate to ensure a successful project. If you have any questions outside of the classroom, please send me an email or visit me during office hours in Weir 005.

REQUIRED TEXT

1. Ulrich, Karl T. and Eppinger, Steven D., Product Design and Development, Fourth Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2008, ISBN 9780073101422
2. Design Notebook: Notebooks shall be books with non-removable pages of size at least 7” by 10”.

REFERENCE TEXTS

1. Thompson, Bruce S., Creative Engineering Design, Okemos Press, 1998
2. Ullman, David G., The Mechanical Design Process, Third Edition, McGraw-Hill, 2003

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The Senior Design Clinic Course will enable students to utilize the engineering design and verification process on assigned mechanical design projects. Students will be advised by faculty members and external company sponsors/mentors. Weekly workshops will be conducted in specialized topics pertinent to the design process. Topics include conceptual design; design specifications; program planning using Gantt charts; costing of a project; detailed product design; as well as other specialized topics. Formal reports, fabrication drawings, and cost estimates will be prepared and submitted to faculty and outside industrial sponsors/mentors. Formal oral presentations will be given to a reviewing group of advisers and students. Formal written proposals, interim reports and final reports will be completed by the assigned student teams.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

The course is designed with the following objectives in mind:

1. Students should gain a thorough overview of the design procedure that is followed by today's mechanical engineers.
2. Students should obtain an understanding of design principles and practices that should assist them in making informed design decisions and in solving complex problems.
3. Students should develop the framework for understanding how various mechanical engineering technologies are used in the design process.

GENERAL OUTLINE

This course goal will be reached through the following steps:

1. Define a process for documenting and presenting work
2. Define the problem
3. Create numerous potential solutions
4. Evaluate these solutions
5. Select the solution with the highest potential for success
6. Analyze this solution
7. Complete a detailed design and develop plans for creating/acquiring the parts
8. Manufacture and test a prototype

The design process is iterative, involving creativity, analysis and evaluation. The course is focused upon using integrated product design through a design-build-test philosophy. At the end of the semester the students will present their ideas, and demonstrate their working prototypes to an audience of industrialists, students, and faculty.

COURSE DELIVERABLES

Student Design Team Deliverables:

1. Weekly Written Progress Reports. These documents shall be submitted to the course instructor. These are memo format, one page in length. They shall document the progress over the week and delineate any problems or potential problem areas that have been uncovered. The first submittal will be on September 8, 2011 and then as shown in the course timeline.
2. A Gantt chart for planning and executing the project [Ch1, CED]. This document shall be submitted to the faculty advisor and the contact person at the industrial sponsor for their review and comment before September 15, 2011. In the synthesis of your Gantt chart, you need to be sensitive to the time it takes to fabricate, and assemble, and test prototypical systems. The Gantt chart is a working document and needs to be continually updated to reflect modifications in the project timeline.
3. The First Progress Report (Project Proposal), a comprehensive problem definition [Ch7, CED], proposed work effort,and estimated budget. This document will be graded for technical content and communication effectiveness [Appendix A, CED]. An electronic copy of this report shall be submitted to the course instructor on September 15, 2011. The student team should send copies to the industrial sponsor and faculty advisor. This report must be free of typographical errors and formatted professionally. Several iterations of the report may be necessary involving both the student team and the industrial sponsor before the final version is created. Please note carefully that most teams find it extremely beneficial to visit the industrial sponsor’s facilities at least once before the delivery of the problem definition. Indeed this first visit frequently occurs in the first week of the semester. These early visits ensure that the team is able to move forward efficiently with the project through the development of a deeper understanding of the task.
4. The First Oral Presentation[Appendix A, CED] to the other design teams on September 20 & 22, 2011. This presentation shall present the ideas documented in The First Progress Report. These ideas pertain to the problem definition and design specification. This activity will permit all of the teams to exchange ideas in the true spirit of concurrent engineering. Teams are encouraged to prepare power point presentations and use supporting photos or hardware pieces to aid understanding of the subject matter.
5. The Second Progress Report, describes the creativity phase [Chs 8 & 9 CED] and the evaluation phase [Ch 10, CED] which are responsible for the selection of a specific conceptual design that is to be transformed into a product. This report will be graded for both technical content and effective communication. An electronic copy of this report shall be submitted to the course instructor on October 27, 2011. The student team should send copies to the industrial sponsor and faculty adviser.
6. The student team will deliver The Second Oral Presentation to the other Design Teams and Faculty on October 27 and November 3, 2011. This presentation will describe the contents of the second report and the decisions made in the document. The focus of this meeting will be to collectively agree on the best concept to transform into the final product [Ch11 to 18 CED]. A power point presentation should be employed.
7. An electronic copy of a comprehensive Final Report and the Design Notebooks will be submitted to the course instructor on December 12, 2011. Reports shall also be distributed to the industrial sponsor and the faculty advisor. The comprehensive report shall be a document that details all of the semester’s activities and accomplishments. Thus it should permit the uninformed reader to: (1) understand the assumptions embedded in mathematical models; (2) to assemble the equipment employed to generate experimental results and to adopt the experimental procedures that were employed; (3) to review the web sites that were consulted and the vendors that were contacted as part of the investigation; and (4) to document the trade-offs considered in the evaluation of conceptual designs.
8. A working prototype (if appropriate) of the product developed in the design-build-and-test process. This shall be demonstrated to the attendees at the Student Design Conference.
9. A Final Oral Presentation at the end of semester Student Design Conference on December 8, 2011. Each member of the group shall deliver part of the presentation with time allotted for questions from the audience. Attendees include industrial sponsors, faculty advisers, and student teams.

Individual Student Responsibilities:

1. Each student will utilize a design notebook to record all information pertaining to the project. These books shall contain sketches, telephone numbers, analyses, the names of industrial contacts, brief notes from group meetings, etc. Notebooks shall be sewn books or books with non-removable pages of size at least 10” by 7”. They shall be submitted to their course instructor for evaluation at the same time as the Final Reports are submitted.
2. Each student team shall elect a team leader who will assume responsibility for liaison with the industrial sponsor, the faculty advisor and the course instructor. This team leader shall regularly monitor their E-mail messages
3. The team leader shall contact their representative of the industrial sponsor within 24 hours of the project assignment in order to arrange for the first plant trip. This trip should be completed before September 15, 2011. Prior to this visit, students should quiz the sponsor for more information on design parameters in order to develop their design specification, and also their Gantt chart for planning the project
4. Meet with faculty advisor each week at a scheduled time to report on project progress and seek advice and feedback on strategies and design methodologies.
5. Meet with your design team each week to discuss relevant issues and to report on individual responsibilities.
6. Work individually each week addressing design tasks assigned to you at the team meetings.
7. Actively contribute to the development of the reports submitted by the design team. Submit the three reports to the course instructor for evaluation. Submit reports to the industrial sponsor and faculty advisor for evaluation.
8. Contribute to the development of the design team's Final Oral Presentation at the Student Design Conference.
9. Evaluate the oral presentations of the other teams in the session at the Student Design Conference. The schedule describing the sessions that each team is required to serve as an audience and evaluators will be distributed during the week before the conference.
10. Attend the weekly lectures.

Student Design Conference:

1. Attendance by all students enrolled in these courses is mandatory.
2. The final oral presentation associated with this class shall be delivered on December 8, 2011. Each team of students shall attend ALL of the presentations.
3. Professional attire is required as part of this oral presentation. Furthermore the duration of the presentation must comply with the specified time window stipulated in the Conference Program. This should include a period for audience questions that follow the presentation. A system for presenting power point slides from a computer shall be available.
4. A team of industrialists, academics and administrators shall evaluate the oral presentations.

COURSE GRADING

Grading Policy

• 10% Attendance and weekly progress report.
• 15% First Progress Report and Oral Presentation, comprehensive problem definition, and Weekly Progress Reports. Use the format described in Chapter 7 of CED.
• 20% Second Progress Report and Oral Presentation, conceptual designs, the evaluation and the selection of the best concept. Use the methodologies presented in Chapters 8 & 9 for creativity and Ch10 CED for the evaluation of the concepts. There is no page limitation.
• 30% Final Report and Oral Presentation: a comprehensive document detailing all aspects of the project. There is no page limitation.
• 25% professorial evaluation by the team academic adviser of the performance of each team member.

Background for Grading

• The grading policy for each report and presentation will be 50% for technical progress and 50% for writing style and communication effectiveness.

COURSE GUIDELINES

Participation

It is expected that you will participate substantively in the class discussion, which means that in addition to completing your assignments, you will offer potential answers to questions raised and ask questions in areas of uncertainty to you.

COURSE WEEKLY SCHEDULE (PRELIMINARY)

The following is the weekly plan for the sections of the course text to be covered. The plan will be updated as the course progresses.

SESSION 1 (8/25) – Introduction & Organization

• Background
• Design Project Approach
• Team Preferences
• Chapter 1

SESSION 2A (8/30) – Guest Lecture - Writing a Technical Report

• Best Practices
• Common Problems
• Seeking Help

SESSION 2B (9/1) – Project Team Selection, Report Format Requirements, &Best Practices

• Team Assignments
• GANTT Chart Discussion
• Project Proposal (First Written Report)
• Best Practices

SESSION 3 (9/8) – Development Processes and Organizations & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 2
• Project Status

SESSION 4 (9/15) – Product Planning & Oral Presentation Requirements

• Chapter 3
• Oral Presentation (First Oral Report)
• Project Status

SESSION 5A (9/20)—Team Presentations

• Presentation Agenda

SESSION 5B (9/22)—Team Presentations

• Presentation Agenda

SESSION 6 (9/29) – Identifying Customer Needs & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 4
• Project Status

SESSION 7 (10/6) – Product Specifications & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 5
• Project Status

SESSION 8 (10/13) – Concept Generation & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 6
• Project Status

SESSION 9 (10/20) – Concept Selection & Technical & Oral Report Format & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 7
• Interim Progress Report (Second Written Report)
• Oral Presentation (Second Oral Report)
• Project Status

SESSION 10 (10/27) – Oral Presentation Group #1

• Presentation Agenda

SESSION 11 (11/3) –Oral Presentation Group #2

• Presentation Agenda

SESSION 12 (11/10) – Concept Testing & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 8
• Project Status

SESSION 13 (11/17) – Product Architecture & Weekly Progress Report

• Chapter 9
• Project Status

SESSION 14 (12/1) –Oral and Final Report Format

• Project Status
• Oral Presentation (Final Oral Report)
• Technical Report (Final Technical Report)

SESSION 15 (12/8) – Final Oral Presentation

• Presentation Agenda

SESSION 16 (12/12) – Final Project Report

Appendix 3: MENG Design Clinic Proposal Guidelines

• Letter of Transmittal (LOT)

See typical LOT format handed out in class

Main Body of Proposal

• Title Page

Title/Author/Organization/Date

• Summary

Concise description of what the team plans to accomplish.

• Introduction

Several paragraphs introducing project to an uninformed, but knowledgeable reader

• Objective

One or two sentence description of the objective of the project

• Proposed Program

Description of how the team plans to conduct the project, i.e., what elements or tasks are included in the effort such as design task, fabrication task, etc. Refer to the Gantt chart or timeline chart.

• Details of the Program Elements (this section could be combined with the previous section)

Detailed description of each program element.

• Estimated Costs (Budget)

Discuss estimated costs of the program. A summary of the cost of the program elements could be displayed in tabular form.

• References

Reference last semesters final report for the details of what was accomplished previously.

Appendices

• Budget Curves

Show of costs of the program in both tabular form and graphical form indicating when major expenditures are estimated to be accrued against the project.

• Gantt Chart or Timeline Chart

Either a formal Gantt chart from some software package or a chart that the team agrees upon which shows how the various elements of the project fit within the semester time frame.

Appendix 4: Design Clinic Proposal Communication Grading Rubric

Content: Proposal clearly, confidently, and thoroughly outlines design project and includes all necessary sections (summary, intro, background, objective, proposed program and details, budget, appendix with Gantt chart and budget curve) to address the needs of the audience.

_____/(40 possible points)

Organization: Proposal contains logical ordering of necessary sections. Arrangement and development of paragraphs within those sections is logical. When appropriate, bulleted or numbered lists are used to emphasize information. Topic sentences and transitions used throughout.

_____/(20 possible points)

Format/Visuals: Proposal contains professional appearance and necessary front matter (cover page, letter of transmittal, title page, table of contents) and makes use of devices such as headings, subheadings, lists, white space, headers/footers, etc. When appropriate, visual devices such as tables or charts are used to present information. If any photographs are included, they are clear and would stand up well to photocopying or black and white printing. Visuals borrowed from another source are properly cited with caption stating (ie: image courtesy of http://www.example.com)

_____/(20 possible points)

Grammar/Style: Sentence structure is clear, correct, and varied. No grammatical errors or typos are present.

_____/(20 possible points)

Design Clinic Proposal Communication Grade: ________/(100 possible points)

Appendix 5: Weekly Status Report Template

MEMORANDUM

To: Dr. Ostergren, Dr. Miller, Dr. Ford

From:

Date:

Subject: Status Report Week X

The purpose of this memo is to provide information about the status of our team’s design project.

Progress toward Previous Goals

The team’s goals for the previous two weeks were as follows:

• …
• …
• …

(give details about the progress towards those goals)

Additional Work Completed or Additional Info about Project

If you have anything significant to include here, include it.

Plans and Goals for the Week of September 12-16

Team goals for the next week are as follows:

Questions and Concerns

 If you have them, voice them here, being as specific as possible so that your audience can understand your needs and help accordingly.

Appendix 6: MENG Design Clinic Weekly Status Report Rubric

Report #

Team:

Submitted on time?

Content is clear, including specific details and written in appropriate professional tone

Format is professional and reader-friendly (memo style is used, headings help organize information, bulleted or numbered lists are included if appropriate)

Report is free from grammatical errors, spelling errors, or typos

If questions/concerns are included, they are clearly phrased and useful in moving the project forward

*NOTE: Students in English 341 (Technical Writing) are graded (on a scale of 3 being excellent, 2 being adequate but with room for improvement, and 1 being much improvement needed) for each of the status reports turned in by the team.

Appendix 7: Junior/Senior Design Midterm Project Presentation Evaluation

Presenting Group:

Presentation Evaluation

(Each category evaluated from 1-to-10 with 10 being the highest score attainable)

Background Information Provided----------------------------

Comments:

Defining the Objective-------------------------------------------

Comments:

Approach For Solving Problem--------------------------------

Comments:

Progress on Conceptual or Detailed Design-----------------

Comments:

Overall Technical Knowledge of Project --------------------

Comments

Verbal Presentation Skills --------------------------------------

Comments:

Overall Effectiveness of Presentation----------------------

Comments:

Overall Comments Relative to the Evaluation of the Project:

Appendix 8: Junior/Senior Design Final Project Poster Presentation Evaluation

Presenting Group:___________________________________

Presentation Evaluation

(Each category evaluated from 1-to-10 with 10 being the highest score attainable)

Background Information Provided----------------------------

Comments:

Defining the Objective-------------------------------------------

Comments:

Approach For Solving Problem--------------------------------

Comments:

Progress on Conceptual or Detailed Design-----------------

Comments:

Overall Technical Knowledge of Project --------------------

Comments

Design of Poster/ Quality of Visuals--------------------

Comments

Verbal Skills When Summarizing Poster/Responding to Questions ­­­

Comments:

Overall Effectiveness of Poster----------------------

Comments:

Overall Comments Relative to the Evaluation of the Project:

Appendix 9: Undergraduate Technical Writing Syllabus

English 341-04 Technical Writing (MENG Majors) Fall 2011

Faculty Information Time and Place

Julie Ford, Ph.D.jford@nmt.edu M/W 9-10:15 Library 208

Office: Fitch Hall 115/Brown Hall 12B Office Hours: Brown 12B 10-11 T/Th1:30-3 MW

Overview/Course Description: This course is designed to offer instruction in theory and practice of effective technical communication, particularly as applied to Mechanical Engineering and the junior/senior design clinic. Students who successfully complete this course should be able to plan, organize, draft, revise, and edit technical communication that is professional in content and appearance and appropriately designed for its intended audience.

Course Objectives: The learning objectives in English 341 are that you will:

Communicate effectively

• Identify, analyze, and target readers/listeners.
• Articulate your communication purpose and employ appropriate rhetorical strategies in the service of that purpose.
• Demonstrate facility with ideas and language.
• Analyze and synthesize information in sophisticated and complex rhetorical/logical structures.
• Devise and employ effective document design.
• Know and be able to modify conventional formats such as manuals, technical reports, and other standard professional documents.

Conduct relevant, professional, and innovative research, both primary and secondary

• Understand and implement appropriate strategies for gathering information.
• Integrate the ideas and language of various sources.
• Document sources and research professionally.

Work collaboratively

• Demonstrate flexibility to lead, listen, facilitate, negotiate, and participate as needed to build and sustain group productivity.
• Demonstrate knowledge of and respect for various perspectives and approaches.

Engage in peer review

• Ask readers/listeners specific questions about the content and delivery of your documents and presentations.
• Evaluate and revise your ideas and expression as appropriate in response to reader/listener feedback.
• Provide specific, respectful, and useful feedback to your peers based on attentive close reading and listening.

Attendance Policy: Because we will be doing a great deal of planning, drafting, and peer reviewing during class time, regular attendance is crucial to succeeding in this course. Students who miss more than three classes (I do not distinguish between excused and unexcused absences) will have their grade lowered by at least one letter.

Grades

The graded assignments total 100 points with the following breakdown on the grading scheme:

A: 93-100 points	C+: 77-79 points
A-: 90-92 points	C: 73-76 points
B+: 87-89 points	C-: 70-72 points
B: 83-86 points	D: 60-69 points
B-: 80-82 points	F: 59 points and below

On each assignment you will receive a grade as well as comments from me in electronic format. I work hard to provide you with feedback that not only explains why you received a particular grade but also gives you areas to work on for the final version or next assignment. Please take the time to read these comments. If, after reading these comments you have further questions, you are welcome to see me during my office hours.

Assignments: The majority of the course assignments are connected to the MENG design clinic. Note that for written reports and oral presentations required for the MENG design clinic you are required to submit drafts in advance for this course. These drafts will be graded (I will share my evaluation rubrics in advance), so it is imperative that you budget your time accordingly and have available necessary content and appropriate data to include in your drafts.As you are planning your Gantt chart with your team members early on, it is essential to account for these draft deadlines. For written assignments you will upload an electronic copy (MS Word .doc or .docx format- no pdf please) to a designated folder on the MENG design clinic hard drive rather than turn in a hard copy.

Abstract Analysis and Revision

This first assignment requires you to find an abstract (ideally in a topic you’re interested in) from either a Mechanical Engineering academic journal article or a professional/academic Mechanical Engineering conference. You will analyze the abstract’s language, using MS Word’s readability statistics and present the results of your findings in a brief oral presentation (use PowerPoint to include visual examples) to the class. In addition, you will revise and turn in the abstract with the goal of improving its readability and simplifying its content for better clarity.

Technical Definition or Description

Individually, you will choose a technical concept, mechanism, or process and write and design a one-page description or definition in your own words for an audience of laypersons. The definition or description should be related to Mechanical Engineering (ideally to your design project) and include at least one graphic.

In-class grammar quizzes (6 total—can throw out lowest score) (5%) No makeup quizzes given.

Weekly Status Report

Beginning in early September, you will submit weekly status reports documenting your team’s weekly progress and calling attention problem areas or potential problem areas. This document is the same one you are required to submit for the MENG design clinic.

Design Project Proposal Draft

You will be evaluated on the quality, clarity, appropriateness, and correctness of the content, organization, format, and visuals in your Design Project Proposal submitted in mid September. Note that this document will be a graded draft of the proposal you are required to submit for the MENG design clinic. I will provide feedback to guide your revision for submittal for the MENG design clinic.

Second Progress Report Draft

You will be evaluated on the quality, clarity, appropriateness, and correctness of the content, organization, format, and visuals in your Second Progress Report submitted in late October. Note that this document will be a graded draft of the report you are required to submit for the MENG design clinic. I will provide feedback to guide your revision for submittal for the MENG design clinic.

Final Design Report Draft

You will be evaluated on your Final Design Report submitted at the end of the semester. This evaluation will include the quality, clarity, appropriateness, and correctness of its content, organization, format, and visuals. Note that this document will be a graded draft of the report you are required to submit for the MENG design clinic. I will provide feedback to guide your revision for submittal for the MENG design clinic.

First Design Presentation Draft and Final

I will attend and evaluate your presentation in late September presenting the ideas documented in your Design Project Proposal pertaining to problem definition and design specification. Part of your grade will be a rehearsal (geared to provide constructive feedback) of your part of the presentation during class time.

Second Design Presentation Draft and Final

I will attend and evaluate your presentation in late October/early November describing the creativity phase and the evaluation phase during the MENG design clinic. Part of your grade will be a rehearsal (geared to provide constructive feedback) of your part of the presentation during class time.

Final Design Presentation Draft and Final

I will attend and evaluate your presentation at the end of semester Student Design Conference. Part of your grade will be a rehearsal (geared to provide constructive feedback) of your part of the presentation during class time.

Following is a breakdown of assignments and their worth:

WRITTEN	ORAL
Abstract Analysis and Revision 10%	First Design Presentation 05%
Technical Definition/Description 10%	Second Design Presentation 10%
Grammar Quizzes (6 total- best 5 of 6) 05%	Final Design Presentation 15%
Weekly Status Report (10 total) 10 %
Design Project Proposal Draft 05%
Second Progress Report Draft 10%
Final Design Report Draft 20%	TOTAL 100%

Appendix 10: Graduate MENG Communication Syllabus

COMM 589-01: Communication in Engineering

Faculty Information: Julie Ford, Ph.D. jford@nmt.edu

Course Time and Place: Wednesday 8:30-11am Cramer 127

Office: Brown 12B Office Hours: T/Th 8:30-9:30 W 1:15-3:15

Course Description: This course is designed to offer Mechanical Engineering graduate students instruction in communicating effectively with a variety of audiences through written and oral means. Emphasis will be placed on gathering, synthesizing, and presenting information. Students will use their own graduate work as the technical content needed to complete various assignments. These assignments, in conjunction with in-class writing and speaking exercises, peer review, and multimedia presentations will help students achieve the following goals:

• research, plan, draft, and revise technical documents individually and collaboratively
• organize and select information appropriately for different purposes and audiences
• develop a clear technical writing style
• use appropriate formats for proposals, literature reviews, reports, papers, oral presentations
• incorporate graphics in documents and presentations to support, clarify, and emphasize technical data
• properly document outside research sources

Attendance Policy

Regular attendance is crucial to succeeding in this course. If you are ill or must miss class for another valid reason, please speak with me about excusing your absence. Students who miss more than two classes without a valid excuse will have their final grade lowered by at least one full letter grade.

Revision

This course places emphasis on revision during the writing stages rather than revising final products. As a result, it is very important that you work hard on drafts and provide useful feedback when responding to classmates’ drafts during peer review. Once they have been graded, papers cannot be revised.

Grades

The graded assignments total 100 points with the following breakdown on the grading scheme:

A: 94-100 points	C+: 77-79 points
A-: 90-93 points	C: 73-76 points
B+: 87-89 points	C-: 70-72 points
B: 83-86 points	D: 60-69 points
B-: 80-82 points	F: 59 points and below

I will consider content, organization, style, format, and visuals when grading assignments. On each assignment you will receive a grade sheet that includes my criteria in each category as well as comments. I work hard to provide you with feedback that not only explains why you received a particular grade but also gives you areas to work on and suggestions for improvement for future assignments. Please take the time to read these comments. If, after reading these comments you have further questions, you are welcome to see me during my office hours.

Ethical Conduct

The administration, faculty, and your fellow students at New Mexico Tech expect you to act ethically. This includes not cheating, falsifying information, or plagiarizing, actions which may result in you receiving a failing grade for the class, or sending you before the Disciplinary Board for more severe treatment. Other non-ethical acts may also be cause for disciplinary action: see the New Mexico Tech Student Handbook (available at the Student Services Office) for more information and a more complete description.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS

Upload an electronic copy (MS Word format NOTpdf) to your student folder on the course portal.

1. Project summary (10%)

   To provide me with necessary context about your main research projects, you will begin the semester by summarizing them clearly in terms a general audience can understand and relate to.

2. Semester assignments proposal (10%)

   You will propose the terms for the major projects you will work on this semester through this assignment. Using parameters I provide, you will write a clear and detailed proposal to map out the specifics for the following assignments: conference (or other) proposal, presentation of technical topic, and substantial technical work.

3. Conference (or other) proposal (15%)

   This assignment requires you to develop and submit a proposal for a conference paper or poster or small-scale funding opportunity.

4. Literature review (10%)

   To practice and improve upon your skills of synthesizing, presenting, and correctly documenting previous research, you will write an in-depth and up-to-date literature review relevant to your project(s).

5. Substantial technical work (ie: journal article, thesis chapter(s) (25%)

   Your semester’s work will culminate in delivering the final version of this assignment. In your semester assignments proposal you will detail the purpose, scope, audience, and due dates.

6. In-class grammar quizzes (6 total—can throw out lowest score) (5%)

ORAL ASSIGNMENTS

1. Spontaneous class presentations (05%)

   You will practice impromptu public speaking by presenting brief (5 minutes) research or project status updates during class time. Consider them good practice for “elevator speeches”.

2. Presentation of technical topic to Graduate Faculty Seminar (20%)

   Each of you will present your work at the MENG Graduate Faculty Seminar. As part of your preparation, you will present a draft of the presentation during class time to receive feedback from me and your peers.