CAES1507
Professional and Technical Written
Communication for Engineers
Session One
Introduction
Contact Information
Instructor
Conttia Lai
(Course Coordinator)
Karissa Muse
Email
conttialai@hku.hk
muse@hku.hk
Office
KK Leung 1016
Eliot Hall 118
Phone
2859-1080
2219-4034
CAES Rules






Attendance
Punctuality
Plagiarism
Submission of assignments
Classroom language
Use of mobile phones
Class Attendance

You must attend 80% of the classes in order
to pass the course. If you miss more than 2
classes, you must provide a medical
certificate to your teacher.
Punctuality

You are expected to come to classes
on time

You will be marked absent if you are
consistently late for classes
Plagiarism

Plagiarism is a very serious offence at
university. If your work contains any
plagiarism at all, your assignment will be
given a fail automatically.

Depending on the extent of the plagiarism,
you may also be considered for further
disciplinary action.
Submission of Assignments

All written assignments should be
submitted to the tutor IN CLASS ON THE
DUE DATE unless otherwise specified

If you are sick and unable to hand in an
assignment, you must contact your
teacher
to let him/her know and also provide a
medical certificate.
Submission of Assignments –
cont’d

Assignments which are handed in up to three
days late will have one full letter grade
deducted each day. If your assignment is
more than three days late, it will be given a fail
automatically and will not be marked.
Classroom Language

You are strongly encouraged to speak in
English at all times during classes
Mobile phones
–
Switch off your mobile before you enter the
classroom
–
No talking on the phone or SMS is allowed
during class time
Resources at HKU

Language Resource Centre (LRC)
–

Virtual English web site of LRC
–

4th Floor, Meng Wah Complex
http://caes.hku.hk/ve
CEDARS
–
–
4th Floor, Meng Wah Complex
http://cedars.hku.hk
ProTech Course
Learning Outcomes

communicate confidently in English and use the appropriate form
and register to express ideas in Engineering-related contexts.

demonstrate a range of English vocabulary related to Engineering
and use it accurately.

write structured, coherent and professional technical reports

identify key information to include in minutes

propose and critically evaluate solutions in problem-solving tasks
ProTech Course Information
Meeting
Design &
Make
PROJECT
Report
Writing
Minutes
Writing
Assessment
Assessment Components
Minutes of Meeting
Introduction (In-class writing)
Materials and Specifications
Theory
Construction Procedure + Design
Test Procedure + Results + Discussion of Results
Weighting
15% (Individual)
5% (Group)
0% (Group)
5% (Group)
10% (Group)
10% (Group)
Conclusion (In-class writing)
Summary (In-class writing)
Writing Test (In-class writing)
Final Report
15% (Individual)
5% (Group)
15% (Individual)
20% (Group)
Ice-breaking

One of the aims of the course is to strengthen
your problem-solving skills.

You will now be divided in four groups to work
on a problem-solving task. 2 groups will be
working on Sinking Ship (1) and 2 groups on
Sinking Ship (2).
Diagnostic Technical Report
Writing Test

In order to know how much you know (or
don’t know!) about writing a technical report,
you are now asked to complete a pre-course
writing test before we teach you how to do it.

You will be given 10 minutes to read through
the report and another 45 minutes to write the
Summary for the report. The task is NOT
counted towards your final grade.