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TECHNICAL, PROFESSIONAL, AND SCIENCE WRITING
ENG 347 (Summer 2011): e-learning
Doris Zames Fleischer, Ph.D.
E-mail address: sirod1@optonline.net or doris.fleischer@njit.edu
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OUTDATED.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]
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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.
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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
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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:
davida.scharf@njit.edu
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
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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
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. 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.