Course Schedule

September 2016
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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9

Introduction

Read:

  • The course syllabus

  • Williams: Preface and Chapter 1 (22 pages, as background)

Topic: The Engineering Method; principles and practices; the portfolio and the lab notebook

Come to class with one or two technical papers that you have found unclear or difficult to read.

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Who/what/whom (analysis)

Read Williams, Chapter 2 (18 pages)

Topic: Come having done Exercise A from the class handbook, page 9. There will be several paragraphs to be named.

19

Start preparing for class on 9/30/2016: read Boice, Chapter 9 (8 pages) and start two weeks of "active waiting" in your writing practice. Lab notebooks should focus on place, time, duration, and materials.

You may also wish to read Mindful ways of writing, Boice, pages 103–113 (11 pages, optional).

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Who/what/whom (revision)

Read Williams, Chapter 2 (18 pages, already ready for previous week)

Topic: Exercise A: use subjects, verbs, and direct objects to revise a previous paragraph, probably annotate and revise 1 or 2 student paragraphs

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Productivity and satisfaction

Read:

  • Boice, Chapter 9 (8 pages) already in progress (started on Monday).

  • Optional: Mindful ways of writing, Boice, pages 103–113 (11 pages).

Topic: Class discussions: productivity and satisfaction; results of active waiting; the quieting response

October 2016
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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Productivity and satisfaction

Read:

  • Boice, Chapter 9 (8 pages) already in progress (started on Monday).

  • Optional: Mindful ways of writing, Boice, pages 103–113 (11 pages).

Topic: Class discussions: productivity and satisfaction; results of active waiting; the quieting response

3

To prepare for class on 10/21/2016: read Boice, Chapter 10 (14 pages), choose a prewriting exercise, and start practicing it

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Information flow

Read Williams, Chapter 3, part 1: pages 45 to 53, plus principle 1 on page 56 (9 pages). Stop at the top of page 53 before the subject heading "Keeping Topics Visible".

Topic: Exercise C: Marking old and new information within a sentence.

10

To prepare for class on 10/21/2016: Add a new prewriting exercise to your repertoire, and continue practicing

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12

Use the who/what/whom principle to revise four consecutive sentences of your own work. Put the original and the revision in your portfolio. Send only the original to Norman.

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14

Information flow, continued

Read carried over from last class

Topic: Exercise C: Using old and new information to revise sentences

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19

Use the information-flow principle to revise one paragraph, of at least four sentences, of your own work. Put the original and the revision in your portfolio. Send only the original to Norman.

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21

Prewriting

Read Boice, Chapter 10 (14 pages, already read three weeks before class)

Topic: Bring lab notebooks and portfolios to class. We will analyze results of your experiments with prewriting.

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Coherent Subjects

Read Williams, Chapter 3, part 2: pages 53 to 65 (13 pages).

Topic: Exercise E: Judge about 3 paragraphs for coherent subjects; compare; suggest possible revisions

31

Read Boice, Chapter 11 (8 pages) and start working in brief, daily sessions. After each session, record your observations in your lab notebook.

Over the next two weeks, your sessions should encompass all the stages involved in producing a (short) manuscript: active waiting, prewriting, drafting, and editing. Editing work should focus on clarity and cohesion. Good lengths to aim for are a paragraph, then a page. If it goes well, try for a section. If not, consult your lab notebook, and identify symptoms and causes.

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Coherent Subjects, continued

Read Williams, carried over

Topic: From about 3 paragraphs, choose one that would benefit most from revision to make subjects more coherent, and revise it

November 2016
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
31

Read Boice, Chapter 11 (8 pages) and start working in brief, daily sessions. After each session, record your observations in your lab notebook.

Over the next two weeks, your sessions should encompass all the stages involved in producing a (short) manuscript: active waiting, prewriting, drafting, and editing. Editing work should focus on clarity and cohesion. Good lengths to aim for are a paragraph, then a page. If it goes well, try for a section. If not, consult your lab notebook, and identify symptoms and causes.

1
2
3
4

Coherent Subjects, continued

Read Williams, carried over

Topic: From about 3 paragraphs, choose one that would benefit most from revision to make subjects more coherent, and revise it

7
8

Issue/Discussion

Read:

  • Williams, Chapter 5 (15 pages)—focus on Principle 3 as articulated from the bottom of page 87 to the top of page 91

  • Set of sample paragraphs

Topic: We will read and rank paragraphs selected from the literature. Also I will respond to midterm course evaluations.

9
10
11

No class: Veterans' Day

14

Use coherent subjects to revise one paragraph, of at least four sentences, of your own work. Put the original and the revision in your portfolio. Send only the original to Norman.

15
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18

Brief, daily sessions

Read Boice, Chapter 11, carried over

Topic: Class discussion: results of brief, daily sessions; impediments to brief, daily sessions

Instructions: Come to class with this information: 1. What overall goal or theme, if any, connects your writing sessions over this period? A helpful answer to this question might be: "create a draft of the introduction to my paper on the influence of neural pathways in architectural design." Another helpful sort of answer might be "polish my explanation of what I've learned about pedagogy in COMP 15." Unhelpful sorts of answers would be "worked on a paper about my current project" or "wrote a report for my research sponsor." 2. Over the last 14 days, on how many days did you have a writing session? 3. For each session, was it devoted primarily to active waiting, prewriting, drafting, editing, or other? 4. For each day, what best describes the duration of your primary writing session that day? No session, 0–10 min, 10-30min, 30–45min, 45–90min, over 90min 5. For each session, what best describes the time of day: best time of day, productive time of day, less productive time of day.

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No class: Thanksgiving

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Writing problems and solutions

Topic: Come to class prepared to present problems that limit your writing or prewriting, and good techniques that are working for you.

December 2016
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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Writing problems and solutions

Topic: Come to class prepared to present problems that limit your writing or prewriting, and good techniques that are working for you.

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9

No class: Workshop on probabilistic programming languages

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No class: Reading period, finals, winter break

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No class: Reading period, finals, winter break

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No class: Reading period, finals, winter break

January 2017
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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No class: Reading period, finals, winter break

9
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No class: Reading period, finals, winter break

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Planning for spring term

Topic: How assessment will work. Plans for spring. Writing projects; observations from lab notebooks.

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Who/what/whom as a research tool

Read Williams, carried over

Topic: Exercise A applied to a student's text, trying to get insight into the student's technical work.

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Stopping with restarting in mind

Read Boice, Chapter 12 (5 pages)

Topic: Class discussion: What do we do if we're "on a roll?" How can we end a session in a way that facilitates the next session?

After class, spend the next two weeks monitoring for inefficiencies, as Boice describes in Exercise 1 on page 189.

February 2017
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
30
31
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Stopping with restarting in mind

Read Boice, Chapter 12 (5 pages)

Topic: Class discussion: What do we do if we're "on a roll?" How can we end a session in a way that facilitates the next session?

After class, spend the next two weeks monitoring for inefficiencies, as Boice describes in Exercise 1 on page 189.

6

First self-assessment of editing skills to peer reviewers

Read Boice, Chapter 18 (5 pages).

Spend the next two weeks monitoring for inefficiencies, as Boice describes in Exercise 1 on page 189.

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10

Restructuring sections

Topic: Exercise H: purpose of each paragraph, applied to a student's text

13

First self-assessment of editing skills to instructor

14
15
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17

Efficiency and inefficiency

Read Boice, Chapter 12 (carried over)

Topic: Discussion: Lab notebooks; results of Exercise 1 on page 189 of Boice

20

Read Boice, Chapters 14 and 15 (20 pages). (You will need to read pages 170–176 only if you are skeptical.)

And add to your experimental record-keeping in your lab notebook these two exercises: Exercise 1 on page 161 of Boice (record of thoughts) and Exercise 1 on page 168 of Boice.

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Restructuring sections

Topic: Exercise H: purpose of each paragraph, applied to a student's text

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Unblocking

Read Boice, chapters 14 and 15 (carried over)

Topic: Class discussion: do we experience obstacles to flow, and when we do so, what can we learn from our lab notebooks?
(Bring lab notebooks to class.)

March 2017
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
27
28
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3

Unblocking

Read Boice, chapters 14 and 15 (carried over)

Topic: Class discussion: do we experience obstacles to flow, and when we do so, what can we learn from our lab notebooks?
(Bring lab notebooks to class.)

6

Second self-assessment of editing skills to peer reviewers

7
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10

Writing-principles review I

Topic: Coherent subjects

13

Second self-assessment of editing skills to instructor

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Writing-principles review II

Topic: Structure of a section; Receive abstracts for analysis after break.

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No class: Spring break

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Analyzing abstracts

Read Kenneth Landes, A Scrutiny of the Abstract

Topic: Analysis of an abstract: Promises vs presentation, subjects and verbs, information flow, and coherent subjects

April 2017
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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Analyzing abstracts

Read Kenneth Landes, A Scrutiny of the Abstract

Topic: Analysis of an abstract: Promises vs presentation, subjects and verbs, information flow, and coherent subjects

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The Art of the Abstract

Read Landes, carried forward

Topic: Identify the essential information in a paper handed out the previous week

10

Third, optional self-assessment of editing skills to peer reviewers

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The Art of the Abstract

Topic: Write new abstracts, at several lengths, for the previous week's paper

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18

Third, optional self-assessment of editing skills to instructor

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Effective practices

Topic: Class discussion: Final review of effective practices. What have you learned, and what will you put in your professional-development plan?
Bring your lab notebook.

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Mastery of principles

Topic: Peer review of mastery of principles.

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May 2017
MondayTuesdayWednesdayThursdayFriday
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