• GE 3513 Course Homepage

The College of Engineering’s TCP began in earnest with the development of its own junior/senior-level technical writing course, GE 3513 Technical Writing. Initially developed and offered as pilot sections in spring and summer 1999, GE 3513 has grown to become the required writing course for undergraduate engineers. Seven to eight sections of the course are offered every fall and spring semester, and three to four 10-week sections are offered every summer. The instructors for GE 3513 bring to their classes years of experience both in teaching college-level writing and in professional technical writing. Course activities, discussions, and assignments involve strategies, scenarios, and documents based on realistic academic and workplace situations.

GE 3513 Technical Writing provides science and engineering students with instruction and practice in the technical writing process. The course focuses on the basic steps of analysis, development, and revision:

• Recognizing specific writing situations and the objectives that arise out of them
• Analyzing audiences and suiting format, content, and tone to these audiences
• Designing documents that are structurally and mechanically effective
• Writing and revising these documents to achieve clarity and correctness

Additional major areas of emphasis include examining the role of ethics in technical communications, developing and using graphics, writing collaboratively, and constructing oral presentations. Class assignments involve correspondence, reports, instructions, and proposals based on realistic cases or job situations; brief editing and analysis exercises involving electronic media; and an exam on the concepts and techniques assigned in readings and/or discussed in class.