Lesson Plan for Writing Lesson 1: Writing Emails and Letters

Lesson Objectives

  1. Orient students to analysis of audience, purpose, and occasion of professional emails and letters
  2. Introduce the organization of professional emails and letters
  3. Have students be critical thinkers about the language of emails and letters
  4. Have each student draft an important email, such as a job application email.

Lesson Description

Forthcoming.

Pre-Work

Prior to the class period, the students should do the following:
  1. View the three films of the Lesson 1
  2. Take the quiz  that tests for comprehension of the films' content (see end of this lesson). A Canvas version exists with the search terms "Michael Alley" and "Writing Lessons for Engineering and Science." To obtain a key for all quizzes, please email Michael Alley (mpa13@psu.edu). Once we have verified that you are an instructor, we will send you the link for the key.
  3. Download the just-in-time report template for the next writing assignment

Lesson Plan (1 hour of class time)

Introduction and discussion about differences between engineering writing and general writing (20 minutes)
The purpose of this activity is to dispel the most common misconceptions that pull down the writing of young engineers and scientists
 
1. Have students write down the most surprising things about scientific writing that they learned from the films (2 minutes). On a sheet of paper to turn in, students should write down the most surprising things that they learned about scientific writing from the films that they viewed. Students can also draw from things that they have witnessed in engineering or scientific textbooks.
 
2. Think-pair-share discussion by students on the most surprising things about scientific writing that they learned from the films (3 minutes). Students can also draw from things that they have witnessed in engineering or scientific textbooks.
 
3. Discussion to dispel common misconceptions about scientific writing (15 minutes). Ask students to share to the class a surprising thing that they have learned about scientific writing from either their readings in technical textbooks or the films that they viewed. Limit each volunteer to one surprising finding. A list of findings appears below. Note that the students will not raise all of these, but you should highlight the ones that you think the most important and probe the students to identify those.

Audience Analysis:
  1. Scientific writing is important
  2. Some things that we learned in earlier writing courses do not apply
  3. Before writing anything, you should analyze audience, purpose, and occasion
  4. Engineering documents have multiple audiences
  5. You should ask both what the audience knows and why they are reading
  6. Every document in engineering and science carries the purpose of informing
  7. The level of persuasion for a document affects its style—from numbered lists in instructions to full paragraphs in proposals
  8. Format is the layout and typography of a document
  9. Companies and journals have distinctly different formats
  10. Engineering documents typically have maximum lengths, not minimum lengths
Organization of Documents
  1. A strong title in engineering is not short and sweet—rather, it identifies the document’s scope
  2. Being catchy is not important for a title in scientific writing
  3. Small words are important in title to separate the technical details
  4. Being concise is not our most important goal in scientific writing—being precise and clear are
  5. Scientific documents have summaries to allow busy audiences to find out what happened
  6. Although read first, summaries are written last
  7. Every idea in the summary should appear in at least that much detail in the main text
  8. Scientific documents are written in sections to give audiences rest breaks, to show the organization, to allow the audience to jump to a section, and emphasis
  9. Where text borders white space is where you receive emphasis
  10. The section heading “introduction” suggests certain content: motivation, scope, background, and mapping
  11. The first sentence of a section should either orient the audience or provide background to set up an orienting sentence
  12. In general, begin with the familiar before moving to the new
Language at the sentence level: Being Precise and Clear
  1. Our most important concern when drafting sentences is not the sound of the sentence or being catchy—rather, it is being precise and clear
  2. Being precise means choosing the right word (it matters whether we choose weight or mass)
  3. Being precise means not exaggerating (“a solution” as opposed to “the solution”)
  4. When we sit down to write, the situation becomes formal
  5. Einstein said, “In scientific writing, you should be as simple as possible, yet no simpler”
  6. Do not use a long word when a short word carries the same precision
  7. A good piece of advice at the sentence level is “one idea, one sentence” (Bernstein)
  8. Avoid ambiguities in scientific writing
  9. Ambiguities arise from choosing as when you mean because
  10. Ambiguities arise from not placing a comma after an introductory phrase or clause
  11. Ambiguities arise from the standalone this--specify the standalone this
Incorporating Illustrations, Equations, and Abbreviations
  1. Illustrations consist of tables (rows and columns arrangement of words and numbers) and figures (photographs, drawing, diagrams, and graphs)
  2. Illustrations are important in scientific writing—many engineers and scientists build sections around illustrations
  3. Audiences have four expectations for the incorporation of an illustration: (1) it is named; (2) it is introduced and explained in the text before it appears; it has a caption (figure) or heading (table); and it is properly placed
  4. It is not desired that you place tags on where an illustration appears—the audience already knows that it will be in the next available spot
  5. Equations are only part of the paragraph but a part of a sentence within the paragraph
  6. Dependent variable is defined in the part of the sentence above the equation and undefined independent variables are defined below.
  7. If the words leading to the equation can stand alone as a sentence, the punctuation is a colon.
  8. Microsoft Word will try to capitalize where--do not let it
  9. An abbreviation can save time for the author and the audience
  10. An abbreviation is defined in parentheses after the more familiar words from which the abbreviation is derived
  11. After you define an abbreviation, use the abbreviation to reinforce its meaning

Lesson Plan (Continued)

Team Outlining Activity (30 minutes)
The goal of this activity is for the student or student team to create an outline for the upcoming document. In creating this outline, students are encouraged to follow the questions below.
  1. Analyze the audience, purpose, and occasion of the document
    1. Who is the primary audience? What do they know about the subject? Why are they reading? What secondary audiences do you have?
    2. How persuasive is this document? What assertions or choices will you make that you will have to defend?
    3. What is the expected format (typeface, paragraphs, line spacing, reference listings)? Also, what is the maximum or target length?
  2. Draft a title for the document. Note that if the document is a special type of document, then you would want to reflect that in the title. For instance, if the document were a design report, then the word design would likely occur in the title.
  3. Write down details that will go into the introduction:
    1. Scope of document
    2. Motivation for laboratory or design project—write for your widest audience
    3. Background that the widest audience should know
    4. Mapping of document (last paragraph of the introduction)
  4. Write down or draft the names of the sections of the report—if your template, specifies those headings, then use those names. Draft possible first sentences for each of those sections. As a suggestion of your first draft, simply start with, “This section presents…” You might change the way that a section begins if you need to begin with background information, but that opening will get you started.
  5. If writing as a team, designate who will have responsibility for different tasks. Possible tasks include--
    1. Lead author for entire document—responsible for assembling all of the drafted sections and making sure that the document reads in one voice and is formatted properly. The lead author also incorporates the edits from the reviewers and decides which edits to use.
    2. Lead author for each section
    3. Lead person who will create the illustrations (having one lead is a good way to ensure that all tables and figures have a cohesive look)
    4. Reviewers—reviewers will need to turn around draft in a timely fashion.
  6. Establish a schedule. Please note that professionals generally at the due date and working backwards so that enough time is budgeted for revising and proofreading. Here are possible tasks:
    1. Drafting sections and illustrations
    2. Assembling the sections into a document that follows the required format. If you have been drafting in Google Docs, consider switching here to Microsoft Word so that reviewers do not delete or incorrectly revise important sentences.
    3. Reviewing document
    4. Incorporating edits from review (note that you can do steps c and d more than once)
    5. Proofreading—proofreading is different from reviewing. In reviewing, you read the document with the perspective of making the document stronger. In proofreading, you read the document with the perspective of changing only that which is incorrect or inconsistent.
    6. Submission of assignment​  
​Closure (10 minutes)
  1. Open the floor for questions. Expect the students to ask about the audience, purpose, format, and length.
  2. Identify the pet peeves that you have about writing. Each of us has certain things about writing that we emphasize more than others. Such writing aspects are called pet peeves (see an example in Appendix A). Identifying these pet peeves for your students significantly reduces student frustration when you return your first set of graded papers.
  3. End with your testimony as to why engineering writing is important. Because you have established much credibility with the students, your saying that writing is important carries much weight with the students. If you have specific instances in which your ability to write gave you a professional edge, please share an example or two.

Comprehension Quiz

At the following link, you will find a comprehension quiz for the Summary Lesson. A Canvas version is available at Penn State by searching for "Writing Lessons for Engineering and Science." To obtain a key for this quiz and all quizzes for the Writing Lessons, please email Michael Alley at mpa13@psu.edu. Title the email as "Requesting Quiz Keys for Writing Lessons." Once we have verified that you are an instructor, we will send you the link to the quiz keys.

References

  1. Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018).
  2. Bernstein, Theodore, The Careful Writer (New York: Free Press, 1995).​​
  3. William A. Sabin, The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 11th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010).
Sponsors
     Leonhard Center, College of Engineering, Penn State
​     National Science Foundation, NSF EAGER Award  1752096

​Content Editors
     Michael Alley, Teaching Professor, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Sarah Ritter, Assistant Professor, Engineering Design, Penn State

Film Editors
     Richelle Weiger, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Casey Fenton, College of Engineering, Penn State
​For the academic year 2019-2020, we are collecting comments, questions, criticisms, and suggestions for the films, text, and quizzes of each lesson on scientific writing. To help us understand your input, would please let us know what your discipline is and whether you are a student, professional, or faculty member?