| Office hours: | Tuesdays 1.15pm-2.15pm in 14N-210 (x2-3214), and by appointment. |
| EXCEPTION: From 27 March through 1 May, when I will have a great deal of travel, office hours will be by appointment only. |
OPTIONAL TEXTS AND REFERENCES:
Any project in science or engineering presents two categories of obstacles: that of solving the immediate problems of theory and design, and that of describing the resulting solutions in terms that are both comprehensive and comprehensible. In most of your education at MIT, the explicit focus has been on the former problem. In this course we'll take some time out for the latter. Along the way, you'll outline, construct, and revise a paper on a topic in your major field that will satisfy phase two of the Institute Writing Requirement.
You may choose the topic, format, and intended audience of your term paper, within some specific constraints. A thesis will not be accepted as a term paper, nor will any document of more than five thousand words. (Conversely, although there is no absolute minimum length, a document of fewer than 2500 words likely will not allow enough space for complete development of your topic.) A lab report that has been or will be submitted for a science or engineering course is also unacceptable. You may, however, adapt and extend a thesis or a lab report. Acceptable types of documents include a technical report on work conducted in a class or research project at MIT, an industrial report on work from a summer internship, a scientific or general-audience article on a specific scientific research project, or a hardware or software manual. You are expected to consult the instructor before settling on a final choice of topic, format, and audience.
| DAY | TOPICS | ASSIGNMENT |
|---|---|---|
| 8 February | Structure of sentences, paragraphs, and documents. Using stress for emphasis, and sequencing topics to create forward flow. Writing for the reader. | Assignment #1 |
| 22 February | Formats of technical documents: the experimental report, the technical report, and the proposal. Workshop on published documents. | Assignment #2 |
| 8 March | Discussion and workshop on term paper proposals. | Assignment #3 |
| 22 March | Graphics. Emphasis without distortion. Visual illusions. Levels of detail. A minimalist approach to data representation. Univariate and multivariate displays. | Assignment #4 |
| 3 May | Discussion and workshop on term papers. Elements of oral presentations. | Assignment #5 |
| 17 May | Oral presentations. |
Process and principle. As there are physical and logical principles to be considered in constructing an experiment or an invention, there is a mechanics of writing. Your development as a writer depends on your learning the laws of this mechanics, and how to follow them, and when to break them. Writing, like any form of design, is a process of false leads, missteps, pitfalls, and dogged persistence punctuated by insight. It is terribly hard, but at the end of it the satisfaction of having found the right words makes up for all the frustration. In this view, writing is not a lot different from anything else you do at MIT.
Collaboration. In writing, just as in other aspects of science and engineering, collaborators are valuable: it's much easier to suffer the criticisms and nitpicks of a small group of trusted people than it is to wait for the public to discover all the faults in your product. This is the idea behind the writing workshop. The workshop sessions will give you a chance to witness the effect of your writing on readers who are new to the material. Achieving such an insight on your own is difficult, since foreknowledge of what you intended to say will inevitably confound your perception of what you actually managed to say. As a cautious and circumspect scientist, you should avoid such confounding factors.
Copying. "Copying," I mean, not in the flattering sense of imitation of style, but in the frank sense of theft of another's voice. All of you no doubt have heard the litany before, but prudence dictates that it be reiterated here. Under no circumstances is it appropriate to copy or even to paraphrase someone else's words or ideas without citing them. This goes for the works of published authors as well as for those of your fellow students. I believe that people who violate this principle of academic honesty have no place in an academic environment, and I will do my best to see that anyone who does violate it is promptly removed from the class and from the Institute. As the distinction between copying and collaboration can sometimes be murky, you should consult me if you feel at all uncertain about which side of the boundary you stand on.
Submitting assignments. All written assignments must be submitted in electronic form. Assignments can be submitted as LaTEX source, DVI, PostScript, PDF, FrameMaker files, or in any of the formats that FrameMaker can import (e.g. RTF and most versions of Micro$oft Word and WordPerfect). To submit an assignment, place it in a directory, use fs sa directory belmonte rl to give me read permission on your directory, and then send me mail telling me the path to the file (directory name and file name).
Grades and grading. I loathe grading. The custom of assigning letter grades carries the implicit assumption that writing can be reduced to a simple, one-dimensional scale of quality. To take that assumption seriously would be an insult to you and your work. I place much more emphasis on narrative evaluations, and you should, too. As long as you take care of the problems that are pointed out to you, labels and rankings will take care of themselves. Keep in mind, though, that your having time to address problems depends on your taking outlines and drafts seriously, and on keeping in touch with me about the difficulties that you encounter.
Attendance and participation. In most courses passing the exams is all that matters, and coming to class is valuable only as a means to an end. In this course, though, your evaluation depends significantly on what you do and say during class meetings. If you don't come to class, obviously, you won't do well when you're evaluated on these factors. If you miss even one class meeting without a good reason, your evaluation will be significantly affected. If you do have a good reason, and it's not some sudden emergency, you need to contact me about it in advance.