COM301A - Technical Communication
Credits: 2;
Preconditions: 2nd Year Standing or higher
Post Conditions:
After successfully completing this course, a student should have
Improved ability to write short technical narratives
Improved ability to make short technical presentations
Understand the fundamentals of writing for technical audience
Brief Description:
In this course, students in groups of two, will read some technical papers, write short
technical report on the topic, and make a presentation on the topic. Students will evaluate
the technical reports as well as presentations also – as critically evaluating a report or a
presentation is in itself a method for improving technical communication skills.
In addition, students in groups will submit a practice assignment – a two page write up on
chosen topic and a presentation on the same topic so that they are better prepared. These
will be graded and a detailed feedback will be provided.
There will be a few lectures on good writing and good presentation. For writing, we will
also use the lectures/material from online course “Writing in the Sciences” on Coursera:
https://class.coursera.org/sciwrite-2012-001/class/index .
Examples on writing and presentation will be discussed in the class. Rest of the lecture
slots will be used for presentations by students and groups, and evaluation by the
listeners.
Students in this course will be required to attend the seminars in the Institute (at least 5 in
the semester) – and write brief report/evaluation of the seminar.
Evaluation (tentative)
Quiz/MCQs- 20 marks
Technical Narrative essay - 10 marks
Technical Presentations- 30 marks
End sem- 40 marks
Further details:
Evaluation of written technical reports will be done like for conferences –
three/four students (plus the instructor/TA) will evaluate each report.
The above method will require each student to review about two reports. These
reviews are an important learning instrument, and the instructor/TA will evaluate
all the reviews of a student, and assign marks to the student based on the quality
of reviews.
Presentations will be organized in conference format but shorter. Each group will
be required to have practiced their presentation at least once before the class
presentation, and they will have to tape their practice presentations and show it as
evidence to the TA (marks will be taken off, if this is not done). Feedback from
students will also be taken on the presentation, and will carry marks.
Attending seminars – each student will be required to attend at least 5 seminars.
For each seminar attended, she will have to write a short summary of the seminar,
and submit it within one week of the seminar to the TA for evaluation. The
student will be required to take a picture of the entire lecture hall for the seminar
he/she attends, and that of the speaker, and may be required to show these at the
end of the semester as evidence of attendance.
All presentations and reports will be made available to all students – the final
exam will be based on material presented in class, including student presentations.
Some Guidelines for Reports and Presentations
Students are required to use LaTex for the reports. They are required to use ACM
style (http://www.acm.org/sigs/publications/proceedings-templates) or IEEE
Computer Society template.
Each report will be focused and brief (4 pages). If a student desires to explain the
details of some concept/algorithm/technique, he/she may add appendices.
Student will have to submit a revision of the report based on the comments given
by the reviewers.
Proper styles of referencing, citing, etc will have to be followed respecting the
copyright principles.
Resources
Some notes on technical writing and presentation will be provided.
For writing, we will use contents from online course “Writing in the Sciences” on
Coursera: https://class.coursera.org/sciwrite-2012-001/class/index.
For selecting topics and papers, a list of topics will be provided. Students can
choose their own topics as well – they will have to get it approved by the
instructor. It is expected that for each topic, at least a few papers/reports or books
will have to read.
