NORTH CAROLINA STATE UNIVERSITY
GRADUATE COURSE ACTION FORM
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Department/Program / EnglishCourse Prefix/Number / ENG 507
Previous Prefix/Number
Date of Last Action
Course Title / Writing for Health and Environmental Sciences
Abbreviated Title / Writ Health Envir
Scheduling Fall X Spring Summer Every Year
Alt. Year Odd X Alt. Year Even Other
Credit Hours 3 / Offered by Distance Education Only
Contact Hours Lecture/Recitation Seminar 3 Laboratory Problem
Studio Independent Study/Research Internship/Practicum/Field Work
Grading / ABCDF X S/U
Instructor / Steven B. Katz
Graduate Faculty Status Associate X Full
TYPE OF PROPOSAL
New CourseDrop Course / X
Course Revision
Dual-Level Course
REVISION
Content
Prefix/Number
Title
Abbreviated Title
Credit Hours
Contact Hours
Grading Method
Pre-Corequisites
Restrictive Statement
Description
Scheduling
Anticipated Enrollment / Per semester 15 Max.Section 15 Multiple sections Yes No X
Prerequisite(s) / CLASS = DR or GR or MR
Corequisite(s) / type course numbers here
Pre/Corequisite for / type course number(s) here
Restrictive Statement / Graduate standing or permission of instructor
Curricula/Minors
Required
Qualified Elective / Applications Courses-- MS Program in Technical Communication
Proposed effective date / 8/03 / Approved effective date / type date here
Catalog Description: Readings, on-site research, document gathering, and analysis of writing in health and environmental science fields. Students study, practice, and present major forms of writing in their profession. Professional portfolio due at the end of the semester. Intended for students interested in exploring or pursuing writing careers in medicine, pharmaceuticals, nutrition, agriculture, ecology, or other health and environmental science-related industries, or professionals who wish to improve knowledge and skills.
DOCUMENTATION AS REQUIRED
Please number all document pagesCourse Justification
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Proposed Revision(s) with Justification
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Student Learning Objectives
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Enrollment for Last 5 Years
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New Resources Statement
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Consultation with other Departments
/Syllabus (Old and New)
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Explanation of differences in requirements of dual-level courses
/Recommended by:
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Department Head/Director of Graduate Programs Date
Endorsed by:
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Chair, College Graduate Studies Committee Date
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College Dean(s) Date
Approved:
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Dean of the Graduate School Date
COURSE JUSTIFICATION
Students in the MS Program need a course that focuses on scientific writing in health and environmental sciences. When the MS program in Technical Communication was founded, almost all students wanted courses that focused on concepts, skills, and writing practice that would enable them to obtain writing positions in the computer industry. However, over the last ten years the job market has been shifting somewhat and there has been a growing demand for scientific (as opposed to technical) writers in medical, pharmaceutical, ecological fields. While the majority of MS students still pursue writing careers related to the computer industry, a growing number of students are coming into the program interested in writing for health and environmental industries. Consequently, there is a need for a course that focuses on the concepts, skills, and writing practice that will enable students to obtain professional writing positions in these scientific industries. English 507, Writing for Health and Environmental Sciences, will begin to fulfill this need for students in the MS Program.
RELATION TO EXISTING COURSES
This course will complement but not overlap two courses that now exist in the MS Program: English 515, and English 520. ENG 515, the Rhetoric of Science and Technology, critically examines the history, sociology, philosophy, and language of science and technology to explore how and why science and technology are such persuasive rhetorical and cultural enterprises. English 520, Science Writing and the Media, is a journalism course on the theory and practice of science writing for the mass media.
English 507, Writing for Health and Environmental Sciences, will differ from these courses in several important ways:
1. While the study of scientific communication in ENG 507 will be based on rhetorical theory and analysis, which are introduced in ENG 515, this theory and analysis will involve different material that focuses on and applies to specific written genres of scientific communication
2. Aristotle said that the purpose of criticism is to improve practice. The purpose of theory and analysis in ENG 507 will be on the improved production of professional written texts, whereas in ENG 515 the purpose of theory and analysis is primarily improved understanding. In ENG 507, students will research and conduct rhetorical analyses of the genres employed by professional writers in their chosen scientific fields in order to write in those genres
3. While ENG 507 will examine public communication, public communication will not be treated in relation to the study of mass media or the field of journalism, as it is in ENG 520, but rather as one of the professional forums in which writers in the pharmaceutical or environmental industry work. Public communication is one of the three major kinds of scientific communication that students will study; as a matter of fact, students wishing to go into science journalism could take ENG 507 to learn how to read and handle the scientific texts from which they might work in the future as journalists.
No other course in the MS program focuses on the professional production of written documents in scientific fields.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES
By the end of this course, each student will be able to:
1. Articulate the social and rhetorical processes involved in the production of professional written scientific texts in their field
2. Analyze specific forms, rhetorical structures, argumentative strategies, and stylistic conventions of written reporting, proposing, and public communication documents in their field
3. Apply rhetorical principles and the results of their analyses to the practice of creating, writing, revising, editing, and evaluating professional scientific documents
4. Present and defend their analyses of scientific texts
5. Create a professional portfolio
ENROLLMENT FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS
This course has been offered three times over the past five years as ENG 583, Special Topics in Rhetoric and Composition:
Semester Number of Students Enrolled
Fall 1998 9
Fall 1999 6
Fall 2000 8
Fall 2003 9
NEW RESOURCES REQUIRED
No new faculty or equipment will be required.
SYLLABUS
ENGLISH 583 FALL 2003
WRITING FOR HEALTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Instructor: Dr. Steven Katz Phone: 5154119
Office: Tompkins 131E Fax: 515-1836
Office Hours: TBA Email:
REQUIRED TEXTS
Penrose, Ann M. and Katz, Steven B. Writing in the Sciences: Exploring Conventions of Scientific Discourse. Pearson Publishing, 2001.
Coursepack of readings, on electronic reserve (D.H. Hill Library). (Unless WIS indicated, all other readings are in this coursepack.)
Documents and material from your field.
COURSE OBJECTIVES AND DESCRIPTION
This course is intended for students interested in exploring or pursuing writing careers in medicine, pharmaceuticals, nutrition, agriculture, ecology, or other health and environmental science-related industries, or for professionals in these fields who wish to understand and improve their communication skills. The goal of this course is to increase your knowledge of and facility with the major forms, strategies, and principles of scientific discourse in your field of interest. Through readings, on-site research, document gathering, and analysis, each student will examine major forms of discourse used in their profession, and then practice writing and editing them. The final product of the course will be a professional portfolio of your writing.
The readings for the course will be used to intellectually frame your study and deepen your understanding of the social and rhetorical processes involved in the production of professional scientific texts, as well as provide methods for analyzing, revising, and editing those texts. Analyses will be presented in seminar reports, which constitute an important part of the student’s work in the course. The results of your research and analyses will lead your writing and revising three major types of texts in your field: reporting documents, proposing documents, and public communication documents. These documents, written and submitted to me during the semester, will be revised for the final portfolio of your work at the end of the semester. Grades will be distributed as follows:
Seminar reports and oral presentation = 35%
Reporting document = 15%
Proposing document = 15%
Public communication document = 10%
Final revised portfolio = 25%
TENTATIVE CLASS SCHEDULE FALL, 2003
week month day topics, activities, assignments
The Role of the Communicator in Health and Environmental Sciences
1 Aug 21 Syllabus; types and purposes of Scientific Discourse. Discussion of
Communication Process: The Nature of Language; Models of Communication
Assignment: Read WIS, Preface, Ch 2. Prepare a ten minute
presentation on your professional background, activities, interests, and
goals (e.g., see WIS, Activity 1, p. 30). Begin reading Latour and
Woolgar, Ch 2: “An Anthropologist Visits the Laboratory,” 43-72.
2 Aug 26 Seminar Presentations. Writing and Professional Forums
Assignment: Profile of Communication in Research Community
(WIS, Activity 2 and 3, p. 30) for seminar presentations 9/4 and 9/9;
read WIS, Ch 1, 8.
Aug 28 Values and Issues: Science as a Social Enterprise
Assignment: Read Henry, "Teaching Technical Authorship"; Task
Force on Authoring, “Who’s the Author”; De Looze, “The Future of
Medical and Technical Writing”; McCulley/Cuppen LLC, “White Paper: The Changing Roles of Professional Communicators in R&D
Organizations” [sections].
3 Sept 2 Issues in Professional Authorship
Sept 4 Seminar presentations
4 Sept 9 Seminar presentations
Assignment: Read WIS, Ch 3.1-3.4, 3.11, 4.1, 4.7-4.8; Latour and
Woolgar, “An Anthropologist Visits the Laboratory,” 72-90.
Sept 11 Form as Argument
Assignment: Read WIS, Ch 3.5, 3.9; Gilbert and Mulkay, "Working
Conceptual Hallucinations." Read WIS, Ch 3.6, 3.7, 3.10-3.11.
5 Sept 16 Graphic Results; Significance Arguments; the “Significance” of the
Discussion Section
Assignment: Bell, et al., “’Aristotle’s Pharmacy’: The Medical
Rhetoric of a Clinical Protocol in the Drug Development Process”;
Seiler, “Facets of User-Friendliness: From Format to Content in
Regulatory Submissions.”
week month day topics, activities, assignments
Sept 18 Documents and Process in Drug Development
Assignment: Cranor, “Introduction”; “Scientific Procedures in Regulatory
Agencies” (from Regulating Toxic Substances: A Philosophy of Science and
the Law); Segal, “The Structure of Advocacy: A Study of Environmental
Rhetoric.” Begin investigating the primary reporting documents for
communicating research in your field (i.e. scientific research reports,
clinical study reports, lab reports, medical records, Environmental Impact
Assessments [EIS] or legal briefs, standard operating procedures, etc.);
obtain examples (see WIS Ch 4.3 - 4.5), and pick one as a sample to analyze
for seminar presentations beginning on 9/27 (e.g., see Activities 1 and 3, pp.
72 –73). You also may want to use these examples for the literature review
in your own reporting document if you need one (e.g., see WIS, Activity 5,
p.73), due 10/16; full draft due 10/14 for peer review. NOTE: You should
begin looking for a proposing document now; see the assignment for 10/16.
6 Sept 23 Documents and Process in Environmental Law
Assignment: Read Dautermann, Negotiating Meaning in a Hospital
Discourse Community”; Pettinari, on medical reports; Schryer, "The
Lab vs. the Clinic: Sites of Competing Genres"; Killingsworth and
Palmer, “How to Save the Earth: The Greening of Instrumental Discourse.”
Sept 25 Documentation, Politics, and Power
Assignment: Prepare seminar presentation of your analysis of sample
reporting document. Your own reporting document is due 10/16.
7 Sept 30 Seminar presentations
Oct 2 Seminar presentations
8 Oct 7 Seminar presentations
1
Oct 9 Fall Break
Assignment: Read Goppen, "The Science of Scientific Writing."
Complete draft of your for in-class peer review/edit.
9 Oct 14 Editing reporting documents: Peer review
Assignment: Reporting document due 10/16.
Making a Case
Oct 16 Reporting document due. Proposing document assignment discussed (e.g.,
see WIS, Activity 6, p.136)
[See next page for assignment]
Assignment: Read WIS, Ch 6.1 - 6.4, samples from the Code of Federal
Regulations. Begin investigating proposing documents in your field, (i.e., grant proposals, clinical protocols, Environmental Impact Statements [EIS], etc.), obtain examples, and pick one as a sample of analyze for the seminar presentations beginning on 11/ 6. NOTE: As a major part of this analysis and presentation, you’ll need to obtain and examine the calls or Requests for Proposals (RFPs), Application Instructions, FDA Guidances, environmental regulations, etc., to which the proposing document is responding. Likewise for your own written proposing document, due 11/25; full draft due 11/20 for
peer review.
week month day topics, activities, assignments
10 Oct 21 Value in Action: Reading RFPs (Application instructions, Guidance documents, Federal
Regulations, etc).
Assignment: Read WIS, Ch 6.5 - 6.9.
Oct 23 The Logic of Form in Proposals
Assignment: Myers, et al., “Preparing an Integrated Summary of Safety: A
Writer’s Perspective”; Bernhardt and McCulley, “Knowledge Management
and Pharmaceutical Teams: Using Writing to Guide Science.”
11 Oct 28 Arguments and Audiences in Writing Proposals
Assignment: Read Killingsworth and Steffens, "Effectiveness in the Environmental Impact Statement"; and Clark, "The Impact of Candid vs.
Legally Defensible Language on the Persuasiveness of Environmental Self-Assessments."
Oct 30 Collaborators as Audience
Assignment: Prepare seminar presentations of your analysis of sample
proposing document. Your own proposing document is due 11/25.
12 Nov 4 Evaluating the Language of Assessment
Nov 6 Seminar presentations
13 Nov 11 Seminar presentations
Nov 13 Seminar presentations
14 Nov 18 Seminar presentations
Assignment: Complete draft of proposing document for in-class peer
review/evaluation.
week month day topics, activities, assignments
Nov 20 Peer Review and Evaluation of your own Proposing documents
Assignment: Proposing document due 11/25. Read WIS, Ch 7.1-7.2, do
exercise 7.2.
15 Nov 25 Proposing document due. Adapting Scientific Information for Different
Audiences
Read WIS 7.3-7.9. Look over medical practice brochure, drug advertisement
in coursepack. Begin written public communication project (e.g., see WIS,
Activity 4, p.160), such (i.e., press releases, office brochures, or drug
advertisements, etc.) for non-expert audience, due 12/13; full draft for peer