Donald N.S. Unger, PhD Writing Across the Curriculum Spring 2008 The CI-M Side of Lab 2: Writing the Design Report

DigiAlarm’08 Sands Hotel, Las Vegas January 2008

I’m on the MIT website....

Really...

“I gave you the information. What’s the problem?” Does the “envelope” really matter?

This might be a better way...

The information on the business card is: Clear Easy to understand Complete Concise Well Organized Logically laid out In a familiar form

Giving you the card demonstrates: 1. Attention to detail 2. Quick follow-through 3. Reliability 4. Genuine interest 5. Collegiality.... The characteristics of someone with whom you would want to work.

The medium is the message If I send you off to find my contact information, I’m telling you that you are on your own. If I give you my card, I am showing you that I will make sure that you don’t have to hunt for information, and that, by extension, you can both rely on my technical expertise and rely on me personally as well.

Be Professional How you communicate demonstrates your professionalism along multiple axes. Hard skills matter. You have to present the right information and present it clearly. Soft skills matter too. You have to communicate in ways that convey an awareness of professional standards of behavior.

Your Design Report does something very similar: 1.Accurately and efficiently delivers the information you wish to convey: “Here’s our alarm design; it meets your specifications; it is superior to the work of our competitors.” 2.Makes crystal clear, via the manner in which it is presented, that your design team would be the best group to work with. Must be: User Friendly.

Grades Don’t Matter (!) Is your design report so good that it would get you the job?

Time Line:  First Draft due 5 March; returned 19 March  Comments are representative  Meant to facilitate re/vision, not merely editing  Ask for clarification if comments are not clear  Revise  Peer Editing Workshop on Friday, 4 April., 1:00-2:00,  Attendance is mandatory  Bring two hard copies of your paper  Revise  Final Draft due 11 April

Your submission will consist of: Letter of Transmittal Design Report Title and Abstract Table of Contents List of Figures Overview  Focus on this Description Conclusion References Appendices

A good overview yields a good design report “Wrapping”: Letter of Transmittal, Title and Abstract, Table of Contents, List of Figures, References, Appendices “Core”: Overview, Description, Conclusion Key: Overview If the overview is clear, complete, concise, and well organized, it provides a map, both for the reader and for you as a writer.

The Overview section should: 1. Describe the overall goals of the design 2. Provide a concise specification of the functionality 3. Present the specification in a manner that allows the client to quickly and easily assess whether or not it does everything she would like it to do

Issues of Format Graphics should be: labeled, self-contained, explained in the text If it’s not yours (even if that’s “obvious”) or it’s not common knowledge, give credit—using IEEE citation format Page Set-Up: one column, single spaced, justified left, ragged right, 1” margins,12 point font (of a professional sort, f. ex. Times Roman or Helvetica)

Less is More: We Don’t Grade by Weight Your report should run words, not including appendices As long as you convey all the information you need to convey (ask your TA), and do so clearly and in good prose (ask your writing instructor), you do better to aim for concision

Problems We Often See: 1.Failure to follow guidelines—if unsure, ask. 2.Problems w/ tone, either hype: “Our design completely blows away the competition!” or lab- speak: “Then tested module B by running a simulation in which...” 3.Failure to properly credit sources. 4.Clumsy use of graphics.

Resources  Writing and Communication Center   Online Mayfield Handbook   This presentation  Website  or

Questions?