Engineering 190W - Fall 2024 - Harnick-Shapiro Section

This class focuses on your career as an Engineering major and allows you to focus on communicating the major issues that you have focused on and and how to jump-start your career in practice as an Engineer or if you continue your graduate education.  It introduces you to:

• the work style of engineers in different settings
• how engineering information is released using specialized content such as patents, standards, papers, proceedings, journal literature, book content and related materials
• how written and verbal communication, both technical and casual conducted individually and within groups can determine the outcomes you want for success
• engineering ethics
• the value of sourcing & correctly citing your information, evaluating it carefully, and being informed about misinformation
• thinking about presentation, using images, prompts, and addressing different audiences

There is an accompanying PowerPoint presentation below that reviews technical communication issues with examples of resources highlighting the forms and formats of engineering literature.

When using Online or Internet Resources, consider Search Engines vs. metasites - evaluate resource - be attentive to domain -may include .com, .edu, .org, .gov, .net

Evaluation of evaluating strategies - there are many different strategies and this guide highlights two, CRAAP and S.I.F.T. and at the end I will also note some other methods - but consider the following criteria:

Applying the CRAAP Test - for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, Purpose

https://www.csuchico.edu/lins/handouts/eval_websites.pdf

Goal is to establish relevancy.  The evaluation criteria includes these issues:

Scope of coverage

Currency – be able to distinguish currency from timeliness

Relevance – meaningful to what audience; at what level; will you cite it as authoritative?

Authority – stem is author – establishes the source of the information – author/publisher/source/sponsor; organizational affiliations & credentials; contact information

Accuracy – reliability, correctness of content; supported by evidence; is it verifiable; is tone unbiased, objective, impartial & free of emotion; free of errors?

Purpose – are hypotheses and authors’ intentions clear?  Why is content important – to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade?  Any political, ideological, cultural, religious, institutional or personal biases?

Ease of use – Capturing, copying, citing; design & presentation

Another method to evaluate is S.I.F.T - so:

• CCOW - for Credentials, Claims, Objectives
• RADAR Test - Relevancy, Authority, Date, Appearance, Reason for Writing

Remember when we cite or quote, we are CHOOSING to bring other voices into our paper or scholarly work.

Let's ask, Why we cite?

• to give credit to authors
• to show your work
• to be a responsible researcher
• to avoid plagiarism

Often called Citation Chasing we have the standard two parts:

• Backward chasing - refers to the set of references or bibliography of a work that has influenced current citation
• Forward chasing - refers to the method of future citations that referenced the specific work - may be more nuanced or specific but also provides new applications

Think of 5 criteria you use to evaluate information and what questions to you ask yourself to determine relevancy or whether your information need is met?

• consider that we are on information overload - how to distinguish between accurate information & misinformation
• transition from reading vertically (CRAAP) vs laterally - use 4 moves, known as S.I.F.T, with these action items:
  • stop - open up a browser tab & enter a search term
  • investigate the source(s) - who wrote or said this? who is the author? what process or methodology was used to produce this information and what systems are in place with this source to catch mistakes and correct them?
  • find better coverage - consult other sources, demonstrating the historical context, disciplinary approaches, are there patterns of perspectives or dominant ideas that emerge, and what voices are missing?
  • trace things back to the original context - is the evidence misquoted or misrepresented; where is the data from & how was it collected and can we make legitimate conclusions from it?
  • watch this video on lateral reading strategies (3.47) from the Civic Online Reasoning curriculum, co-sponsored by the Stanford History Education Group

In order to avoid plagiarism and to honor intellectual integrity, make sure that you cite the authority in a bibliographic reference to anything that is not your original writing or creation - that means when you quote a passage, insert a graphic image, figures, or illustration, that you cite the original source. The style manual you choose to follow should document how you cite electronic resources. Standard formats include the following reference elements:

Standard formats include the following reference elements:

For a Journal article or conference proceeding:

Author(s) - last name, first name, MI, - [include multiple authors if noted] (date), Title of article. Source of Article/Title of Journal. volume #, (issue #): pages. If it is only an electronic publication with no reference to print pages, then you cite the DOI - Digital Object Identifier and the date last visited.

If it is a conference paper, then you cite the Source of the Publication, Title of conference, date and location of meeting.

For books, the format is:

Author, editor of volume or chapter, (imprint date). Title of chapter in Title of Book, edited by editor if different. City of Publication: Publisher, page references. Note if it is an eBook.

For full volume:

Author, (date). Title of Book. City of Publisher, Publisher: pages

ACM Style Guide  - there are some examples in the link to MS Word in the list of references provided that can be used as a model for different writing elements

IEEE Citation Style - The IEEE Editorial Style Manual (2019) notes the specific ways that references and footnotes are to be handled in submissions to IEEE publications.  The IEEE Referencing Guide notes practices and they are different than other styles, so follow this and perhaps these guides from the following university libraries will give more examples:  Murdoch University or Purdue University's Owl series for IEEE.

MLA Style Format is documented by the with these resources  and in the MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 2009 at Langson Library Reference Desk at:  LL REF LB 2369 G53 2009

APA Style - The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 7th ed., 2020 is at every Reference Desk - REF BF76.7 .P83 2020.  Additional resources with examples are noted at this site. A cheat sheet with many examples of how to cite different types of sources in many formats can be consulted.  

Other hints:

1. Avoid plagiarism, be ethical – OVERCITE!
   Plagiarism: what it is and how to recognize and avoid it. A guide prepared by the Writing Tutorial Services, Indiana University, Bloomington
2. Consult Turnitin, a plagiarism detection program - ask your professor if you are interested in this.
3. Be consistent
4. Work on your presentation skills
   • very important now
   • when interviewing for job
5. For additional information, consult with instructor, librarian, examine your style manual.

    

BIBLIOGRAPHIC MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE - allows you to discover, find, manage, recall and apply the citations you retrieve from all formats of work - journal articles, book chapters, edited volumes, standards, specifications, patents, conference papers & proceedings, lectures, etc. Neither Zotero nor EndNote support BibTeX or LaTeX, only the usual wordprocessing languages or Legal Style Manual.  For additional information, please visit the Bibliographic Management Software page.  A comparison of all kinds of different products are noted at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_reference_management_software