SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY

Senate Committee for Undergraduate Studies

NEW COURSE PROPOSAL

Course Number: IAT309w

Course Title: Writing for Design, Media, and Informatics

Short Title: Design, Media & Inf. Writing

Course Vector: Seminar ( 3 )

Course Description (for Calendar). Attach a course outline to this proposal.

Develops critical thinking and writing strategies adaptable to professional communications in design, media arts and technology.

Prerequisite: 48 Credits including a lower division W course.

Corequisite: None.

Special Instructions: None.

Course(s) to be dropped if this course is approved: None.

Rationale for Introduction of this Course:

This course will be a required upper level W course for SIAT students developing their writing skills in their discipline. It will also be open to students from outside SIAT who would like to get exposed to issues surrounding writing in media, design, and technology.

Scheduling and Registration Information:

Indicate effective semester/year course would be first offered and planned frequency of offering thereafter.

First offering: Spring 2009. Offered twice annually thereafter.

Waiver required: NO

Will this be a required or elective course in the curriculum? REQUIRED

What is the probable enrolment when offered? ESTIMATE 100+ STUDENTS

Which of your present CFL faculty have the expertise to offer this course?

Chantal Gibson

Are there any proposed student fees associated with this course other than tuition fees? NO

Resource Implications:

Note: Senate has approved (S.93-11) that no new course should be approved by Senate until funding has been committed for necessary library materials. Each new course proposal must be accompanied by a library report and, if appropriate, confirmation that funding arrangements have been addressed.

Campus where course will be taught: Surrey

Library report

Provide details on how existing instructional resources will be redistributed to accommodate this new course. For instance, will another course be eliminated or will the frequency of offering of other courses be reduced; are there changes in pedagogical style or class sizes that allow for this additional course offering?

The existing course IAT 209W has been attracting significantly smaller number of students due to TechOne satisfying the lower division writing requirements for the majority of SIAT majors. The resources from the reduced offering of IAT 209W will be used in this course.

List any outstanding resource issues to be addressed prior to implementation: space, laboratory equipment, etc.

No issues identified.

Approvals

1. Departmental approval indicates that the Department has approved the content of the course, and has consulted with other Departments and Faculties regarding proposed course content and overlap issues.

Chair, Dept./School Date

Chair, Faculty Curriculum Committee Date

2. Faculty approval indicates that all the necessary course content and overlap concerns have been resolved, and that the Faculty/Department commits to providing the required Library funds.

Date:

Dean or Designate

List which other Departments Schools and Faculties have been consulted regarding the proposed course content including overlap issues. Attach documentary evidence of responses.

Other Faculties approval indicates that the Dean(s) or designate of other Faculties affected by the proposed new course support(s) the approval of the new course.

Date:

Date:

3. SCUS approval indicates that the course has been approved for implementation subject, where appropriate, to financial issues being addressed.

Course approved by SCUS (Chair of SCUS)

Date:

Approval is signified by date and appropriate signature.

Proposed IAT309W Course Outline:

Course Description: Content & Objectives

IAT309W prepares students for the demands of a hi-tech workforce that values collaboration among artists, engineers, designers, and project managers, professional writers who must be able to adapt their communications effectively to meet the needs of experts and lay audiences.

This course helps students to develop critical thinking and writing strategies that can be adapted to a wide range of professional communication situations related to design, media arts and technology. Through the exploration of genre and style (reflective, critical, persuasive, technical, narrative and expository), students recognize written documents as applications of critical thinking and communication principles and learn to shift content, as well as authorial voice and tone, across modalities of writing. Students use low-stakes and high-stakes writing activities to identify the needs of an audience and to apply the appropriate writing strategies required to avoid audience resistance. Instructor feedback and peer review model revision strategies to help students develop their writing skills and enhance their professional image.

Drawing from a number of disciplines (communications, design, composition and rhetoric, engineering, arts, journalism and business) the customized course material introduces students to samples of genre specific writing, as well as the theoretical material required to critically evaluate and model the work.

Course Objectives

By actively participating in IAT309W, students should be able to do the following:

• Adapt and apply appropriate critical thinking and communication strategies across a variety of writing situations (reflective, expository, analytical, and persuasive).

• Recognize written documents (genres, styles) as applications of critical thinking and communication principles.

• Recognize that written documents are intended to target specific audiences to evoke specific responses.

• Identify the expectations of a target audience and the objectives of a written document based on the rhetorical nature of that document (voice, tone, style, organization, conventions).

• Apply audience analysis, invention, and iterative processes to various writing tasks.

• Project a strong professional image through their written communication.

Required Text(s):

1. Custom Course Package based on external resources and chapters from

Whitmore, S. and Stevenson, S. 2002. Strategies for Engineering Communication. John Wiley and Sons Inc.

Burton, L. and McDonald, D. 2002. The Language of Argument. Longman.

2. Writing Handbook.

Dietsch, B., Sauer, L., and Lovering, A. 2006. Reasoning & Writing Well: A
Rhetoric, Research Guide, Reader and Hanbook. Mc-Graw-Hill
Ryerson.

IAT309W Assignment & Grading Overview