HND School of Engineering

HND School of Engineering

 

TECHNICAL COMMUNICATION SKILLS

 

Unit Value	:	0.5				Total Hours	:	80
Lectures	:	32				Directed Study	:	0.5 hrs/wk

 

Aim

 

This unit is designed to provide English language and communication skills assistance to facilitate the students’ effective participation in an HND programme.  In particular the aim is to assist students in writing and presenting laboratory and technical reports

 

Objectives

 

On completion of this unit the student should be able to:

 

• Write about technical problems and their solutions.
• Write laboratory reports.
• Write technical reports

• Give an oral presentation based on a technical report..

 

Teaching and Learning Strategies

 

• The unit will be implemented by means of lectures and directed study.
• A two hour lecture per week will be allocated to teach the unit.
• Students are expected to spend 0.5hrs per week in private directed study producing appropriate evidence of competency in relevant skills.

 

Syllabus

• Problems and solutions
• Lab reports
• Technical reports
• Presentation Skills

 

Lecture Outline

Weeks	Topic	Description
1 - 4	Problems and solutions	Stating problems and their causes. Proposing solutions.  Predicting the consequences of adopting solutions. Comparing and contrasting solutions. Recommending and supporting solutions.
5 - 8	Lab reports	Describing laboratory or experimental work incl. theoretical background, equipment and materials, procedure, results, discussion of results and conclusions.
9 - 12	Technical reports	Informational v analytical reports. Writing the introduction of a report. Writing the body of the report - collecting, selecting and organizing information – appropriate language and grammar.  Writing conclusions and recommendations.
13 - 16	Presentation skills	Dealing with nerves. Micro-presentations. Elicitation of assessment criteria - use of body language (posture, eye contact & gestures) voice (volume, intonation & pronunciation) and visual aids.  Peer assessment of final presentations

 

 

Assessment Scheme

 

Assessment will be continuous and will establish the extent to which the learning outcomes have been achieved by individual students.  There will be 3 assessed assignments as follows:

 

Laboratory report            20%

Technical report               30%

Oral presentation            50%

 

Course Work Book

 

Students will receive a course work book containing the materials for the unit.  The course book was compiled from the following sources:

 

Eric Glendinning & Helen Mantell, Write Ideas

Tony Dudley-Evans, Writing Laboratory Reports

Jane Summers & Brett Smith, Communication Skills Handbook

Christine Tan & Kam Chuan Aik, English for Occupational Purposes

Website:  www.io.com/~hcexres/textbook