21w.780 Communicating in Technical Organizations

Jack Kimball 14N-212 jackk@mit.edu
Office Hours: Wed. 12:30 - 2:00 and by appointment

Course Objective

To master forms of technical writing and speaking required of entrepreneurial, corporate and academic professionals.

Overview

This course creates opportunities to practice communication strategies related to your career. The point of each assignment is to address facets of an ongoing problem or problem-set in your research or specialty, while over the semester you engage a range of audiences in different media, expanding your repertoire of technical discourse in diverse contexts. Class sessions are workshops in which you give suggestions and critique the work of others, as well as receive suggestions and criticism from peers. You also receive written comments from the instructor who assesses your work on the basis of organization, style and mechanics.

Due Dates and Summary of Assignments

Defining audiences and planning media
noon Feb. 13 -- cv/resume with cover letter
noon Feb. 20 -- 150-word memo
noon Feb. 27 -- two 150-word proposals

Writing and speaking to managers
noon March 6 -- presentation graphics
noon March 13 -- presentation outline with notes
noon March 20 -- draft of white paper / literature review, 750-1000 words
noon April 3 -- final draft of white paper / literature review, 750-1000 words

Communicating technical data to nonscientists
noon April 10 -- two or more illustrations and related text (1st stage of final project)
noon April 17 -- status report on final project, 750-1000 words (2nd stage)
noon April 24 -- four or more illustrations and related text formatted in html (3rd stage of final project)
noon May 2 -- draft of final project, 2500-3000 words (4th stage)
noon May 9 -- revision of opening paragraphs & outline of other project revisions (5th stage)
noon May 16 -- final project, 2500-3000 words

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