LNGE40064 - Technical Writing for University

General Information

Unit Synopsis

This unit introduces students to the writing skills they will need to succeed in university science and technology units. Students will develop skills in writing clearly and concisely, organising and presenting information in a logical way, and applying relevant conventions of style and grammar. Through intensive reading and writing, they will learn to critically analyse, paraphrase and summarise a range of scientific and technical texts. Students will consolidate their learning by researching and writing a report.

Details

Level Non-award
Unit Level Not Applicable
Credit Points 6
Student Contribution Band SCA Band 4
Fraction of Full-Time Student Load 0.125
Pre-requisites or Co-requisites There are no pre-requisites for the unit.

Important note: Students enrolled in a subsequent unit who failed their pre-requisite unit, should drop the subsequent unit before the census date or within 10 working days of Fail grade notification. Students who do not drop the unit in this timeframe cannot later drop the unit without academic and financial liability. See details in the Assessment Policy and Procedure (Higher Education Coursework).

Class Timetable View Unit Timetable
Residential School No Residential School

Unit Availabilities from Term 3 - 2024

There are no availabilities for this unit on or after Term 3 - 2024

Attendance Requirements

All on-campus students are expected to attend scheduled classes - in some units, these classes are identified as a mandatory (pass/fail) component and attendance is compulsory. International students, on a student visa, must maintain a full time study load and meet both attendance and academic progress requirements in each study period (satisfactory attendance for International students is defined as maintaining at least an 80% attendance record).

Assessment Overview

Recommended Student Time Commitment

Each 6-credit Non-award unit at CQUniversity requires an overall time commitment of an average of 12.5 hours of study per week, making a total of 150 hours for the unit.

Assessment Tasks

Assessment Task Weighting
1. Written Assessment 20%
2. Written Assessment 30%
3. Written Assessment 50%

This is a graded unit: your overall grade will be calculated from the marks or grades for each assessment task, based on the relative weightings shown in the table above. You must obtain an overall mark for the unit of at least 50%, or an overall grade of ‘pass’ in order to pass the unit. If any ‘pass/fail’ tasks are shown in the table above they must also be completed successfully (‘pass’ grade). You must also meet any minimum mark requirements specified for a particular assessment task, as detailed in the ‘assessment task’ section (note that in some instances, the minimum mark for a task may be greater than 50%).

Consult the University's Grades and Results Policy for more details of interim results and final grades

Past Exams

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Previous Feedback

Term 1 - 2020 : The overall satisfaction for students in the last offering of this course was 88.89% (`Agree` and `Strongly Agree` responses), based on a 32.14% response rate.

Feedback, Recommendations and Responses

Every unit is reviewed for enhancement each year. At the most recent review, the following staff and student feedback items were identified and recommendations were made.

Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Student requests for more experiment options (Assessment 2)
Recommendation
Broaden the experiment options available on Moodle by including an additional experiment that students can choose for the writing of their experimental report (Assessment 2).
Action Taken
A third experiment option was included for Assessment 2: Experimental Report. It has been available since Term 2 2019 and has been successfully selected and completed by students.
Source: Teaching team
Feedback
Need to increase the importance of Recommendation Report outline
Recommendation
Include the report outline as a component of the recommendation report (Assessment 3) rather than as a separate non-assessed formative task. The aim is to encourage more students to submit report outlines so they receive timely feedback on the planning of their reports.
Action Taken
The report outline has been included as a component of Assessment 3: Recommendation Report since Term 2 2019. The submission rate for report outlines has greatly improved across all terms now that the report outline is assessable. Thus, more students have received timely feedback in preparation for Assessment 3: Recommendation Report.
Source: Teaching team
Feedback
Need for assessment templates to improve learning.
Recommendation
Create an outline template to assist students with the organisation and layout of their report outline and their recommendation report (Assessment 3). Make the outline template available on Moodle and refer to the requirement for students to use the template both in the TWU Textbook and on Moodle.
Action Taken
A template was created for the report outline component of Assessment 3: Recommendation Report. It was included on the unit Moodle site and referred to in the TWU textbook. It has been used as the basis for the report outline component of Assessment 3.
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Student requests for Q&A Zoom sessions for online students to be recorded and uploaded to Moodle.
Recommendation
Record Q&A Zoom sessions and upload them to the LNGE40064 Moodle site as soon as possible after the scheduled session.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Teaching team
Feedback
Need for earlier instructions on formatting a recommendation report in the textbook
Recommendation
Introduce the instructions for formatting a recommendation report in week 10 so that students can format their report when they write it rather than during final revision.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Teaching team
Feedback
Need for greater visibility of the Q&A forum
Recommendation
Include a link to an assessment Q&A forum on the unit Moodle site’s landing page.
Action Taken
In Progress
Source: Student feedback
Feedback
Student requests for fewer topic discussion forums due to study load and relevance issues
Recommendation
Keep the topic discussion forums that are currently at the beginning of each module and remove the rest. All assessment discussion forums will remain.
Action Taken
In Progress
Unit learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  1. Write in clear, correct, concise English appropriate for audience and purpose
  2. Identify and apply style conventions for assignment writing in scientific and technical units
  3. Critically analyse a range of texts on scientific and technical topics
  4. Identify and summarise key ideas in a variety of scientific and technical texts
  5. Write a report using contemporary conventions of academic writing

Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Learning Outcomes
Assessment Tasks Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Written Assessment •
2 - Written Assessment • • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • • •
Alignment of Graduate Attributes to Learning Outcomes
Graduate Attributes Learning Outcomes
1 2 3 4 5
1 - Self Management •
2 - Communication • • • • •
3 - Information Literacy • •
5 - Problem Solving • •
6 - Critical Thinking • • •
8 - Ethical Practice •
Alignment of Assessment Tasks to Graduate Attributes
Assessment Tasks Graduate Attributes
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9
1 - Written Assessment • • • •
2 - Written Assessment • • •
3 - Written Assessment • • • • • • •