This course provides students with the tools to understand and critically analyze, evaluate, and communicate scientific information. Students will gain familiarity with various genres of scientific writing and practice communicating scientific knowledge to specialized and non-specialized audiences. Students will also gain an understanding of the rhetorical nature of scientific knowledge and the role of scientific writing in shaping public opinion, policy, and law.
Students completing the requirements for LMC 3310 will be able to:
- Identify and classify a range of rhetorical vocabulary and methodologies employed in scientific inquiry
- Explain how scientific and technical language and artifacts are invented, circulated, and transformed
- Apply rhetorical concepts to analyze scientific and technical arguments
- Compare the purposes, audiences, and conventions of scientific works tailored for both specialized experts and the wider public
- Craft effective scientific and technical arguments through oral, visual, and written mediums
No textbook purchase is required for this course. All readings will be available online through our Canvas site.
- A grade of A (90%–100%) represents excellent performance.
- A grade of B (80%–89%) indicates good performance.
- A grade of C (70%–79%) reflects satisfactory performance.
- A grade of D (60%–69%) signifies passing performance, though improvement is needed.
- A grade of F (0%–59%) indicates failure to meet the minimum course requirements.
I expect you to attend this course regularly. You will be allowed to miss 3 classes before attendance impacts your grades. Afterward, each absence will deduct 10 points from this category (100 points in total). Any attendance concerns should be communicated to the instructor.
IMPORTANT: Your course grade will be an automatic F if you miss 7 or more classes!
Students are expected to maintain the highest standards of academic integrity. All work submitted must be original and properly cited. Plagiarism, cheating, or any form of academic dishonesty will result in immediate consequences as outlined in the university's academic integrity policy.
This is a Core IMPACTS course that is part of the Humanities area.
Core IMPACTS refers to the core curriculum, which provides students with essential knowledge in foundational academic areas. This course will help master course content, and support students’ broad academic and career goals.
This course should direct students toward a broad Orienting Question:
- How do I interpret the human experience through creative, linguistic and philosophical works?
Completion of this course should enable students to meet the following Learning Outcome:
- Students will effectively analyze and interpret the meaning, cultural significance and ethical implications of literary/philosophical texts in English or other languages, or of works in the visual/performing arts.
Course content, activities and exercises in this course should help students develop the following Career-Ready Competencies:
- Ethical Reasoning
- Information Literacy
- Intercultural Competence