SENIOR DESIGN RHETORICAL ANALYSIS

Audience

Purpose

Meaning

Context

CONDUCTING A NEEDS ANALYSIS: WHO? WHAT? WHERE? WHEN? HOW?

Audience: Who are you writing for? What is their knowledge level? What background knowledge will your audience need?

Purpose: What information are you conveying? Why are you writing the document? How will your audience use your document? How will you meet their needs?

Context/Situation: In what setting (Where) will your audience use the document? In what media should the document be prepared?

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER: AFTER GATHERING THE DATA

Define the

Problem

Describe the

Cause

Design the

Solution

SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS

PROCESS Consider how the less-familiar process is like your area

of expertise: Inventing a System vs. Writing About a System

Solar Sun Tracker (charging station to maximize energy collection)Solar Wind Power Station (data acquisition and instrumentation of wind-solar power station)Maximum Power Pointer Tracker (circuit that maintains constant system voltage)Trailer Hitch Assistant (dash-mounted system to improve safety for the driver)DisTek Project for Data Acquisition and Instrumentation

PROCESS

Planning, Pre-writing: Noting your decisions about purpose, audience; Sketching out the architecture of your project (content and order); Making a map you can rely on

THESIS

I. Main Idea

A.

B.

1.

2.

a.

b.

PROCESS

Creativity, foresight, audience awarenessCasual, low-stress

NOTCritical scrutiny, proofreading, grades

PROCESS

Drafting: Shaping; Expanding; Ordering; Connecting

Use Headings as Your Draft-Shaper1. Introduction

1.1 Orient the reader to the topic1.2 State your Purpose

2. Background: 1.1 Establish the Problem1.2 Define terms, name names, and contextualize your document (what you did and why)

3. Discussion: Shape depends on purpose & context: are you explaining your system? Instructing someone how to use it? Arguing for its adoption?

4. Conclusion: Show how all the pieces fit together; Make recommendations

PRODUCT: INTRODUCTION

PURPOSESTATEMENT

HOOK/CONTEXT

PRODUCT: DISCUSSION

• Fully-developed paragraphs with easy to identify topic statements

• Connectors between each paragraph and back to the purpose you expressed in the intro

DISCUSSION(most of your

work gets done here)

PRODUCT: CONCLUSION

Conclusion reasserts most important points without repeating them; Summarizes what it all means;Suggests a course of action for the reader

PROCESS

Revising: Revisiting the document to make big-picture improvements in focus, content, organization, visual design, and connections

See handout

PROCESS

Proofreading: Slow, focused, disciplined re-reading from hard copies, not computer screens

SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS

“As long as there is an unbroken connection from source to load and back again as shown here, electrons will be pushed from the negative

terminal of the source, through the load, and then back to the positive terminal of the source. . . the electrons are always moving in the same direction

through the circuit” (

http://www.play-hookey.com/)

SENIOR DESIGN WRITING: PROCESS & PRODUCT ESSENTIALS

SHORT CIRCUIT a usually accidental low-resistance connection between two points in an electric circuit, resulting in either excessive current flow that often causes damage or, in a new shorter circuit, that draws current away from the original pathways and components; a disrupted electric circuit resulting from this (http://www.yourdictionary.com/short-circuit)

“The purpose of the senior design course is to bridge the gap between academic theory and real world practice.” —Course Syllabus

EXAMPLES

Title: version 1 Digital Camcorders version 2 Which Camcorder is Most Reliable Out

of 12? version 3 Technical Benchmark Testing of 12

Digital Camcorders

(example from http://jerz.setonhill.edu/writing/technical/reports reports3.htm)