ECE122 Methodology of Writing and Presenting Technical Texts

• Introduction: technical scientific text characteristics – academic article structure
• Scientific abstracts
• Writing the introduction to a scientific paper: structural and language characteristics
• Methodology: quantitative and qualitative instruments – descriptions
• Research results: describing statistical information and graphs
• Discussion of results: argument structure, lexical and syntactic structures
• Conclusions: suggestions, implications and limitations
• Oral presentations: outline, technical and language characteristics, model presentations

This course aims at familiarizing undergraduate students with the structure and special language characteristics of technical English texts in their field of studies as well as with the techniques needed in order to make an oral presentation. The students acquire the required knowledge and skills that enable them to comprehend, analyze and make use of bibliographical references, with the purpose of writing technical texts and designing oral presentations, according to the conventions of academic discourse.
The course syllabus is structured around the basic sections of a technical text (i.e. abstract, introduction, literature review, methodology, results, discussion, conclusions and references) and uses authentic scientific texts, in order to present the special syntactic and lexical elements of each section. The theoretical presentation of the technical text characteristics is combined with class practice in short tasks, which aims at the consolidation of the syntactic and lexical structures as well as at the students’ awareness of the characteristics of formal academic discourse. Another important goal is the presentation of the basic technical and language characteristics of a successful oral presentation, in which the bibliographical resources are effectively used.
Upon successful course completion, the students will be able to:

• Identify the basic sections of a technical scientific text and comprehend the role of each one of them.
• Be aware of the special language, lexical and syntactic structures required in the academic written discourse in English and be able to apply this knowledge in order to complete tasks that are based on extracts from authentic technical texts.
• Evaluate, compare, synthesize and paraphrase bibliographical sources, with the intention of effectively integrating them into their own technical texts and oral presentations, without resorting to plagiarism.
• Compile the bibliography at the end of a technical text and /or oral presentation.
• Produce individual or group oral presentations, selecting the appropriate resources, combining information, elaborating on their own personal view and designing the structure and technical characteristics of the oral presentation in such a way that they sustain its content.
• Produce oral discourse in English, which is suitable for the presentation of a technical scientific topic, according to the academic discourse conventions.
• Reflect on and self-assess their performance in oral presentations, on the basis of a specific set of assessment criteria.