Engineering Communication Requirement
The Engineering Communication Requirement provides engineering students with dedicated instruction that will result in strategies for "learning to learn" how to communicate. Communication is an ever-evolving skill; there is never one answer or final solution. Communication skills are gained, honed, and enacted over a lifetime.
The College of Engineering has several options/paths for fulfilling the Engineering Communication Requirement. The approaches are diverse, and each of the options attempts to focus on written and oral communication in context.
In the fall of 2017, the College of Engineering approved a change in wording, updating "Technical Writing Requirement" to "Engineering Communication Requirement." This change acknowledges that engineering communication is much more than writing; it is also presenting, persuading, working in teams, and designing complex communication through multimodal channels. The word "communication" also pulls in the skills of creating visuals (graphs, charts, data visuals, sketches, schematics, photos, etc.) that support engineering work.
These are several ways to fulfill the Engineering Communication Requirement:
1. Take and complete an offered Engineering Communications course.
- ENGRC 3020 - Project Team Communications: Practicum in Technical Writing
- ENGRC 3024 - Engineering Communication Co-Op (not currently offered)
- ENGRC 3025 - Creating and Communicating Your Digital Professionalism
- ENGRC 3350 - Communications for Engineering Managers
- ENGRC 3340 - Independent Study in Engineering Communications
- ENGRC 3500 - Engineering Communications
2. Complete a Writing-Intensive Co-op. This is an opportunity to combine work and academics. Some co-op students do a significant amount of writing on the job; under certain circumstances, this writing will satisfy the Engineering Communication Requirement.
3. Take an officially designated Writing-Intensive (W-I) or Communication-Intensive (C-I) engineering course. Note: This list is not comprehensive, as different engineering departments may offer W-I or C-I courses on an ad-hoc basis. Indeed, these offerings can change each semester. Students need to check with their advisors each semester to see if a course will fulfill the requirement.
- CHEME 4320 - Chemical Engineering Laboratory
- MSE 4030 - Senior Materials Laboratory I and MSE 4040 - Senior Materials Laboratory II (both)
- MSE 4050 - Senior Experimental Thesis I and MSE 4060 - Senior Experimental Thesis II (both)
- MAE 4272 - Fluids/Heat Transfer Laboratory
- BEE 4730 - Watershed Engineering
- BEE 4590 - Biosensors and Bioanalytical Techniques
- CIS 3000 - Introduction to Computer Game Design
- INFO 1200 - Information Ethics, Law, and Policy (for INFO majors)
4. Enroll in and complete COMM 3030 or COMM 3020, taught by the Department of Communication (in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences).
5. Enroll in and complete ENGRC 3023, a 1-credit attachment to an engineering course that is not one of the officially designated W-I courses (see #3 above). An instructor may wish to extend the writing in their course for a given semester so that it will fulfill the technical-writing requirement. With the approval of the CCGB’s Subcommittee on Engineering Communication, the instructor may have students co-register in Requirements for ENGRC 3023, which may be taken more than once with different courses by permission of the engineering instructor.
6. Complete and pass a 1cr partner course. The current options are below, and they require enrollment in the departmental course (usually 3cr) AND the ENGRC course (1cr).
- ENGRC 2640 (partnered with AEP/ENGRD 2640)
- ENGRC 3152 (partnered with CS/INFO 3152)
- ENGRC 3610 (partnered with CEE 3610)
- ENGRC 4152 (partnered with CS/INFO 4152)
- ENGRC 4530 (partnered with BEE 4530)
- ENGRC 4590 (partnered with BEE 4890)
7. Petition for credit. Occasionally, a student will be doing a significant amount and variety of technical writing elsewhere in the College of Engineering. It may be appropriate to petition the CCGB’s Subcommittee on Engineering Communication for permission to use this forthcoming writing (not past writing) to meet the technical communication requirement.
The minimum course grade needed for the engineering communications requirement will depend on your major and where you plan to use your engineering communications course towards your degree. Please seek guidance from the Engineering Advising Office and/or from your major department.
For questions or an appointment to discuss options, please contact Dr. Rick Evans, the ECP Director at rae27@cornell.edu.