An-Najah Staff

Course title and number

Scientific Research and Technical Writing – 64300

Instructor names

Amer Elhamouz, Haya Sammaneh,  Samir Helou,  and Mohammad N. Almasri

Contact information

Amer Elhamouz: elhamouz@yahoo.com

Haya Sammaneh: hayasam@najah.edu

Samir Helou: shhelou@yahoo.com

Mohammad N. Almasri: mohammad.nablus@gmail.com

Semester and academic year

Spring – 2010/2011

Compulsory / Elective

Compulsory

Prerequisites

English – II

Course

Contents

(description)

This course is intended to be a general compulsory course for the students in the engineering education programs. This course in its broad perspective introduces the key concepts related to scientific research and technical writing within an engineering framework. The course covers the chief definitions of scientific research and its types, approaches, and ethics, elaborates the research methodologies, illustrates the importance of research along with its generic outcomes, and highlights the role of the scientific-research centers in this regard with emphasis on An-Najah National University in specific and worldwide in general. Professional methods of successful technical writing and its importance are highlighted. The fundamental communication means of research outcomes are manifested including specialized journals, presentations, scientific meetings, conferences, and workshops.

Course Objectives

In this course, we will introduce the students to the following:

• Definition of scientific research and its importance, examples on scientific research, and the major outcomes of scientific research
• Aspects of professional technical writing with demonstration of the different writing qualities
• Teaching and learning
• Types of scientific research and methodological approaches
• How to choose a topic for a scientific research and do search for your research
• Elements of a scientific research paper and how to write such a paper
• Communication of research outcomes
• Working with digital resources

Intended learning

Outcomes and

Competences

On successful completion of this course, students will be able to:

• Understand the importance of scientific research and the role of professional technical writing
• Perform subject searches in specialized scientific databases and online resources
• Assess the quality of readily available scientific manuscripts and to accordingly point out pitfalls
• Demonstrate an ability in selecting a research topic based on a well identified engineering problem
• Develop a conceptual methodology for selected engineering-based research topics
• Pick a group of specialized refereed journals that best suit the publication of a proposed research topic
• to demonstrate the ability to put together and disseminate a presentation

Textbook and  References

(Online Resources)

The class notes are the main source of information for this course and can be downloaded from the following website:

OCC(Open Course Container)

Assessment Criteria

Activity

Percent (%)

First exam– Take home exam

15

Second exam– Presentation

20

Assignments– Two  different ones

30

Final Exam

35

Week

Subject

1

Scientific research

• What is the scientific research?
• Why do we conduct scientific research?
• Who conducts scientific research? Examples on scientific research
• What are the outcomes of scientific research?
• Which countries and universities are leading in scientific research? Where is the position of Palestine researchers?

2

Advanced Scientific Research

• Type of scientific research
• Approaches to scientific research and methodology concept
• How to choose a topic for a scientific research
• How to search for your research information

3+4

Technical Writing

• What is the technical writing?
• What do we pay attention to technical writing
• What is the importance of technical writing? Examples of poor, good and outstanding technical writing

5

Teaching and learning

6

Assignment [1]

7+8

Publication and dissemination of results

• What are the type of Journals, refereed, …
• Main Engineering journal
• Elements of a scientific research paper and how to write such a paper
• What do we mean by corresponding author?

9

Communication of research outcomes

• Power point presentations
• Reports and executive summaries
• Charts and diagrams
• Abstracts

10

Ethics, manners, and Plagiarism

11

Successful oral presentations for engineers

12

Working with digital resources

13

Assignment [2]

14+15

Presentations

16

Final Exam