OER Material Used: Technical Writing pdf by Gross et al.
https://openoregon.pressbooks.pub/technicalwriting/part/2-audience-analysis/

• Book Section – Chapter 2 – Audience Analysis
• Overview of Chapter
  • Names and defines types of audiences (Experts, Technicians, Executives, and Non-
    specialists)
  • Details the needs and interests of each type of audience
  • Explains how to adapt to whatever audience type you encounter

Non-OER Reading Material Used: “5 Disastrous Engineering Failures Due to Ethics”
https://online-engineering.case.edu/blog/disastrous-engineering-failures-due-to-ethics

• Overview of article
  • Briefly summarizes and explains five disastrous engineering failures due to ethics (The Ford Pinto Debacle, The Love Canal Saga, The Hyatt Regency Hotel Walkway Collapse, The New Orleans’ Levee System Failure, and The Titanic Sinking)

Note: This assignment is focused on writing to a specific audience. It is a mid-level stakes assignment.

OER Assignment

Using one of the five engineering disasters discussed in class, you will write a short history paper (minimum of 400 words) explaining what the engineering disaster was, how did it happen, and what was the aftermath of the disaster. Your primary audience for this paper should be executives (those who understand the business of engineering, but not necessarily engineering itself). Based on your understanding of the reading done in Technical Writing (Chapter 2 –Audience Analysis), our class lessons, and your own notes, you will decide how to organize the paper, how to title and label it, and how to incorporate graphics.

Aside from the “5 Disastrous Engineering Failures Due to Ethics” article, you will be required to research and use at least 1 additional source that covers the specific engineering disaster you chose to write about.

Make sure to properly quote, cite, analyze throughout your paper. Make sure to include a full reference page as well.

Follow-up Assignment (if you clearly want to show students how to write on the same topic to different audience types)

Later on, after the work is checked and revised, students will be tasked to write on the same engineering disaster in a history paper (minimum of 400 words). However, this time students will be gearing the paper to an audience made up of non-specialists (those who have no real expertise or much knowledge on the topic).

While students will be allowed to use the exact same sources and even quotes, if they wish, students must be made aware that this specific audience type will need a lot more explanation and guidance than the previous audience type they wrote for.

Note: This follow-up assignment is left intentionally general in order for the professor to best adapt the assignment based on what was learned about the class after marking the first version and deciding on what to focus on more for the second