LSP581 English LP4 VT23 (4.5 hp)

This course is a compulsory course in both the Computer Engineering and Electrical Engineering programmes. The course is supplied by the department of Communication and Learning in Science.

The information in this Syllabus ("kurs-PM") applies to both TIDAL and TIELL students. However, do note that sometimes there is information specific to 🟣 TIDAL or 🟩 TIELL students. Colour and shape coding is intended to make this relevant material easier to find. So:

• if you are in 🟣TIDAL (data), then look for purple colouring, including a purple circle, labelling materials for your part of the course.
• if you are in 🟩TIELL (electro), then look for green colouring, including a green square, labelling materials for your part of the course.

Contact details

🟩TIELL instructor and Examiner: Anthony Norman normana@chalmers.se takes on the TIELL instructor, as well as course examiner role for the first weeks of the course. Later into the course, Andreas Eriksson andreas.eriksson@chalmers.se will take on more of those responsibilities (we will let you know! But - send all questions to Andreas until informed otherwise)

🟣TIDAL instructors: Charlie Keeling, keeling@chalmers.se; Anthony Norman, normana@chalmers.se 

When contacting us, we request that you include the course number (LSP581) so that we can more quickly recognise what course you are in because we teach several courses with similar names.

• For personal questions, ideally, please use your Canvas Inbox as the main channel of communication.
• For course questions that all students can benefit from knowing the answer to, please use the discussion forum.
• For general course updates or information, the teacher will communicate via Announcements.

Course purpose

The aim of the course is to enhance students' ability to communicate effectively in English, in speech as well as in writing, to enable students to use English for academic writing and oral presentations during their studies, and to prepare students for a professional career, which will most likely demand very good communicative skills.

Learning objectives

After completion of this course, the student should be able to:

• Write and structure a text in a logical and coherent manner.
• Plan and deliver an academic oral presentation.
• Critically read and assess technical content and use appropriate referencing in written work.
• Give and receive constructive feedback throughout the project.
• Use a process-oriented approach to writing as a strategy for improving communicative competency in English.
• Use strategies to improve language proficiency in English.

Link to the syllabus on Studieportalen: Study plan

Course design

We meet once a week, usually on a Tuesday (🟣 TIDAL students in the afternoon, 🟩 TIELL students in the morning). Check schedule information for any deviation from this. The meetings are primarily seminars, a combination of lecture and workshop activities. Issues dealt with in the lecture series include the communication process, strategies for effective communication in speech and in writing, and a focus on report writing.

Working with Canvas

It is important to be aware that every teacher may utilise the Canvas learning platform differently. To help you navigate this course's Canvas pages, we have created three guides:

1. 🟣🟩 Navigating this course sit in general, so for all students
2. 🟣 Navigating TIDAL Canvas materials
3. 🟩 Navigating TIELL Canvas materials

Schedule

TimeEdit only gives you an indication of the date, time, and room. For a few more details, there is the schedule overview below, which also indicates which sessions are compulsory. More importantly, there is a page for each session with all relevant details accessible via Modules (🟣 TIDAL Session pages and 🟩 TIELL Session pages). Your 'Calendar' area in Canvas should also keep you organised (you'll see assignments and meetings there as long as the course LSP581 is selected). Note that anything in your Calendar should also appear in your to-do list on the Canvas dashboard.

• 🟣 TIDAL Overview of TIDAL's LSP581 schedule
• 🟩 TIELL Overview of TIELL's LSP581 schedule

Any issues with attendance, please get in touch with the relevant instructor sooner rather than later (missed compulsory sessions will result in a compensation task).

Course literature

There is no specific book or paper for this course. The course literature consists of session material and other recommended materials. Session materials will be published on the relevant session page, either just before the session or just after. You should also be able to find what you need by looking on the Master list pages (🟩 TIELL master list of materials and 🟣 TIDAL master list of materials), where all session material is divided up, into, hopefully, logical topic categories, to make searching for specific course content easier (in comparison with trying to remember in which session a topic was discussed in).

Two useful study resources are: Chalmers Writing Guide - an excellent resource for writing skills, but there is some information about presentation skills too; and Purdue OWL (Online Writing Lab) - it has one of the most comprehensive and long-running writing guides in existence.

Changes from previous year

• The course code changed from LSP580 to LSP581.
• The graded written exam (grammar exam) was removed from the course and a new pass/fail assignment, the Learning Portfolio, was added to the course. 

Examination form

One final grade is given at the end of this 4.5 credit course, on the U-3-4-5 Chalmers scale. There are seven assignments (see the table below). Two are graded U-5. The others are only pass/fail but are compulsory assignments too. They all connect to each other in some way, the project work or the communication process.

🟣 TIDAL	🟩 TIELL
Learning portfolio individual task, graded pass/fail	Learning portfolio individual task, graded pass/fail
LET627 ethics mini-report individual task, graded pass/fail, assignment set by LET627, and used in LSP581 for formative feedback	Planning report of the LET086 project individual task, graded pass/fail, assignment established with LET086 but for LSP581 only
3-min presentation individual task, graded pass/fail	3-min presentation individual task, graded pass/fail
English report of LET627 project - draft group task for both LET627 and LSP581, read and commented by TIDAL instructor only, pass/fail	English report of LET086 project - draft group task for both LET086 and LSP581, read and commented by TIELL instructor only, pass/fail
Peer response of latest report draft individual task, graded pass/fail	Peer response of latest report draft individual task, graded pass/fail
Presentation of LET627 project connected to group task in LET627, graded 3-5 according to presentation criteria in LSP581	Presentation of LET086 project connected to group task in LET086, graded 3-5 according to presentation criteria in LSP581
English report of LET627 project group task for both LET627 and LSP581, graded 3-5 in LSP581 according to LSP581 criteria for report writing	English report of LET086 project group task for both LET086 and LSP581, graded 3-5 in LSP581 according to LSP581 criteria for report writing

The final course grade is based on

In order to receive the final grade, all assignments, including all pass/fail assignments, must be completed. Some tasks may require revision before a task is set as complete. Please note that these pass/fail tasks are compulsory because they are vital to the process-oriented approach that we use.

The grade of the final course grade is based on:

• the grade from the project report (60% of the final grade)
• the grade from the project presentation (40% of the final grade)

The criteria for the different assignments appear together with detailed task instruction on their respective submission pages, under Assignments. To understand how the grades are calculated, see information on this a little further down the page.

Teaching and assignments

• Process-oriented approach: the writing and speaking assignments build on each other, and provide learning moments from one to the next. The project report goes through two draft versions, one receiving teacher feedback and peer review.
• Deadlines: it is important that you keep to the deadlines. If you have any issues with meeting the deadlines, please contact the relevant instructors. 
• Revisions: should assignment requirements not be met, revisions will be requested. 
• Participation and compensation tasks: active participation in the course and attendance in the meetings are expected. Please contact the teachers if you have schedule issues. Should any compulsory sessions be missed, a compensation task will be issued.

Note: You have been divided into either a 🟣 TIDAL or 🟩 TIELL section here in LSP581's Canvas (a section on Canvas is just a grouping to help us give you the right access). You should only be able to see 🟣 TIDAL assignments if you are a data student and 🟩 TIELL assignments if an electro student. If you think you are viewing the wrong assignments, contact your teacher and they will make sure you are assigned to the correct section. This section division unfortunately only affects visibility on assignments, discussions and announcements, but not Modules, so there you will see both TIELL and TIDAL details - so be careful not to go into the wrong pages!

HOW GRADES ARE CALCULATED AND CONVERTED INTO A 3 - 5 GRADE RANGE

The following is a breakdown of how we convert percentages into a U - 5 grade. This applies for each individual U - 5 graded item, as well as for determining overall grades for the course.

• Each graded component of the course will generate a grade calculated to 2 decimal places. This is then converted to a grade from 3-5. For breakdowns of how we calculate the report and presentation assignments, refer to the criteria sheets. 
• Your score for each assignment will be generated from your raw score calculated to 2 decimal places. Final scores will be calculated as follows:

3.00 – 3.64 = 3

3.65 – 4.34 = 4

4.35 – 5.00 = 5

The final course grade will be calculated from your raw scores and converted to a 3-5 grade.

NOTE: If you receive a U for the report or presentation, you will be given opportunity to revise. Revisions will only be awarded a passing grade of 3.00.