Lab Report Grading

1. Lab Report Grading Terry A. Ring ChE University of Utah

2. Report Grading Scoring Rubric for CHFEN 4903 – Categories and Learning Objectives

3. Proficiency and Scoring 4 Levels Exemplary Proficient Apprentice Novice

5. Oral Report Organization Pick a Topic Pick a Time

6. Topics 17. Paper vs Plastic Grocery Bags 18. Cloth vs. Disposable diapers 19. Hybrid cars 20. Diesel vs. Gasoline 21. Fuel cells 22. Oil shale 23. The price of gasoline 24. Tar sands 25. Clean coal technology 26. K-12 Science and math education 27. New Orleans levy system 28. Wind Energy 29. Solar energy 30. Nuclear energy 31. Nuclear waste storage in Utah 32. Yucca Mountain 33. Nuclear reactor security at the U 34. Acid mine drainage in Utah 35. Recycling at the U of U 36. Nuclear weapons testing 37. Sustainable Transportation 38. Saving energy in Salt Lake City 1. Genetically modified foods 2. Stem cell research 3. COX-II inhibitors (Vioxx, Celebrex) 4. Biological warfare agents 5. Possible flue pandemic 6. Guidant pace maker recall 7. Gene delivery to treat human disease 8. FDA regulation of pharmaceuticals 9. Low cost medical techn. for the 3rd World 10. Agricultural use of antibiotics. 11. Agro-chemicals vs. Organic foods 12. Global climate change 13. Mercury pollution 14. Air pollution in Utah 15. Perchlorate pollution in Utah 16. Arctic National Wildlife Refuge drilling

7. Oral Presentation Delivery Times

8. Report Writing Chemical Engineering 4903

9. “Rather than simply the manner in which engineering design is communicated, writing is the medium through which quality engineering design becomes possible.” —Swarts and Odell (2001) (ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference Proceedings)

10. Overview • Utilizing your Writing Consultant • Citation Grammar and Punctuation • Proofreading and Editing • Revision Option

11. Utilizing your Writing Consultant • One-on-one consultation Office: WEB 1813 Hours: T 11:45-12:45 and 2-3; W 2-3 and by appointment • Rewrite consultation • Email: kathryn.cowles@gmail.com • Drop by!

12. Citation Guidelines Cite a text within the body of your report… when you quote material from the text when you reference *ideas* that you got from the text (or, often, a few different texts) when you use images, charts, tables, graphs, etc. from the text. The burden of citation becomes greater the farther along in your education and career you get.

13. Citation Guidelines In-text citations require the author’s last name and the year of the text, as follows (Last Name, year). If you cite an author’s name in your sentence (see first citation in example below), just cite the date in parentheses. If you do not cite the author’s name in your sentence (see second citation), cite both the name and date in parentheses. Example: The coiled tube has been suggested as a useful geometry for certain chemical reactors by Koutsky and Adler (1964) because axial mixing is limited by the transverse flow (Erdogan and Chatwin, 1967; McConalogue, 1970; Nunge et al., 1972).

14. Citation Guidelines Basic Journal Citation: Last name, First initials (additional authors are listed first initials, last name), “Article Title,” Italicized Journal Title, Bolded Volume Number, beginning page number (year in parentheses). SO: Koutsky, J. A., and R. J. Adler, "Minimization of Axial Dispersion by Use of Secondary Flow in Helical Tubes," Can. J. Chem. Eng., 42, 239 (1964).

15. Citation Guidelines Alphabetize the References page according to the author’s (or patentee’s or editor’s) last name. List the last name first. There’s no need to reverse the order of second author’s name because it won’t be alphabetized. Example: Erdogan, M. E., and P. C. Chatwin, "The Effects of Curvature and Buoyancy on the Laminar Dispersion of Solute in a Horizontal Tube," J. Fluid Mech., 29, 465 (1967). For 4+ authors, list first author’s name followed by “, et al.,” Example: Ordway, F. I., et al., Applied Astronautics: An Introduction toSpace Flight, Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs, N. J. (1963). Indent second+ lines of citation on References Page.

16. Citation Guidelines See Geoff Silcox’s Web site for the official “Guidelines for Literature References in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Utah.” When in doubt, look it up! The Guidelines document contains citation information for the following kinds of odd resources: emails, corporate authors, encyclopedia references, conference and symposium proceedings, journals with issue numbers or different kinds of pagination, CD-ROM publications, and many more…

17. Grammar and Punctuation Voice Use active voice as much as possible. Passive: A numerical example is now given to illustrate the above example. Active: The following numerical example illustrates this result.

18. Grammar and Punctuation Tense Use past tense for procedural, narrative parts, and calculations; present tense for theory, known facts, and discussing figures, tables and diagrams Past: Early investigations were reviewed. Present: The following numerical example illustrates this result.

19. Grammar and Punctuation Hyphenation Use a hyphen when two or more words modify another word, and the words work as a unit. Do not hyphenate most prefixes added to common nouns. Examples: She is a health-care worker. (requires hyphen) She works in health care. (no hyphen) She is a healthy, careful worker. (no hyphen)

20. Grammar and Punctuation Hyphenation (cont.) engineering-specific hyphenated terms:Acetic-acid water system bubble-cap tray liquid-gas interface a 20-percent increase a two- or three-year study but don’t hyphenate most prefixes:precooled not pre-coolednonpolar not non-polar Exceptions: co-worker not coworker co-ion not coion

21. Grammar and Punctuation Nonsexist language Nonsexist language is the norm in all professional writing. Try using the plural rather than the singular to avoid any awkwardness. Sexist: A good writer always proofreads his work. Nonsexist: Good writers always proofread their work.

22. Proofreading and Editing See Professor Ring’s online Introduction to Report Writing Powerpoint for specific examples of style, grammar, and punctuation rules. Many of the previous examples were culled from the Powerpoint.

23. Proofreading and Editing Proofread, proofread, proofread! Online resource: The Writing Checklist Revise your report at least three different times, with different emphases in mind. Start by looking at the big picture, and slowly narrow your focus down to the smaller and more specific details. Use The Writing Checklist as a guide to your revision process. It’s made with the report in mind.

24. Purpose Use this document to revise, edit, and proofread your own writing more effectively for this course and in the future. The Writing Process Your writing process should involve a number of stages, including research and lab work, planning/outlining, drafting, revising, editing, and proofreading. The best writers often write sections of their reports separately, rather than trying to tackle the entire document all at once. Similarly, the best writers edit in stages, reading through the document over and over again with different emphases in mind. Focusing on a limited number of issues during a given phase of the writing process helps you to revise and edit more effectively. It’s more efficient to revise documents beginning with a broad, organizational perspective and moving to a more detailed, sentence-level perspective. That way, you don’t waste time polishing sentences that you’ll end up cutting or rewriting anyway. 1. Revising: The big picture Read your draft from your audience’s point of view and check it for the following big-picture concerns: ___Accuracy—Are the facts, and the interpretation of the facts, clear and correct? ___Sections—Is each section of the report full and complete? Are sections clearly identifiable and focused? Do you fulfill all the requirements of each section? ___Sectional Structure—Do the sections, paragraphs and sentences flow in an order that will be logical from the reader’s perspective? ___Development—Are key points developed with enough detail? Are you, at any point, in danger of jumping ahead of your reader without providing sufficient explanation between points? ___Argumentation—Do you provide evidence to back up the claims you make, or do you just ask your reader to take your word for it? Do you provide the sources behind your theory? ___Counterarguments—Do you anticipate and address potential disagreements a reader might have with your assertions or questions your reader might wish to ask? ___Overall Focus—Is there any distracting or irrelevant information that can be cut without distorting the report? ___Overall Structure—Is the information presented in an order that will be logical from the reader’s perspective?

25. 2. Editing: Narrowing your focus Consider reading your report out loud to yourself at this point. Often, our ears can catch grammatical errors and awkward sentences/transitions that our eyes might miss. Trust your ears, and consider recasting those sentences that feel awkward when read out loud. If the terminology in this section is new to you, please feel free to ask Kathryn questions or drop by her office hours for a brush-up on grammar. ___Tone—Do the vocabulary and other features convey an appropriate level of formality and professionalism and an appropriate attitude toward the reader? ___Paragraphs—Does each paragraph have a clear main idea and purpose? Do sentences come in a logical order within the paragraph? ___Continuity—Are there any gaps in information? Do sentences ever seem to jump around without sufficient connection? ___Quotations—Have you double-checked that all quoted material is correctly quoted and cited? Do quotations accurately represent the positions of their authors? ___Voice—Is active voice the default, with passive voice only strategically deployed? Do you avoid the use of “we” or “I”? ___Uncertainty Analysis—Have you included an uncertainty analysis in appropriate tables and figures? ___Citation—Do you cite your sources correctly and consistently, both in the body of the report and in a list of references? ___Tables—Are your tables numbered using Arabic numerals? Are they self-explanatory? Is the descriptive heading at the top? Is the descriptive heading clear and easy to follow? ___Figures—Are your figures numbered using Arabic numerals? Are captions at the bottom of the figure, in complete sentences? Do figures contain axis labels, correlation curves, error bars, and plots with theoretical lines where applicable?

26. 3. Proofreading: A local focus Alwaysproofread your document at least once after revising/editing before turning it in. ___Headers & Footers—Do the correct headers & footers appear on every page, with the correct date and spelling? ___Page Numbers—Are page numbers formatted correctly (e.g., not in left margin for bound reports)? ___Title & Headings—Are the title and all headings accurate and correctly spelled? ___Margins—Are all margins at least 1” wide and no more than 1.25’? ___Format—Is the formatting consistent throughout the entire document? ___Punctuation—Are you using commas, semicolons, and colons correctly? Are you using quotation marks and periods correctly? (Watch particularly for run-on sentences, comma splices, semi-colon and colon use with dependent clauses, etc.) ___Spelling and Grammar—Have you run a spelling and grammar check? Have you fixed any potential problems? ___Prepositional Phrases—Is there more than one prepositional phrase in a given sentence? If so, should the sentence be revised? ___Dependent Clauses—Do commas set apart dependent clauses when necessary? ___Dangling Participles—Do you avoid dangling participles? ___Hyphenation—Do you use hyphens to connect two or more words that modify another word, and that work as a unit? ___Nonsexist language—Are you careful to use properly inclusive, professional language throughout? ___Nouns—Are all acronyms spelled out the first time they appear? Are all proper nouns spelled correctly and capitalized? ___Verbs—Do verbs match in number and tense? Do they describe the action you mean them to? Are you using past tense in describing procedure, and present tense in describing theory and discussing figures and diagrams? ___Pronouns—Is it clear when you use pronouns (especially “it” or “this”) what they’re referring back to? Or could a reader be confused about what exactly a pronoun refers to, or its antecedent (especially when a sentence begins with a pronoun)? ___Readability—Are your sentences easy to read, or does you reader have to read them two or three times to figure out what you mean?

27. Revision Option • Improve your grade. • Schedule a one-on-one consultation. • Provide Kathryn with a physical copy of your report in advance of the meeting. • Come prepared with questions, concerns, and comments from the person who graded your report. • Revise your report within one week of your consultation. • Hand it in to Kathryn along with the graded original.