sustainability poster

ENGR 231: Introduction to Technical Communication Assignment: Sustainability Poster Final Deliverable: 11x17 inch poster in PowerPoint for PDF that combines both text (500 word hard limit) and 3 graphics (one self-designed). The .PPT or .PDF file will be submitted to Canvas by 11:59 pm on the due date. Topic. In the Sustainability Poster, you will repurpose content from your blog post into an informative poster that both considers sustainability and is adapted for a new audience, purpose, and context.

• Repurposing means reconfiguring focus and organization, rewriting or heavily revising, and strategic selection of information. One element of repurposing for this assignment is to add a section that connects your content to sustainability.

• May I choose a new topic? If you don’t want to repurpose your blog post content, you may choose a different prompt from the blog post assignment for your poster. Get an “okay” on the topic from the instructor before proceeding.

Audience, Purpose, Context • Audience: Your audience for this assignment is high school STEM students who are attending an

engineering summer program at UW. As such, you are to assume that they are high school

seniors with strong math and science backgrounds, but they likely have limited exposure to your

topic and field of expertise.

• Purpose: To attract the students’ attention, to inform them about your topic, AND to persuade

them that the issue could be an interesting area of exploration for them in the future.

• Context: A poster session at a College of Engineering orientation event.

Graphics. The poster must include at least three properly integrated graphics, one of which you must design yourself—it can be simple. An appropriate portion of your poster text should be in bulleted or numbered list format.

3 Requirements for embedding graphics into the poster: 1. Describe it and refer to it by name in the text that precedes it. 2. Follow graphic with brief, but informative caption that adds to meaning. 3. Add the IEEE citation.

Tips for Graphics and Layout: 1. Outline your ideas and write rough sections of content before looking for or creating

graphics. A lot of students waste tons of time looking for graphics before they know what they want to say about their topics.

2. Look for graphs, charts, images, and/or tables to use on the poster—and create your own—that will convey key ideas of the issue concisely and compellingly. ***Use a minimum of three graphics.

3. Using PowerPoint, produce a draft of your poster that you will print out in color—the final draft will be 11x17 inches. There are two links on the course schedule that show you how to create posters on PowerPoint—they also give information about fonts, font sizes, measurements, etc. Pro Tip: Save poster as pdf before printing.

4. Consider the placement of text and images on the page that relate to the PARC principles discussed in class. Aim for a visual balance of text and graphics so that no part of the poster appears text- or image-heavy.

ENGR 231: Introduction to Technical Communication Sources. You will need at least credible 3 sources in your blog post that are cited using IEEE citation format. They can include the following:

• Quotes/numbers/statistics/facts from credible sources (e.g., articles, books, websites, etc.) • Quotes/reactions/comments from people you’ve worked with (e.g., project manager, team lead) • Graphics or images from source material • Data or other explanatory information that helps support any claims or ideas you express • Your own photos or graphics you have designed yourself based on your project or research

should not be cited unless they have been previously published Caution: Do not take or publish photographs of people, technology, or plans without permission. Ask for permission before sharing and have another plan if you do not receive permission. Content Outline

1. Introduction – Briefly introduce the subject of your poster, hinting at the sustainability

connection. Set up the key idea of the poster in a strong thesis statement that outlines the

central message you’re presenting with the content.

2. Background – Provide only relevant background information about the topic that is needed to

facilitate the audience’s understanding of the points you will make in the upcoming sections.

Really think about the minimum amount of information you need.

3. Discussion – Provide specific details to help with your explanations. Support your claims and

ideas with source material. Define technical terms that the audience will need to know to follow

the discussion. There should be a section that connects your topic to sustainability per class

activities/discussion of sustainability.

4. Conclusion – Very briefly provide closure to wrap up the poster.

5. References – Provide in-text citations and a list of references—both formatted properly in IEEE

citation style.

Reflected Skills This assignment helps students practice the following skills:

• Repurposing content to suit a new audience and different writing task • Integrating graphic and limited written content to create a singular message • Writing concisely and clearly for a space constrained document • Organizing and selecting content in a meaningful and deliberate way • Using document design strategies to aid in reader understanding and comprehension • Being attentive to grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure

Grading Criteria Your poster will be evaluated on (1) content, (2) organization, (3) document design, and (4) style, usage, grammar, and punctuation following the Content Outline above. Use this outline to review your poster, especially content and integration, before peer review and final submission. You will have three milestones for this assignment: a quick and messy draft, a first draft, a second draft, and a final draft. Each of these milestones will be graded for effort and completion as follows:

ENGR 231: Introduction to Technical Communication

• Quick and messy o A hand-written or typed document is uploaded to the Canvas assignment page by the end

of the day on the appropriate due date. The quick and messy can be a mind map, outline, or other freeform tool that best helps you brainstorm and organize your thoughts. The quick and messy draft should only take 30 minutes to one hour and will be graded on completion (that you turned something in that looks like 30 minutes to one hour of brainstorming).

• First draft o The first draft for this assignment should be a PowerPoint file that has all the required

content to be called a complete draft of your poster turned into Canvas by the end of the day on the appropriate due date. You DO NOT need all your images/figures yet nor completed citations, however, you should place filler items to demonstrate how you plan on incorporating your figures in your design and within the text.

o If you want personal feedback, leave a comment with your submission with up to TWO guiding questions for me to answer.

• Second draft o The second draft should be a PowerPoint file that has all the required content to be called

a complete draft of your poster plus revisions from the first draft turned into Canvas by the end of the day on the appropriate due date. You are expected to have most of your figures and citations done. The second draft should be polished enough such that with some peer review and additional minor revisions, you would be comfortable turning your poster in to the poster session for display.