Transactions in Chemical Engineering

for the 21st Century: Writing, Audience Analysis, and

Accountability

Robert BaratNorbert Elliot

Seminar Course: Chemical Engineering 794

Professional PresentationThursday, November 29, 2007

FMH Room 3104:30 – 5:30 PM

November 27, 2007

Outline

• The Way We Live Now: A Brief History of the 21st Century

• Information Literacy: A New Role for Literacy• A Social View of Cognition: What is Writing?• Audience Analysis: Serving and Constructing

Audiences• Accountability: Reporting and the Idea of Validation• Case Study 1: Effects of Scattering on THz Spectra of

Granular Solids• Case Study 2: A Technology Transfer Model for

Program Assessment in Technical Communication• Discussion: The Idea of Contemporary Transactions

Prelude 1: Robert Barat and Norbert Elliot. The Compleat Chemical Engineer: A Guide to Critical Thinking. Dubuque, Iowa: Kendall/Hunt, 1993.

• to illustrate independent thought• to illustrate intellectual breadth• to illustrate cultural breadth• to illustrate ethical awareness• to plan promising experiments• to execute experiments as research• to convert data and integrate information• to perceive promising experimental patterns• to reflect on the quality of experimental results• to argue (translate) results

Prelude 2: The Idea of a Transaction• emphasizing the essentiality of both reader

and text, in contrast to other theories that make one or the other determinate....'Transaction'...permits emphasis on the to-and-fro, spiraling, nonlinear, continuously reciprocal influence of reader and text in the making of meaning. “The meaning — the poem — 'happens' during the transaction between the reader and the signs on the page.” Rosenblatt, L. (1938). Literature as Exploration. New York: Modern Language Association; (1995). p. xvi.

Thomas L. Friedman, The World Is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-first Century. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2005.

• The end of mercantilism • The end of economic

stability and the idea of prediction

• The beginning of unrestrained competition

• The beginning of the need for deep cultural understanding

• And a new role for communication

Friedman

Models of Information Literacy: ETS and NJIT

A Social View of Cognition

• Linda Flower. The Construction of Negotiated Meaning: A Social Cognitive Theory of Writing. Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 1994.– Meaning Construction– Problem Solving– Negotiation

Audience Analysis: At Cardinal Health

An Investigative Model: Cardinal Health & NJIT

Norbert Elliot, Blake Haggerty, Mary Foster, Gale Spak. “Asynchronous Training in Pharmaceutical Manufacturing: A Model for University and Industrial Collaboration. International Journal on E-Learning 7.1 (2008). Forthcoming.

The Stakeholder Model: The Notion of Interest• Stakeholder knowledge– How much does the audience know?

• Answer: Never assume!

• Stakeholder belief– What does the value?

• Answer: Design the document so that, as far as possible, the audience values the information found in the document.

• Stakeholder attitude– What is the disposition the audience has toward the subject?

• Answer: Design the document so that, as far as possible, the attitude is determined by the document.

• Remember: Knowledge does not necessarily shape belief and attitude. The more that is known about the background, responsibilities, and motivation of readers, the better the chance of document success.

The Translation Model: Making the Familiar Unfamiliar

• Provide the historical background– Contextualize the information

• Provide analogies– Explain the unfamiliar in terms of the familiar

• Provide visual representation– Use concept mapping

Remember: Even if the material is technical and complex, the reasoning behind an action should be accessible and lucid.

The Organizational Model: Levels of Expertise

• Organizational Characteristics– Level 4 audiences: financial in orientation

• Customers

– Level 3 audiences: auditors in orientation• Reviewers

– Level 2 audiences: managerial in orientation• Decision makers

– Level 1 audiences: supervisory in orientation• Implementers

– Immediate audiences: technical in orientation• Quality control

False Assumptions about Audiences

• It is false to assume that the person addressed is the only audience.

• It is false to assume that the readers of the document are specialists.

• It is false to assume that the readers have been involved in daily discussion of the material.

• It is false to assume that the readers anxiously await the document.

What is True about Audiences?

• The Nature of Complexity– Abandon the basic model

• The Role of the Writer– Use stakeholder, translation, and organizational

strategies to analyze audiences

• The Role of the Reader– Construct a role for the reader to play in the document– Guarantee that role includes respect for levels of

technical understanding, workplace hierarchy, gender, and international settings.

– Remove any barriers that prevent that role from being played

Accountability: Toulmin’s Logic & A Supported Claim

Case Study I: “Effects of Scattering on THz Spectra of Granular Solids,” Aparajita Bandyopadhyay & Amartya Sengupta & Robert B. Barat & Dale E. Gary & John F. Federici & Minghan Chen & David B. Tanner, Int J Infrared Milli Waves (2007) 28:969–978

Effects of Scattering on THz Spectra of Granular SolidsAparajita Bandyopadhyay & Amartya Sengupta & Robert B. Barat & Dale E. Gary & John F. Federici & Minghan Chen & David B. Tanner

Abstract: Experimental studies of granular solids have shown that significant scattering effects restrict the accurate determination of material absorption in the terahertz (THz) region. The present work investigates the grain size dependent scattering contribution on the extinction spectra of Ammonium Nitrate, flour, and salt between 0.2 to 1.2 THz using THz time-domain spectroscopy. The scattering contribution can be estimated by applying Mie theory for spherical grains. The approach essentially separates the independent contributions of true absorption and scattering losses and thus determines the total extinction for different grain sizes of various materials. The separation of the intrinsic material absorption from scattering losses shows that the frequency dependence in weakly absorbing materialsis predominantly particle size dependent. Consequently, that range of THz frequencies cannot be used to differentiate granular solids having no intrinsic absorption.

Keywords: Terahertz. Spectroscopy. Granular solids. Extinction spectra. Material identification. Mie theory.

Case Study II:“A Technology Transfer Model for Program Assessment in Technical Communication.” Nancy Coppola & Norbert Elliot, Technical Communication (2007) 14.4: 459-474.

Discussion: The Idea of Contemporary Transactions

• Writing exists in communities.• Audience analysis yields to informed readers.• Discovery leads to critical thinking.• Investigations are captured in formal reports of

various kinds within various organizational settings.