A. Assignment Instructions

1. Choose a specific technology related to your discipline or one that interests you (e.g., photovoltaics, MEMS, biomechatronics, magnetorheological fluidics, optical coherence tomography, solid-state femtosecond lasers, etc).

2. List of the various products or devices that use your chosen technology for a specific application (e.g., solar panels for generating electricity, magnetorheological fluid-based seismic dampers for buildings).

3. Choose the product or device from your list that you feel is best suited for the designated application (you choose the application) compared to other similar products or devices.

4. Choose a specific end user (audience) who would most likely purchase and/or use this product, which will be the focus of your persuasive thesis statement described in Step 7.

5. Perform a literature search to investigate and collect relevant data to determine what you feel are the technical advantages of your chosen product or device. Analyze your data to find evidence that supports your argument for recommending the product or device as the best choice for the designated application compared to other similar products or devices.

6. Using the lecture slides as a reference (slides are posted in the Lecture Materials module on the Canvas course space), write a thesis statement (short multi-sentence paragraph) that describes the use of your chosen product or device for its intended application based on its functional and/or technical advantages from an engineering perspective using an expository rhetorical mode.

7. Based on what you determine to be important to your chosen end user (e.g., reduced costs, increased reliability, increased efficiency, decreased maintenance, fast processing or throughput, ease of serviceability, upgradability, backward compatibility, product longevity, etc.), use the applicable information from your engineering-based thesis statement to address the needs/concerns and level of understanding from the user’s perspective using a persuasive rhetorical mode.

8. IMPORTANT: Be sure the following four items are listed on the first page of your paper:•Product or technology (e.g., large solar panels for commercial and industrial use)•Application (e.g., generate supplemental power to charge banks of backup batteries)•End user (intended audience) (e.g., executive management of a large manufacturing company)•Main objective of end user (e.g., continue critical manufacturing during a power grid failure)

9. List the source (or sources) used as a basis for writing the two thesis statements at the end of your paper using IEEE citation format (no in-text citations are required in your thesis statements).NOTE: Given the variety of possible recommendations that could exist for your chosen product, device, process, concept, or idea based on your educated opinion and the available information, your thesis will be considered appropriate if sufficient and relevant facts/data are used to support your claims.

B. Assignment Submission

Upload your finished paper to the Canvas drop box by the published due date as a Microsoft Word file (doc or docx) or optionally as an Adobe Acrobat file (pdf) if your paper was created in a word processor other than Microsoft Word (e.g., Google Docs, LaTeX, or Adobe FrameMaker) or is not PC compatible. NOTE: Name your uploaded file using your first and last name (e.g., John Smith.docx).

C. Grading Criteria

Your paper will receive two grades. The first grade will reflect the quality of the writing (clear, concise, complete, correct). The second grade will reflect how well your two thesis statements (engineering and end-user perspectives) achieved their intended purpose of addressing your target audience using clear, specific, quantitative data to support the use of the two rhetorical modes (expository and persuasive).

I have attached the complete instruction discription, grading rubric, and 2 sample papers below.