Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering • University of California Irvine
Uni Stu 3 Essays in Engineering, Science, and Technology

Winter 2005 [Course Code: 87562]
Instructor: Professor MG McNally <mmcnally@uci.edu>
OVERVIEW Schedule Essays Authors Web Links Home
Overview: The paradox of the essay is that intimate and accurate detail of a subject from a defined and personal point of view can lead to interpretations and generalizations of very broad scope. And all in typically very few words. The essay may well be the ideal symbiotic mechanism by which engineers, scientists, and technologists can broach subjects with broad non-technical ramifications from the relative safety of facts and figures of the technical world. As a plus, such an essay is typically a technical delight in itself. In this seminar we will read and discuss essays on a wide variety of topics directly relevant to engineering, science, and technology, and indirectly relevant to just about everything else.
Essays: What is an essay? [Source: Wikipedia]
An essay is a short work of authorship. It is a discussion of a topic from an author's personal point of view, as influenced by subjective experience and personal reflection. Topics may include actual happenings, issues of human life, morality, ethics, religion, and many others. An essay is, by definition, nonfiction and often expository. Michel de Montaigne was the first to produce such writings (or at least was the first acknowledged to have done so) with his Essais, which were first published in 1580. Montaigne, trying to get over the loss of his close friend and confidant, Etienne de La Boetie, coined the term essai from the French verb "essayer" meaning "to try". Ostensibly, Montaigne was "essaying" to replace the loss of his conversational partner, La Boetie, with conversations with himself.

In modern days, essays are a chief tool of colleges to judge learning and comprehension of material. In academic institutions essays are usually more formal and present writer's own views as well as the comprehensive analysis of what was previously written on this topic. [Source: Wikipedia]

What's all this... ... have to do with engineering. science and technology? Read more...
Reading Essays: The publisher Bedford/St.Martins provides a brief summary of what questions to ask when Reading Essays.
Requirements: What is required on your part to participate in the seminar?
 
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