Michael L. Shuman, Ph.D.

Research.

Here are documents related to my current research and development projects.

I designed and wrote the specifications for assessment software currently adopted by the University of South Florida General Education Council for use in all newly-approved Gen Ed Classes:

Assessment Software Design

I developed the curriculum, syllabus, and instructor narrative for the First-Year Composition Program's distance learning ENC 1102 class. Our program offers approximately 7 sections of this class each semester:

ENC 1102 Online Syllabus

ENC 1102 Online Instructor Narrative

In addition to collaborating on the revised USF Technical Communications curriculum, I wrote the syllabus forthe program's new class in visual rhetoric:

ENC 4118 Visual Rhetoric Syllabus

Here is the syllabus for my Spring 2010 section of ENC 3246 Communications for Engineers:

ENC 3246 Communications for Engineers Syllabus

Here is the syllabus for my Spring 2008 ENC 4260 Advanced Technical Communications Class. This class emphasized new media and desktop publishing, and our major project was the First-Year Composition Program's Bullitzer Prize publication and website:

ENC 4260 Advanced Technical Communications Syllabus

Bullitzer Website

During the Spring 2010 Semester, I am teaching a class dealing with the art of Carl Barks, an outstanding American artist and satirist. Barks wrote and drew Donald Duck and Uncle Scrooge comics between 1943 and 1965, and his social commentary and wit matches that of great American humorists such as Mark Twain and Ambrose Bierce. I received special license and permission from Disney Enterprises, Inc. to produce a course pack of Barks stories for this class:

LIT 3301 Cultural Studies & Pop Arts: Carl Barks and the Twentieth-Century American Humorist Tradition Syllabus

Here is a PowerPoint 2007 Presentation outlining my current research projects and, in particular, my USF Gen Ed assessment software design:

Assessment in 3-D

Here is a PowerPoint 2007 Presentation for ENC 3246 concerning team projects and collaboration in the engineering field:

Collaboration and Project Management

Right now I'm working on a book about the psychoanalyst Otto Rank and the relationship between his ideas and the literary modernism movement. Rank was one of Freud's closest associates, but eventually split away from his mentor's ideas to offer insight into the human mind that is at once more spiritual and abstract than the prevailing Freudian model

I'm also working on a textbook that I will eventually use in my Communications for Engineers classes. A few such texts are already available, but generally these are out-of-date in terms of computers and the Internet, too simplistic in their approach to a complex subject, or both. One exception is the the third edition of A Guide to Writing as an Engineer by David Beer and David M. McMurrey. I'm using this text in my classes this semester.

Have a look at the website for Timberline Press, a small press publisher offering fine books of poetry handcrafted by Clarence Wolfshohl. Clarence has maintained this press for over thirty years, and I designed and maintain his website. I'm currently adding PayPal options for some of the books, so if you like what you see, please place an order.

Mailer Review 3 Cover

Mailer Review 3 Contents PDF

Welcome.

Welcome to my website for academic discussion. I am a Visiting Instructor in the Department of English at University of South Florida in Tampa, and I specialize in Technical/Professional communications. I'm also Assistant Director of USF's First-Year Composition Program, supporting more than 4,500 students each semester with nearly 100 writing program instructors.

You'll find me discussing issues related to technical and professional communications pedagogy, especially in terms of bringing an appreciation of "real world" applications to students enveloped in formal study and perhaps not aware of the types of issues and situations encountered in the workplace. In the Springl 2010 semester, I'll be concentrating on teaching Communications for Engineers, and my comments will pertain primarily to the challenges of students who will enter the engineering profession in just a year or two. Learning to communicate technical information in a clear and concise manner will be essential for these students-turned-engineers.

Upcoming.

While my primary academic concern right now is engineering communications, my doctorate is in literature, and you'll also find me discussing a wide range of issues related to 19th Century British Literature as well as to modernism and graphic art. I'll provide access to a blog encouraging discussion of literary issues, and I'll also offer links to websites and other works I find important in my areas of interest.

For my students.

This site also will serve as a portal for my students. I'll maintain links to the content management systems used in my classes, including Moodle, Blackboard, and SharePoint as well as to useful sources of engineering research material and references concerning technical communications. I intend for this site to become a one-stop-shop for information related to student assignments and tools essential for developing professional engineering careers. Please stop by frequently.