Brad Agee

Maj. Garriott

ERH-101-03

9 July 2016

Syllabus Analysis

This essay is about the syllabus for the Introduction to Electrical Engineering and Computer Science course at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The goal of the course is to educate students in foundational knowledge of the electrical engineering and computer science that they will need to build upon in more advanced courses. Students taking this course need to already need basic skills in math, physics and programming. The professor expects that these students are experienced and don’t need an abundance of explanation, however he is also enthusiastic about “teaching exciting and basic material from electrical engineering and computer science” (Freeman 1). He uses the syllabus to persuade students that they will need to be responsible and dedicated students to successful in this course, while still mentioning that it hopefully will be exciting as well.

Dr. Freeman appeals to the students’ logos when informing them of just the minimums. When they read the syllabus it is immediately apparent that he only provides the most fundamental information. This also speaks to his ethos, as he doesn’t seem like a professor that will coddle his students. This should lead the students to understand that his expectations for them are high in terms of initiative and problem solving.

Dr. Freeman also appeals to logos with the lack of policies and or rules. Students will likely deduct that he doesn’t list any of these because he expects them to use common sense and have discipline as an inferred prerequisite. It may also appeal to ethos because if he had a lack of trust in his students he would feel compelled to explicitly list rules and policies. His trust in the students will encourage the students to trust their professor which will support the professor in his goal of persuasion.