Bridging the Gap: How English for Professionals courses aid international engineers

As both lecturer and master lecturer, respectively, in the Engineering Writing Program and American Language Institute, I have worked with many international engineering students at USC (home of award-winning engineering publication, Illumin). To my knowledge, engineers sometimes find it difficult explaining key concepts to non-specialists, and speaking English as a second language often adds to...

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Do You Feel Rich Enough? What’s the Standard?

Talking about money remains problematic, but this conversation topic is more for self-reflection than classroom application. But please bear with me. How rich are you? How much money would satisfy you? Americans, and many other people in consumer societies, sometimes seem to be pursuing a moving mirage of material happiness. The luxuries of one year become the perceived necessities the next...

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