EGR 201 focuses on human endeavors in science as refracted through literature. The course brings together two distinct traditions: the study of literature and the practice of technical communication. The course operates from several assumptions: (1) that imaginative treatments of technological subjects offer powerful, useful, and even needed critical perspectives, (2) that authors and engineers both work from written conventions - genres and other tropes - that frame knowledge, (3) that writers benefit from scrutiny of generic conventions, and (4) that creative play with conventional literary genres can inspire engineers to "think outside the box," to think creatively about their own designs and projects and about innovative ways of presenting their work.