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A Preliminary Study on Supporting Writing Transfer in an Introductory Engineering Laboratory Course

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Conference

2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

New Orleans, Louisiana

Publication Date

June 26, 2016

Start Date

June 26, 2016

End Date

June 29, 2016

ISBN

978-0-692-68565-5

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

NSF Grantees Poster Session I

Tagged Topics

Diversity and NSF Grantees Poster Session

Page Count

14

DOI

10.18260/p.26404

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/26404

Download Count

703

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Paper Authors

biography

Dave Kim Washington State University, Vancouver

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Dr. Dave (Dae-Wook) Kim is an Associate Professor and Coordinator of Mechanical Engineering in the School of Engineering and Computer Science at Washington State University Vancouver. He has 18 years of experience in engineering materials and manufacturing. His research area includes materials processing, structural integrity improvement, and hybrid composite manufacturing. He has been very active in pedagogical research and undergraduate research projects, and his research interests include manufacturing laboratory pedagogy and writing pedagogy.

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Praveen Kumar Sekhar Washington State University, Vancouver

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Abstract

Engineering undergraduates are exposed to writing curricula such as first-year composition (FYC) in their early program of study. However, they often have difficulties meeting the expectations of writing in engineering courses. Our goal for this study is to improve engineering students’ writing performances through better understanding how writing transfer occurs and then applying pedagogical strategies designed to support writing transfer institution-wide. This poster reports preliminary data and findings on improving writing transfer for engineering undergraduates. Instructional materials for lab report informed by a rhetorical approach to writing were piloted in an introductory engineering laboratory course. The quality of students’ writing and their assessment scores were found to improve. Based on the data collected from student surveys and rhetorical analysis conducted on student writing artifacts (engineering lab reports), the summary of the rhetorical strategies that students successfully carry over and/or adapt as they move from FYC to an introductory engineering laboratory course will be shared. In addition, the students’ perspectives of writing transfer from FYC to the introductory engineering laboratory course will be discussed.

Kim, D., & Sekhar, P. K. (2016, June), A Preliminary Study on Supporting Writing Transfer in an Introductory Engineering Laboratory Course Paper presented at 2016 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, New Orleans, Louisiana. 10.18260/p.26404

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