improve technical writing instruction in laboratory courses, a multidisciplinary team ofprofessors in the departments of Writing and Engineering (1) developed a curricular frameworkthat integrates common practices of teaching technical writing in tandem with existing engineeringlaboratory courses and (2) trained a set of students to be Engineering Writing Fellows (EWF),undergraduate engineering students who tutored peers in their technical writing assignments. Thispaper will share the student and instructor opinions of these initiatives employed in the LinearCircuits Analysis Laboratory course. Analysis of the initiatives was conducted via student surveyand comparison of student writing pre and post EWF tutoring. Results show students
mentioned earlier, the design of our study assumes that the body of papers published in theproceedings of ASEE annual conferences is representative of practices and trends in engineeringcommunication pedagogy and research. Following the method used by Neeley and Alley (2020),we used the search function in the PEER repository to identify papers dealing with engineeringcommunication. Specifically, we conducted a title search for “communication or writing orspeaking or presentations.” Papers that served one or more of the four functions listed belowqualified as relevant to engineering communication as we have defined it here:(1) develop or assess the communication abilities of engineering students,(2) assess engineering students’ attitudes and
Sky" (blue), "Wasabi" (green) and "Chutney" (orange).). The result: your dad's old Schwinn bike on steroids.” 2 [emphasis added]Without realizing it, the author(s) of the above passage make the connection between Rhetoricand successful Product Development. Designers, Engineers, and Marketers are engaged in theact of persuasion. Ultimately, their hard work must persuade a consumer to purchase or use theproduct that they developed. During the process, each partner in the team is trying to persuadehis or her superiors and/or peers that their solution is the correct one.The three overarching components of Rhetoric (Kairos, Audience, and Decorum) clearly apply tothe product development process. In fact restated, the above definition of the
continued success in industry [12]-[16]. Despite the importance of technicalcommunication skills, there exists a disparity between what academia reports the technicalcommunication capabilities of recently graduated engineering students is and what industry isreporting. Other research has found that 50 percent of mechanical engineering department headsconsidered recently graduated students to have strong technical communication skills, whereasindustry leaders considered only 9 percent of graduates to have strong technical communicationskills [17]. This disconnect may exist because of a lack of targeted communication and writingassignments that do not teach an iterative and peer review process for writing [18]. There mayalso be a need for engineering
explored in addition to testing the correlation between these measures. In terms ofexplanatory variables, it would be beneficial to expand the survey items being used to measureeach of the terms, or to find a consensus on what each item is specifically measuring (i.e., is itmeasuring self-efficacy or comfort with self-disclosure). There are other measures of socialsupport that could and should be explored outside of self-sufficiency, sense of belonging, and socialself-efficacy.Given the specific academic disciplines being targeted, it would be beneficial to measure the levelof social support one feels at one’s school and department by determining how the presence ofsocial support from one’s peers, teachers, administrators, and advisors influence
indisciplinary activities – not as a simple skill that can be learned once, and transferred to new,disparate, inter-and-extra-disciplinary situations. Altering entrenched constructs of writing-as-product and writing-as-discrete-skill-set, WAC activities can introduce faculty and graduate TAsto best practices from Writing Studies, helping them think through basic tenets of “good” writingpedagogy (i.e., writing-as-process and writing-as-knowledge-making, effective and efficientinstructor and peer response practices, and more clearly elaborated assignment design).WAC has traditionally employed workshop models to convey its principles to faculty acrossdisciplines. WAC programs are usually housed in whatever department administers first-yearwriting, and
section guide simplifies thenumber of mouse-clicks required to bring students to databases in the programs served by thecourse. The technical writing section guide includes: general tips, types of research tools,additional tools to try, search tips, Salina resources, and main campus resources.Helpful hints are provided in red type. The hints are derived from the content of the inservicevisit, the activities modeled during the visit, and are helpful in performing the final assignment.In addition, the selection of databases are described, guiding students to select the mostappropriate for the task they have been assigned.The section guides include deep Internet databases subscribed to by the library (peer-reviewed,discipline-specific journal
are covered. First an introduction to the project is given, and second,the highlights of relevant publications are summarized. Third, strategies for teaching workplacecommunication are described and fourth, the goals and orientation of the project are laid out.Fifth, the Communication Lab involved in the curriculum is described. Sixth, the assessmentprocedures are identified, and finally, future work is covered.II. Highlights of Publications Regarding Writing and Presenting in EngineeringThe publication highlights cover three topics. The first focuses on communication skills neededon the engineers’ jobs. The second covers the main tenets of communication instruction,including viewing the workplace as a different “discourse community” from
all engineering majors taken mostly by juniors and seniors. Thepurpose was to establish helpful networking opportunities for students while teaching themreport writing skills. Students surveyed alumni and other professionals about technicalcommunication tasks at work. The following components comprised this project: an alumnusguest speaker, introducing the project; the writing assignment given to the students; studentgroups' planning and gathering information from alumni, the group-written reports, students’post-assessment of the project, and a final alumni-sponsored luncheon meeting with alumni,students, the professor, and administrators. Survey results showed technical communication tobe valuable and somewhat time-intensive in the workplace
curriculum model combines several approaches. The humanities-driventechnical communication instruction teaches narrative professional writing skills within ascience, technology, and culture context. The computer science department teaches generalanalytical skills for adapting to ever-changing demands of a dynamic field. The National ScienceFoundation (NSF)-sponsored approach combines these two and provides discipline-specificwriting instruction based on actual workforce reports and real-world email protocol. Thisinterdisciplinary pilot is created for Computer Science students, but aims to provide a model forvarious disciplines that any individual instructor can incorporate into his or her own curricula.This model of curriculum development is based
Paper ID #45014Exploring the role of engineering judgment in engineering educationthrough writing praxis in a 3rd year systems engineeringwriting-in-the-disciplines [WID] courseDr. Royce A Francis, The George Washington University Dr. Royce Francis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Engineering Management and Sys- tems Engineering [EMSE] at the George Washington University. At George Washington, Dr. Francis’s engineering education research explores the relationships between professional identity formation and engineering judgment. His other research interests include infrastructure resilience and risk assessment
Arts in Creative Writing from Virginia Common- wealth University.Annemarie Galeucia, Louisiana State University Annemarie Galeucia, M.A., works for Communication across the Curriculum (CxC) at Louisiana State University (LSU). She is a Ph.D. candidate in LSU’s cultural geography and anthropology program, and has over 10 years of qualitative research and teaching development experience. Prior to her work at CxC, Annemarie was a research associate for CU-Boulder’s Center for Media, Religion and Culture, where she developed qualitative research materials and coordinated data analysis for human subject research.Mr. Warren R Hull Sr. P.E., Louisiana State University Warren R. Hull, Sr. is Director of the Chevron Center
Paper ID #42974Small Shifts: New Methods for Improving Communication Experiences forWomen in Early Engineering CoursesDr. Jonathan M Adams, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Prescott Jonathan Adams is an assistant professor of rhetoric and composition and the writing program administrator at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Prescott, AZ. His research on rhetorical theory, infrastructure, and communication pedagogy informs his teaching of courses in rhetoric, composition, and technical communication in engineering.Ashley Rea, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, PrescottBrian Roth, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical
. Furthermore, PITCH core faculty are currently developing three online modules to addressthe issues raised above. Students will take these in their freshman, junior and senior years inconjunction with EASC 1112, junior laboratory courses, and senior design courses. The intent ofthese modules is to engage students with writing exercises that will prepare them for the specificPITCH assignments in target courses (i.e., technical memos, laboratory reports and senior designproposals, reports and posters). Students will also benefit from feedback provided by the onlinetechnical writing instructors as well as peer review using the EliReview® software system.15 Theonline modules are being developed now and implementation is expected to begin in fall 2016
R. Pinkus 2003-1978“Writing Across the Engineering Curriculum: Challenges, Experiences, and Insightsfrom the University of Toronto’s Engineering Communications Centre”Rebecca A. Pinkus, MTPW, MALanguage Across the CurriculumFaculty of Applied Science and EngineeringUniversity of TorontoINTRODUCTIONWriting Centers have been in place throughout university systems since the early 1970s[1], as have Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) efforts; both aim to use writing as aform of learning. That is, as students learn to write about their discipline, they also learn tothink more critically about the content they are learning. When these concepts are placedinto the
were doing it to satisfy their own intrinsic values. While they still believed that good writingwas important to an engineering professional, the lack of continuity in the curriculum madewriting seem far less important to an engineering student.Compounding this devaluation, students often received negative social messages from otherstudents and even faculty about the value of communication coursework. Some students hadbeen told by peers to expect their writing class to be tedious, and mostly just a meaninglessrequirement. One student reported that in a subsequent class with a communication component,the instructor explicitly messaged that the students were there to get an easy grade on thatcomponent and pass through to more important work.The
pronounced awareness of how writing works within a given discipline—not only as amethod of transmission, but a means of learning. There is some evidence, in effect, that thesophomores see in their writing a greater purpose than simply completing an assignment for agrade. The words “perceive,” “understand,” and “comprehend” crop up repeatedly: thesestudents are writing to learn, writing their way into the discipline of Engineering. The authorssuggest that this point marks the beginning of what may be “normal discourse” for these Page 11.694.8students, that is, “a conversation within a community of knowledgeable peers.” 18 Of course,there are those
in Professional Writing, Journal of Engineering Education, 99:427-438.[4] Yalvac, B., Smith, H. D., Troy, J. B., and Hirsch, P. (2007). Promoting Advanced Writing Skills in an Upper-Level Engineering Class, Journal of Engineering Education, 96: 117-128.[5] Ekoniak, M., Scanlon, M.J., Mohammadi-Aragh, M.J. (2013). Improving student writing through multiple peer feedback, IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, 626 – 628.[6] Furman B. and Robinson, W. (2003). Improving Engineering Report Writing with Calibrated Peer Review,The 33rd ASEE/IEEE Frontiers in Education Conference, November 5-8, Boulder, CO.[7] Smelser, R. E. (2001). How to Build Better Engineers A Practical Approach to the Mechanics of Text. Quarterly-National
research introductions. Class homework: Students apply what they learned in the workshop to their second draft. Students begin meeting UWC consultants. At the UWC: The BME writing instructor runs training sessions for consultants. Consultants begin working with students. Week 3 In class: Students bring to class the second draft for peer review. (This second draft is not included in the Assessment.) Week 4 Students submit their final (third) draft. Week 5 Students complete the first set of short reflections on their UWC consultation Post-Semester The BME writing instructor administers the second self
that were perceived asneeded to improve students’ critical thinking and communication skills. This paper discusseshow writing assignments are being used in a probability and statistics course to aid in meetingthis data literacy goal for students by integrating several writing-across-the curriculumapproaches into the course.Literature ReviewData LiteracyData literacy is a type of numeracy literacy that has evolved from the umbrella category ofinformation literacy. D’Ignazio and Bhargava [1] defined data literacy as “the ability to read,work with, analyze and argue with data as part of a larger inquiry process.” Prado and Marzal [2]recognized that a part of numeracy is “the ability to communicate quantitative information toothers in speech and
. Alba-Flores [5] implemented the peer review process in a Circuit Analysis lab course resulting in anincrease in students’ awareness about the importance of technical writing and improved writingassessment results. Corneal [6] developed a sequence of three templates to guide studentsthrough the process of technical report writing and implemented it in a first-year engineering labcourse.According to the theories of learning transfer [7], describing how past experiences affect learningand performance in a new situation, the transfer of writing skills from first-year composition toengineering can be classified as ‘far transfer’ that contains very few abstract or generaloverlapping features [8]. In a previous study to improve engineering
withopportunities to apply these strategies to specific writing challenges, then the connectionsthat students make between design and technical writing might be strengthened and thequality of both writing and design might be improved.Usability testingAs technical communicators, we want to help students understand the value of testingtheir writing on intended readers and revising the document according to reader needs.We teach three kinds of document testing: text-based testing, expert-based testing, anduser-based testing. In the text-based approach, the document is tested against guidelinesor checklists, often in a class peer review situation. Expert-based testing is achieved bysoliciting feedback on the document from professionals either expert in the
Paper ID #10109Adventures in paragraph writing: the development and refinement of scal-able and effective writing exercises for large enrollment engineering coursesMs. Rebecca Rose Essig, Purdue UniversityDr. Cary David Troy, Purdue University, West Lafayette Ph.D., Stanford University, Civil and Environmental Engineering (2003) Assistant Professor, Purdue Uni- versity, School of Civil Engineering (2007-present)Prof. Brent K Jesiek, Purdue University, West Lafayette Dr. Brent K. Jesiek is Assistant Professor in the Schools of Engineering Education and Electrical and Computer Engineering at Purdue University. He is also an
maintain quality control over instruction and to better understand andrespond quickly to graduate students' needs and preferences, the Hub's co-directorslimited the delivery of tutoring instruction to themselves. Both instructors are full-timeteaching faculty in the technical communication program housed within the engineeringschool, and both have decades of teaching graduate-level academic communication inspecific fields, including engineering, law, and international relations.This type of instructional delivery bypasses some of the questions encountered by someuniversity writing centers such as the efficacy of peer or undergraduate tutors [3], aswell whether tutors should be generalists or specialists within students' fields. Astechnical
research courses could also considerincluding references related to the dissertation writing process (e.g., institutional templates, writing centerinformation, online resources) to better prepare students for the transition to the writing phase of theirdoctoral program. Finally, gatherings could be offered for those students in the writing phase (e.g.,,writing retreat or writing day) to provide a space for them to share with their peers and make meaningfulprogress on their dissertation.Future work will focus upon completing interviews with doctoral students of the program during theSpring 2024 semester to better understand the results obtained about their experiences and perceptions ofcoursework and research activities (i.e., pre-writing and
collaborators attracted close to $1M in research grants to study writing transfer of engineering undergraduates. For technical research, he has a long-standing involvement in research concerned with the manufacturing of advanced composite materials (CFRP/titanium stack, GFRP, nanocomposites, etc.) for marine and aerospace applications. His recent research efforts have also included the fatigue behavior of manufactured products, with a focus on fatigue strength improvement of aerospace, automotive, and rail structures. He has been the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers in these areas.Dr. Charles Riley P.E., Oregon Institute of Technology Dr. Riley has been teaching mechanics concepts for over 10 years and
collaborators attracted close to $1M research grants to study writing transfer of engineering undergraduates. For the technical research, he has a long-standing involvement in research concerned with manufacturing of advanced composite materials (CFRP/titanium stack, GFRP, nanocomposites, etc.) for automotive, marine, and aerospace applications. His recent research efforts have also included the fatigue behavior of manufactured products, with the focus of fatigue strength im- provement of aerospace, automotive, and rail structures. He has been the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers in these areas.Dr. Ken Lulay, University of Portland BSME, University of Portland, 1984 MSME, University of Portland, 1987 PhD
, GFRP, nanocomposites, etc.) for marine and aerospace applications. His recent research efforts have also included the fatigue behavior of manufactured products, with a focus on fatigue strength improvement of aerospace, automotive, and rail structures. He has been the author or co-author of over 200 peer-reviewed papers in these areas. ©American Society for Engineering Education, 2024Work-in-progress: An Investigation of Engineering Undergraduates’ Writing Transfer from Two First-Year Writing-Intensive Sites to Introductory Engineering LabsAbstractTransfer of learning theory explains how learners can apply their previously acquired knowledgeand skills in a new situation or
activity coding shows that participants were getting adviceon their writing (e.g., grammar and style issues), an opportunity to judge the effectiveness oftheir writing through clarification requests from the colleagues, information necessary toimprove the documents through the genre negotiations and audience discussions, and evensupport for gaining confidence in their writing through the affective interactions. Theclarification codes indicate that participants were encouraged to articulate and explain theirportfolio elements—their peers challenged their conceptions of teaching, wished for evidence toback up the claims in their statements, or were unclear about the terminology used in theirstatements. By doing so, participants would have the
incorporating communication into technical coursesmay be mitigated by the use of peer review; by setting students up in peer review sessions, they canread and comment on the work of others as a means to improving their own communication skills.Many of us who have employed peer review have seen the benefits firsthand.1-5 The process of readingand reviewing the written documents of other students—submitting their own documents to beassessed by other students, reviewing documents that try to fulfill the same assignment they havewritten—has a measurable impact on the student’s own writing. Studies of peer reviewing strategiesconfirm what many of us have seen in our own classrooms. The process for peer review, with fewexceptions, remains the same. Students