Gunn, C. J. (2012, June), Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas. 10.18260/1-2--21889

\bibitem{asee_peer_21889}
  Gunn, C. J. (2012, June), \emph{Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later}
  Paper presented at 2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas.
  10.18260/1-2--21889

Craig J. Gunn.  "Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later".  2012 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2012.  https://peer.asee.org/21889 Internet.  26 Apr, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_21889}
  Craig J. Gunn.
  "Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later".
  \emph{2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, San Antonio, Texas, 2012, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2012.
  https://peer.asee.org/21889 Internet.  26 Apr, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_21889
author = "Craig J. Gunn"
title = "Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later"
booktitle = "2012 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2012"
month = "June"
address = "San Antonio, Texas"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/21889}
number = {10.18260/1-2--21889}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -               Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering                          Engineers as Poets 10 Years laterTen years ago many people thought for a variety of reasons that encouraging engineers to writepoetry in a college of engineering was a foolish endeavor. These naysayers proclaimed the lackof any value in the pursuit, the foolishness of any endeavor that made use of the weaker right-brained skills (Everyone knew that soft skills were worthless!), and a complete trust in the factthat engineers were never intended to be creative or in any way able to write anything thatbordered on the creative arts. Over these past years, the College of Engineering at XXX hasendeavored to open up the flood gates and let the creative juices flow. Ten years have passed andmany of the naysayers have slipped away into the shadows, mumbling about their distrust of“soft skills” but unable to completely disregard the quality and quantity of the creative worksthat have been produced by every level of engineer: student, faculty, and staff (and nowelementary, middle, and high school students).ABET’s requirements for accreditation since 2000 give a clear indication that writtencommunication is of tantamount importance in the education of undergraduate engineers. It isinteresting to note that previous to EC 2000, communication in all its forms did not merit morethan a few lines hidden away in the ABET document. With its newly gained prominence,educators are scrambling to make sure that their programs contain the right blend of technicaland communication skill training. While this training focuses on adequate lab reports,grammatical correctness, and suitable vocabulary, there are other ways that might help to intereststudents in the communication needed in their profession. As a means to initiate morecommunication within the College of Engineering at XXX, a college-wide poetry contest wasinstituted in 2000 to coincide with Engineering Week. The prime motivation behind the contestwas to show the creative talent of the engineering students, but it also served a needed purpose ofproviding a visible validation for their sometimes-secretive writing activities.The Poetry Forum as it is called has allowed a segment of the engineering population a chance toexpress ideas in ways that may not have been readily condoned in previous times. On the otherhand, it has also returned other individuals to a time when they were encouraged to try their handat writing “outside the box.” As one elderly faculty member commented, “When I first startedteaching, I was at an engineering school that almost required that everyone from the president tothe custodians produce poetry during the year.” Therefore the spectrum was wide open toencourage writing that might just pique the interest of certain student, faculty, and staff. And ithas done just that. Poetry writing for those interested individuals has provided an avenue forcommunication.The particulars of the poetry contest, assessment by writers and readers of the submitted works,and an overview of why poetry contests should be instituted in all colleges and schools ofengineering is detailed in the paper.
AU  - Craig J. Gunn
CY  - San Antonio, Texas
DA  - 2012/06/10
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Revisiting a Liberal Activity in a College of Engineering Engineers as Poets 10 Years later
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/21889
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--21889
ER  -