Conrad, S., & Kitch, W. A., & Pfeiffer, T. J., & Rhoulac Smith, T., & Tocco, J. V. (2015, June), Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24769

\bibitem{asee_peer_24769}
  Conrad, S., \& Kitch, W. A., \& Pfeiffer, T. J., \& Rhoulac Smith, T., \& Tocco, J. V. (2015, June), \emph{Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists}
  Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington.
  10.18260/p.24769

Susan Conrad, William A. Kitch, Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E., Tori Rhoulac Smith, and John V. Tocco J.D..  "Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists".  2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2015.  https://peer.asee.org/24769 Internet.  14 Sep, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_24769}
  Susan Conrad, William A. Kitch, Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E., Tori Rhoulac Smith, and John V. Tocco J.D..
  "Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists".
  \emph{2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Seattle, Washington, 2015, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2015.
  https://peer.asee.org/24769 Internet.  14 Sep, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_24769
author = "Susan Conrad, William A. Kitch, Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E., Tori Rhoulac Smith, and John V. Tocco J.D."
title = "Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists"
booktitle = "2015 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2015"
month = "June"
address = "Seattle, Washington"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/24769}
number = {10.18260/p.24769}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -              Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for             Collaboration among Faculty, Practitioners and Writing                                   Specialists(Proposed for the Engineering Communication across Divisions thematic initiative)This paper describes a project that addresses a persistent problem in engineering education: thediscrepancy between the writing skills of program graduates and the demands of writing in theworkplace. For decades, engineering practitioners have emphasized the importance ofcommunication in their jobs, but surveys of employers and alumni continue to find lowsatisfaction with the writing preparation students receive (e.g. Berthouex, 1996; Donnell, Aller,Alley, and Kedrowicz, 2011). As Donnell, Aller, Alley, and Kedrowicz (2011) have argued, amuch-needed step in improving instruction is to identify characteristics of effective engineeringcommunication in specific settings.Funded by the National Science Foundation, this project has analyzed effective writing in civilengineering workplaces, compared it to undergraduate student writing in civil engineeringcourses, and applied the research findings to the development of teaching materials. Thematerials are being piloted at four universities, and subsequent changes in student writing areassessed with multiple measures. The project focuses on civil engineering, but the approach canserve as a model for any field. This paper covers four aspects of the project:1) An overview of the approach: Particularly important is the collaboration in the project.Engineering practitioners, engineering faculty, and applied linguists (who specialize in writing)collaborate so that the teaching materials integrate writing skills with engineering content andprofessional engineering practices. Language is viewed from a functional perspective; that is,vocabulary, grammar, and organization are analyzed for their impact on meaning andcommunication, not as purely “stylistic” concerns.2) Results from the analysis of writing: The analysis covered multiple genres of writing, usingover 400 practitioner documents from 70 firms and agencies and 400 student papers from fiveuniversities. Quantitative and qualitative linguistic analyses investigated differences inorganization, grammar, and vocabulary. Interviews of practitioners and students providedcontext for the writing. The results have been reported elsewhere; in this paper, we review a fewfindings that correspond to teaching materials used as examples in the next section.3) Examples of new teaching materials: The materials consist of short, free-standing units to usein existing engineering courses. “Genre-based units” cover the typical purpose, audience,organization, and format of specific document types (e.g. field observation memos, letters oftransmittal. proposals). “Language units” explain effective language choices (e.g. sentencestructure, vocabulary choices, active vs passive voice). “Grammar/mechanics units” address 10common student errors. Each unit includes examples and explanations of effective andineffective writing from civil engineering, comments from practitioner interviews, techniques forrevising, and practice activities. Short webcasts introduce the main ideas of each unit.4) Findings about the effectiveness of the materials: The materials are being piloted at fouruniversities with differing student populations. Changes in student writing are assessed by threemeasures: analysis of the targeted language features, holistic evaluation of student writingeffectiveness by faculty and practitioners, and surveys of students’ perceptions of their learning.Results have been positive, including improvements in discrete features, such as vocabulary andsentence structure, and larger global issues, such as organization. We also discuss factors thatappear to affect the amount of change.ReferencesBerthouex, P. (1996). Honing the writing skills of engineers. Journal of Professional Issues in  Engineering Education and Practice, 122(3), 107-110.Donnell, J., Aller, B., Alley, M., & Kedrowicz, A. (2011). Why industry says that engineering     graduates have poor communication skills: What the literature says. Proceedings of the     2011 American Society for Engineering Education Conference and Exposition. Retrieved     from http://www.asee.org/public/conferences/1/papers/1503/view
AU  - Susan Conrad
AU  - William A. Kitch
AU  - Timothy James Pfeiffer P.E.
AU  - Tori Rhoulac Smith
AU  - John V. Tocco J.D.
CY  - Seattle, Washington
DA  - 2015/06/14
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - Students Writing for Professional Practice: A Model for Collaboration Among Faculty, Practitioners, and Writing Specialists
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/24769
DO  - 10.18260/p.24769
ER  -