Work in Progress:  Writing in Engineering Faculty Fellows

Jennifer Brown; Ellen Lauchnor; Michelle Miley; Corey Pew; Adrienne Phillips; Beth Shirley; Stephanie Wettstein

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Conference: 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition
Location: Minneapolis, MN
Publication Date: August 23, 2022
Start Date: June 26, 2022
End Date: June 29, 2022
Conference Session: Multidisciplinary Engineering Division Technical Session - PBL with Control Theory, Writing, ABET, and Shaping Ethical Worldviews
Page Count: 11
DOI: 10.18260/1-2--40827
Permanent URL: https://peer.asee.org/40827
Download Count: 225

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Paper Authors

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Jennifer Brown Montana State University - Bozeman

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Jennifer Brown is an Associate Professor in the Chemical and Biological Engineering Department at Montana State University. She is an affiliate of the Montana Engineering Education Research Center (MEERC) and has interests ranging from technical communication instruction for engineering students to mentorship and contemplative pedagogy.

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Ellen Lauchnor Montana State University - Bozeman

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Michelle Miley

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Associate Dean - College of Letters and Science, Associate Professor - English, Writing Center Director

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Associate Professor

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Adrienne Phillips Montana State University - Bozeman

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Dr. Phillips is an Associate Professor in the Civil Engineering Department at Montana State University. She teaches environmental engineering courses and is a member of a team sponsored by the NSF RED program to develop integrated and project-based courses in a new environmental engineering curriculum. She also does research on microbial biofilms.

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Abstract

Technical communication skills are highly valued in the engineering[1] and practicing engineers spend a large portion of work time writing or speaking. However, feedback from industry indicates a lack of communication skills in many engineering graduates[2]. Engineering curriculums therefore need to improve how communication skills are taught. The movement towards more effective teaching of communication skills to engineers has resulted in opportunity for collaboration with communication experts. One issue is that technical writing, and its products, are often viewed as outside of engineering practice, e.g. something to be done once the ‘real’ engineering work is complete. However, through research using sociocultural and situated learning frameworks, an understanding is emerging that engineering communication and engineering identity are linked and technical communication skills cannot be separated from the context of engineering practice[1]. There is therefore a need for engineering and communication disciplines to come together for mutual learning.

In this paper, we describe an innovative “Writing in Engineering Faculty Fellows” program that occurred at Montana State University, an R1 land grant institution in the Northern Rockies that does not have an official Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program. The goals of the Faculty Fellows program are to provide a space for mutual multidisciplinary learning and to work towards changing the culture of teaching writing and communication in engineering. Specifically, the goal is to help engineering faculty integrate more effective writing experiences into undergraduate engineering courses, and for engineering faculty to be able to share what they have learned from their experience with others in their college. The Fellows consisted of six faculty; two from chemical engineering, two from environmental engineering, one from mechanical engineering and one technical writing faculty; as well as the Writing Center director. Over the course of an academic year, the Fellows met monthly for discussion and reflection, with readings and reflection prompts guiding the discussion. The Fellows focused on these main guiding questions: What is “good communication” in engineering? What kinds of writing experiences do students need to facilitate their development as “good communicators”? What resources do faculty need to create those experiences?

From these initial discussions, we propose that engineering communication instruction requires not only changing our coursework to embed writing practice across the curriculum, but also situating writing for our students as part of engineering work. As the program progresses over the next few years, the Fellows will advise and join in the research and assessment of current writing in engineering programs and become ambassadors for integrating writing into engineering by promoting programs, recruiting new faculty, and leading workshops for engineering faculty members. Ultimately, the outcome of the program will be an instructional toolkit for engineering and technical communication faculty, including exercises, assignment outlines and assessment tools, that aids in situating communication within engineering practice. The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to describe the structure and process of this multidisciplinary Faculty Fellows program, to narrate the mutual learning that occurred in the first year of the program and discuss future efforts to evaluate the impact of the program on how engineering faculty teach communication.

1. Paretti, M.C., L.D. McNair, and J.A. Leydens, Engineering Communication, in Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research, A. Johri and B.M. Olds, Editors. 2014, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. p. 601-632. 2. Donnell, J., A. , et al., Why Industry Says That Engineering Graduates Have Poor Communication Skills: What the Literature Says. ASEE Conferences: Vancouver, BC. 3. Williams, J.M., Transformations in Technical Communication Pedagogy: Engineering, Writing, and the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000. Technical Communication Quarterly, 2001. 10(2): p. 149-167.

Citation
Format

Brown, J., & Lauchnor, E., & Miley, M., & Pew, C., & Shirley, B., & Wettstein, S., & Phillips, A. (2022, August), Work in Progress: Writing in Engineering Faculty Fellows Paper presented at 2022 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Minneapolis, MN. 10.18260/1-2--40827

TY - CPAPER
AB - Technical communication skills are highly valued in the engineering[1] and practicing engineers spend a large portion of work time writing or speaking. However, feedback from industry indicates a lack of communication skills in many engineering graduates[2]. Engineering curriculums therefore need to improve how communication skills are taught. The movement towards more effective teaching of communication skills to engineers has resulted in opportunity for collaboration with communication experts. One issue is that technical writing, and its products, are often viewed as outside of engineering practice, e.g. something to be done once the ‘real’ engineering work is complete. However, through research using sociocultural and situated learning frameworks, an understanding is emerging that engineering communication and engineering identity are linked and technical communication skills cannot be separated from the context of engineering practice[1]. There is therefore a need for engineering and communication disciplines to come together for mutual learning.

In this paper, we describe an innovative “Writing in Engineering Faculty Fellows” program that occurred at Montana State University, an R1 land grant institution in the Northern Rockies that does not have an official Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program. The goals of the Faculty Fellows program are to provide a space for mutual multidisciplinary learning and to work towards changing the culture of teaching writing and communication in engineering. Specifically, the goal is to help engineering faculty integrate more effective writing experiences into undergraduate engineering courses, and for engineering faculty to be able to share what they have learned from their experience with others in their college. The Fellows consisted of six faculty; two from chemical engineering, two from environmental engineering, one from mechanical engineering and one technical writing faculty; as well as the Writing Center director. Over the course of an academic year, the Fellows met monthly for discussion and reflection, with readings and reflection prompts guiding the discussion. The Fellows focused on these main guiding questions: What is “good communication” in engineering? What kinds of writing experiences do students need to facilitate their development as “good communicators”? What resources do faculty need to create those experiences?

From these initial discussions, we propose that engineering communication instruction requires not only changing our coursework to embed writing practice across the curriculum, but also situating writing for our students as part of engineering work. As the program progresses over the next few years, the Fellows will advise and join in the research and assessment of current writing in engineering programs and become ambassadors for integrating writing into engineering by promoting programs, recruiting new faculty, and leading workshops for engineering faculty members. Ultimately, the outcome of the program will be an instructional toolkit for engineering and technical communication faculty, including exercises, assignment outlines and assessment tools, that aids in situating communication within engineering practice. The purpose of this work-in-progress paper is to describe the structure and process of this multidisciplinary Faculty Fellows program, to narrate the mutual learning that occurred in the first year of the program and discuss future efforts to evaluate the impact of the program on how engineering faculty teach communication.

1. Paretti, M.C., L.D. McNair, and J.A. Leydens, Engineering Communication, in Cambridge Handbook of Engineering Education Research, A. Johri and B.M. Olds, Editors. 2014, Cambridge University Press: Cambridge. p. 601-632.
2. Donnell, J., A. , et al., Why Industry Says That Engineering Graduates Have Poor Communication Skills: What the Literature Says. ASEE Conferences: Vancouver, BC.
3. Williams, J.M., Transformations in Technical Communication Pedagogy: Engineering, Writing, and the ABET Engineering Criteria 2000. Technical Communication Quarterly, 2001. 10(2): p. 149-167.
AU - Jennifer Brown
AU - Ellen Lauchnor
AU - Michelle Miley
AU - Corey Pew
AU - Beth Shirley
AU - Stephanie Wettstein
AU - Adrienne Phillips
CY - Minneapolis, MN
DA - 2022/08/23
PB - ASEE Conferences
TI - Work in Progress: Writing in Engineering Faculty Fellows
UR - https://peer.asee.org/40827
DO - 10.18260/1-2--40827
ER -