Improving student writing outcomes through dynamic feedback, design oriented projects and curriculum modification

Abstract

Technical writing is an important skill for engineers that is often cited by employers as a weakness among college graduates entering professional practice. Students are often admitted to engineering programs based on capacity for learning STEM topics and with less regard for reading and writing ability, and comprehensive engineering program requirements for learning technical topics limits the amount of coursework for explicitly developing technical writing ability. To assess strategies to improve technical writing among upper divisions students, we report the response of three cohorts of engineering students to modifications of a fluid mechanics course with a hands-on fluid mechanics laboratory project assignment that involves the preparation of a technical report. We find that group format instruction on report preparation, with specific examples of good and bad writing styles and a clear standard for the expected level of performance, is equally effective as small group meetings with more personalized feedback and is substantially less resource intensive. Group instruction materials shown to be effective are presented herein. Data collected found that improvements in groups technical writing ability did not necessarily correlate with an improvement in students' perceived group effectiveness.