Enhancing TA grading of technical writing: A look back to better understand the future

Abstract

Technical writing is an important skill in all engineering disciplines. Many first-year engineering programs (FYEPs) include technical writing as one of their core course components to begin to instill the importance of and to develop this skill early in aspiring engineers. In order to assess student learning and provide feedback on technical writing, proper grading of these assignments is essential. This paper presents the preliminary assessment results of a new grading training program for teaching assistants (TAs) in a FYEP that was implemented at a large land grant institution while situating the findings in past research related to the grading of writing assignments and preparing TAs. This paper summarizes the approach used to enhance the grading of TAs. We supplement this discussion with quantitative and qualitative assessment results. Finally, we provide recommendations or "Tricks of the Trade" for TAs who may be grading technical writing and those who are responsible for training TAs for this type of grading.