Writing across engineering: A collaborative approach to support STEM faculty's integration of writing instruction in their classes

Abstract

As the Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) has emphasized, engineering students must develop effective communication skills for successful transition to the workplace after graduation. Embedding communication instruction in technical courses signals to students that their profession values communication, facilitates transmission of discipline-specific conventions, and tackles difficulties associated with learning transfer. However, STEM faculty seldom receive any preparation to teach writing or other types of communication. Situated in the College of Engineering at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, we have undertaken a multi-year collaboration between STEM and Writing Studies faculty and graduate students that aims to improve engineering students' writing and communication. Taking a transdisciplinary action research approach, we follow an integrative, iterative model of intervention and assessment. This paper describes a program titled “Writing Across Engineering” (WAE). WAE was designed to support STEM faculty as they work to integrate writing and writing instruction in their classes and curricula. We see our paper as a theoretical-methodological framework for others interested in designing collaborative professional development for writing instruction at their own universities.