Engineering faculty on writing: What they think and what they want

Abstract

Writing has been identified as an important skill for engineers. While faculty generally agree that writing should be included in the engineering curriculum, there are many barriers that may discourage them from bringing writing into their classes. Through development and deployment of a survey, the authors investigated instructor perceptions of writing in engineering. More specifically, this paper reports results from a survey (n=53 responses) administered to instructors in the College of Engineering at Purdue University, a large doctoral university with very high research activity in the Midwestern United States. The survey first asked respondents to report on the extent to which they incorporate writing in one of their recent undergraduate courses, including types of assignments and use of related tools and practices. A second major section of the survey probed instructor perceptions of student writing skills, while also asking about reasons for - and challenges associated with - incorporating writing in engineering classes. The final parts of the survey ask respondents to identify specific resources that might help them expand inclusion of writing in their courses, followed by a series of demographic questions to better characterize the participant population. Most generally, the survey results suggest that faculty recognize the need for and importance of writing in engineering, which is in part reflected in their own courses. However, they continue to perceive challenges associated with including writing in engineering courses, with a particular emphasis on various resource constraints. The paper concludes with a brief overview of next steps, including plans for developing supporting resources for faculty and students and collecting survey data from multiple institutions.