Writing in the disciplines for engineers: Implementation and assessment of student learning

Abstract

Writing in the Disciplines is an integrated approach that ties writing assignments to the learning outcomes of a technical course and provides relevant opportunities for students to develop expertise in their field. In order to ameliorate the public's scientific literacy, we need scientists to communicate in a clear and concise manner. As we prepare students for science and engineering careers, it is crucial to help them improve their technical writing and presentation skills to wide audiences. It is well-supported that students who engage in discipline-specific writing develop important professional and critical thinking skills. There are specific engineering writing assignments that scaffold student learning in laboratory, design, or research-related courses. After implementing these scaffolded writing assignments in the engineering curriculum, it is then possible to qualitatively and/or quantitatively assess student perceptions of learning, development of critical thinking skills, and alignment of our courses with accreditation standards. Improvement of writing feedback and assessment methods in the future will then inform educators about the effectiveness of their teaching, as well as provide measurable standards for students as they pursue professional careers.