Preliminary Findings of the Engineering Writing Initiativeat the University of Texas at Tyler: A Longitudinal Studyof How Engineering Students Learn to Write

摘要

The Departments of Electrical Engineering and English of the University of Texas at Tyler havelaunched a longitudinal study to investigate how engineering students learn to write technicallyand how to facilitate that learning in the course of the undergraduate curriculum. This study,known as the Engineering Writing Initiative (EWI) seeks answers to the following questions:? How do the writing skills of engineering students develop during the course of theirstudies?? What are these students’ attitudes, practices and skills with regard to writing, and how dothose attitudes, practices and skills develop over time?? Does writing in engineering courses help students become more involved with thosecourses and understand and apply the ideas of those courses?? Do improved writing skills help students become stronger engineers?? How can we incorporate we learn about students’ attitudes, practices and skills in order toimprove our instructional practice with regard to writing?The EWI will use multiple data-gathering methods (semi-annual writing prompts, focus-groupand individual interviews with students and faculty, written surveys of students and faculty, andstudent writing samples gathered in portfolios). It will employ several assessment strategies(quantitative analyses of student writing samples, quantitative analyses of written surveys, andqualitative analyses of interview transcripts).This paper sets forth the goals, structure, and methods of the EWI and will present findings fromits first year. The current draft includes findings from the inaugural semester of the study; thisdraft will be updated to include results from the entire academic year during the Spring 2005semester.