As engineering educators who teach communication, we are cognizant of the gap that exists between the content and skills that are foundational to our courses and the technical content of the rest of the engineering curriculum. That gap reinforces a misapprehension among students that the principles of effective communication - audience analysis, rhetorical awareness, and the like - are unrelated to the technical work of design. At Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, we have recognized this challenge and have sought ways to bring communication content and technical content together in ways that are manageable by faculty who are not engineers. The course in professional and technical writing at our college is required of all engineering and computer science majors and is usually taken in the junior year. The course has undergone many transformations in content and focus since it was first developed in 1994. The latest iteration blends communication principles with technical projects that can bridge the divide and help students see how the two fields are intricately intertwined in the engineering workplace.
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