Crossing the Threshold by Supporting Writing Transfer as Engaged Learning in Introductory Engineering Laboratories

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This Improving Undergraduate STEM Education (IUSE) project conducted at Washington State University Vancouver will help to improve the writing ability of engineering students. The project will focus on facilitating transfer of writing skills developed in first-year English composition classes into engineering courses. Writing is a critical skill needed by engineers and an ability frequently cited by industry as area in which graduates need improvement. The goal of this exploratory project is to investigate how an approach focusing on writing transfer enhances students' writing in technical courses. The project will investigate the writing practices of engineering students as they move from first-year composition (FYC) courses into introductory engineering laboratory courses. The project will utilize a writing approach that emphasizes genre awareness rather than a traditional modes approach. Also included will be training for faculty and teaching assistants that introduces rhetorical approaches to writing and teaching for transfer. Analysis will include quantitative and qualitative data to inform the impact of the instructional modules as an effective intervention to support student learning. Key questions include identification of evidence of transfer of engineering students' rhetorical writing knowledge from first year composition into introductory engineering laboratory courses; and how knowledge of transfer mechanisms can inform pedagogical approaches and strategies to improve writing. The project is based on preliminary results which indicate a substantial percentage of engineering students do not improve in any rhetorical aspects (invention, rhetoric awareness, arrangement, and style) except convention, which is more related to disciplinary knowledge rather than rhetorical knowledge. This suggests that familiarity with the rhetorical characteristics of genre may be more productive than the traditional case study approach often employed in engineering writing instruction. Given the ubiquity of first-year English composition classes, the results of this work have the potential to be broadly applicable across undergraduate STEM education.