Advanced Engineering Communication: An Integrated Writing and Communication Program for Materials Engineers

Abstract

AbstractThis paper describes the disciplinary program for writing and communications developed by the Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) Department at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, which has been integrated into eight required core courses spread across our student's three years of study. Preliminary quantitative assessment of the program indicates positive acceptance by the students and faculty, significant improvement in the quality of writing over three semesters, and significant differences in both the quality and style of writing between senior engineering students who have not participated in our program and our MSE students. We have found a positive correlation between four different indices designed to measure a student's self‐assessment of communication skills and a student's grade point average (GPA). Surprisingly, there is no correlation between either student's grades on papers and projects, or our measure of their improvement in communication skills, and their GPA's. This result has important implications for the design and implementation of writing‐within‐the‐discipline programs such as the one described here.