Constructing Writing Assignments For First-Year Engineering Students

Abstract

All first-year SSOE students must complete the University of Pittsburg's (Pitt) English/First-Year Engineering Writing Program (E/FYEWP), which is embedded in Pitt's Swanson School of Engineering curriculum. The Program is designed to engage engineering students with engineering-oriented topics and issues while maintaining Pitt's Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences (and Composition Program's) missions and goals, which include rigorous inquiry leading to fluent and responsible communication of ideas. E/FYEWP faculty initially integrated engineering topics into already existing liberal-arts-oriented writing assignments. However, once we began getting to know our engineering students and their writing, we realized that to best support our students, we needed to treat engineering as more than a “topic.” We needed to construct assignments around engineering as a discipline, which employs significant and particular ways of pursuing insight and constructing meaning. This paper will detail changes made to maximize first year students' engagement with E/FYEWP writing assignments.