A discipline-specific writing center is the nucleus of a writing-in-the-disciplines (WID) program in engineering, in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of South Carolina. As a writing program, the writing center serves student writers and faculty in ECE and integrates writing consultation into the engineering curriculum, especially into ECE’s sequence of five mandatory lab courses. This approach to creating and maintaining a WID program grew out of theory, research, and experience in the fields of composition and rhetoric and engineering education. The program was designed in the contexts of theories of literacy or language acquisition as central to the process by which students become members of a professional, or discourse community. A major goal of the program was the development of pedagogical methods, grounded in theory, that would support students as they acquired the literacies of engineering. (Contains 4 references.) (Author/CR) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Developing a Writing Program in Engineering: Teaching Writing to Teach Engineering Literacies 1997 CCCC Convention (Conference on College Composition and Communication) Phoenix, Arizona March 12-15, 1997 Nancy S. Thompson, Associate Professor, English Department, University of South Carolina Elisabeth M. Alford, Director, ECE Writing Program, Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering, University of South Carolina U.S. DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION Office of Educational Research and Improvement EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC) This document has been reproduced as received from the person or organization originating it. Minor changes have been made to improve reproduction quality. ° Points of view or opinions stated in this document do not necessarily represent official OERI position or policy. “PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES Overview of the ECE Writing Program INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC).” In the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering (ECE) at the University of South Carolina, a discipline-specific writing center is the nucleus of a writing-in-the disciplines (WID) program in engineering. As a writing program, the writing center serves student writers and faculty in the ECE Department and integrates writing consultation into the engineering curriculum, especially into ECE’s sequence of five mandatory lab courses. Writing Center consultants work with individual students and faculty as well as with small groups of students from the beginning ECE lab course. This approach to creating and maintaining a WID program grew out of theory, research, and experience in the fields of Composition and Rhetoric and Engineering Education. The program was designed in the contexts of theories of literacy or language acquisition as central to the process by which students become members of a professional, or discourse community. A major goal of the program was the development of pedagogical methods, grounded in theory, that would support students as they acquired the literacies of engineering. The principal research method for the program, which program advisors call Interactional Inquiry, is a version of action research adapted from Reason and Rowan, Human Inquiry in Action. This method focuses on learning from interactions including the faculty, students, professionals, texts, environments, and events. Interactional Inquiry uses groups to explore ideas and generate knowledge. In Composition literature, this group process is called collaboration; in Engineering, it is known as teaming. In applying this research methodology to the ECE project, faculty and staff focused on both the learners and the learning environment, drawing from learning theories developed by Vygotsky and Hillocks, and from Geertz’s theory of local knowledge and principles of ethnographic research. Two ethnographic techniques cycles of interviews, and participant observations proved especially valuable in studying the discourse conventions of engineering. These theoretical and methodological underpinnings provided the foundation for the overall program structure and for its principal components: interviews with faculty, faculty workshops, group discussions with students, observations, and analysis of texts. Qualities of Successful Writing in Engineering At the beginning of the project in the fall of 1995, the writing program staff interviewed six engineering professors, roughly 1/3 of the department. The staff used a standardized interview form and a uniform procedure to gather input from faculty in analyzing student writing. Using a Primary Trait Assessment Scale as a heuristic, writing consultants asked engineering faculty to articulate their
