Improving Student Lab Report Writing Performances in Materials and Manufacturing Laboratory Courses by Implementing a Rhetorical Approach to Writing

Abstract

The act of writing is proven to enhance students' engagement in learning. At Washington State University (WSU), writing skills are identified as an instructional priority. The institution has three writing proficiency requirements for graduation: a first-year composition course, a junior writing portfolio (JWP), and two writing-in-the-major courses. Based upon the scores of JWP (n = 233), we find that our engineering students still struggle to learn the conventions and expectations for writing within the discipline-a common dilemma that other engineering programs face, too. Over the past two years, we conducted an interdisciplinary research effort to improve engineering students' writing skills in two entry-level engineering laboratory courses on engineering materials and manufacturing processes. These lab courses adjusted the view of writing instruction from a traditional modes-based approach to a rhetorical approach, an approach that has been successful in other general education courses. In practice, the course instructor and laboratory adjuncts provided a rhetorical writing review session in the beginning of the semester and graded students' lab reports to provide feedback during the one-on-one sessions. Based on the data collected from multiple years, students' writing quality and their assessment scores were found to improve. This case study of student writing in an engineering material laboratory course was conducted to study the effect of various pedagogical tools on students' lab report scores and their perspectives on writing. Data collected in student surveys and a focus group show that students found one-on-one sessions reinforced their learning from first-year composition courses, identified the expectations of the lab report as a genre, and developed their understanding of the rhetorical features of writing in the discipline of engineering.

Improving Technical Writing for Civil Engineering Students Through Short Written Assignments

“…Figure 5 shows students' perception of the effectiveness of writing practices and supportive activities to improve their technical writing. The results show that students believe faculty feedback is the most effective guidance to improve students' writing skills, which is consistent with the finding from Kim and Olsen [10]. In keeping with this survey result, the development of an instructor-involved supportive environment is critical to improving students' technical writing skills.…”

Preliminary Investigation of Undergraduate Students’ Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD) in Writing Lab Reports in Entry-level Engineering Laboratory Courses at Three Universities

“…writing conventions, use of multi-modal design and/or quality of graphs/tables, etc.). The writing knowledge identified in the rubric is originated from the ABET Outcomes [18], 2014 Writing Program Administrators Outcomes Statement for First-Year Composition (WPA 3.0 outcomes) [15], and our past research results [19][20][21].…”

“…† outcomes are based on the WPA 3.0 outcomes [15]. ※ outcomes are based on our past research [19][20][21]…”

Perspectives and Practices of Undergraduate/Graduate Teaching Assistants on Writing Pedagogical Knowledge and Lab Report Evaluation in Engineering Laboratory Courses

“…Writing has been proven to increase student learning in undergraduate education [1][2][3]; however, engineering undergraduates struggle with writing in the disciplines [4][5][6][7][8]. Undergraduates' difficulty of writing is apparent in lab courses that assign multiple lab reports [7,8]. Nevertheless, engineering communities value proficiency in professional communication as well as hands-on practice.…”