White, C. I., & White, D. J. (2011, June), An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students  Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC. 10.18260/1-2--17448

\bibitem{asee_peer_17448}
  White, C. I., \& White, D. J. (2011, June), \emph{An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students}
  Paper presented at 2011 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Vancouver, BC.
  10.18260/1-2--17448

Christianna Irene White and David J. White.  "An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students".  2011 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Vancouver, BC, 2011, June.  ASEE Conferences, 2011.  https://peer.asee.org/17448 Internet.  13 May, 2024

\bibitem{asee_peer_17448}
  Christianna Irene White and David J. White.
  "An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students".
  \emph{2011 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition, Vancouver, BC, 2011, June}.
  ASEE Conferences, 2011.
  https://peer.asee.org/17448 Internet.  13 May, 2024

@INPROCEEDINGS{asee_peer_17448
author = "Christianna Irene White and David J. White"
title = "An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students"
booktitle = "2011 ASEE Annual Conference \& Exposition"
year = "2011"
month = "June"
address = "Vancouver, BC"
publisher = "ASEE Conferences"
note = {https://peer.asee.org/17448}
number = {10.18260/1-2--17448}
}

TY  - CPAPER
AB  -                       An Engineering Approach To Writing:            A Pilot Program For Civil Engineering Graduate StudentsStatement of ObjectivesThis paper describes a pilot program established to promote excellent communication skills forcivil engineering (CE) graduate students through an extra-curricular communication pedagogyeffort. This paper reports on establishing the program by identifying key contributors, securingfunding, identifying student participants, and defining expectations and desired outcomes.The paper discusses key elements of the program including: initiating a collaboration between atechnical communication professional and a CE faculty member; identifying commoncommunication issues; developing effective writing strategies and tools (e.g., templates, problemstatement worksheet); designing and using a calendar for accountabilty and team building;creating custom handouts for rapid responses to student needs; and organizing small-groupworkshops, one-on-one writing coaching sessions, and structured peer reviews.The paper presents an assessment of the pilot program that will identify effective interventionsand discuss plans for modifications based on those results.Relevance to Civil EngineeringThis paper should be of broad interest to the CE education community because, “to be anengineer is to be a technical communicator. Engineering is a problem-solving profession andclear communication leads to effective solutions” (Hart 2009, 1). Further, both the AmericanSociety of Civil Engineers BOK II (2008) and ABET (2008) stress teaching technicalengineering skills and communication skills to prepare students for professional practice becauseemployers in both industry and academic settings consistently rank technical ability andcommunication and teamwork skills as the most desireable proficiencies.Although this preparation usually is undertaken at the undergraduate level, the approach reportedhere intends to develop these proficiencies in graduate-level CE students. Because there isseldom space in CE graduate engineering curricula for courses in communication, this programemploys a team- and experience-based communication pedagogy approach that is grounded inthe student engineers’ research and documentation efforts within a CE department and a researchinstitute at XXX XXX University.Because both communication and CE practices are complex and recursive, this programapproaches the development of communication and engineering skills as parallel processes.Figure 1 compares the recursive writing process and the well-known Observation Methodproposed by Terzaghi (in Peck 1969). Emphasizing this parallel was a starting point with thestudents and carries through all aspects of the program.AssessmentThe authors have identified two processes for assessing student performance and two processesfor evaluating the pilot program.    • Assess drafts at several stages to ensure that students are on track for meeting project        deadlines and that they understand their research and communication tasks in a CE        context.   •   Facilitate review of the quality of students’ written and oral communication to assess the       effectiveness of interventions.   •   Facilitate program review by student participants, research staff, CE faculty, and       technical communication educators.   •   Analyze the time required to develop effective communication skills and assess how to       integrate that time in or as a complement to CE curricula or research projects.ResultsThe results section of the paper will report and analyze these preliminary assessment outcomesand suggest directions for future research and practice.Works CitedAccreditation Board for Engineering and Technology. (2008). Criteria for Accrediting   Engineering programs: Effective for Evaluations During the 2009-2010 Accreditation Cycle.   http://www.abet.org/forms.shtml (accessed October 8, 2010).Civil Engineering Body of Knowledge for the 21st Century: Preparing the Civil Engineer for the   Future, 2nd ed. http://www.asce.org/Content.aspx?id=2147486178 (accessed September 28,   2010).Hart, H. (2009). Engineering Communication, 2nd ed. Pearson Education: Upper Saddle River,   NJ.Nicholson, D., Tse, C., and Penny, C. (1999). The Observational Method in ground   engineering—principles and applications. Report 185. CIRIA, London.Peck, R.B. (1969). “Advantages and limitations of the Observational Method in Applied Soil   Mechanics,” Geotechnique, 19(2), pp. 171–187.
AU  - Christianna Irene White
AU  - David J. White
CY  - Vancouver, BC
DA  - 2011/06/26
PB  - ASEE Conferences
TI  - An Engineering Approach to Writing: A Pilot Program for Civil Engineering Graduate Students
UR  - https://peer.asee.org/17448
DO  - 10.18260/1-2--17448
ER  -