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Session 1655

Issues in Having International Teaching Assistants in Engineering Evaluate Undergraduate Writing

Joanne Lax Purdue University

Introduction

ABET’s EC 2000 has caused engineering departments throughout the nation to cast a well- deserved look at the state of engineering communications within their curriculum. Although engineering professors are well aware that excellent communications skills are essential in their profession, it is sometimes difficult, given the hefty content of most undergraduate courses, to convince these professors to consider making assignments containing oral and or written communication components. As much research has pointed out, engineering professors have other valid reasons—such as their concern about their own ability to teach communication skills and the burden of grading them—that may add to their reluctance to assign writing in engineering courses.

One spot in the undergraduate curriculum where written communication skills often account for part of an assignment grade is in the context of the first- or second-year lab course. In fact, learning discipline-specific communication skills is one of the essential purposes of lab courses 1. This is a crucial time when undergraduate students first begin to learn engineering discourse as an entry into their chosen academic community. Until this point, most engineering students have only written the typical personal narrative papers assigned in freshman English composition courses. Two of the writing skills most needed in lab reports—summary and paraphrase—are rarely dealt with in lower level English composition textbooks 2. The lab report is a unique genre with format and conventions all its own 3,4,5,6. Students in lab courses need to learn the rhetorical components and organization of the lab report; they need to be aware of its purpose and audience. Visual elements such as graphs and charts must be included and explained in the text. Some of the principles learned in writing in these first lab courses—such as the keeping of precise details in the lab notebook--are employed throughout the careers of engineers in industry1.

The Issues

Given the importance of the undergraduate lab report both for ABET purposes and as a keystone in the professional future of engineering students, it seems as if its evaluation of the report should be given special attention. In most engineering schools, this task falls into the hands of the lab graduate teaching assistant. Not only is the lab teaching assistant often a new graduate student, but due to the current demographics of higher education in engineering in the U.S., s/he is also is likely to be an international student and a non-native speaker of English. According to the 2000 edition of ASEE Profiles of Engineering and Engineering Technology Colleges, in

“Proceedings of the 2002 American Society for Engineering Education Annual Conference & Exposition Copyright © 2002, American Society for Engineering Education”

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Lax, J. (2002, June), Issues In Having International Teaching Assistants In Engineering Evaluate Undergraduate Writing Paper presented at 2002 Annual Conference, Montreal, Canada. 10.18260/1-2--10692