Pedagogical Techniques to Promote Development of Graduate Engineering Students as Disciplinary Writers

As demands for research productivity increase, faculty, particularly untenured junior faculty, must efficiently expedite the development of their graduate students' disciplinary writing skills. In response to this need, a semester-long graduate course was offered within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at the University of South Carolina for the first time in 2012. The primary course outcome was for each student to prepare a manuscript ready, or near ready, for submission to a peer reviewed engineering journal at semester's end. To facilitate this outcome, course content addressed the purpose of and information included in each section of a standard engineering research article. Emphasis was placed on the appropriate use of primary literature and effective critique of peer writing. In an assessment administered at course initiation, students rated their comfort level with disciplinary writing and reassessed their comfort level upon course conclusion. Analysis of pre- and post-course change in levels of self-reported confidence as a disciplinary writer revealed a marked average increase. In addition, students identified (though free recall) pedagogical techniques perceived to best facilitate their development as writers. The three most identified techniques were Manuscript Rubric, Conceptual Mapping, and Writing Goal Accountability. Rationale for and demonstration of each of these techniques is offered in this paper as guidance to faculty who mentor their own students' development as disciplinary writers.