Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!lll-winken!ames!mailrus!cwjcc!alpha.ces.cwru.edu!pjd
From: pjd@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (dr. funk)
Newsgroups: comp.edu
Subject: Writing and eng'ing ed
Message-ID: <412@cwjcc.CWRU.Edu>
Date: 25 Jan 89 15:36:34 GMT
Sender: news@cwjcc.CWRU.Edu
Reply-To: pjd@alpha.ces.cwru.edu (dr. funk)
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Organization: digital systems research group/CWRU
Lines: 35


Just a few new comments on engineering students and communication skills.

1. Our engineering school requires all of its students to take a technical
   writing course. This course is associated with one particular lab course
   in the major department. The students submit their lab reports to the
   tech writing guys for review, editting, etc. Although the lectures are
   taken as a joke, the practice and review process is very helpful.
2. I teach the lab course which co-ordinates with the tech writing class.
   The students get a "World War III" briefing on day one about the need
   for good communication skills. The bottom line is, "Your communications
   reflect who you are. If you can't spell and consistently use bad grammar,
   you are sloppy, apparently stupid and deserve to be stuck in an entry
   level programming/logic design job." Heavy handed? Yes. (I worked in
   industry, too, so flames to /dev/null.)
3. I also teach the senior projects course. The documentation is every bit
   as important as the technical work. In fact, if the write-up stinks,
   typically the grade will stink, too. (See comment 2 above.) Students must
   also make a spoken presentation of their project work (20 to 30 minutes.)
   The quality of the presentations improved dramatically when:
     a. The tech writing course was put in place,
     b. The instructor in design methodologies required formal presentations,
     c. We mandated the use of transparencies and gave hints about good
        presentation style.

  Frankly, I'm proud of what we have accomplished.

4. Why do I have to teach people remedial communication skills in the junior
   and senior year of university? And, at a "selective" university to boot?
   All I know is that Sister Gertrude would kick butt until her seventh grade
   students could speak and write grammatically (and that included us budding
   juvenile delinquents, too. :-) God bless that woman!

paul j. drongowski               usenet: {decvax,sun,att}!cwjcc!pjd!pjd
case western reserve university  csnet:  pjd@alpha.ces.cwru.edu