teaching with writing

engineering assignments

Because engineering is a professional program, students generally appreciate “real world” assignments that will help them develop skills that will transfer into their professional workplaces. As engineers, they will work in teams to address open-ended problems with logical, creative, and clearly delivered solutions. Therefore, assignments that allow students to practice approaching a variety of realistic problems, articulate their thinking as they solve these problems, and, finally, attempt to persuade a specific target audience of the viability of their solutions will provide them will invaluable training. Some of these tasks will also provide experience in team work and group dynamics. In an introductory course, for example, in which students are expected to become familiar with essential concepts, they might be asked to work as a team to create a web-based glossary of definitions, illustrated with local examples. In an upper-division course in which students are expected to understand the importance of marketing and fundraising, an assignment might require students to “sell” a pending patent to a corporate sponsor. Such an assignment would involve descriptive writing, persuasive writing, research on likely funding sources, and practice using specific formats for grant proposals, abstracts, budgets, and memos.

general engineering

• Assignment on Analyzing Audience of Professional Documents: a set of questions requiring students to analyze intended audiences of professional documents.
  
  

• Quiz on Grammar, Punctuation, and Usage: a quiz based on writing conventions used in engineering.
  
  

• Writing the Project Proposal: an assignment outlining the typical format for memo-style project proposals.
  

chemical engineering

• Unit Operations Laboratory, Writing the Final Report: a list of guidelines provided for students who are writing formal, professional reports.

civil engineering

• Soil Mechanics, Laboratory Report: an assignment requiring group collaboration.

mechanical engineering

• Introduction to Engineering, Reflecting on Your Index Card Platform: an assignment focusing on design and platform solutions.
  
  

• Design Projects, Writing the Final Report: an assignment including advice about writing style, conventions, and research.
  
  

• Thermal Engineering Laboratory: an upper-division course that incorporates writing assignments into laboratory work.
  
  

  • Informal Lab Report: a set of writing guidelines, instructions, and conventions for lab reports.
    
    

  • Boiling Heat Transfer: a lab report assignment that includes informal writing.
    
    

  • Formal Lab Report: a set of writing and content guidelines for writing a formal lab report.
    
    

  • Natural Convective Heat Transfer from Fins: a lab manual assignment that focuses on professional writing.
    
    

• Design and Manufacturing, Course Project: an assignment requiring designing and building a prototype of a machine

engineering assignment resources

• “Engineering Writing: A Formula for Success”: an article in which a professor in mechanical and aerospace engineering discusses writing-to-learn pedagogy.
  

• Resources for Teaching Writing in Engineering and Science: a collection of sample assignments and classroom activities for engineering courses.

• Aerospace Engineering and Mechanics 4602 Home Pages: a site including writing tips and lab report guidelines as well as links to course sites. May require University login.

• Civil Engineering Peer Editing and Revision in Engineering: a set of writing activities involving technical analysis and problem solving for collaborative work.

• Computer Engineering Style Guidelines for Assembly Language Programming: a guide for writing in Computing Systems, a lower-level course.

• Engineering Laboratory Reports: a handbook delineating the conventions of lab reports.
  

• Electrical Engineering Instructions for Written (Formal) Laboratory Reports: a manual containing instructions for the abstract, introduction, main body, and conclusions in a lab report.

• Electrical Lab Reports: a handout categorizing conventional sections of the lab report including concise descriptions.
  

• Authors' Guide to Journals and Practice Periodicals: an overview of journals and periodicals.
  
  
• “Collaboration, English Composition, and the Engineering Student: Constructing Knowledge in the Integrated Engineering Program”: an article about the integration of writing into collaborative problem solving.
  
  
• CourseLib: a service provided by University of Minnesota librarians that enables instructors to build and post customized, course-specific research pages.

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