Determining Where and How to Teach Engineering Communication Skills

Abstract The authors of this paper co-teach a first-year "cornerstone" design experience that combines a first-year Computer Aided Design class with a Technical Report Writing class. This arrangement mirrors how the AE and ME engineering capstone courses are co-taught by a communication professor and an engineering professor, who guide student teams through a year-long design process. In the cornerstone courses students carry out two design projects, one of which is a semester-long team assignment. For the team project, students write a system specification document that outlines requirements, a trade studies report, a design proposal, and a final report that is accompanied by a drawing package. They also give three presentations: the Conceptual Design Review, in which they present their selected concepts, is followed a Preliminary Design Review that introduces their chosen design. In the third presentation, the Critical Design Review, they show compliance with the design requirements. This paper outlines the importance of developing engineering communication skills in a context that explicitly teaches engineering ways of thinking. These communication skills need to be taught in a setting in which the students develop proficiency in engineering design. We will show how these skills cannot be taught in stand-alone technical writing courses that are housed in English departments. We will document what has been learned about teaching these communication skills to first-semester engineering students. We will explain the scaffolding needed to enable first-year students to produce quality work that often outshines the work done by capstone students.