Running head: RESEARCH PROPOSAL 1

Research Proposal

A Problem with Writing in Mechanical Engineering

Antonio Delgadillo

The University of Texas at El Paso

RWS 1302

Dr. Vierra

March 23, 2020

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Research Proposal:

Writing in Mechanical Engineering

Increased globalization due to the increase in internet infrastructure in other countries,

like India’s BharatNet project in 2011 where they have needed to upgrade and increase their

infrastructure to match an increasing number of users, has made information sharing critical for

social and technological development in the United States and outside of them. Mechanical

engineering education teaches students one context in which to address their engineering writing.

The United States, and all other countries in the world, need access to foreign ideas to continue

their development. Without an understanding of the multiple social contexts of other nations,

mechanical engineering students will lose the ability to interact with and make use of foreign

engineering ideas. I am proposing to research the viability of changing the manner in which

mechanical engineering student writing is graded to boost student understanding of local and

global practical contexts.

• How has writing been implemented in mechanical engineering curriculum at UTEP

compared to other schools?

• What is the method most used in grading mechanical engineering writing and why?

• Why is mechanical engineering writing graded differently from other academic contexts?

Thesis

Without implementing a change to the grading of mechanical engineering student writing

to help students develop an understanding of professional engineering contexts, mechanical

engineering education will teach its students to only master the academic, to get a grade, writing

context.
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Research Methods

Part of my research for this project has involved reading through and anaylizing primary

sources. I have read several UTEP course catalogs in order to get an idea and compare how

mechanical engineering writing has changed over the course of the university’s existence. I have

also read and analyzed several secondary sources involving mechanical engineering writing. I

have read several books in order to get an understanding of what is considered engineering

writing. Going through several mechanical engineering essays/papers has also given me a

glimpse into the contexts behind the writing. My research has also included going through

journal articles with topics that include how integrating writing into engineering courses has

been done in other schools, the contexts of engineering writing, and teacher perceptions of

mechanical engineering writing. This has allowed me to further my knowledge of the problem I

found with mechanical engineering writing.

Primary Research Method

The primary research method that would best answer my research question would be an

interview. This will most likely be implemented through the use of a video call as the preferred

method of communication; An email or phone interview would be back up methods incase of

issues with technology or scheduling. I am proposing interviewing Professor Peter Golding; he is

a professor of engineering education and leadership at UTEP. Professor Golding teaches

Foundations of Engineering where he helps students in the development of critical engineering

skills. The interview session will be recorded, and I will most likely take notes incase I need to

ask for any clarification or go further into a specific answer.

I will introduce myself as a student at the University of Texas at El Paso doing research

for the problem in my field for my rhetoric writing class research project. I will start by
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describing the problem that I found. I would then describe what the project involves and means

to me and maybe go a little into the research that I have done to describe what I know. I will ask

the following questions. How do you view student engineering writing in comparison to

professional engineering writing? What is are they missing and what are students not focusing on

in their writing? Do you think that this is because the student focus on grades causes writing to

deteriorate? Is the engineering academic context not suited for implementing the writing skills

needed in a professional engineering context? Would changing grading for student engineering

writing improve or worsen student writing development? Would be possible to feasibly

implement such a change in the current engineering curriculum?

Digital Media Project

I want to proceed alone with the digital media project. I think that this is a better choice

considering the current circumstances involving COVID-19. I have never made a video, for any

course or activity, that is as long as the expectation for this project. I will most likely use a

combination of PowerPoint and Word in order to make script or guidelines on what to cover for

myself. I will try to use Word to write out the information and use PowerPoint to help me

transition ideas for the video. I will most likely end up using either the Windows Video Editor or

iMovie to make the video itself. While I am definitely not an expert with either software, I have

had previous experience using them for classes in high school and college. That is the

combination that I will use to make my digital media project.

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Annotated Bibliography

Monographs

Hicks, T. G. (1961). Writing for engineering and science. New York: McGraw-Hill. Retrieved

from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04704a

&AN=nug.b1240642&site=eds-live&scope=site

Technical writing is directly linked to the main goal an individual or group in the

engineering field of fostering progress. According to Hicks (1961), engineers seek

advancement through better designs and new ideas (p. 125). Therefore, an engineer needs

to be able to write reports, and other types of engineering writing, that someone without a

technical understanding will be able to use. This is because engineers use their writing to

make sure their proposals and suggestions on improvements are taken seriously and

implemented (p.128). Consequently, in Hick’s (1961) book the decisions made because

of engineering writing could affect the spending of millions of dollars through profit,

prestige, and customer good will (p. 124). Technical writing is linked to an engineer’s

goal to make sure the money is not wasted, and the engineer’s effort is not in vain. It is

through writing that an engineer can fulfill their purpose of making more effective and

more efficient products for more and more people.

Silyn-Roberts, H. (2000). Writing for science and engineering: Papers, presentations and

reports. Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.

com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat04704a&AN=nug.b1882763&site=eds-

live&scope=site

The most important part about writing in mechanical engineering is the reader. According

to Silyn-Roberts (2000), writing in mechanical engineering requires finding and deciding

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which information will provide the reader with easy access to the main point of the

document (p.16). The expectation is to design and share the information in a way that is

not only detailed but easy to understand at the same time. Silyn-Roberts (2000) also talks

about how the value of engineering work falls flat if the author fails to transfer their

knowledge and ideas to the audience because of dull language for the audience (p. 224).

A mechanical engineer can fail in their writing if it sounds like they are trying to impress

(p.222). Writing in mechanical engineering needs to share and foster progress through

audience understanding. Without it, mechanical engineering writing is only serving as

jargon.

Essays

Hui-Zhi, S. (2012). Talent training order mode practicing and exploring on insurance claims

professional. In B. Tan (Ed.), Mechanical engineering and materials science: Selected,

peer reviewed papers from the 2011 international conference on mechanical engineering

and materials science (ICMEMS 2011) (pp. 56-60). Switzerland: Trans Tech

Publications.

The author’s original message is the most important part of mechanical engineering

writing. In Hui-Zhi’s (2012) paper, writing that is difficult to understand such

“requirement for talents become rapidly” is unaltered or corrected (p.56). This means that

emphasis and importance are put on what the author originally says in their writing. Even

though the paper is written in English there is no attempt to make it more readable. By

the inclusion of phrases such as “participate assess of students,” Hui-Zhi’s (2012) paper

implies that editing another author’s work is not done when sharing the information in

mechanical engineering (p.59). Altering the work to “fix it” to one’s language standards
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would cause meaning to be lost whether the editor intended it or not. What the author

made is important to maintain.

Tao, Z. (2012). A lower power amplifier for bio-signal processing. In B. Tan (Ed.), Mechanical

engineering and materials science: Selected, peer reviewed papers from the 2011

international conference on mechanical engineering and materials science (ICMEMS

2011) (pp. 289-292). Switzerland: Trans Tech Publications.

In engineering writing acronyms and abbreviations are used to make papers less wordy

and annoying for the reader. In Tao’s (2012) paper, he presents a lower power amplifier

and abbreviates things such as operational trans-conductance amplifier as OTA (p. 289).

This is meant to keep the paper from getting filled with long boring terms that a person

does not want to read. Using the symbols and not writing out the names of units like

Hertz is meant to be more convenient for the reader (p.290). Using phrases like

“particular signals like EEG, ECG, EMG” it can be assumed from Tao’s (2012) paper

that drowning the reader in terminology is not seen as proper engineering writing (p.290).

Only the terms that need to be used should be used as the goal of engineering writing is to

spread information effectively and concisely to the audience; engineering writing is about

getting the information out there without wasting the reader’s time on unit names and

terminology.

Journal Articles

Conrad, S. (2017). A comparison of practitioner and student writing in civil engineering. Journal

of Engineering Education, 106(2), 191-217. doi:10.1002/jee.20161

Inambiguous content is an important part of writing in any engineering discipline. In

Conrad’s (2017) article, an issue with student engineering writing was that it tended to be
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more ambiguous than that of a practicing engineer. This means that to be successful in

engineering writing, like practicing engineers, the focus is on organizing and designing

their writing to portray meaning clearly. Students are generally more focused on making

sure their writing does not negatively affect their grade (Conrad, 2017). Consequently,

Conrad’s (2017) article implies that the focus of student writing on the use of complex

sentences and precise results, the obsession with grades, leads to unclear and ambiguous

sentences with disregard to an audience. Clear content that has well defined organization

is what is desired in engineering writing and should be strived for.

Ho, M. (2016). Exploring writing anxiety and self-efficacy among EFL graduate students in

Taiwan. Higher Education Studies, 6(1), 24-39. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost

.com.lib.utep.edu/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1087317&site=eds-live

&scope=site

The one English context in writing causes anxiety in students trying to write in the

engineering field who are not familiar with the way engineering writing is done in the

United States. In Mei-ching Ho’s (2016) article, the writing proficiency in English, in

relation to grammar, vocabulary, and expression of ideas, was the most mentioned source

of research writing anxiety for engineering students (p.33). This means that trying to

meet the expectations of a context they were not familiar with caused the students to have

a more difficult and stressful time. Consequently, it can be assumed from Mei-ching Ho’s

(2016) article that negative feedback fear in students causes monotone writing because of

the effort needed to revise their normal writing (p.33). Having to write in United States

English not only causes anxiety in those in writing research in engineering but also

causes dread and apprehension of writing in English in the field.

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Sharma, G. (2018). Internationalizing writing in the STEM disciplines. Across the

Disciplines, 15(1), 26-46. Retrieved from http://0-search.ebscohost.com.lib.utep.edu

/login.aspx?direct=true&db=eric&AN=EJ1176422&site=eds-live&scope=site

https://wac.colostate.edu/docs/atd/internationalizing_wac/sharma2018.pdf

The audience for writing for mechanical engineering, and other STEM technical writing,

cannot be generalized into one group. In Sharma’s (2018) article, a public audience

involves multiple groups of people with different knowledge levels and levels of interest

toward the topic of the writing (p.42). There is no perfect generalized audience that

engineering writing can target its messages to; engineering writing could be made with

the intention of sharing information with other engineers, but managers at a company

could use that information for economic changes. This is true within academics as

analysis and discussion have to involve international and professional communication in

order for progress to be made overall (p. 41). Sharma’s (2018) article implies that the

audience will forget or misunderstand different writing in different ways because of their

social contexts (p.42). Trying to generalize the audience for writing in engineering will

only be harmful not only to the author’s writing but also to the audience’s interpretation

of the author’s message.

WALKER, K. (2000). Integrating writing instruction into engineering courses: A writing center

model. Journal of Engineering Education, 89(3), 369-375. doi:10.1002/j.2168-

9830.2000.tb00538.x

It is critical for engineering students to be taught transferable writing skills emphasizing

multiple contexts in order to be successful in the academic and professional fields.

According to Walker (2000), engineering students can be misled into believing they are
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done developing their writing for their engineering education (p.371). Learning to write

well for one course can make a student think that their engineering writing is at the level

they need and hurt their entrance into the field. This is because engineering students

might not learn to adapt their skill set (p.371). Walker’s (2000) article also implies that

students need to be able to ask questions about the writing situation (p.372). Being able to

ask questions about the situation of the writing makes it possible to build on and adapt

writing skills to be used in the workplace. It is through the development of transferable

writing skills and an understanding, and questioning, of different writing situations that

engineering students will find success in sharing their engineering ideas.

Websites

Primary Sources

University of Texas at El Paso. (1920, May). Catalog of the College of Mines and Metallurgy

1920-1921. 20-22. Retrieved from https://www.utep.edu/catalog-archives/1920-

1944.html

The mechanical engineering major did not exist in the University of Texas at El Paso

(UTEP) 1920 catalog (p.20-22). Unfortunately, there were not many different degrees in

engineering available back when UTEP was known as the College of Mines and

Metallurgy. There were no writing requirements for mechanical engineering, and most

other majors, in the catalog. The only major offered at the time was the Bachelor of

Science in Mining Engineering. Then, only some English and Spanish courses were

required for the degree (p.20). The massive difference between that degree offered back

then and degrees today is massive.

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University of Texas at El Paso. (1959, May). Texas Western College Course Catalog 1959-1960.

31-35. Retrieved from https://www.utep.edu/catalog-archives/1949-1967.html

Mechanical engineering first showed up as a major on the 1959-1960 UTEP course

catalog (p.31-35). A rhetoric and composition course (RWS) had to be taken by freshman

on their first and second semesters (p.33). The closest thing to writing courses sophomore

year were two government classes for first and second semester (p.34). There was

nothing besides math and science courses junior year, and there was only one technical

writing course senior year first semester (p.35). At this point in time, there was not a big

inclination toward learning writing for engineering. The lack of more language and

writing courses was surprising.

University of Texas at El Paso. (2019, July). 2019-2020 Undergraduate Catalog. Retrieved from

http://catalog.utep.edu/undergrad/college-of-engineering/

In the 2019 UTEP undergraduate catalog, there is a shift into more writing for

engineering. There are a few differences in the writing requirement for the mechanical

engineering major. There are several options, so a student can take English (ENGL) 1311

and 1312 or the RWS courses freshmen year. A mechanical engineering student has the

requirement to complete a language course such ENGL 2311. There is a business and

professional communications (COMM) 1302, among several available options, that also

has to be taken. The technical writing course senior is no longer there, and this is

probably because of the slightly increased amount of writing courses. Mechanical

engineering at UTEP has definitely changed its requirement for its students in the

approximate 61 years since it became available.

Other Secondary Sources