-This paper presents results from a study investigating the use of Problem-Based Learning (PBL) as a framework for integrating communication into engineering courses. The results of a two-year study of capstone design courses suggest that PBL provides the opportunity to develop communication assignments that enable students to understand not only particular document formats, but also the role texts play in the workplace for both writers and readers. Surveys and interview data demonstrate that students learn to use texts as tools to advance engineering work and communicate key project information to managers. The framework thus effectively helps students treat communication activities as a critical element of professional engineering practice. transaction between individuals in specific contexts to accomplish particular goals. In the language of activity theory, texts are mediating artifacts that writers/speakers and readers/listeners use to accomplish external goals. Index TermsImportantly, being "good writers" does not automatically make students "effective communicators." Texts that are elegantly written or that follow the correct document formulas may still not achieve the desired outcomes if the writer fails to take into account the needs, interests, and goals of the particular audience in the particular situation at hand. For example, a student may consider a proposal as a document that follows a specific format: an executive summary, a statement of need, a project description, a project plan, a budget, and a statement of qualifications. The "formula" is the operative identifier. However, experts treat a proposal as a tool whereby those with money to spend and goals to achieve select "worthwhile" individuals or organizations to receive the money and achieve the goals.Within that activity system, the written proposal is often only one of multiple texts used in the transaction; phone calls, face-to-face meetings, pre-proposals, statements of qualifications, and similar texts may all play critical roles in the larger activity of earning and spending money to achieve desired outcomes. Thus an NSF proposal that follows the specific guidelines defined in the Guide to Writing Proposals must still address the broader impact in terms that matter explicitly to the program writing the solicitation. In addition, principle investigators also frequently contact program managers by phone or email, visit NSF offices prior to submitting grants, suggest proposal reviewers with particular expertise in the area in question, and thus create a whole set of written and oral texts around the individual proposal itself.Given that communicating involves far more than grammatical correctness and readable style, then, the question for engineering educators is "How do we design and sequence instruction in communication to best prepare students for the roles they (and their texts) will play in professional contexts?" Paretti has written elsewhere about specific guidelines for designing effective assignments and grading rubrics ...

This paper analyzes datafrom two different approaches to teaching cross-cultural communication skills to engineering students. U.S. students in ajunior-level professional development course received classroom instruction in crosscultural communication and enacted case study simulations; U.S. students in a senior-level capstone design course partnered with Swedish students in a digital media course to develop white papers and interactive web sites about the capstone projects. Research data includes pre-and post-course surveys, student presentations, focus groups, and transcripts ofall exchanges (phone and electronic) between U.S. and Swedish students. Preliminary analysis suggests that although the capstone partnership provided direct experience ofcross-cultural communication, the complexity ofthis real collaboration in fact limited the degree ofmeta-knowledge students developed in comparison to the in-class simulation.

This paper presents an innovative engineering communications curriculum sequence that addresses the written, oral, and visual communication demands of the emerging workplace. Preliminary results show that the curriculum effectively prepares students for workplace communication, while limiting demands on engineering faculty time and class resources.

In the workplace, communication serves not as an end in itself, with features that are "good" or "bad," but as a tool for mediating a range of professional activities, and effective documents are presentations are those that achieve their goals. Yet assessment methods in technical and professional communication often continue to rely on an evaluation of features apart from the intended work of the document. In this paper, we use activity theory as a lens to explore both the criteria for effective communication and the degree to which portfolio assessment methods can be applied to effectively assess student learning in this domain.

Instructor of the Communications Program for the Departments of Materials Science and Engineering (MSE) and Engineering Science and Mechanics (ESM). Concurrent to this appointment, she serves as the publications liaison for MSE and the newsletter editor for ESM. She has an M.A. in English from Virginia Tech and B.A. in English Studies: Language from the University of the Philippines. Prior to her appointment, she was a member of the junior faculty at the University of the Philippines, Department of English and Comparative Literature, where she taught freshman composition and literature, introduction to linguistics, and phonology and morphology.