Agency and the Meaningful Writing Project

Writing as a Method to Build Better Engineers: Examining Faculty Perceptions of Writing’s Importance

“…Initiatives such as Writing Across the Curriculum "value writing as a method of learning" [2]. Meaningful writing is known to be key for how students develop identities as "fledgling members of their disciplines" [3]. This development of identity through meaningful writing is of interest to engineering education because of the link between identity formation, critical for entry and retention into a discipline, and the lack of diversity in United States engineering: "undergraduate engineering education is dominated by [w]hite males.…”

“…Defining meaningful writing is important to understand its distinction. In the Meaningful Writing Project, Eodice, Geller, & Lerner [3] define meaningful writing as  Agentive: develop[s] a sense of agency about [students] as writers, learners, and thinkers  Engaging: writing is a key contributor to [students] sense of engagement with course material and with peers and faculty  Learned for transfer: can be transferred for later application of skills or acquisition of knowledge…”

“…Simply adding more writing assignments does not guarantee selfactualized students or a more valuable educational experience. Instead, "faculty who teach courses in which meaningful writing takes place often deliberately build these qualities into their teaching and curriculum, expressing their goals and values for writing through specific practices" [3]. Meaningful writing is the careful integration of writing, not merely "Informative writing to the teacher-as-examiner in the genre of a short-answer exam [which] does little to truly initiate students to the primary purposes and audiences in the writing of their disciplines" [7].…”

“…After agreeing to the IRB consent form, faculty members were asked 11 questions designed to measure the four variables shown in Table 1. These variables captured the criteria for writing to be meaningful as defined in The Meaningful Writing Project, (Agency, Engagement, and Learned for Transfer) and considered assignment type from the work of Melzer [3], [7].…”

“…This research examines the perspectives of NACOE faculty and the integration of writing in the engineering curricula at MSU, a research intensive, mid-sized, land grand university in a rural community [3]. The study employed a mixed methods approach.…”