An interdisciplinary approach to the development of writing skills in computer science students

Bridging writing to learn and writing in the discipline in computer science education

“…Standards, such as Computing Curricula 2001 (CC2001) [1], recommend writing as an important communication skill; several educators acknowledge this as their primary motivation [2,3,6,10,17,19]. Beyond institutional mandates, standards, and accreditation requirements, several educators have justified writing on its own merits as a critically important professional skill [2,3,6,8,12,14,17,20,24]. A few authors promote writing not so much as a necessary professional skill, but rather as an effective means for student-centered teaching and learning [2,3,7,21,24].…”

“…Beyond institutional mandates, standards, and accreditation requirements, several educators have justified writing on its own merits as a critically important professional skill [2,3,6,8,12,14,17,20,24]. A few authors promote writing not so much as a necessary professional skill, but rather as an effective means for student-centered teaching and learning [2,3,7,21,24]. In a few instances, educators have metaphorically justified programming as writing [15,25].…”

“…Academic writing includes term papers [24], research papers [3,16], reviews which "summarize, analyze, and/or critique research articles" [9,23,24], and short analytical and evaluative assignments [2,10]. WTC in both forms is discipline-oriented (i.e., based on formal, standard formats) and clearly supports the recommendation of CC2001, "students in computer science programs should be able to communicate ideas effectively in written form" [1].…”

Research, teaching, and service

“…Opportunities for developing students' writing skills have been observed at all course levels, from introductory to advanced [4]. Inter-disciplinary collaboration (e.g., between the CS and English departments) has proven to be effective [16,11], but is not strictly necessary and many effective techniques exist for developing writing skills within CS courses [12,5,7,19]. Assessment of such efforts has included statistical studies to quantify their effect on student perceptions of their learning experience [6].…”

The students conference—a tool for the teaching of research, writing, and presentation skills

“…It is therefore quite common to integrate writing or presentation elements into existing courses ( [3]). Some curricula even include special writing or presentation courses, like term papers or seminars ( [4,7,8]). We see such courses as very important to prepare students for their final theses and their professional careers.…”