Pairing Courses Across the Disciplines

Abstract

Writing performance of a complex recommendation report produced by student teams for an actual client during a 15-week semester was compared in a writing-intensive Agronomy 356 course and in paired Agronomy 356/ English 309 courses. The longitudinal study investigated differences that existed between reports produced for each learning environment in terms of argument effectiveness, document usability, and professionalism. Three agronomy and three professional communication raters ranked the 12 lengthy reports in the sample. The study found that all top-rated reports were generated in the paired courses and all lowest-rated reports were generated in the stand-alone agronomy course. Four pedagogical factors appear influential in this result: working in dual problem-solving spaces, pushing the boundaries on problem solving, incorporating workplace realities, and using just-in-time teaching.

Effects of First-Year Integrated Writing and Design

“…This suggests that the new integrated Communications and Design course is an effective academic vehicle to improve first year engineers' writing skills. Designing the academic writing curriculum to be more directly relevant to engineering topics, supports Hyland's [1]- [2] contention that discipline specific writing activities produce better writing products. As well, integrating the required writing class with an exciting, hands-on design lab, has made academic writing seem more relevant and engaging to the students in the ENGR 110 class than to engineering students in a traditional first-year English course.…”

“…One purpose of this integrated course was to offer the required Academic Writing course in a more discipline-specific manner (Engineering Communication), to improve engagement and achievement in the writing activities. Current research with a similar goal [1] found that a discipline-based learning environment produced better report writing. This supports Hyland's [2] statement that "writers galvanise support, express collegiality, resolve difficulties, and negotiate disagreement through patterns of rhetorical choices which connect their texts with their disciplines.…”