2008 Woodie Awards
What civil engineering students are missing from their education
Liz Urban
Issue date: 1/15/07 Section: Opinion
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As a senior, I need to spend my time interviewing with different companies in order to eventually reach the ultimate goal: the first job after college. I've learned many things from the eight different companies I've interviewed with. You need to learn a lot about the company, but in turn they need to learn a lot about what makes you think and how you problem solve in the engineering world. After meeting with different civil/environmental consulting firms, I've acquired a short list of things I wish Clarkson had provided for its students.
Ever since my summer internship at Barton and Loguidice (B&L), a relatively small consulting firm in Syracuse, I've seen firsthand the importance of technical writing skills. The Civil/Environmental Engineering department does a noble job at trying to encourage such skills through their Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program. However, we are the only engineering discipline that does them.
I was surprised to find out a few years ago that my friends who were electrical or mechanical engineers had no idea what a WAC assignment was! For those of you who don't know, WAC assignments are given in certain core classes, generally paired with a technical lab report for class. The student is asked to complete a memo or some other paper and write it to a specific audience (i.e. a town board who may not have an engineering background). It is then distributed to other faculty members who grade it on a 1-10 scale. If you don't get a high enough grade (10 being the best), you're required to rewrite it until it is sufficient.
I feel as if engineering students should be required to take an entire class devoted to technical writing (I even tried to find one for this semester, but sadly I only found a communications class that only half was what I was looking for, so I decided against it)! I'm sure companies would agree. I know as a Civil Engineer, I will be meeting with towns and villages all the time, writing reports, and communicating with people to get my job done. Shouldn't these skills be stronger developed in college? We are required to take Humanities and Social Science courses anyway, why not throw a writing course in there as one of them? I think that at least the other engineering departments should hop on the band wagon and start using the WAC assignments too.
Ever since my summer internship at Barton and Loguidice (B&L), a relatively small consulting firm in Syracuse, I've seen firsthand the importance of technical writing skills. The Civil/Environmental Engineering department does a noble job at trying to encourage such skills through their Writing Across the Curriculum (WAC) program. However, we are the only engineering discipline that does them.
I was surprised to find out a few years ago that my friends who were electrical or mechanical engineers had no idea what a WAC assignment was! For those of you who don't know, WAC assignments are given in certain core classes, generally paired with a technical lab report for class. The student is asked to complete a memo or some other paper and write it to a specific audience (i.e. a town board who may not have an engineering background). It is then distributed to other faculty members who grade it on a 1-10 scale. If you don't get a high enough grade (10 being the best), you're required to rewrite it until it is sufficient.
I feel as if engineering students should be required to take an entire class devoted to technical writing (I even tried to find one for this semester, but sadly I only found a communications class that only half was what I was looking for, so I decided against it)! I'm sure companies would agree. I know as a Civil Engineer, I will be meeting with towns and villages all the time, writing reports, and communicating with people to get my job done. Shouldn't these skills be stronger developed in college? We are required to take Humanities and Social Science courses anyway, why not throw a writing course in there as one of them? I think that at least the other engineering departments should hop on the band wagon and start using the WAC assignments too.
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danthecivilman
Daniel Thomas
posted 1/15/07 @ 8:16 PM EST
I think it's interesting looking at it from a graduate school perspective as well, because once again unless you were in the minority of writers as engineers at Clarkson, you will find that your communication skills are just a bit lacking when that first research report comes along. (Continued…)
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