=Paper=
{{Paper
|id=Vol-3099/paper8
|storemode=property
|title=Developing Technical Writing for Engineering Students Under a Paper Conference Format
|pdfUrl=https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3099/paper8.pdf
|volume=Vol-3099
|authors=Elizabeth Vidal,Eveling Castro
}}
==Developing Technical Writing for Engineering Students Under a Paper Conference Format==
https://ceur-ws.org/Vol-3099/paper8.pdf
Developing Technical Writing for Engineering Students
Under a Paper Conference Format
Elizabeth Vidal1[0000-0002-8367-9439], Eveling Castro1[0000-0002-0203-041X]
1
Universidad Nacional de San Agustín de Arequipa
{evidald, ecastro}@unsa.edu.pe
Abstract. This paper's objective was to share our experience in developing
technical writing for Engineering students based on the cognitive process
theory of writing and based on the sociocultural perspective that affirm that
writing is social practices that vary depending on the contexts in which it is
carried out. Since 2014 we included a new course called “Writing Technical
Articles” were students have to write a six-page paper in a conference
format. We believe that the conference format shows students in an active
learning approach how to communicate specific ideas according to the
requirements of their field of study. We have structured the technical
contents based on technical writing recommendations suggested by the
Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE), a professional
association that produces over 30% of the world's literature in the
engineering and computer science fields, publishing approximately 200 peer-
reviewed journals and magazines. Students develop skills for organizing
sections and subsections, relationships among parts of an argument, and
combining paragraphs with diagrams, formulas and codes very common in
Engineering. Until now 630 Ingeniería de Sistemas students from
Universidad de San Agustin de Arequipa has been part of the course. Our
experience showed that this format gives students the scope to start the
process of technical writing. As initial results, we have surveyed students
about their perception of usefulness of technical writing under the conference
format. The initial results showed us that more than 90% of the students are
Agree and Strongly Agree about the usefulness of developing technical
writing.
Keywords: Technical writing, cognitive process theory, conference paper
1 Introduction
In recent decades the Engineering field has recognized the need for graduates to
develop strong communication skills. Institutions such as the National Academy of
Engineering (NAE) in its report "The Engineer of 2020: Adapting Engineering
Education for the New Century" [1] describes a set of attributes that are necessary in a
world directed by rapid technological and environmental changes, one of these
Copyright © 2020 for this paper by its authors. Use permitted under Creative Commons
License Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0).
1
attributes refers to communication. International accreditation institution for
Engineering programs like ABET (Accreditation Board for Engineering and
Technology) requires that programs must include for student outcomes the ability to
communicate effectively: orally and written [2]. Engineering discipline has generated
theoretical and empirical studies presenting suggestions for curriculum design,
interdisciplinary courses, integrated programs, and a variety of support systems,
including writing and communication centers and online resources to emphasize
communication instruction in engineering [3-6]. Donnell, Aller & Kedrowicz [7]
focused an important study on identifying why the industry considers these skills to
be weak. They found that part of the disparity arises because the communication tasks
that engineering students perform at university differ significantly from the writing
situations (audiences, purposes, and occasions) that engineering graduates encounter
in the industry.
From the literature review Solé et al. [8] affirms that students are used to responding
to simple writing demands that primarily require writing for a single recipient - the
professor - and with the objective of demonstrating what they learned. Also Catelló
[9] presented as the main difficulties faced by university students regardless of the
type of text and the disciplinary area: (a) lack of knowledge of the nature of the
written composition process (b) lack of knowledge of structural characteristics of
academic texts and the useful strategies to produce them. Students do not know the
differences between a report, a personal comment or between a bibliographic review
and a synthesis or a technical paper for a conference. Also Rienecker and Jörgensen
[10] stressed that writing to meet the expectations of university education contexts
requires having a set of competencies that go beyond the basic learning acquired in
primary or secondary education. They have shown that the skills necessary to master
the writing of higher studies are not acquired spontaneously. Authors affirm that
writing requires an instructional process. Under these context our work seeks to
answer the research question: Is it possible to develop technical writing skills in
Engineering under the conference paper format?.
The course “Writing Technical Articles” was implemented since 2014 at the Escuela
Profesional de Ingeniería de Sistemas at Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de
Arequipa [11]. The activities of the course were designed based under the cognitive
process theory of writing [12] and taking as foundation technical writing standards for
Engineering. Technical writing recommendations are long stablished by the Institute
of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) [13] that produces over 30% of the
world's literature in the electrical and electronics engineering and computer science
fields, publishing approximately 200 peer-reviewed journals and magazines..
2 Background
Hayes and Flower [10] developed the cognitive theory process of writing where they
identified three main activities in the writing processes: planning, translating and
reviewing. Planning takes the writing assignment and produces a conceptual plan for
2
the document as output. Planning includes sub-activities of generating ideas,
organizing those ideas logically, and determining what effects one wants to achieve.
Translating takes the conceptual plan for the document and produces text expressing
the planned content. In reviewing, the text produced so far is read, with modifications
to improve it (revise) or correct errors. Hayes and Flower [12] presented evidence that
these processes are frequently interleaved in actual writing, authors may be planning
for the next section even as they produce already-planned text; they may read what
they have written and detect errors and change their goals and plans for the next
section. Hayes and Flowers affirm that writing involves complex problem solving.
From the social cultural perspective knowledge is conceived as a cultural and
discursive fact, a social construction that the human community has made, with the
rational instrument of language [14]. Education must be understood by the activity of
production and communication of knowledge in different disciplinary fields. This
assumption implies for our work the need to teach the particularities of the production
of the texts that circulate in the disciplinary field of Engineering.
The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) [13] is a professional
association for Electronic Engineering and Electrical Engineering . It is the world's
largest association of technical professionals with more than 423,000 members in
over 160 countries. Its objectives are the educational and technical advancement.
IEEE produces 200 peer-reviewed journals and magazines. IEEE publishes more than
1,200 leading-edge conference proceedings every year. IEEE has standards and
recommendations for technical writing [15]. It identifies three main blocks: macro
level, micro-level, and paragraph [15] Macro-level: determine a document’s purpose.
IEEE highlights: (a) Organization of sections and subsections, (b)Relationships
among parts of an argument, (c) Formatting and (d)Navigational aids. Sectioning a
document involves identifying argumentative units of similar scope or size that have
some logical relationship. In research reports, for example, sections are often named
using scientific argument terms that research communities tend to recognize such as:
“Abstract”, “Introduction”, “Related Work”, “Background”, “Method,” “Analysis,”
and “Result.” Micro-level: is related to carrying out the document’s purpose. IEEE
highlights (a) Choosing words and phrases in sentences, (b) Recognizing the function
of words and expressions (c) Writing in regular sentence patterns, and (d) Including
linguistic cues to indicate the structure of an argument. Writing at the micro-level is
about identifying the immediate purpose of a sentence related to the sentences around
it. The reader should feel an argumentative “flow” as they read a document that
moves along unambiguously from point to point. There are five parameters to
consider in the micro-level: unity, coherence, emphasis, clarity, and concision [15].
The paragraph between the macro and micro-level in a document, there is an
intermediate level: the paragraph. paragraph is a block of text that functions to group
statements that have some logical relationship so that they can be understood together.
Less textually dense alternatives to paragraphs at this level are lists, tables, pictures,
illustrations, charts, graphs, diagrams, formulas and codes. Each of these can be used
effectively to make argumentative points, and each requires specialized literacy to
access.
3
3 Methodology
3.1 Description
The course of Writing Technical Articles was added to the curriculum of the Escuela
Profesional de Ingeniería de Sistemas [11] at the Universidad Nacional de San
Agustin de Arequipa in 2014. The course has 17 weeks duration. It is taught in the 3rd
semester. It has two lecture hours per week. The design of the course has been
developed based on the cognitive process of writing [12] and following IEEE
technical writing recommendation [15] since the authors agree that writing is social
practices that vary depending on the contexts in which it is carried out. The topics
taught in the course are listed in Table 1. From the 17 weeks of classes only six are
dedicated to developing the topics shown in Table 1. the rest of the time is devoted
mostly to a dynamic and iterative process of translating and reviewing. Students are
asked to deliver incremental drafts and they receive continue feedback.
Table 1. Topics of the Course
IEEE Main Blocks Course Topic – IEEE
Macro Level Unit 1: Overview
1.1 Why is Technical writing important
1.2 What is a Call for papers
1.3 IEEE conference paper format – navigational aids
1.4 Parts of the article
Micro Level Unit 2: Planning
2.1 Keywords, synonyms and related terms
2.2 Implementing the search strategy and search parameters
2.3 Searching information: Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore
2.4 Credibility and reliability of sources of data
2.4 Critical Reading
2.5 The writing plan
Paragraph Unit 3: Technical Writing
3.1. Writing sentences and paragraphs
3.2. Tables, images, diagrams, formulas and codes
3.3. References and citation in IEEE format with Mendeley
3.4. Developing unity, coherence, emphasis and clarity
3.5. Writing Related Works
3.6. Writing the Proposal
3.7. Writing Abstract, Introduction and Conclusion
3.2 The conference paper format
Throughout the semester, each student writes a technical paper. Each student is
assigned the topic and also the title in the first week. Each topic has been formulated
in order to give students knowledge about the scope of the software engineering field
and its impact on a global and social context and to motivate them. The final paper
only will have six pages, with a minimum of 20 references. There are five reviews
throughout the semester. Students deliver incremental drafts of the paper. The
description of the deliverables are shown in Table 2.
4
As we have set in the background section writing academic texts is a complex
cognitive process that requires intense cognitive activity. In a specific field like
Engineering, writing a conference paper to show a new design, a prototype or a new
software is an important professional skill. The process of writing requires described
in our experience requires students to search for information, select the one that they
consider most relevant after a critical reading, organize this information for propose a
writing plan, to write according to the writing plan and rehearse various formulations
on the paper. The process that we have just described involves planning, writing
(translating) and review activities that, in general, do not occur in a linear way (Fig.
1).
Fig. 1. (a) The main activities of developed in the course for writing the paper are iterative and
dynamic. (b) There is relation with the cognitive process theory of writing
5
Table 2. Deliverables of the Paper
Deliverables description Week
Basic Information 2
a. Present the keywords and synonymous related to the topic assigned
b. Present the Search Strategy used and the refined search strategy
c. Share in the course drive at least five related articles of the topics (justify why they
were selected)
d. Complete the Paul-Elder template for critical reading for the five articles you selected
Writing Plan 3
a. Based on the previous activity develop your writing plan; consider IEEE section
format
b. Use Title, subtitles and sub-subtitles.
c. Describe from general concepts to detailed concepts
d. Consider at least 5 references from IEEEXplore, ACM Digital Library, SCOPUS,
WOS, SJR.
Draft 1 5
a. IEEE paper format
b. 1 page and 10 references.
c. No abstract, no introduction and no related works
Draft 2 7
a. Make up observations in Draft 1
b. Write 2 pages and 10 references
c. No abstract , introduction and related work
Draft 3 10
a. Make up observations in Draft 2
b. Write 4 pages including Related Works and your Technical Proposal.
c. No abstract and introduction
d. At least 15 references
Draft 4 15
a. Make up observations in Draft 3
b. Write 6 pages with Abstract, Introduction and Conclusions
c. At least 20 references
Final paper 17
Make up observations in Draft 4
Fig. 2 shows a papers that correspond to the Draft 1 version, we can observe
grammatical errors and also the use of citation that do not coincide with the IEEE
standard. There is also a reference to Graphic 1 that was not found on the text.
Students receive personal feedback after each presentation. Also we summarize
common mistakes and prepare a special class to explain again the topics we have
found still confuse or difficult for students.
6
Fig. 2 Paper in Draft 1 version
4 Material and Methods
This experience was implemented in the Escuela Profesional de Ingeniería de
Sistemas at Universidad Nacional de San Agustin de Arequipa. To answer our
research question “Is it possible to develop technical writing skills in Engineering
under the conference paper format?, we conducted an exploratory study. The study
population were 90 students from the second year of studies. The sample was
stablished though a non-probabilistic convenience sampling with 50 students that
were part of the course in semester 2020-A. Students have an age range between 18
and 20 years with no previous experience in writing technical article and no
experience in reading technical conference article eater[16-17]. The objective was to
verify the perception of the students about the developing technical writing skills
under the conference paper format. The instrument was prepared based on the MUSIC
Model [9] that consists of five components (1) empowerment, (2) usefulness, (3)
success, (4) interest, and (5) caring. For measuring students’ perceptions we focus
only on Usefulness component. The instrument consists of eleven statements that
students responded to on a 6-point Likert scale (ranging from “Strongly Disagree” to
“Strongly Agree”). Questions are Q1: In general, writing a paper was useful to me,
Q2: The writing paper process was beneficial to me Q3: I found the coursework to be
relevant to my future. Q4: I will be able to use the knowledge I gained in this course,
Q5: The knowledge I gained in this course is essential for my future.
7
4. Results and Discussion
Table 3. Results
Question Answer
Strongly In Somehow Somehow In Strongly
Disagree Disagreement disagree agree Agreement Agree
Q1 0 0 0 4% 34% 62%
Q2 0 0 0 10% 14% 76%
Q3 0 0 0 8% 38% 54%
Q4 0 0 0 4% 44% 52%
Q5 0 0 0 6% 28% 66%
Results in Table 3 shows values over de 50% in all the question in the Strongly Agree
answer. Q2: “The writing paper process was beneficial to me” have scored higher
with 76%. Considering only “In Agreement” and “Strongly Agree” results shows us
that students consider Useful developing technical writing skills in more than 90%.
We consider that the results allow us to affirm that we have a positive approach to
answer our research question: it possible to develop technical writing skills in
Engineering under the conference paper format.
From 2014 to 2020, the course has been taught for seven years. Each year we have
had a range from 90 to 100 students. From the beginning, the course has been
improved each year. We have emphasized the permanent feedback and incremented
the lecture hours devoted to teach how to write the abstract, introduction, and related
work. Supported in the experience of the first two years, we suggest reducing the
number of students per group, by increasing the number of class sections. This
reduced the student/faculty ratio to have more time for feedback sessions and include
spaces for discussion. We have found it very useful to compile common mistakes and
review the papers in special lectures asking students to suggest improvements to the
papers we have shown as samples. In the writing process, the most common mistakes
are made in the correct use of citations. Fig. 2 is a sample of it, many times students
make a copy/paste from the original paper bringing a different kind of citation like
APA (American Psychological Association). A second challenge is given by making
a good argumentation when it comes to explaining related works and the similarities
and differences with the work that students write. The incremental deliverables allow
students to overcame common mistakes. We believe that teaching technical writing at
the beginning is essential for students since we give them standards for writing, and
they have other courses to apply what they have learned. It is also crucial to motivate
them to keep on writing papers and to send them to conferences.
The closed work to ours is the presented by Popescu and Jovanovic [3] who
introducing a writing assignments in an Electrical Circuits course, for electrical
engineering technology students. Students were required to write a three-pages IEEE
format paper. The topics for the assignment were selected from among the concepts
studied in the course. The final paper was expected to contain the main results related
to the selected topic, which, depending on the topic, could have been theorems,
8
formulas, examples with commentaries, relationships with other concepts, discussions
on related applications, or other relevant information for the chosen topic. The main
coincidence we found with our work are: both are IEEE conference paper-oriented,
we consider the same important activities like: paper is well written, IEEE format is
followed, no grammar or spelling errors, information is well organized in sections,
relevant references are included and the proper format is used. One main different is
that our work is a specific course in the curriculum that is devoted to teach technical
writing while [3] presented and specific assignment as part of the course. Another
difference is that we have show the detailed contents of the course that could be
reproduced, we have also share the structure of the deliverables of the paper. The
proposal has been structured under the cognitive theory process of writing.
5. Conclusions
Our work presents the experience of the development of technical writing skills in
Engineering students based on a conference paper format. This experience teaches
students the process of writing (planning, translating and reviewing) based on the
theory of Flower and Hayes [12] and under the particularities of the production of
technical paper in the disciplinary field of Engineering. The writing process is a
complex process even more so if it is oriented to a Engineering conference. From a
practical point of view students experience during seventeen weeks the dynamic and
iterative writing process that includes activities such as information search (in reliable
sources), critical reading, organization of the writing work, the writing itself and the
reviewing . The results obtained describe in the previous section show us that there is
a high acceptance of the importance of incorporating the practice of writing an article
in conference format and that student consider it useful for their future professional
live. Although the experience has been proven in students of Ingeniería de Sistemas
we consider that the experience presented can be adapted to other specific
Engineering field, making use of topics appropriate to each discipline. Likewise,
starting in the early stages of study allows students to train in information literacy,
critical reading and writing practices that are valuable not only for writing articles but
for their lifelong learning.
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