scholarly journals The Use of Passives and Impersonal Style in Civil Engineering Writing

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (1) ◽  
pp. 38-76 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Corpus Linguistics ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Multidimensional Analysis ◽  
Engineering Practice ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Workplace Writing ◽  
Student Reports

Claims abound about passives and the impersonal style they create. Few studies, however, check the claims with a large, systematic analysis of texts from either academia or industry. Motivated by the need to teach effective workplace writing skills to undergraduate engineering students, this study investigates the use of passives and associated impersonal style features in 170 practitioner reports, journal articles, and student reports from civil engineering. Using multidimensional analysis (a technique from corpus linguistics) and interviews of practitioners, students, and faculty, the study found that, as expected, engineering texts, compared to nontechnical texts, have a frequent use of impersonal style features; however, they use passives for a wider range of functions than is typically described in technical writing literature. Furthermore, compared to the journal articles and student reports, the practitioner reports use significantly fewer features of impersonal style. The findings inform teaching materials that present a more realistically complex picture of the language structures and functions important for civil engineering practice.

Motivating Engineering Students to Publish

1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 139-146
Author(s):  
Herman A. Estrin
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Science Literature ◽  
Science And Engineering ◽  
Technical Report ◽  
Writing Course ◽  
Engineering Writing ◽  
College Of Engineering

In a technical writing course, students analyze the classics of engineering literature, prepare annotated bibliographies of articles concerning engineering writing, write an in-depth technical report on a civil engineering topic, and analyze the various articles in science and engineering magazines. To acquaint the students with the different magazines to which they may submit manuscripts, they also analyze a professional magazine. In this way, they are prepared for publication. After having reviewed science books for children, the students prepare their own manuscripts of science literature and submit them to consultants at the Writers' Conference held annually at Newark College of Engineering during April.

Register in English for Academic Purposes and English for Specific Purposes

2019 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 168-198
Author(s):  
Susan Conrad
Keyword(s):  
Academic Writing ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
English For Academic Purposes ◽  
English For Specific Purposes ◽  
Student Writing ◽  
Workplace Writing ◽  
Writing Project ◽  
Register Variation ◽  
English Grammar

Abstract Susan Conrad, Professor of Applied Linguistics at Portland State University (USA), contributes this article on the applications of register research to English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Her research focuses on topics including academic register variation, discipline-specific language, student and workplace writing, and grammar and writing pedagogy. Since the 1990s, her work has advocated for and exemplified the ways in which register-based descriptions can facilitate language teaching, including building awareness of register variation in learners and novice writers themselves. This focus is illustrated in her book Real Grammar: A Corpus-Based Approach to English (Conrad & Biber 2009, Pearson Longman), which takes many of the major register-based patterns of variation in English grammar (described in the Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English, Biber et al. 1999) and translates them into practical grammar lessons for language learners, making explicit how grammar use is mediated by register. Her applied focus is also evident in her work as Principal Investigator for the Civil Engineering Writing Project <http://www.cewriting.org/>. The project, funded by the National Science Foundation, addresses the writing needs of Civil Engineering students through corpus-based register comparisons (of university student writing, practitioner workplace writing, and published academic writing), applying the results to the development and evaluation of pedagogical materials that improve students’ preparation for writing in the workplace.

scholarly journals DEVELOPMENT AND INTEGRATION OF TECHNICAL WRITING SKILLS ORIENTED TOWARD ENGINEERS’ NEEDS

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anouk Desjardins ◽  
Evelyne Doré ◽  
Raymond Desjardins
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering ◽  
Technical Writing ◽  
Oral Communication ◽  
Small Degree ◽  
Bachelor's Degree ◽  
Student Response ◽  
Written Communication ◽  
Writing Practices ◽  
Capstone Projects

Written communication is among the skills future engineers must develop and master in order to excel in their profession. Employers and the Canadian Engineering Accreditation Board also require this skill. Students in all Polytechnique Montréal programs have one course credit in their program devoted to written and oral communication. The training is provided by Polytechnique’s Centre d’études complémentaires (centre for complementary studies) for all programs. Despite the implementation of this process, we noted that civil engineering students had difficulty employing good technical writing practices in their work, such as capstone projects, lab reports and hands-on assignments. The students saw written communication workshops as satellite training and employed their learning only to a small degree in their other courses. The students were essentially stagnating instead of making progress throughout the bachelor’s degree. In response to these issues, a common approach was put into place for the entire civil engineering program as a complement to the trainings provided by the Centre d’études complémentaires. This approach has been a success; student response has been positive and improvement has been observed in the courses where writing is required. The students especially appreciate this when they perform their mandatory internship, because they feel this training makes a difference and helps them distinguish themselves.  

A Bridge Built of Paper—A Master’s-Course Project for Civil Engineering Students

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-5
Author(s):  
Jörg Lange ◽  
Aaron von der Heyden ◽  
Ulrich Knaack ◽  
Evgenia Kanli
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering

scholarly journals The Englisg Proficiency of Civil Engineering Students at a Malaysian Polytechnic

2010 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ahmad Yasruddin Md Yasin ◽  
Wan Mohd Haniff Wan Mohd Shaupil ◽  
Affidah Mardziah Mukhtar ◽  
Noor Izma Ab Ghani ◽  
Farawaheeda Rashid
Keyword(s):  
Engineering Students ◽  
Civil Engineering

scholarly journals What Can Students’ Bibliographies Tell Us?- Evidence Based Information Skills Teaching for Engineering Students

2006 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Fei Yu ◽  
Jan Sullivan ◽  
Leith Woodall
Keyword(s):  
Web Sites ◽  
Engineering Students ◽  
Chemical Engineering ◽  
First Year ◽  
Journal Articles ◽  
First Year Students ◽  
Internet Resources ◽  
Information Skills ◽  
Upper Level ◽  
Department Faculty

Objective - This project sought to identify students’ strengths and weaknesses in locating, retrieving, and citing information in order to deliver information skills workshops more effectively. Methods - Bibliographies submitted from first-year engineering and second- and fourth-year chemical engineering students’ project reports were analysed for the number of items cited, the variety of items cited, and the correct use of citation style. The topics of the project reports were also reviewed to see the relationships between the topics and the items cited. Results - The results show that upper level students cited more items in total than did lower level students in their bibliographies. Second- and fourth-year engineering students cited more books and journal articles than first-year students cited. Web sites were used extensively by all three groups of students, and for some first-year students these were the most frequently used sources. Students from all three groups had difficulties with citation style. Conclusion - There was a clear difference in citation frequency between upper and lower level engineering students. Different strategies of information skills instruction are needed for different levels of students. Librarians and department faculty members need to include good quality Internet resources in their teaching and to change the emphasis from finding information to finding, interpreting, and citing accurately.

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