Abstract –While communication and writing programs are typically housed in humanities-focused departments, engineering programs often employ full-time writing specialists to teach their students effective communication in engineering-specific contexts. However, bringing together humanities-focused writing instruction within a science-focused engineering program has some inherent complications in administering a program within a program.
The challenge of these writing programs is the misunderstanding that can arise between communication faculty and engineering faculty and administration. The opportunities and challenges embedded within communication and writing pedagogy is not always understood by the engineering-educated administrators, nor sold particularly well by the communication faculty. These challenges are made evident when we see that the modern conversation around engineering communication has morphed from convincing a composition audience to broaden their conception of writing for the unique writing needs of their engineering students, to a post-outcomes based world where engineering identity and culture are the center of curricular discussions aimed at fellow engineering educators.
While the complete history of writing program administration in engineering education is much longer, this literature review explores key works in the last 25 years to demonstrate themes in current curricular programming challenges in administering writing and communication programs within engineering departments in Canada and the United States.
Transnational writing program administration: mobility, entanglement, work.