Academic writing in engineering careers: evaluations of teachers and students

Abstract

The object of study of this article is academic writing practices and their teaching at undergraduate level. For this purpose, a case study was carried out in mechanical and electronic engineering courses at a public university in Argentina. In particular, it describes writing activities developed by students throughout the aforementioned careers and identifies faculty conceptions of writing and its functions according to students. To achieve these purposes, surveys were implemented to a sample of 45 students and 35 teachers, and 3 semi-structured interviews were conducted with university teachers in engineering. As a result of this study the existence of activities mostly oriented to the application of knowledge are highlighted. Although teachers identify the potential of writing in learning, there is an underlying representation among students that is linked to being evaluated and demonstrating knowledge mechanically in written form. Therefore, in order to achieve good academic performance, writing must be taught in university classrooms not only as a form of accreditation, but also as a means of representation and learning in any discipline.