Instructor Resources for Tutorial on Writing Reports in Engineering and Science

Lesson Objectives

  1. Persuade students that writing is an important skill in their engineering or scientific career
  2. Dispel misconceptions that young engineering and science students hold about 
  3. Introduce important differences between writing reports in engineering and science and writing essays (such as taught in freshman composition).

Lesson Description

This lesson on scientific writing was developed to put engineering and science students who have not yet had technical writing in position to succeed in their writing of reports. Essentially, the module aims to have students realize the most important differences between scientific writing (which many students have not yet formally studied) and general writing (for which they have taken several courses). In addition, the module also allows you (the instructor) the opportunity to emphasize issues of writing about which you feel strongly. Note that this website uses scientific writing, engineering writing, and technical writing as interchangeable terms.

Pre-Work

Prior to the class period, the students should do the following:
  1. View the films of the Tutorial on Writing Reports
  2. Take the quiz  that tests for comprehension of the films' content (see end of this lesson). To obtain a key for all quizzes, please email Michael Alley ([email protected]). Once we have verified that you are an instructor, we will send you the link for the key.
  3. Optional: Download one of the report templates for the next writing assignment

Class Period (45 minutes of class time)

Download the following teaching slides and go through these in class. The slides ask students questions about writing reports in engineering and science that the tutorial has covered.


Comprehension Quiz

At the following link, you will find a comprehension quiz for the Summary Lesson. You can administer this quiz either at the beginning or end of class. A Canvas version is available at Penn State by searching for "Writing Lessons for Engineering and Science." To obtain a key for this quiz and all quizzes for the Writing Lessons, please email Michael Alley at [email protected]. Title the email as "Requesting Quiz Keys for Writing Lessons." Once we have verified that you are an instructor, we will send you the link to the quiz keys.

References

  1. Alley, Michael, The Craft of Scientific Writing, 4th ed. (New York: Springer Verlag, 2018).
  2. Bernstein, Theodore, The Careful Writer (New York: Free Press, 1995).​​
  3. William A. Sabin, The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 11th ed. (New York: McGraw-Hill, 2010).
Sponsors
     Leonhard Center, College of Engineering, Penn State
​     National Science Foundation, NSF EAGER Award  1752096

​Content Editors
     Michael Alley, Teaching Professor, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Sarah Ritter, Assistant Professor, Engineering Design, Penn State

Film Editors
     Richelle Weiger, College of Engineering, Penn State
     Casey Fenton, College of Engineering, Penn State
​For the academic year 2019-2020, we are collecting comments, questions, criticisms, and suggestions for the films, text, and quizzes of each lesson on scientific writing. To help us understand your input, would please let us know what your discipline is and whether you are a student, professional, or faculty member?