Writing in Engineering Courses.

By incorporating writing in engineering courses, we can move toward several important educational goals. Writing allows students to develop and use critical thinking skills. It enhances active learning and addresses the needs of students with different learning styles. It is a uniquely powerful tool for assessing student understanding. Writing becomes particularly useful in engineering education when demonstrated as a process. Similarities between the writing and design processes can be used to highlight the fact that there is often no single "correct" solution in either and that feedback and revision are often crucial to both. Finally, the status of our profession is enhanced when engineering graduates can communicate effectively. This paper provides specific examples of how we have employed writing in our courses over the last three years and how it has served to enhance outcomes in these courses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]