Audience

Awareness of audience will be a recurrent theme for the entire semester. There are two components to this issue: The instructor's awareness of the class and the students' awareness of the audience(s) for every task they complete. Here are some thoughts about each component.

Students as Audience

For the most part, students in the class will be in their third or fourth year. Most took 355:101 Expository Writing. Some, particularly ESL students, may have taken 355:100 Basic Composition as well. When you talk with the students, you'll frequently hear that they feel the composition classes did not serve their needs. Maybe they have lost sight of the training in critical thinking that the course provided. Maybe it's a matter of not having had to write anything like an academic essay since the Expository Writing class. Whatever the reasons students may give, the underlying issue is that they tend to think the course lacked practical relevance for them as aspiring engineers. When you ask why they are taking this course, some will be quick to say, "It's required." Keep these student perceptions in mind. It will serve as a reminder that Writing for Engineers instructors have to frequently and persuasively talk to the students about the relevance of the class activities: The course serves as a transition experience, a sort of internship, which prepares students to enter the professional engineering workplace.

Many students will have had internships. Draw on them to talk about the communication tasks they observed or participated in. Connect what they talk about to course assignments that involve writing, listening, speaking, collaborating, evaluating, etc. When this ground work is done, the students will invest themselves in the work. As each new assignment is introduced, reiterate the connection to the "real" engineering workplace.

The engineering program is quite demanding. Students have plenty of homework and not enough time. The frequent student response as to why they take the course ("It's required") has truth to it since Writing for Engineers fulfills a humanities elective requirement for the School of Engineering. Consequently, the instructor can help students see that the class is different from but equal to their other engineering classes.

Finally, be mindful that the engineering students have many of their classes in large lecture halls where direct contact with instructors is infrequent. In contrast, this class offers the opportunity for conversation about what the students are learning, the demand of their challenging curriculum, their dream jobs, their internship experiences, etc. In effect, there is time to get to know your audience well and address their writing needs and interests.

Students' Awareness of Audience

In the notes for each assignment there is discussion about the intended audience(s). Some assignments have single while others have multiple audiences. Students may not always intuit the audience for their work, so it's crucial to introduce each activity with class discussion about audience. Once aware of the intended reader(s) or listener(s), questions about the purpose(s) for writing can be considered. It won't take long for the discussion to move to the notion of persuasion, and once this topic is engaged, you'll see work that is very effective. If you are ready to introduce an assignment but can't honestly and convincingly talk about the specific audience(s), postpone introducing the assignment until you can. This, of course, is an occasion where conversation with colleagues in the Writing Program can be most helpful.