Laying a foundation for academic writing in engineering: Helping international graduate students write in English

Abstract

Many beginning international graduate students in engineering often need extra support in learning to write basic academic English, yet advanced writing-for-publication courses seem to be more prevalent than writing courses dealing with more fundamental issues. A new course, situated within a particular engineering discipline, attempts to bridge this gap by introducing these students to several common professional documents such as CVs and cover letters. In addition, students write a paper investigating academic discourse in their area of specialization, based on library and ethnographic research. This paper also presents various qualitative results from the students' in-class comments and written course evaluations, along with the instructor's comments and plans for future course offerings.