Written Communication Apr 2012

Pairing Courses Across the Disciplines: Effects on Writing Performance

Julie Watts University of Wisconsin–Stout ; Rebecca E. Burnett Georgia Institute of Technology

Abstract

Writing performance of a complex recommendation report produced by student teams for an actual client during a 15-week semester was compared in a writing-intensive Agronomy 356 course and in paired Agronomy 356/ English 309 courses. The longitudinal study investigated differences that existed between reports produced for each learning environment in terms of argument effectiveness, document usability, and professionalism. Three agronomy and three professional communication raters ranked the 12 lengthy reports in the sample. The study found that all top-rated reports were generated in the paired courses and all lowest-rated reports were generated in the stand-alone agronomy course. Four pedagogical factors appear influential in this result: working in dual problem-solving spaces, pushing the boundaries on problem solving, incorporating workplace realities, and using just-in-time teaching.

Journal
Written Communication
Published
2012-04-01
DOI
10.1177/0741088312438525
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Open Access
Closed
Topics
writing pedagogy writing across the curriculum teacher development technical communication professional writing empirical research
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (1)

  1. Paretti et al. (2019)
    Faculty and Student Perceptions of the Impacts of Communication in the Discipli…
    IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

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