Comments on Lab Reports by Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistants

Journal of Business and Technical Communication Oct 2007

Comments on Lab Reports by Mechanical Engineering Teaching Assistants

Summer Smith Taylor Clemson University

Abstract

Many engineering undergraduates receive their first and perhaps most intensive exposure to engineering communication through writing lab reports in lab courses taught by graduate teaching assistants (TAs). Most of the TAs' teaching of writing happens through their comments on students' lab reports. Technical writing faculty need to be aware of TAs' response practices so they can build on or counteract that instruction as needed. This study examines the response practices of two TAs and the ways the practices shifted after the TAs began using a grading rubric. The analysis reveals distinct patterns in focus and mode, some reflecting best practices and some not. It also indicates encouraging changes after the TAs started using the grading rubric. The TAs' marginalia became more content focused and specific and, perhaps most important, less authoritative and more likely to reflect a coaching mode. The article concludes with implications for technical writing courses.

Journal: Journal of Business and Technical Communication
Published: 2007-10-01
DOI: 10.1177/1050651907304024
Open Access: Closed
Topics: writing centers assessment graduate education multimodality technical communication scientific writing multilingual writers

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (2)

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CrossRef global citation count: 14 View in citation network →