English as an Engineering Tool: Samuel Chandler Earle and the Tufts Experiment

Teresa Kynell Northern Michigan University

Abstract

Evaluation of Samuel Chandler Earle's 1911 presentation to the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education demonstrates Earle's role as a key player in the shift of a technical writing course which combined both the goals of an engineering curriculum with the ultimate, real-world needs of the graduated engineer. Earle's Tufts Experiment, discussed in his paper, “English in the Engineering School at Tufts College” [1], would not only provide the impetus for a decade of discussion among engineering and English educators, but would provide, in part, the impetus for the Committee on English, a committee Earle would chair, charged with studying engineering English offerings in the United States.

Journal
Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
Published
1995-01-01
DOI
10.2190/7l28-aqt3-pvu7-tyc5
CompPile
Open Access
Closed
Topics
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Citation Context

Cited by in this index (3)

  1. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  2. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  3. IEEE Transactions on Professional Communication

References (16) · 2 in this index

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  2. Writing in the Academic Disciplines: 1870–1990
  3. Journal of Technical Writing and Communication
  4. Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education
  5. Discussion, Proceedings of the Society for the Promotion of Engineering Education
Show all 16 →
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  10. Kynell Teresa, The Student as Translator in the Technical Writing Classroom: The Challenger Disaster as Heuri…
  11. Kynell Teresa, Approaches to Functional Document Criticism, ATTW Bulletin, Fall 1993.