Project Description

Sirine Maalej and Eli Patten (Mechanical Engineering) joined the Writing@UW Fellowship to investigate how students learn and apply technical communication skills across the Mechanical Engineering (ME) curriculum. Their project centers on two writing-intensive courses: ME 354: Mechanics of Materials Laboratory and ME 493: Introduction to Capstone Design. These courses bookend the major, and Sirine and Eli saw an opportunity to bring more coherence to how writing is taught across them, ensuring that students are supported in building discipline-specific communication skills that evolve meaningfully throughout the mechanical engineering program.

In ME 354, students learn to communicate experimental results, technical challenges, and research proposals, while ME 493 asks them to produce professional deliverables such as design proposals and reviews in the context of a team-based design project. Historically, these courses were developed independently, which sometimes led to duplication, misalignment, or missed opportunities for reinforcement. Sirine and Eli sought to align the courses’ writing objectives and revise key assignments to better support students’ development. In ME 493, for example, they redesigned the assignment structure to reduce redundancy and provide more time for peer review and revision—while shifting writing instruction out of templates and into explicit lecture time. In ME 354, they reevaluated how many assignments could reasonably fit into the class while making room for both peer and instructor feedback. Another decision was to keep the focus in ME 354 on individual writing development, while in ME 493 the technical communication focus is mostly on group oral presentations.

Their work reflects a broader rethinking of what writing instruction in engineering should do—not just support technical precision, but also help students understand genre, audience, and the role of writing in the discipline. By better coordinating expectations and scaffolding across the curriculum, their project aims to create a more unified, purposeful approach to writing in mechanical engineering.

Materials

  • Revised lab report structure (forthcoming)
  • Updated writing assignments (forthcoming)
  • Peer review guidelines and reflection prompts (forthcoming)

Transforming Writing Instruction Through Collaboration

Sirine and Eli collaboratively examined how writing functions across two key Mechanical Engineering courses. The fellowship offered structured time to compare assignments, map out shared goals, and reflect on what writing instruction in the department is already doing, and what it could do more effectively. Through side-by-side analysis of ME 354 and ME 493, they began identifying opportunities to better align expectations, reduce redundancy, and support students’ development across the curriculum. Their work also opened up possibilities for longer-term coordination within the department.