Improving the Teaching and Learning of Writing through the Writing Studio Model

This paper presents the results of a pilot collaboration between the University Writing Center and a senior-level Electrical Engineering course. To address the growing need for engineering students to improve their written communications skills, the professor added a research project to their class. Students then participated in a required writing studio, a writing group of five to seven students who provide feedback to one another on their writing processes throughout the semester. The writing studios are facilitated by the University Writing Center undergraduate peer tutors, some of whom are also engineering students. Research in writing studies show that simply assigning writing will not necessarily improve writing skills. The students find the assignments disconnected from the course content, and do not have the knowledge to move into disciplinary writing. Teaching writing, however, takes time away from content instruction. To integrate writing into their curriculum, engineering professors need pedagogical models that provide writing support to students without eliminating content instruction time. The writing studio model, developed by researchers in the field of rhetoric and composition, provides an environment outside of the classroom to support the students as they develop into disciplinary writers. Using a case study approach, the researchers analyze initial data from this pilot course. Students not only practice writing but also responding to others, thereby increasing their understanding of the writer/reader relationship and the necessity of revision, rhetorical context, audience, and genre. In addition, because the writing studio requires collaboration between the professor and the Writing Center, and because the Writing Center tutors observe the students in the activity of writing, the studio also provides a feedback loop for those engaged in teaching writing. All stakeholders receive feedback on how the students interacted with the assignments and the studio process, and how the assignment and partnership might be revised so as to make them more effective. Finally, results show Writing Center engineering tutors engaged in metacognitive thinking about writing in engineering, and applying their own writing and communication skills. Keywords—writing; writing studio; writing center