Open AccessProcesses and tasks in collaborative writing in engineering: research-informed views and pedagogical applications
Author(s) -
Julio Gimenez
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
journal of learning development in higher education
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 1759-667X
DOI - 10.47408/jldhe.v0i0.185
Subject(s) - empirical research , collaborative writing , engineering ethics , engineering research , engineering education , academic writing , science and engineering , professional writing , pedagogy , psychology , engineering , mathematics education , engineering management , epistemology , telecommunications , philosophy
Writing plays a central role in the activities that engineers carry out both in academia and industry. Different from other disciplines, in engineering a considerable amount of writing takes place as collaboration between a group of individuals. Despite this recognition, research in collaborative writing (CW) in engineering is rather scant and the available studies are mostly theoretical in nature, with very little empirical evidence. This article reports on an empirical study that examined CW in four schools at a faculty of engineering at a university in the UK. It specifically looks at the processes and the tasks in which engineering students and professionals get involved when writing collaboratively. Based on the findings of the study, the article suggests a number of research-informed pedagogical practices for developing CW in engineering.