Engineering writing mandate makes WATU University-wide

The writing requirement became the first University-wide curriculum initiative this semester, as the School of Engineering and Applied Science joined Penn's other undergraduate schools already participating in the Writing Program. "While the educational programs of the schools do and should differ from one another, they all aim to give students some basic intellectual skills -- writing and mathematics are the most universal ones," Provost Stanley Chodorow said. And Writing Program Faculty Director Al Filreis said, "It's good that there is a center of academic competency like the Writing Program." Engineering Dean Gregory Farrington announced the new requirement at a question-and-answer session last February, and it was approved by the Undergraduate Affairs Committee in March. Members of the Class of 2001 are the first students hit with this requirement, which can be satisfied by taking one "Writing About" or two "Writing Across The University" courses. The decision to bring the writing requirement to the Engineering School came from the requests of both students and faculty, Assistant Director of Student Affairs Katherine Becht said. "Engineers come up with many creative ideas that become more valuable when they can articulate their thoughts and express these ideas," Becht added. Although Engineering students can fulfill the requirement with any course in the University's Writing Program, the Engineering School is also sponsoring a course -- Engineering 9001, "Writing about Engineering and Technology" -- which will satisfy the requirement. "Students will write more enthusiastically if they like what they are writing about," WATU Director Peshe Kurilof said. The course is being taught by newcomer Judith Swan, who specializes in scientific language. Swan received her doctorate in Biochemistry from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and has taught at Duke and Princeton universities. She said she is enthusiastic about her course, which "looks at the way in which writing is used in science and the way in which science is written about." According to Swan, engineers and scientists spend 90 percent of their time writing. "The writing that engineers do does not seem to have a lot in common with the academic writing that other students are exposed to," she said. "The style is much more rigid and the values are very different." But while the literary and scientific worlds may seem distinct, Swan also hopes to convey the similarities to her students. "Students see engineering ability and writing ability as separate pieces of knowledge," she said. "When they can integrate the knowledge the argument becomes extremely powerful." The reading list for the course joins the literary and engineering worlds, with books such as Henry Petroski's To Engineer is Human and C.P. Snow's The Two Cultures. Students enrolled in the course look forward to reading the material. "The books we're reading are written by scientists and engineers so we get an idea of the fields we are going into," Engineering freshman Michael Trossman said. And Engineering freshman Ian Murphy said he hopes the course will give him a broader background in engineering. Swan's course is not yet filled and interested students are encouraged to enroll.