Masters Theses

Keywords and Phrases

Internships and co-ops; Student perceptions; Technical communication; Technical writing service course; Undergraduate engineers

Abstract

"In order to learn how STEM students perceive Missouri S&T's English 3560 Technical Writing class, I designed a research study to investigate how a sample population of 90 students viewed the class. Due to the nature of qualitative research, the results of this study cannot be generalized to a larger population. However, the results can and do provide insight into the situation of these Missouri S&T students in English 3560 classes and contribute to our collective understanding of the technical writing service course at Missouri S&T and other US universities. The study investigated whether the sample population of students who had completed internships and/or co-ops at the time of the survey viewed the course differently than students who had not completed internships and/or co-ops. The data revealed that most of the students (72 out of 90) believed the course would be valuable to their future careers in STEM fields. There was also little difference between the perceptions of students who had completed internships and co-ops and students who had not. 75% of students who had completed internships and 85% of students who had not completed internships believed that the writing skills learned in the English 3560 course would be valuable to them in industry. The study also revealed that all 90 students who took part in the survey believed that writing will be necessary in their future careers. With or without professional experience, the surveyed students were able to identify the value of learning technical writing"--Abstract, page iii.

Advisor(s)

Malone, Edward A.

Committee Member(s)

Wright, David
Roberson, Elizabeth M.

Department(s)

English and Technical Communication

Degree Name

M.S. in Technical Communication

Publisher

Missouri University of Science and Technology

Publication Date

Spring 2019

Pagination

viii, 119 pages

Note about bibliography

Includes bibliographical references (pages 117-118).

Rights

© 2019 Hannah Claire Coffman, All rights reserved.

Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

File Type

text

Language

English

Thesis Number

T 11521

Electronic OCLC #

1105154943

Share

 
COinS