2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Abstract - The Accreditation Board for Engineering and Technology (ABET) identifies “an ability to communicate effectively with a range of audiences” as a critical learning outcome for engineering programs. This underscores the importance of engineers learning to articulate their ideas clearly, not only to peers within their field but also to non-specialist audiences. While recently developed generative AI tools offer support for crafting written documents, they are not a substitute for mastering the foundational skills necessary for clear and effective technical communication. Moreover, students frequently find themselves unprepared for the advanced writing demands of graduate school and professional work.

In response to these challenges, this paper introduces a technical communication course for graduate engineering students that guides students through the writing process for both expert and general audiences. After reading and discussing several published examples in class, students are tasked with writing an academic journal article based on their research, which they then adapt into a magazine-style article intended for a broader, non-expert readership. The class concludes with a poster session where students present their work visually and orally. Using these assignments, the course takes a genre approach and emphasizes both the writing process and audience, key principles of technical writing applicable across different formats. This paper further offers sample classroom activities to teach these principles and provides practical strategies to assist students in effectively modifying their written communication to suit different audiences.