2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Function Word Analysis of Student Reflective Writing in an Integrated Engineering Program

Presented at Reflection

Human communication, whether through writing or speech, involves both consciously and unconsciously selected words. The words chosen with deliberate intent often convey specific meaning and serve as the primary carriers of content in discourse. In contrast, function words, such as prepositions, pronouns, auxiliary verbs, and conjunctions, are frequently selected unconsciously and play a critical role in maintaining grammatical structure rather than imparting substantive meaning. Despite their lack of referential content, function words are essential for sentence cohesion and reflect subtle aspects of cognitive processes. By systematically analyzing students’ usage patterns of function words, researchers can infer underlying cognitive strategies, levels of motivation, and dimensions of self-concept, offering valuable insights for educators into their pathways of academic development.

This study employs Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) software to analyze functional word use in reflective reports from students in an upper-division, project-based engineering program. Drawing on the work of Chung & Pennebaker (2007), the analysis explores linguistic indicators of motivation, drive, self-reflection, analysis, and honesty. The reflective assignment requires students to respond to four prompts: what happened, what was the take-away, what is the future use of the take-away, and what other learning would be valuable, with a weekly cadence. These are intended to encourage deep personal learning, build metacognitive skills, and strengthen critical thinking. The data represent all 119 students in the program from conception of the degree program in 2013 to Spring 2024, with many having participated for four semesters resulting in a total of 4638 entries for examination.

We compared motivations for achievement, power, and affiliation from the group of student engineers to the values for other populations from published studies drawing on a range of writings. Findings show that the student engineers from this program use function words that align with: (1) achievement motivations more often, (2) power motivations less often, and (3) affiliation motivations about as often, in comparison to other populations. These results provide insights into the motivations, engagement, and persistence of student engineers in the program studied. Future work will disaggregate the data to examine the evolution of student engineers during their time in the program. Additionally, collecting and analyzing data from engineers in industry would provide a benchmark for comparison.

Authors

Dr. Jahnavi Dirisina Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Dr. Jahnavi Dirisina is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Integrated Engineering at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Her research interests are in the field of Cognitive Human Factors with applications in Engineering Education.
Mr. Rob Sleezer http://orcid.org/0000-0003-0753-2707 Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Rob Sleezer earned his Ph.D. in Microelectronics-Photonics from the University of Arkansas. He attended Oklahoma State University where he graduated with a B.S. in Computer Science and an M.S. and B.S. in Electrical Engineering. He is currently a faculty in the Twin Cities Engineering program of Minnesota State University, Mankato.
Dr. Yuezhou Wang http://orcid.org/0000-0003-1614-9590 Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Dr. Yuezhou Wang is an Associate Professor in the Iron Range Engineering and Twin Cities Engineering programs at Minnesota State University, Mankato. He earned a B.S. in Mechanical Engineering from Shanghai Jiao Tong University (2008) and a Ph.D. in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities (2017). His teaching spans materials science, structural analysis, finite-element modeling, and dynamic systems. His research combines multiscale modeling of nanofibers and carbon-nanotube materials with engineering-education studies that use learning-analytics to assess student motivation and entrepreneurially minded learning.
Emily Gresbrink http://orcid.org/https://0000-0002-1550-3474 Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Emily Gresbrink is an Assistant Professor of Technical Communication in the Integrated Engineering program, joining Minnesota State Mankato in 2024. She has a B.A. in journalism from the University of Wisconsin - Eau Claire with a minor in English literature. She earned an M.S. and Ph.D. in rhetoric, scientific, and technical communication from the University of Minnesota, with minors in health informatics and bioethics. Her research interests include digital risk & crisis communication, social justice, and technical communication, as well as generative artificial intelligence/language learning models in combination with structured authoring and intelligent content tools. Her work specifically addresses advocacy and amplification of marginalized perspectives and people, digital writing and content development in times of precarity & crisis, and ethics-driven discussions of generative artificial intelligence in the writing classroom. Her research has appeared in publications such as IEEE ProComm, The 39th ACM International Conference on Design of Communication (SIGDOC), and the edited collection UX as Innovative Academic Practice. In addition to her degrees, Emily has spent nearly ten years in the healthcare and manufacturing sectors in technical writing and administrative roles, most recently at The Toro Company as a service writer in the commercial division.
Jason A. Kaufman Minnesota State University, Mankato [biography]

Jason A. Kaufman, Ph.D., Ed.D., is a professor of educational leadership and director of the institutional review board at Minnesota State University, Mankato and a licensed psychologist. His teaching uses a lean and lab-rich approach to promote scientific thinking. His research explores the intersection of mind-body medicine and ecopsychology. His writing focuses on leadership development and space policy.
Samantha Mitchell Minnesota State University, Mankato

Note

The full paper will be available to logged in and registered conference attendees once the conference starts on June 21, 2026, and to all visitors after the conference ends on June 24, 2026

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