Teaching Workplace Communication In Senior Design
Stephanie A. Jernigan, Garlie A. Forehand, Alexander B. Quinn, Judith Shaul Norback
Abstract
Many engineers who are well prepared technically for the workplace could enhance their workplace communication skills to help them get jobs and move up the ladder. The efforts detailed in this article apply job communicative analysis, a systematic process for identifying the communication needs of various jobs, to this end. The goal is the integration of workplace communication instruction into Senior Design and other undergraduate courses. Personal interviews with practicing engineers, supervisors, and CEOs have been conducted to obtain examples of written or presented materials. A set of criteria of communication excellence has been identified from the interview data and is being used in teaching workplace communication. This article includes highlights from a literature review of writing and presenting in engineering, the results from the job interviews, and an overview of the strategies used in teaching workplace communication in Senior Design. Concrete examples will be given in the presentation along with specific steps for replicating the work. The results will be made available for use in other institutions' undergraduate engineering curricula.