Finding the Balance: A Technical Writing Assignment During a Co-op Work Experience

The mandatory three semester co-op work experience in the engineering programs at Grand Valley State University allows students to apply their education to real engineering situations. As part of the regular assessment of the co-op work experiences, site visits are held between faculty, students, and the employers. It has very often been noted by employer supervisors that students perform well technically but still lack polish communicating in a professional setting. To address this, a project was launched to incorporate online writing instruction as academic content associated with the Co-op II semester, with a technical proposal writing assignment as the major product. Finding balance has been a recurring challenge throughout this curriculum design project. Constant attention to balance in designing and revising the course has attempted to best meet the needs of students, faculty, disciplinary and overall institutional curriculum, and industry partners