Improving students' writing skills by integrating prototyping activities in their writing course

Writing is the most important means of communication in the engineering field. Although understanding the content of an engineering discipline is very important, engineers become much more appreciated if they know how to convey their expertise to a variety of audiences. This paper reports on a collaboration between a writing professor and Engineering Enrichment Program at an international branch campus in the Middle East. over the course of three semesters, a technical and business writing course was redesigned by integrating prototyping, collaboration, and entrepreneurship skills. Drawing upon survey data, we evaluate the effectiveness of our interdisciplinary, integrated approach to engineering education. From the perspective of writing and communication, students gained a stronger understanding of workplace audiences and expectations. Additionally, the experiential learning focus in the course engaged students in deeper reflective practices in both writing and engineering. We conclude with recommendations for others redesigning courses and curricula for 21^st century literacies and global entrepreneurship. We also examine future directions for the course in the coming years.