Abstract:

In the context of teaching in engineering, a progressive loss of quality in written expression in the elaboration of technical reports has been recently observed. However, due to the wide variety of subjects composing the curriculum of engineering degrees, devoting a full module for developing skills in writing technical documentation does not appear to be as a viable solution. On this ground, a peer-review system of written expression in engineering reports is proposed in the present work with the aim of making students more aware of the importance of presenting results as well as of elaborating technical documentation properly. More precisely, this peer-review system is developed in the context of laboratory practice in a module of Elasticity and Strength of Materials, where students must solve problems of this subject but with the use of numerical tools. For this purpose, the software SMath Studio is considered as it allows combining both text edition and numerical formulas while providing an elegant design to technical reports, which is the outcome of laboratory practice. The technical content of student reports is assessed by professors but the evaluation of the written expression is peer-reviewed after the student reports are randomly assigned to other students. As a result of the present study, more involvement of students with written expression is appreciated with this peer-review system as they analyse the quality of the presentation of results of their colleagues from the professor’s shoes.

Keywords:

Peer-review, written expression, engineering, technical reports.