Volunteer expert readers: Drawing on the university community to provide professional feedback for engineering student writers
Abstract
This paper reports on a 3-year study utilizing a novel approach to providing students
in an introductory engineering course with feedback on drafts of course writing projects.
In the Volunteer Expert Reader (VER) approach, students are matched with university
alumni or employees who have the background to give feedback from the perspective
of the target audience for their writing. Data suggest that VER can increase student
engagement in engineering course writing assignments and may improve the quality of
student writing. Factors most affecting successful implementation include whether
student participation is required or optional and whether readers are matched with
individual students or with a student team. Other factors may include the type of
assignment, whether volunteers' backgrounds are a good fit for the type of writing,
and whether readers can respond to student drafts in a timely fashion.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/19383Collections
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Show full item recordScholars@Duke
Cary Moskovitz
Professor of the Practice in the Thompson Writing Program
Cary Moskovitz is Director of Writing in the Disciplines in the Thompson Writing Program.
He also directs the Duke Reader Project and the Text Recycling Research Project.

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