Using draft reviews to improve writing and thinking in engineering classes

Although faculty-student conferencing on papers and reports is common practice in composition classes, many engineering faculty are reluctant to try it. This paper describes the draft review conferencing process developed in the chemical engineering unit operations field session at the Colorado School of Mines. Since draft reviews were introduced, engineering faculty report improvement in students' writing skills, a dramatic decrease in the amount of time required to grade final reports, and far less frustration with the organisation and technical content of student reports. Students are very satisfied with the draft reviews as well, many of them describing the process as the 'best' aspect of their field session. In this paper the author describes the genesis and implementation of their draft review process, provides an example of such a review, and discusses the advantages and disadvantages of using draft reviews in engineering classes.