Interview with Tom DeLyser
Rebekah Shultz Colby

Ron DeLyser is an associate professor of electrical engineering whose research interests include not only the study of periodic gratings used as antennas as well as high power microwave interactions with large complex cavities, but also engineering pedagogy and outcomes based assessment. Instead of just lecturing, he encourages students to actively learn engineering concepts through collaborative problem-solving. One of the ways in which he currently brings his pedagogical interests into play is by serving on the faculty core committee.

Rebekah Shultz Colby: What do you think is the role that writing plays in learning for undergraduate education in general?
Ron DeLyser: Well, I think writing plays at least two roles. First of all, writing helps to find out what is in the students brain. In engineering especially, when [students] are asked to solve problems, they have to communicate that to you, and its not only equations and methods, but its about how they go about solving problems. Writing helps students in problem solving by forcing organization and a giving a visual feedback to the brain on how well they are doing at communicating. I use the word "communication" in the fullest sense of the word. In engineering jargon, information is transmitted, received, and processed in context.

I also use a collaborative setting so that students can use other students (as well as me) as sounding boards. It is always beneficial to hear from others in your peer group as well as the professor. I am always amazed when I listen in on conversations of teams when they are doing their group work. Sometimes students can explain things much better than professors because their experience set is much closer to their peers than is the professor's experience set.

The other role that writing plays in student learning is that we as engineers have to be able to communicate with people who are not engineers in real life, when we get out there in the real world. So, [students] go through four years of college and they have all this engineering jargon down really well, but when it comes time to tell a manager who has a business degree about their project and how well its doing, its a different story. So, [the ability to communicate is] very important not only [orally] but [in writing]. I use writing myself a lot to gather my ideas and organize things. If Im going to be talking to people who are not engineers, I need to get that organized and really get into my mind what I want to say. So, writing is one vehicle for that.

So, how do you use writing in your own teaching?
Well, I do have my students do a lot of problems in engineering classes. They do a lot of problems. But I insist that they put a narrative in with their problem/solutions. Even when I use a mathematical tool like Mathcad, it is capable of [incorporating] a lot of written text. So, Im constantly telling my students: More narrative, more narrative. Tell me what youre doing. Its got to be organized.

So, what are some of the issues that you are seeing in their writing so far?
I have [assigned] an outline in my Core class. I wasnt too impressed with [students] outlines. When I say outline, Im thinking of an outline like when I was in high school, which was a few years ago, with a roman numeral one, roman numeral two, roman numeral three for the main topics, and A, B, C under those topics, and maybe 1, 2, 3 under those topics, and you write an outline. I thought that that was what I was asking for. I did not get that in all cases. In fact, I got a short essay in one case.
The purpose of the outline was for me to see what they were thinking about putting in the paper and the organization. So, those two things. I wanted to know what was going on before they actually wrote the essay so I could comment. You know, [tell students to] emphasize this more, emphasize this less. What Im looking for [in this course] is in broad terms as opposed to a writing intensive course where I would actually have them write the essay, and then review the essay, and then turn it back. So, I was just using the outline [as a basis] for them to tell me what they were thinking about, so I could [comment on it].

Actually, [in the outline,] one student, only one, went outside the organization that was basically laid out in the assignment statement, and did it very uniquely and very nicely and very differently. But I was a little surprised that only one out of 25 students would think outside the box like that and do something a little different, organizing it a little differently, but at the same time it was well organized. The material and format were better than what I was suggesting.

In your experience teaching engineering students, do they usually have any other issues with their writing?
We have acronyms for certain things, and they have a tendency to use those acronyms without defining them. Theyre also not good at referencing. I teach my students, Any time you start saying something thats not your own, you need to reference it. I think thats the worst thing. The worst fault of students is that they dont reference enough. . . . I kind of think [students forget to reference out of] laziness. It takes effort to cite things. . . . [But] its not all that difficult if you use a word processor. You can cross reference and put your references in order. Its not that tough.

How would you describe your own writing process when you write?
I always use the computer. I go to the computer and I just start writing. And if I think of something that might go in a different location, I just start a new section and start writing there. Typically though I have things pretty much organized in my head, and I will lay it out by heading first, and then start filling it in. I usually go from top to bottom. Once in awhile, Ill think of something and [think], I want to make a good point of that in the conclusion, when Im writing this. So, I go to the conclusion and make some points there. So, the computer really helps with that process because Im a visual type of person. I want to see what Im writing. I cant just think of the whole thing in my head right paragraph after paragraph after paragraph. So, [writing is] a spotty kind of thing for me.

I do that with PowerPoint presentations also. I keep thinking, Well, that should go in this different location. You know, I have a textbook here, and Im developing a PowerPoint presentation, and I thought, This should be organized a little bit differently, so Ill organize it by the PowerPoint and throw in the information as I go along in different locations. . . . A presentation that would [address] a non-technical audience is where I would be switching things around, trying to figure out what I actually want to say to them. I want to be sure to communicate well.

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