A need analysis of technical writing skill of engineering students in India

¹ PhD Research Scholar, Department of English, Sathyabama University Chennai, India
² Associate Professor, Department of English, Madras Christian College Chennai, India

^a Corresponding author: evangeline.jck@gmail.com

Abstract

The development of Science and Technology has bolstered the use of English Language around the world. The purpose of teaching English to non-native speakers of English is to help them in communicating, and more precisely sharing knowledge and information with speakers of other languages. In the field of higher education, the learners need English for Academic purposes (EAP) and learn to use it later for occupational purposes (EOP). Students who had their primary education in English, manage to cope up with this way of the world; whereas students from sub-standard schools or vernacular medium of instruction, many times find it very difficult to cope up with the trend. This paper analyses the need to teach technical writing as a course to students of technical education in order to make them competent in academics and later in their work place. A few sample technical writing papers have been assessed and added to substantiate the need for educating students in technical writing skill. A review of literature and available ESP courses have been done to analyse the present strategies in teaching writing. A course was designed and tried to improve technical writing skill of students of higher education.