Interview Summary

Kevin Walsh, an electrical engineering professor at the University of Louisville, says that writing is an important part of his every day work. He is constantly having to write up lesson plans and power points in order to better enhance his students’ ability to learn in the classroom. He uses paraphrasing and summarizing skills he has learned in order to create study guides and reviews of units and chapters for his students. He says these skills are important because they allow him to give his students the information they need to know without spending too much time wasted on writing information that is not needed. Not only does he need these writing skills to make lesson plans for University of Louisville students, but he also teaches online classes for students at other colleges via a program he says is similar to skype. This program works by students “skyping in” to his lectures and getting notes from him that way. For this program, writing skills are important because he cannot communicate face-to-face with these students, and many communication is done via email. He has needed to learn how to communicate his lessons through his writing in ways that are both as simple and clear as can be.