Developing strategies for teaching writing and literature to the technology student

The task of teaching humanities courses at an institute of technology can be a difficult one. Even as freshman, engineering and technology students tend to have very focused career objectives. It is not always clear to this type of student why he or she should invest valuable time and money on a subject like writing or literature that has no clear relevance to his or her major, no clear application to his or her area of expertise. For those of us who teach writing and literature, of course, the "validity" of the humanities is quite clear-perhaps too clear in some cases. The real challenge, then, is how to communicate the value of our discipline to our students who are majoring in other disciplines. This work-in-progress seeks to identify academic, administrative, technical, and interdisciplinary challenges specific to teaching humanities at a technological institution.