Writing Mer331 Lab Prof Anderson How well you communicate is important Successful engineers spent 25 of work week writing Richard M Davis Technical Writing Its Importance in the Engineering Profession and Its Place in the Engineering Curriculum ID: 312243
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Technical WritingMer331 LabProf AndersonSlide2
How well you communicate is importantSuccessful engineers spent 25% of work week writingRichard M. Davis, Technical Writing: Its Importance in the Engineering Profession and Its Place in the Engineering Curriculum, AFIT TR 75-5 (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1975).Professional engineers found writing their most useful subject in collegeDean John G. Bollinger, “Alumni Survey Results,” Perspective (Madison: College of Engin. U. of Wisconsin, Summer 1994), p. 2.
Recruiters claim that engineers need more work on their writing
Virginia Tech, College of Engineering, “Summary Report of Employer Focus Group” (October 2000).Slide3
How well you communicate is importantUNION COLLEGE Alumni claim it as one of the most important things in their jobs…*Percent of respondent ratings of Extremely or Very Important (2010 ME Alumni Survey)Slide4
Engineers are called upon to communicate in many different situations (AUDIENCE)
specific
technical
audiences
non-technical
audiences
general
technical
audiences
What:
Reports
Articles
Proposals
Web Pages
Where
:
ConferencesLecturesMeetingsPosters
Coming up with a set of rules to handle every situation is difficult (but not impossible!)
Analyze
each situation and decide upon the best way to communicate in that situationSlide5
Technical writing differs from other kinds of writing1. Subject Matter2. Writing Constraints
audience
purpose
occasion
2. Purpose of Writing
To inform
To persuade
4. Writing Style
In scientific writing, the most important goal of language is
precision-
-a goal that poets sometimes subordinate for the sake of rhythm. (Alley, 1996)Slide6
Three aspects of writing affect the way that readers assess your documentsContent: the message givenStyle: the way you communicate the content to the reader. Style comprises structure, language, and illustration.Form: the appearance of the writing (grammar, punct-uation
, usage, spelling, and format)
Hierarchy of writing
Don’t equate a small aspect of form such as using a contraction with a serious mistake in content such as leaving out important information, or style, such as not emphasizing the most important result. Slide7
Advice for writing a good labStep 1: In the Lab
Do the lab work carefully. Good answers start with good data.
Keep good lab notes. You never know what will be important to remember later.
Check your data before you leave the lab. It’s much easier to repeat measurements while the experiment is set up!Slide8
Step 2:Get to know your dataUnderstand the technical aspects of the experiment and how to reduce the data
Understand
the uncertainties and
limit-
ations
of the measurements
Look at the data in
MANY
different ways (plot things like measurement versus time, etc.)
Ask yourself questions about the data
Listen to what the data is trying to tell you!Slide9
Step 3: Identify your audience and primary messageAudienceWho they are? What do they know? Why
they will
read this? How
they will
read this?
What does your audience need to get out of this document?
Information/data/specific result
Recommendations
How
can I help them
get
what they need from this document
?
Organization, Figures/Illustrations
Is there anything I want to tell them? Will they care?Slide10
Step 4: Figure out what you need to include in the reportBrainstorm: Make a list of everything that you need include in the report but don’t evaluate or organize, just let it all flow out
Evaluate
: Check the list - is
everything there that needs to
be there? Are there things
that
do
not
need to be there?Slide11
Step 5: Organize IdeasFormat often provides a rough outlineReview the purpose for each section in your outline or format
what is an introduction for, what is an abstract for, etc. (see course web page)
Step
6:
Write a Draft
work
section by section
don’t worry about redundancy (yet)
Free
write …
get
it all
your ideas down
, don’t try to make it perfectSlide12
Step 7: Set it Aside
The importance of this step cannot be over emphasized!
Your brain
thinks that the way it wrote it is the right way. (that’s why it wrote it that way) … give it a chance to forget.
This
is why you can’t write a great lab the night before it is due!Slide13
Step 8: Proofread / Edit / ReviseNote: These are 3 different activities
Are there mistakes? Can sentences be improved? Can the organization be improved? Is the emphasis correct? Do figures/tables work well to present the data and back up any conclusions? Etc.
Tips:
Read
it
backwards, don’t
count on spell
check, have
someone else read
it, use
a style manual Slide14
And finally….Put it aside, Proofread/Edit/RevisePut it aside, Proofread/Edit/Revise
And so on….it can always be improvedSlide15
Some Good References:Course Webpage – review format!Writing Guidelines for Engineering and Science Students http://www.writing.engr.psu.edu/ Labwrite (a website designed to help you improve your writing): http://labwrite.ncsu.edu/ (we will use this in lab).
The Craft of Scientific
Writing,
Michael Alley
3rd edition (Springer-
Verlag
, 1996)