Project #1 Draft

TO: Civil Engineering Department
FROM: Lindsay Hall, Civil Engineering Student
DATE: July 18, 2005
SUBJECT: Technical Writing for Civil Engineering Students


The following report details my investigation of technical writing in the civil engineering field. The purpose of this investigation was to develop a Clemson University technical writing course specific for civil engineering students. This new course will be designed to give the students experience in the types of technical writing that they will experience in a civil engineering career. By covering real world scenarios, the students will become proficient in the technical writing skills that will be vital for their future in the work force.

Background: Technical Writing in Civil Engineering

When asked about their prospective on technical writing, Dr. Fishman’s class of Clemson students uniformly agreed that technical writing could best be described as a tool for the purpose of conveying information to a specific audience. This same group of students emphasized the importance of structure, clarity, and concise form for this type of writing.
As part of this group of students, I strongly agreed with their interpretation of technical writing. I do however believe that it can be taken a step further, and applied to a specific discipline such as civil engineering. Through my interview with Gary Hall, an owner of a Washington D.C. steel company, I learned that a great deal of correspondence exists between civil engineers and people outside of their field. Whether it is the architect, owner, or contractor, someone is usually requesting information from the engineers regarding details of a project. The challenge for the civil engineer is conveying the specifics in a manor that causes no confusion, but still portrays the needed information.
“In the construction industry”, stated Gary Hall, “you come across people of various backgrounds and knowledge. I have found that often in their writing, engineer’s come across so technical and detailed that people get lost. You can not assume that the person reading you proposal has the same knowledge of the project that you do, so it is your job as the engineer to bridge that gap in an understandable manor.” As we talked, Mr. Hall went on to express the importance of understanding one’s audience, and the ability to address that person in an appropriate form.
Before beginning my current internship at a Washington D.C. civil engineering firm, I would have assumed that my time would be spent punching numbers into a calculator, and not typing in front of a computer. However, within a few days, I found myself spending countless hours reviewing technical proposals for various D.C. projects. The technical proposals included everything from letters to the owners to a detailed schedule of the proposed project. These documents had to be edited time and time again, until they clearly conveyed the information at hand in a way that would be understandable to the average person. I realized within a short time at this firm that everything had a format, a specific structure that must be followed to the very last punctuation. This ”template” is intended to speed up the process of preparing a proposal, for we often need to meet a specific deadline. I watched in awe as other staff members fired out proposals with ease. I asked Adam Decker, a two year employee of the firm, what aided him in the improvement of his technical writing skills. “It is all a matter of being put into the situation”, said Adam. “The easiest way to learn something is to be forced to experience it first hand.”

Course Requirements:

Clemson University’s Civil Engineering program, while it provides classes in a number of areas, lacks instruction in technical writing for the engineering world. This is a class that should be implemented into the junior year curriculum, at a time when the students have a firm grasp on the concepts of engineering, but before they begin work on their senior project.

Course Overview:

This course should include assignments that pertain to, and include, the writing skills asked of engineers in the real world. Students will need to prepare technical proposals, formal letters, and memos. In addition, an important part of the class should be group work and peer editing. In the real world, a person will rarely be working alone on a project, so the ability to pull together and share ideas needs to be a major focus of the course. If students have not yet completed an internship in an engineering field, they should be expected to spend a day with a professional working in civil engineering, so that they can truly appreciate the need for strong technical writing skills. As I learned from talking with Adam Decker, the only way for a student to really understand what will be expected of them post college is to experience it first had.

Conclusions:

I strongly feel that Clemson civil engineering students are in need of a technical writing course tailored to their specific needs. A course within the department would expose the students to the types of writing that they will be faced with in their careers. In addition, they will learn to work with other engineers in a collaborative manor, much like the way things are done in the real world. By implementing this class in the student’s junior year at Clemson, they will already have a grasp on the civil engineering material and be ready to put their knowledge into writing. This course is truly necessary if professors at Clemson wish for the civil engineering students to be prepared for the twenty first century work place.