Individual project one-Final draft
To: Clemson University Engineering Committee
From: David Floyd, Mechanical Engineer, E.I.T. DTF
Date: June 2, 2008
Subject: Proposed Course in Technical Writing
As requested, I have investigated and found some major points that would help create a writing course for mechanical engineers.
The purpose of this course is to help mechanical engineering students become more effective at technical writing in their field and to overcome the many communication barriers and challenges in the field they will face. This will help the students know which subjects could help them succeed in communicating more efficiently.
This course would inform them of what mechanical engineers need to know about technical writing before going into “the real world.” Technical writing is an attempt to capture technology or a process and being able to put it into a format that others can view and understand at a later time.
Simplicity is Key
In this class, one would be able to clearly and quickly make one’s point so that valuable time is not wasted struggling through unnecessarily burdensome language. The students would also learn to be very specific and to avoid speaking too vaguely, as using generalized language is not precise and, therefore, least likely to provide the audience with an opportunity to fully understand the topic. If no one can understand the speaker, then he is wasting his own time as well as the time of the audience.
Addressing an Audience
If an engineer is to communicate quickly, he may have to use jargon specific to the topic he is talking about; however, he must be aware of his audience and be confident that his whole audience will be aware of what the words or phrases mean (Bly, “Ten Ways to Improve Your Technical Writing”). Engineering students, therefore, must learn how to address the specific audience to whom they are each writing. Each must also be able to write in such a way that the particular audience will be able to understand the subject matter.
Ultimately, most engineering courses required for all engineering students to take will provide these students with a shared base knowledge. This base knowledge provides the students with also a shared vocabulary, allowing both engineers and engineering students to easily communicate with one another. Students, however, must learn how to communicate to the layperson as well. I have witnessed many engineers unsuccessfully try to explain something to a non-technical person. Their failure is primarily because they could not communicate on the same level as their non-technical audience. All engineers, therefore, should know how to communicate to the layperson in a clear, effective manner.
Visual Tools
One effective way to easily communicate to both the layperson and other engineers is by utilizing visual tools. Indeed, students must learn that one of the main concepts they should take away from this class is the idea of using pictures instead of words. In this course, one would learn to use visual tools, such as pictures and graphs, because they are usually more effective than a chart is, as a chart has to be read but a graph can be quickly understood by simply observing it. As my manager at Kemet Electronics, Jason Burns, once said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If one is late to the presenters’ meeting, one is able to pick up the information quickly by observing a graph; however, if one has to read a slide full of bullet points, he may never catch up on the topic about which the presenter is discussing. The course would emphasize that at any possible time a graph or a picture should be used over bullet points or paragraphs primarily because the attention span of many people is very short. Furthermore, if the engineer expects his audience to read many bullet points, he runs the risk of overwhelming or even confusing most of his audience. If he uses pictures that help stimulate the brain, however, a more efficient presentation will result.
In this class, a student would also learn how to explain graphs and charts effectively, should the occasion arise that the engineer must teach someone how to read a graph. They should be able to explain this quickly, so that time is not wasted. There have been many times when I have made a power point presentation and emailed it to my boss who finds something in it that he does not like. He then has to tell what is wrong with the power point slides and I have to correct them and email it back to him. For instance, my first power point presentation was littered with cumbersome jargon and little pictures or graphs. Because of this poor communication, I had to redo this presentation several times as my boss felt I needed to cut out more and more of those confusing bullet points. One can see from this example just how much time and energy was wasted simply because I did not communicate and properly use technical writing to the fullest extent. My example demonstrates the importance of using visual tools and that this, as a major point, will be emphasized in class so as to avoid wasted time up front.
Universal Skills
The course would also emphasize which other subjects would help one in one’s technical writing skills such as statistics because of how many graphs and plots the subject covers. It would also inform the students of other elective classes that are not required but will help, such as the Six Sigma Program class. This class, again, utilizes even more charts and graphs and can be easily communicated to other engineers.
In a personal interview conducted on May 23rd, 2008, Bobby Schultz, a process engineer at Kemet Electronics, suggested that engineers must also learn how important it is to do other things outside of the workplace, such as “wood working or other creative hobbies.” This helps to stimulate the brain in other areas and can help one be creative when creating a power point for an audience for work. This also helps to eliminate stress which can clear the brain and help creativity. (Schultz, Personal Interview, 23 May 2008). The class would explore some other possible hobbies such as fishing rod crafting and building computers. While the class will not go in depth into these hobbies, it will provide the students with ideas of hobbies that they might like that will help them succeed.
The course would prepare students for the workplace because many engineers are being hired because of their technical writing and communication skills. As my professor, Dr. Rio Chio, once said in class, “every engineer knows the basic concepts. This is [the] basic principles of engineering, and is expected of every engineer.” The engineer must be able to write and communicate quickly and efficiently if he wants to succeed in the workplace.
Conclusions and Recommendations
This course would help mechanical engineers clearly and effectively be able to communicate to others in their field, both to technical and non-technical people. It would emphasize all the points that I have found useful in the real world and points that other people have provided as well.
I would recommend that all students take statistics before this course so that the instructor would not have to explain how the graphs work and would be able to immediately start on teaching the core of the course. They should also know at least the basics of working with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point.
I would also recommend that the teacher for this course be able to communicate effectively, both technically and non-technically.
Works Cited
Schultz, Bobby. Personal Interview. 23 May 2008.
Bly, Robert. “Ten Ways to Improve Your Technical Writing.” 30 May 2008..
From: David Floyd, Mechanical Engineer, E.I.T. DTF
Date: June 2, 2008
Subject: Proposed Course in Technical Writing
As requested, I have investigated and found some major points that would help create a writing course for mechanical engineers.
The purpose of this course is to help mechanical engineering students become more effective at technical writing in their field and to overcome the many communication barriers and challenges in the field they will face. This will help the students know which subjects could help them succeed in communicating more efficiently.
This course would inform them of what mechanical engineers need to know about technical writing before going into “the real world.” Technical writing is an attempt to capture technology or a process and being able to put it into a format that others can view and understand at a later time.
Simplicity is Key
In this class, one would be able to clearly and quickly make one’s point so that valuable time is not wasted struggling through unnecessarily burdensome language. The students would also learn to be very specific and to avoid speaking too vaguely, as using generalized language is not precise and, therefore, least likely to provide the audience with an opportunity to fully understand the topic. If no one can understand the speaker, then he is wasting his own time as well as the time of the audience.
Addressing an Audience
If an engineer is to communicate quickly, he may have to use jargon specific to the topic he is talking about; however, he must be aware of his audience and be confident that his whole audience will be aware of what the words or phrases mean (Bly, “Ten Ways to Improve Your Technical Writing”). Engineering students, therefore, must learn how to address the specific audience to whom they are each writing. Each must also be able to write in such a way that the particular audience will be able to understand the subject matter.
Ultimately, most engineering courses required for all engineering students to take will provide these students with a shared base knowledge. This base knowledge provides the students with also a shared vocabulary, allowing both engineers and engineering students to easily communicate with one another. Students, however, must learn how to communicate to the layperson as well. I have witnessed many engineers unsuccessfully try to explain something to a non-technical person. Their failure is primarily because they could not communicate on the same level as their non-technical audience. All engineers, therefore, should know how to communicate to the layperson in a clear, effective manner.
Visual Tools
One effective way to easily communicate to both the layperson and other engineers is by utilizing visual tools. Indeed, students must learn that one of the main concepts they should take away from this class is the idea of using pictures instead of words. In this course, one would learn to use visual tools, such as pictures and graphs, because they are usually more effective than a chart is, as a chart has to be read but a graph can be quickly understood by simply observing it. As my manager at Kemet Electronics, Jason Burns, once said “a picture is worth a thousand words.” If one is late to the presenters’ meeting, one is able to pick up the information quickly by observing a graph; however, if one has to read a slide full of bullet points, he may never catch up on the topic about which the presenter is discussing. The course would emphasize that at any possible time a graph or a picture should be used over bullet points or paragraphs primarily because the attention span of many people is very short. Furthermore, if the engineer expects his audience to read many bullet points, he runs the risk of overwhelming or even confusing most of his audience. If he uses pictures that help stimulate the brain, however, a more efficient presentation will result.
In this class, a student would also learn how to explain graphs and charts effectively, should the occasion arise that the engineer must teach someone how to read a graph. They should be able to explain this quickly, so that time is not wasted. There have been many times when I have made a power point presentation and emailed it to my boss who finds something in it that he does not like. He then has to tell what is wrong with the power point slides and I have to correct them and email it back to him. For instance, my first power point presentation was littered with cumbersome jargon and little pictures or graphs. Because of this poor communication, I had to redo this presentation several times as my boss felt I needed to cut out more and more of those confusing bullet points. One can see from this example just how much time and energy was wasted simply because I did not communicate and properly use technical writing to the fullest extent. My example demonstrates the importance of using visual tools and that this, as a major point, will be emphasized in class so as to avoid wasted time up front.
Universal Skills
The course would also emphasize which other subjects would help one in one’s technical writing skills such as statistics because of how many graphs and plots the subject covers. It would also inform the students of other elective classes that are not required but will help, such as the Six Sigma Program class. This class, again, utilizes even more charts and graphs and can be easily communicated to other engineers.
In a personal interview conducted on May 23rd, 2008, Bobby Schultz, a process engineer at Kemet Electronics, suggested that engineers must also learn how important it is to do other things outside of the workplace, such as “wood working or other creative hobbies.” This helps to stimulate the brain in other areas and can help one be creative when creating a power point for an audience for work. This also helps to eliminate stress which can clear the brain and help creativity. (Schultz, Personal Interview, 23 May 2008). The class would explore some other possible hobbies such as fishing rod crafting and building computers. While the class will not go in depth into these hobbies, it will provide the students with ideas of hobbies that they might like that will help them succeed.
The course would prepare students for the workplace because many engineers are being hired because of their technical writing and communication skills. As my professor, Dr. Rio Chio, once said in class, “every engineer knows the basic concepts. This is [the] basic principles of engineering, and is expected of every engineer.” The engineer must be able to write and communicate quickly and efficiently if he wants to succeed in the workplace.
Conclusions and Recommendations
This course would help mechanical engineers clearly and effectively be able to communicate to others in their field, both to technical and non-technical people. It would emphasize all the points that I have found useful in the real world and points that other people have provided as well.
I would recommend that all students take statistics before this course so that the instructor would not have to explain how the graphs work and would be able to immediately start on teaching the core of the course. They should also know at least the basics of working with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft Power Point.
I would also recommend that the teacher for this course be able to communicate effectively, both technically and non-technically.
Works Cited
Schultz, Bobby. Personal Interview. 23 May 2008.
Bly, Robert. “Ten Ways to Improve Your Technical Writing.” 30 May 2008.
posted by David Floyd at 6/23/2008 05:33:00 PM
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