Engineers and Writing

1. Engineers and Writing Professional engineers write a lot. Professional engineers write a variety of documents. Successful engineering careers require strong writing skills. Strong writing skills can be learned—like any task.

2. Importance of Writing as an Engineer • Engineers spend 20 to 40% of their working hours writing. • At a salary of $60,000, that’s $24,000 a year for writing. • Communicate new or improved design ideas. • Communicate effectively with the public.

3. Writing Problems • Historically, only 5% of engineering education focused on writing or communication in general. • Noise in the system (outside factors affecting communication)

4. Communication SystemContent/Context Noise possibilities Message Encoder Channel Decoder

5. Communication System: Noise Content/Context Noise Message Encoder Channel Decoder

6. Sources of Noise • Punctuation, grammar, usage errors • Wordiness, lack of emphasis • Word-choice problems • Audience-adaptation problems • Failure to achieve document’s purpose