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Technical Writing Mer331 Lab Prof Anderson

Technical Writing Mer331 Lab Prof Anderson. How well you communicate is important. Successful engineers spent 25% of work week writing

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Technical Writing Mer331 Lab Prof Anderson

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  1. Technical Writing Mer331 Lab Prof Anderson

  2. 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, AFIT TR 75-5 (Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio: Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, 1975). • Professional engineers found writing their most useful subject in college • Dean 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).

  3. How well you communicate is important • UNION 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)

  4. specific technical audiences general technical audiences non-technical audiences Engineers are called upon to communicate in many different situations (AUDIENCE) What: Reports Articles Proposals Web Pages Where: Conferences Lectures Meetings Posters • 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 situation

  5. 2. Writing Constraints audience occasion purpose 2. Purpose of Writing To inform To persuade Technical writing differs from other kinds of writing 1. Subject Matter 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)

  6. Three aspects of writing affect the way that readers assess your documents Content: the message given Style: 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.

  7. Advice for writing a good lab Step 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!

  8. Step 2:Get to know your data • Understand the technical aspects of the experiment and how to reduce the data • Understand the uncertainties and limit-ationsof 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!

  9. Step 3: Identify your audience and primary message • Audience • Who 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?

  10. Step 4: Figure out what you need to include in the report • Brainstorm: 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?

  11. Step 5: Organize Ideas • Format often provides a rough outline • Review 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 perfect

  12. 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!

  13. Step 8: Proofread / Edit / Revise • Note: 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

  14. And finally…. • Put it aside, Proofread/Edit/Revise • Put it aside, Proofread/Edit/Revise • And so on….it can always be improved

  15. 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)

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