Synopses & Reviews
What’s the signal-to-noise ratio in your communication?To succeed as an engineer, you need more than technical know-how. You need to be an effective communicator. Eliminate the glitches that trip up the busy reader or listener, causing annoyance, confusion, or misunderstanding—so that your writing and speech are crystal clear.
Written for engineers and students of engineering, A Guide to Writing as an Engineer, Third Edition focuses on the technical writing and speaking issues you will face in your day-to-day work such as reports, business letters, office memoranda, proposals, emails, presentations, and more. You’ll learn how to:
- Eliminate the “noise”—grammatical errors, typos, poor organization, and unclear phrasing from your writing
- Create effective professional engineering documents, such as inspection and trip reports, laboratory reports, specifications, progress reports, proposals, instructions, and recommendation reports
- Communicate visually with PowerPoint and other graphic tools
- Stand out from the crowd with better application letters and resumes
- Deliver oral presentations and speeches with confidence
- Avoid plagiarism and other ethical pitfalls that engineering writers encounter
With updates on handling new media, from email and PDFs to wikis, forums, blogs, and social media, the Third Edition of A Guide to Writing as an Engineer will make your communication as impressive as your ideas.
Synopsis
This invaluable resource guides engineers through the technical writing issues that they must know in order to succeed in the field. The third edition includes numerous new examples integrated throughout the chapters that illustrate content, organization, and format of different types of documents. New material on the useful aspects of passive voice is added, such as when the actor is known/obvious and when emphasis needs to be on the recipient of the action. Discussions are included on plagiarism, ethics, and citing material properly. In order to accomplish this, the IEEE system of documenting sources is presented. Engineers will also benefit from the startup help for using PowerPoint or other software for their presentations as well as strategies for using such materials.
About the Author
DAVID BEER is professor of Electrical Engineering at the University of Texas Austin.
DAVID McMURREY is a technical writer from industry, most recently with IBM. This combination of academic and industry perspective gives this book its broad perspective covering all aspects of writing, from academic research to effective corporate communication.
Table of Contents
1. Engineers and Writing.EngineersWrite a Lot.
EngineersWrite Many Kinds of Documents.
A Successful Engineering Career Requires Strong Writing Skills.
Engineers Can Learn to Write Well.
Noise and the Communication Process.
Controlling the Writing System.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
2. Eliminating Sporadic Noise in Engineering Writing.
Spelling and Spell Checkers.
Punctuation.
Sentence Sense.
Technical Usage.
Edit, Edit, Edit.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
3. Guidelines for Writing Noise-Free Engineering Documents.
Focus onWhyYou AreWriting.
Focus on Your Readers.
Satisfy Document Specifications.
Get to the Point.
Provide Accurate Information.
Present Your Material Logically.
Make Your Ideas Accessible.
Use Lists for Some Information.
Format Your Pages Carefully.
Express Yourself Clearly.
Use Efficient Wording.
Manage Your Time Efficiently.
Edit at Different Levels.
Share the Load: Write as a Team.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
4. Letters, Memoranda, Email, and Other Media for Engineers.
Which to Use?
Business Letters.
Business Memoranda.
Email.
New Internet Media.
Writing Styles for Business Correspondence.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
5. Writing Common Engineering Documents.
Some Preliminaries.
Inspection and Trip Reports.
Laboratory and Field Reports.
Specifications.
Proposals.
Progress Reports.
Instructions.
Recommendation Reports.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
6. Writing an Engineering Report.
Letter of Transmittal.
Cover and Label.
Page Numbering.
Abstract and Executive Summary.
Table of Contents.
List of Figures and Tables.
Introduction.
Body of the Report.
Conclusions.
Appendixes.
Documentation.
Generating Portable Document Files.
Using Wikis and Other Applications for Team Reports.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
7. Constructing Engineering Tables and Graphics.
Tables.
Charts and Graphs.
Illustrations.
Graphics and Tables: Guidelines.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
8. Accessing Engineering Information.
Basic Search Strategies.
Sources of Engineering Information.
Internet Engineering Information Resources.
Internet Search Tools.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
9. Engineering Your Speaking.
Preparing the Presentation.
Delivering the Presentation.
Team Presentations.
Checklist for an Oral Presentation.
Listening to a Presentation.
The Importance of Informal Communication.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
10. Writing to Get an Engineering Job.
How to Write an Engineering Resume.
How to Write an Application Letter.
How to Write a Follow-Up Letter.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
11. Ethics and Documentation in Engineering Writing.
Engineering Ethics.
The Ethics of Honest Research.
Exercises.
Bibliography.
Index.