Technical Writing for Engineering

• The course is about technical writing for engineering

Evaluation Methods

• Mid-term examination: 20% of your grade, assesses written communication skills
• Final Examination: 60% of your grade, assesses written communication skills
• Homework: 5% of your grade
• Quizzes: 10% of your grade
• Seminars: 5% of your grade, assesses presentation skills

Common Types of Writing

• Narration: A story from an event or series of events, and usually involves a character in conflict
• Persuasion: Writing that aims to move the reader to support a point of view or idea through arguments, evidence, and emotional appeals
• Description: Aims to focus on creating a single dominant impression of a person, place, event, feeling, or idea with imagery and detail
• Exposition: Presents facts to a specific audience, defines unfamiliar terms, and generally avoids the writer's personal opinion

Creative Writing vs Technical Writing

• Goal of creative writing: evoke images and emotion using many descriptive words.
• Goal of technical writing: communicate facts, explain procedures, and critically evaluate concisely.

Technical Writing

• Technical writing conveys particular information for a specific purpose to a particular audience

Benefits

• Technical writing helps complete tasks and ensures work is not lost
• Writing technical reports concludes projects, transfers information, and increases job security
• Written reports do not change when transferred, unlike oral reports

Types of Technical Studies

• Focus on solving a problem
• Focus on developing something new
• Focus on failure analysis

Solving Problems

• Most technical professions aim to solve identified safety or health hazard problems
• Problems can be related to marketing, like reducing time to market
• Requires testing, calculations, or both

Engineering Project Steps

• State the problem and provide details
• Select one approach to solve the problem
• Research and experiment
• Analyze the data
• Decide if the problem is solved or more work is needed
• Write a report

Technical Assignment

• A type of technical assignment may entail developing something new: a material, process, machine, or product
• Management may essentially be asking for an invention for an assignment
• Projects often require effort, time, and talent

Feasibility Study Questions

• Market?
• Market stability?
• Equipment cost?
• Manpower requirements?
• Safety, government, health, and liability concerns?
• Return on investment?

General Methodology

• Laboratory projects are the closest a student gets to technical studies

Key elements for projects

• Proposing a project
• Gathering background information
• Planning project or test
• Conducting experiments
• Analyzing data, reach conclusions, making recommendations, and reporting

Technical Engineering Writing

• Technical writing clarifies, simplifies, and communicates ideas to a non-technical audience
• Non-technical readers may be executives, sales representatives, end-users, or consultants
• Communication improves inside companies

Importance of Technical Writing

• Engineers who transfer essential information improve communication
• Better team communication increases efficiency and productivity
• Employers value engineers with good communication and technical writing skills

Writing Strategy Tips

• Develop a writing strategy
• Direct your writing to specific individuals or groups
• Select appropriate readers

Readers

• Readers are important
• Select appropriate ones and write to them
• Consider your audience's time and needs in the workplace

Direction of Communication

• Upward: to supervisors who are busy
• Lateral: to peers who share the writer's expertise
• Downward: to subordinates, addressing increasing productivity and income
• Outward: to customers, stockholders, the government, and others

Technical Documents

• Technical documents can be formal or informal
• Formal documents are archived
• Informal documents can be transient or archived

Formal Documents

• Patents, published works, and technical reports
• Journal publications, thesis papers, and book contribution
• Proposals, specifications, and investigation results

Informal Documents

• Technical memorandum: trip reports, safety notes, budget status, organization change, and letters
• Informal reports: test reports, small studies, and evaluations

Technical Memoranda

• Projects and studies are concluded by formal or informal reports
• Readership and retention depends on the situation
• Safety notes are technical memoranda in many manufacturing organizations

Informal Reports

• Laboratory reports
• Reports on bolt failures involving lab work
• Laboratory testing report

Technical Paper

• A technical paper publishes to an archival journal
• "Archival" means the work becomes permanent literature in libraries indefinitely
• Select a technical paper report option when the work is valuable and adds to cumulative knowledge Technical papers generally have a standardized style and format

Basic Principles of Good Technical Writing

• The writer must target a specific reader or group
• The writer decides on a specific purpose for the report

Key Aspects of Technical Writing

• Accuracy and clarity
• Conciseness and readability
• Usability and correctness
• Key "Four C's": Clear, Concise, Correct, and Careful

What to Avoid in Technical Writing

• Do not use "I"
• Avoid phrases like "Increasing the temperature caused a large change in the reaction rate"

Types of Technical Media

• Written and oral reports
• Business letters
• Articles for technical journals or books
• Abstracts and graphic aids
• Handbooks, brochures, and specifications

Technical Report Outline

• Title
• Abstract
• Introduction
• Body
• Results
• Discussion
• Conclusion
• Acknowledgments
• References

Writing a Title

• Capitalize the letters
• Do not use a full stop

Title Examples

• "How to Increase the Productivity in Weaving Mill"
• "The Importance of Textile Material in Marine Equipment"
• "Can Textile Industry in Egypt Survive in The Global Market"