A guide to writing as an engineer

Cover Page......Page 1
Title Page......Page 5
Copyright Page......Page 6
PREFACE......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 11
1. ENGINEERS AND WRITING......Page 15
Engineers Write a Lot......Page 16
Engineers Write Many Kinds of Documents......Page 18
A Successful Engineering Career Requires Strong Writing Skills......Page 19
Engineers Can Learn to Write Well......Page 20
Noise and the Communication Process......Page 21
Controlling the Writing System......Page 23
Bibliography......Page 25
2. ELIMINATING SPORADIC NOISE IN ENGINEERING WRITING......Page 27
Spelling and Spell Checkers......Page 28
COMMAS......Page 29
COLONS......Page 32
DASHES......Page 33
HYPHENS
......Page 34
EXCLAMATION POINTS
......Page 35
QUOTATION MARKS
......Page 36
CONNECTING SUBJECTIVES TO VERBS
......Page 37
MODIFIERS
......Page 38
UNCLEAR PRONOUNS......Page 39
PARALLELISM
......Page 40
FRAGMENTS
......Page 41
ACTIVE OR PASSIVE VOICE?
......Page 42
TWO LATIN LEGACIES
......Page 46
TRANSITIONS
......Page 47
SENTENCE LENGTH
......Page 48
USEFUL JARGON
......Page 49
ABBREVIATIONS
......Page 50
NUMBERS
......Page 51
UNITS OF MEASUREMENT......Page 53
EQUATIONS
......Page 55
Edit, Edit, Edit......Page 56
Exercises......Page 57
Bibliography......Page 58
3. GUIDELINES FOR WRITING NOISE-FREE ENGINEERING DOCUMENTS......Page 59
Focus on Why You Are Writing......Page 60
Focus on Your Readers......Page 61
Satisfy Document Specifications......Page 63
Get to the Point......Page 64
Provide Accurate Information......Page 65
Make Your Ideas Accessible......Page 66
HIERARCHICAL HEADINGS
......Page 67
PARAGRAPH LENGTH......Page 68
Use Lists for Some Information......Page 69
MARGINS 
......Page 72
WHITE SPACE
......Page 73
AMBIGUITY
......Page 74
VAGUENESS
......Page 75
COHERENCE
......Page 76
DIRECTNESS
......Page 77
WORDINESS
......Page 78
REDUDANCY
......Page 80
TURNING VERBS INTO NOUNS
......Page 81
FINGING AND USING TIME 
......Page 82
Edit at Different Levels......Page 83
FIVE POSITIVE APPROACHES
......Page 84
PRACTICAL TEAM WRITING
......Page 86
Exercises......Page 87
Bibliography......Page 88
4. LETTERS, MEMORANDA, EMAIL, AND OTHER MEDIA FOR ENGINEERS......Page 89
EMAIL, INSTANT MESSAGES, OR PAPER?
......Page 90
Business Letters......Page 92
STANDARD COMONENTS OF BUSINESS LETTERS
......Page 93
COMMON BUSINESS-LETTER FORMATS
......Page 95
REPORT-LIKE LETTERS AND COVER LETTERS
......Page 96
Business Memoranda......Page 97
STANDARD COMONENTS OF MEMORANDA
......Page 98
IMPORTANT EMAIL FUNCTIONS
......Page 100
EMAIL FORMAT AND STYLE
......Page 102
New Internet Media......Page 103
BLOGS AND THE BLOGOSPHERE
......Page 104
MEETING AND SCREEN-SHARING SOFTWARE
......Page 105
SOCIAL-NETWORKING SOFTWARE
......Page 106
Writing Styles for Business Correspondence......Page 107
Exercises......Page 108
Bibliography......Page 109
5. WRITING COMMON ENGINEERING DOCUMENTS......Page 111
Some Preliminaries......Page 112
Inspection and Trip Reports......Page 113
FORMAT AND MEDIA
......Page 115
CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION......Page 116
Specifications......Page 118
Proposals......Page 121
ORGANIZATION AND CONTENT
......Page 123
FORMAT......Page 125
CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION......Page 127
FORMAT AND MEDIA......Page 129
SOME PRELIMINARIES
......Page 130
CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION......Page 131
Recommendation Reports......Page 134
CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION......Page 135
Bibliography......Page 140
6. WRITING AN ENGINEERING REPORT......Page 143
Letter of Transmittal......Page 144
LABELS
......Page 146
Abstract and Executive Summary......Page 147
Introduction......Page 149
SOURCES OF BORROWED INFORMATION
......Page 151
GRAPHICS AND FIGURE TITLES
......Page 152
CROSS-REFERENCES
......Page 153
CLARITY OF WRITINGS STYLE
......Page 154
PARAGRAPH STRUCTURE
......Page 156
Appendixes......Page 157
Documentation......Page 158
Using Wikis and Other Applications for Team Reports......Page 159
Exercises......Page 161
Bibliography......Page 162
7. CONSTRUCTING ENGINEERING TABLES AND GRAPHICS......Page 165
CONVERT TEXT TO TABLES
......Page 166
IMPORT SPREADSHEET DATA TO CREATE TABLES
......Page 167
FORMAT TABLES
......Page 168
Charts and Graphs......Page 169
Illustrations......Page 171
ELECTRONIC IMAGES
......Page 173
Graphics and Tables: Guidelines......Page 174
Exercises......Page 176
Bibliography......Page 177
8. ACCESSING ENGINEERING INFORMATION......Page 179
PREPARING FOR THE SEARCH
......Page 180
FOLLOWING THE TRAIL
......Page 181
GENERAL BOOKS
......Page 184
REFERENCE WORKS
......Page 187
JOURNALS
......Page 190
INDEXES AND ABSTRACTS
......Page 191
PATENTS
......Page 194
PRODUCT LITERATURE
......Page 199
STANDARDS AND SPECIFICATIONS
......Page 201
USENET NEWSGROUPS
......Page 204
BLOGS
......Page 205
ELCTRONIC NEWSLETTERS
......Page 206
ENGINEERING RESOURCES ON THE WEB
......Page 208
WORLD WIDE WEB SEARCH TOOLS......Page 210
Bibliography 
......Page 211
9. ENGINEERING YOUR SPEAKING......Page 213
DECIDE ON YOUR PRIMARY PURPOSE
......Page 214
DETERMINE YOUR TIME FRAME
......Page 215
IDENTIFY YOUR KEY POINTS
......Page 216
PREPARE AN OUTLINE AND NOTES
......Page 217
CREATE SUPPORTING GRAPHICS
......Page 219
MAKE YOUR INFORMATION ACCESSIBLE
......Page 220
PREPARE HANDOUTS
......Page 221
PREPARE YOUR INTRODUCTION
......Page 223
PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE
......Page 224
AVOIDING NOISE IN ENGINEERING PRESENTATIONS
......Page 225
STRENGTHENING YOUR PRESENTATIONS......Page 227
SHARING THE PRESENTATION
......Page 231
Listening to a Presentation......Page 232
The Importance of Informal Communication......Page 233
Exercises......Page 234
Bibliography 
......Page 235
10. WRITING TO GET AN ENGINEERING JOB......Page 237
CONTINUOUS REDESIGN AND UPDATE
......Page 238
DESING COMPONENTS
......Page 239
OVERALL FORMAT
......Page 244
ELECTRONIC RESUMES
......Page 248
EARLY-CAREER RESUMES
......Page 249
How to Write an Application Letter......Page 251
CONTENTS AND ORGANIZATION OF THE APPLICATION LETTER
......Page 253
FORMAT OF APPLICATION LETTERS
......Page 255
EARLY-CAREER APPLICATION LETTERS
......Page 258
USING THE INTERNET FOR JOB SEARCHES
......Page 260
How to Write a Follow-Up Letter......Page 262
Bibliography......Page 263
Engineering Ethics......Page 265
FIVE COMMUNICATION CONCERNS......Page 266
TOOLS FOR ETHICAL DECISION MAKING......Page 268
MAKING UP YOUR MIND......Page 269
The Ethics of Honest Research......Page 271
CITING INFORMATION......Page 272
A SYSTEM FOR DOCUMENTING YOUR SOURCES......Page 273
SAMPLE REFERENCES......Page 276
Exercises......Page 279
CITING INFORMATION*......Page 280
INDEX......Page 281