Effective Writing Strategies for Engineers and Scientists

Preface, 1 WRITING IN THE WORKPLACE, Barriers in the Workplace, The Writing Environment, The Reading Environment Targeting Your Writing, Clarify Your Purpose, Identify Your Audience Organize for the Reader Make Documents Readable, Team Writing, Understand Group Dynamics Use a Three-Step Strategy Choose a Tactic, Summary, 2 EFFECTIVE ORGANIZATION, Basic Principles, Moving from General to Specific Applying the Three Tell’em Theory Using Parallel Structure, Picking a Strategy for Developing Subjects, Focusing on Particulars, Focusing on Time Sequences, Focusing on Conclusions, Headings and Signposts, Effective Headings, Use of White Space and Graphic Embellishment, 3 WRITING AND REVISING THE ROUGH DRAFT, Generating a Rough Draft, The Importance of Revision, The Goal of Revising, Choosing the Right Words, Achieving a Concise Style, Achieving Logical Wording, Revising as Troubleshooting: Symptoms and Cures, Revising: A Summary, 4 VISUAL DISPLAYS IN TECHNICAL WRITING, When to Use a Visual, Choosing the Right Visual, Tables, Graphs, Flow Charts, Drawings, Writing Effective Figure Legends, Designing Visuals, Making Visuals Clear, Making Visuals Correct, Integrating Visuals into the Text, 5 THE COMPUTER REVOLUTION IN WRITING, Why Are the Choices So Overwhelming?, How and What to Buy, Level One: Word Processing Basics, Level Two: Combining Text and Graphics, Level Three: Publication-Quality Text and Graphics, Other Word Processing Products, The Computer Revolution in Writing: A Summary, 6 LEGAL ISSUES IN WRITING, Your Writing as a Part of a Legal Record, What Is Discoverable Evidence?, What Is the Role of the Engineer or Scientist?, Product Liability, Legal Background, Guidelines for Design-Related Writing, Guidelines for Writing Instructions, Guidelines for Writing Warnings, Construction Specifications, Background, Problem Areas in Specifications Writing, Guidelines for Writing Specifications, Summary, Appendix 1 Common Errors, Appendix 2 Equations and Abbreviations, Appendix 3 Preparing an Article for Publication, Appendix 4 Documentation, Index