1. Technical Communication
Writing for Engineers 210.07

2. Engineers must communicate their work:
 Lab Reports
 Abstracts
 Memorandums
 E-mail
 Oral Presentations
 Research and Internal Reports
 Manuals or a set of instructions

3. Successful Engineers are Effective
Communicators
 Successful engineers spent 25% of their work week writing. “As the
engineer moves up the managerial ladder, this time can increase to
as much as 80%.”
 An annual survey by the National Association of College Employers
(NACE) polled 480 companies for the desired skills for new hires:
1. Communication Skills ( written & verbal)
2. Honesty/Integrity
3. Team Work
4. Interpersonal Skills
5. Motivation/Initiative

4. MIT’s New $20 million Leadership Program
Funded by Inventor Bernard M. Gordon
“Bernard’s complaint—shared by
many industry professionals—is
that engineering students he’s
hired from top colleges have been
very smart and can solve difficult
problems but don’t have the
perspective and street smarts
needed to solve customers’
problems, bring in a project on
budget and on schedule, and
motivate others—” Joel Schindall, an
MIT professor of electrical engineering.

5. Writing/Communicating Well - No One Will
Notice or Will They?
 86% of companies surveyed would “frequently” or
“almost always” hold it against you for typos/grammar
errors on resumes.
 40% of the cost of managing business and government
transactions is due to poor communication.
 “Employers will pick a student with a 3.2 GPA and good
communication skills over a person with a 3.7 GPA or
even higher who has poor communication skills,” UCLA's
Michaek K Stenstrom, engineering professor.

6. Writing/Communicating Well? - People Will
Notice
 NASA lost a $125 million Mars orbiter because one
engineering team used metric units while another used English
units for a key spacecraft operation.
 Million-Dollar Comma Case: $2 million at stake. Plaintiff
Aliant, Inc. wanted out of a contract early based on a
placement of a comma. Grammarian and writer Lynne
Truss of Eat, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance
Approach to Punctuation sided with the Plaintiff.

7. How Can You Improve Communication
Skills?
 Enroll in the Course: Writing for Engineers
 Learn the Correct Rules Grammar/Mechanics
 Learn the Accepted Writing Style for Your Industry and
Use it Correctly
 MLA (Modern Language Association)
 Chicago Manual of Style
 AP (Associated Press)
 APA (American Psychological Association)
 CSE (Council of Science Editors)
 Read and Read Critically
 Practice Writing and Speaking Professionally
 Provide Feedback for Your Peers and Ask for Feedback
on Your own Work

8. "One can be an excellent scientist, but if that person
does not know how to communicate to other scientists,
then that person, in our opinion, cannot become very
successful in his or her professional life. One has to
know how to negotiate, how to demand things and how
to be a good leader.” —a member of the IEEE (Institute
of Electrical and Electronics Engineers)

9. Works Cited
 Gordon, Stephanie. (2001) Career Success Requires a Personal Touch.
Retrieved from:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4047844/Career-success-requires-a
 Gruberman, Ross (n.d.) Legal Writing Pro. Retrieved from
http://www.legalwritingpro.com/articles/D10-million-dollar-commas.php
 Karlin, Susan. (2010) Making Engineers Smart-and Savy. Retrieved
from:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/making-engineers-smartandsavvy
 Manivann, G., Dr. (2005). Technical Writing & Communication: What &
Why. Retrieved from
http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/articles/technical-writing-
communication-what-why.html

10. Works Cited
 Gordon, Stephanie. (2001) Career Success Requires a Personal Touch.
Retrieved from:
http://www.eetimes.com/electronics-news/4047844/Career-success-requires-a
 Gruberman, Ross (n.d.) Legal Writing Pro. Retrieved from
http://www.legalwritingpro.com/articles/D10-million-dollar-commas.php
 Karlin, Susan. (2010) Making Engineers Smart-and Savy. Retrieved
from:
http://spectrum.ieee.org/at-work/education/making-engineers-smartandsavvy
 Manivann, G., Dr. (2005). Technical Writing & Communication: What &
Why. Retrieved from
http://www.usingenglish.com/teachers/articles/technical-writing-
communication-what-why.html