Montero

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Marco Montero
Dr. Pavel Zemliansky
ENC 1102H
12 April 2016
Effective Writing in Engineering

Introduction:
Everyday, engineers communicate substantially to one another. Communication is an
essential part of being a respected professional engineer. Whether it is through emails, reports,
papers, or other methods, the majority of this communication is usually written. This study
investigates what makes up effective writing for engineers. Knowing how to write effectively
within the group of engineers that make up the engineering community is vital to becoming a
professional engineer and maintaining that level of achievement.
When writing in a professional workplace, it is common to have different writing styles
present. Some may be more efficient than others. My study is intended on finding out what
effective writing is composed of. This encompasses the writing style, the audience, the
constraints, and even the context of the writing. I have conducted an interview in efforts to find
substantial evidence as to what makes up effective writing. After conducting this study, it will be
evident what effective writing is as an engineer.

Methods:
For my study, I conducted an interview in which I ask questions relating to effective
writing within the engineering discourse community. I decided to conduct an interview over

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observations or a survey since an interview was more fitting. Driscoll ascertains that, Interviews
are best used when you want to learn detailed information from a few specific people (163).
That is exactly what I intended on doing. Driscoll states that, Surveys are particularly useful to
find small amounts of information from a wider selection of people in the hopes of making a
general claim (163). That is not what I planned on, but couldve potentially helped my study for
a more general consensus. The more detailed interview was ideal for my study.
The questions were relating to effective writing so that I could better understand what
makes writing effective within the engineering discourse. An example of this is, Do other
peoples writing styles affect the effectiveness of writing? or also What do you have to do to
make the writing you do effective? My interviewee, Timothy Copeland, was my graduate
teaching assistant (GTA) from the laboratory section of my engineering concepts and methods
class. He is in his last semester before graduating from the University of Central Floridas
graduate program with a masters degree in Structural and Geotechnical Engineering. He is an
ideal person for me to interview since he has been through numerous engineering classes in
which he had to write and knows what effective writing is.
To facilitate in transcribing the interview later on, I asked to record the interview. I then
transcribed the interview afterwards so that I could have a written copy of exactly what was said.
By transcribing it, I was able to later code what my findings and get useful information from it.
To generate codes, I looked through the transcription and found anything that seemed interesting,
was repeated, or was the emphasis of the idea he was trying to get across. Then I categorized
what I found into groups. These groups consisted of three to four codes that had similar ideas. I
then labeled them to give them a more important meaning and so that I could generate new ideas
from them later on.

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Results:
For engineers, the types of writing, the style, the constraints, and what to avoid
characterize effective writing. Typically, engineers write emails, and papers. Emails are used to
communicate to members of a class or members of a team. Papers are typically done in two
manners. These consist of technical or simple. Simple papers usually are shorter and arent as
elaborate as technical papers. Technical papers are usually done for projects, while simple papers
are more commonly used for assignments. The style is also important. As an engineer the style of
writing is typically concise, direct, and understandable.
Being concise in writing is very important. Also, being direct is helpful to get your
message across. As an engineer, this can be imperative to finishing a project on time. Some
people may not read a full email if it is a few pages long. By doing so, a fellow coworker may
miss some important information that was within the email. Being understandable also helps
keep the reader informed and allows them to know what you are writing about. Not only the
style, but also the constraints are important.
When writing, knowing your audience is key to getting your point across. During my
interview Tim said, Make sure your audience is correct. What he meant was that, it is very
important to know to whom you are writing to and how to write in a way that will be effective
towards them. The language is also very important. How you speak and write is different. It is
important to get your ideas across in a manner that other people understand. As an engineer it is
expected that one writes without a voice. This way everything that is written is factual. There are
also some writing techniques that should be avoided.
One should avoid accusatory language. It keeps work from getting done and should be
avoided as an engineer. One should also never end with an open-ended question. It keeps people

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from getting their point across and doesnt allow progression in the project. Using certain lexis
and acronyms that arent common can also keep your audience from understanding what is being
said. It is best to avoid any and all of these to keep your writing as effective as possible.

Discussion:
My question was, what makes up effective writing for engineers. My results lead me to
believe that the style and the constraints are the most important aspect to writing effectively.
Both of these are necessary to get your message across. According to Grant-Davie, constraints
are, factors in the situations context that may affect the achievement of the rhetorical
objectives (272). Grant-Davie is saying that constraints are one of the most important factors
when trying to write effectively. By knowing what constrains your writing, you can write to fill
that potential.
Knowing your audience is also ideal. Once you know that, you can tune your language to
match your audience. According to Grant-Davie the audience is, those people real or imagined
with whom rhetors negotiate through discourse to achieve the rhetorical objectives (270). The
audience is usually the reader of the piece. They have to go through and read the document while
the writer tries to achieve the goal of getting the information across or talking about an idea. If
you are writing a report for a graduate level class, there is no need to explain concepts that are
covered in undergraduate courses. If that same report is to be read by undergraduate students,
then the language has to be simplified. More acronyms and terms have to be explained. More
examples can also be used to simplify the writing and keep it at an understandable level.
Within the discourse community of engineering there are a few genres that are used
repeatedly. These consist of emails and papers. Swales says, A discourse community utilizes

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and hence possesses one or more genres in the communicative furtherance of its aims (26). Just
as swales says that discourse communities need to have a few genres to further its aims,
engineers have email and papers to pass on information (26). The aims of engineers are primarily
to inform others and to learn. Through writing papers engineers can show what their project has
found and how it can be helpful to other members of the engineering community. Emails are
more specific to a situation at hand. Typically they are used as a conversational tool and help a
group inform one another of what their role is and will be.
Another aspect that surprised me, is that as an engineer you do not get a voice when
writing technically. It is more effective this way since your message gets across very easily. In
other disciplines, it is typical to speak in the first person and have a voice. In engineering, it is
frowned upon. People in engineering typically dont read technical documents unless it is
necessary.

Conclusion:
Being able to communicate is essential to being effective as an engineer. By having
conducted this study, I have learned what effective writing as and engineer consists of. To be
effective, you have to keep your style in check and write within your constraints. The style
consists of being concise, direct, and understandable. The constraints that you have to write to
are your audience and your language. The language you are using has to be appropriate for the
audience. If not, it will not be as effective.
My study is limited, due to the amount of time I had to work with and the amount of
resources I was given. If I was given more time, I could produce more substantial research
indicating what effective writing entails in the engineering community. If I was given some sort

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of grant, I couldve paid my interviewees and possibly gotten longer and more substantial
interviews. I would interview more students and professors as well as potentially conducted a
survey to find more information on a broader range.

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Works Cited
Copeland, Timothy. Personal interview. 25 March 2016.
Driscoll, Dana Lynn. "Introduction to primary research: Observations, surveys, and interviews."
Writing Spaces: Readings on Writing 2 (2011): 153-174.
GrantDavie, Keith. "Rhetorical situations and their constituents." Rhetoric Review 15.2 (1997):
264-279.
Swales, John. "The concept of discourse community. Genre analysis: English in academic and
research settings (1990): 21-32.