Technical

Writing
Lecture N°2
Introduction + Engineering Writing
Dr. Lola EL SAHMARANY, Assistant professor
E-mail: Lola.elsahmarany@gmail.com
Course Code: ENG 401
Credit Hours: 2 CR
Contact Hours: 2 Hrs
Time: Thursday 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm
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Content details

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Grading

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Assignment n°1

List your most prominent writing weaknesses

(two or three) and describe what you need to
do to remedy them.

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Top 6 Writing Weakness

1. Limited vocabulary
2. Structure of ideas
3. Spelling
4. Incorrect grammar
5. Long sentence and repetition
6. Usage of punctuation

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Solutions

Improve your writing skills.

Read challenging materials.
Ask someone to check your spelling.
Practice fixing your weaknesses.
Watch documentary with subtitles.
Use of dictionary.
Have a contact with an English speaker.

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Typical day in the life of an engineer

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Activity

Edit the following sentence, marking

spelling mistakes:

Without mayking a judgment on them, it is surprising

how meny peeple spell carelesly without any
acknowledgement of their mistakes; good spelling is
the principle cornerstone of accessible and legable
writing, make it a vitle part of study and not
sumthing seperate!

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Test : Grammatical skills
A group of 75 computer specialists are waiting for
the test results. is

Everyone in the room, including the president and

vice president, is being asked to do their share.
is his or her
What was the name of the speaker we had
yesterday?
its
The MVC Technology Company is celebrating their
50th anniversary
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Engineers And Writing
Communication skills are of extreme importance.

No matter how excellent engineering skills and

knowledge you have.

You are not going to see benefits of your ideas

without writing and publishing them.

Poor communication skills is a main problem for

many engineers, both young and experienced. Also,
it can be a career showstopper.
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Engineers And Writing
To be a successful engineer you must be able to
Write and Speak effectively.

Many engineers and engineering students dislike

writing.

They thought that they go into engineering because

they want to work with machines, instruments and
numbers rather than words.

They thought that they left writing behind them on

English composition!!

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Engineers And Writing
In the engineering field, you are rarely judged
solely by the quality of your technical
information or knowledge you carry

BUT

People also form opinions of you by what you

say and write.
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Why Engineers Write?
Throughout their careers, engineers write a lot and
many kinds of documents in various contexts and
with different purpose and audiences.

Throughout your careers, you will interact with a

variety of other engineering and non-engineering
colleagues, officials and public.

Even if you do not do actual engineering work, you

may have to explain how something was done,
should be done, needs to be changed, and must be
investigated, etc…..
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What Engineers Write?
Some of documents you might be involved in
producing during your engineering career:
Studies: efficiency, market, environmental impact,
analytical, etc…
Guides: procedures, tutorials, training aids, safety
instructions, etc…
Manuals: user’s handbook, maintenance, repair,
instructions, product support, etc…
Standard Reports: weekly, annual, progress, lab,
inspection, implementation, etc…
Special Reports: formal, recommendation,
investigation, incident, etc…
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What Engineers Write?

Technical Reports: evaluation, test methods, feasibility,

troubleshooting, specification, etc….
Corporate: proposals, executive summaries, abstracts,
contracts, patents, statement of work, policy statements,
etc…
Publications: articles, textbooks, newsletters, news
releases, flyers, literature reviews, marketing brochures,
catalogue, etc…
Interoffice: memos, letters, updates, announcement,
minutes, bulletins, warnings, workshop reports, etc…

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 Chapter 2

• Technical writing basics

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Five Traits of Technical Writing

Clarity

Conciseness

Accessible document Design

Audience recognition

Accuracy

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Clarity

The most
important criteria
for effective
technical writing :

Clarity
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Clarity

Document is not
clearly
understood

Reader call the

writer for further
clarification

Writer's time is Reader’s time is

Message is lost
wasted wasted

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Clarity
Focus on Why You Are Writing:

Before starting to write, You should have a good idea of

precisely what you want to communicate to your audience.

You can’t really expect your readers to get a clear message if

your goals aren’t first defined in your own mind.

Writing without a clear goal will almost certainly result in Poor

Communication.

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Clarity
Whether your have to write a short Memo or a lengthy
technical report, you should start with a firm sense of
purpose so you can:
(1) Present appropriate supporting data.
(2) Test it’s adequacy.
(3) Discard Anything that is not needed.
To present information or to persuade people to act or
think in a certain way, Your documents will have to be
both informative and persuasive.

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Clarity : Example

Use report’s questions checklist to clarify this

email: when, what, where, who, why, how,
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Clarity : Example

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Audience recognition

Audience is classified in three levels traits:

High Tech Peers

Low Tech Peers

Lay Readers

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Audience levels

High Tech Peers:

Know as much about a subject matter as you.

Style of writing: Abbreviations/ Acronyms OK.

Low Tech Peers:

who work in your company know something about
the subject matter.

Style of writing: (Abbreviations/ Acronyms need

parenthetical definitions.)
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Audience levels

Lay Readers:

Are the customers.

Style of writing: No abbreviations/ acronyms.
Explanations instead.

Writing successfully to these three types of audiences

Requires different techniques.

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Audience recognition
Focus on Your Readers:
If you found yourself in a remote region and met
people who had never seen anything electronic,
You wouldn't hand them iPad, iPhone, or MP3
player and expect them to use it!!
Before that, a great deal of technology transfer
would have to take place.
You would have to teach your “audience” how to
use your gadget assuming that they are interested
in that.
This looks naïve, but a lot of technical writing fails
because writers make inaccurate assumptions
regarding the people who read their documents.
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Audience recognition
Engineers often write without taking adequate time
initially to consider the nature, needs, interests, level of
expertise or possible reactions of those who must read
their work.

Since YOU will be writing for many different audiences

(Marketing, Lawyers, Engineers in other fields, Non-
technical and non-specialized staff, Customers,
Managers, Owners, Production, Journals, Promotions,
Technicians, etc … , it is worthy to take sometime to think
about your audience before editing to them!!??

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Audience recognition
Analysis of audience is not just a question of being polite,
or sensitive.
Your goal is to send a clear message through your
document to your audience.
Then, you must consider their abilities and expectations
as you plan, write and revise.
To get results, your communication must bridge a gap
between you and your target audience.
Practically, this gap is likely to be caused by variations in
Knowledge, Ability, or Interest.
Before putting you pencil on a paper, you must identify
who your audience is and then ask yourself the following
questions??:
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Knowledge
Are my readers engineers in my field or expertise who are searching
for technical information, and will they be bored by elementary
details?
Are they engineers from a different field who will need some general
technical background first?
Are they managers or supervisors who may be less knowledgeable
in my field but who need to make executive decisions based on what
I write?
Are they technicians or others without my expertise and training but
with a strong practical knowledge of the field?
Are they non experts from marketing, sales, finance, or other fields
who lack engineering or technical background but who are interested
in the subject for non engineering reasons?
Are they a mixed audience, such as a panel or committee made up
of experts and laypeople?
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Accessible document design

Use highlighting techniques (tables, headings and

subheadings,
different font sizes, column lines, and white space) 31
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Satisfy Document Specifications
You should be aware of any specifications your
document must meet, before writing.
Many audience expect documents they receive to be
within certain parameters.
Various document specifications exist. Such
specifications may require you to provide sections
addressing certain topics in your report, like:
experimental problems, environmental impact, budget
estimation.
The editors of an engineering journal may put limits on
the number of words and the number of graphics your
technical paper can include.
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Satisfy Document Specifications
A word limit is frequently placed on the length of an
Abstract or Summary as well as on other sections of a
document.
Many reports have specifications that include requirements
not only for their length but also for such matters as
headings, spacing, and margin width.

Example:
Each research proposal shall consist of not more than five single spaced pages
plus a cover page, a budget page, a summary page of no more than 300 words,
and a page detailing current research funding. All text shall be printed in single-
column format on 7.5 x 11-inch paper with margins of at least 1 inch on all sides.

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Conciseness
Anyone reading your document (Memo, letters, reports,
etc, …) is likely to be in a hurry.

Your documents need to have the most important

information at the beginning. This means moving from the
general to the specific.

Readers would much rather know your key points,

complaints, requests, conclusions or recommendations
before they read supporting details.

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Conciseness
For instance, if you did a series of tests to determine
whether some equipment should be replaced, your
supervisor will want to know what you have found out and
what you recommend.

A complete and detailed description of your test

procedures may be necessary to support your main
points and likely be verified by others.

On the other hand, It could go unread by those in the

management department who are only interested in
bottom lines.
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Conciseness
Where you tell your readers what they most need to know
depends on the kind of document.
In a letter, it will be in the opening sentences. In a
MEMO, you should provide a subject line making more
than just a vague reference to the overall topic.
Example (1):
Vague: SUBJECT: Employee safety
Better: SUBJECT: Need for employees to wear hard hats and safety
glasses.

Example (2):
Vague: SUBJECT: Emergency requisitions
Better: SUBJECT: Recommendations to change the procedures for
making emergency requisitions.
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Conciseness
Most MEMOS are now sent by Emails, which may limit
the number of characters for your subject heading.

The challenge is to get as much meaning as possible into

a small space and to clearly state your key point.

No matter what kind of document you are writing, first

determine your audience and purpose, and then give
your readers the information they most need in the place
they can most efficiently access it, say, at the beginning
of the paper, rather than buried somewhere in the middle
or at the end.
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Conciseness ( summary)

Successful technical writing should help the

reader understand the text.

Technical writing had to be written concisely

enough to fit inside a specific-sized box (give me
an example*).

Successful technical writing tries to avoid

multisyllabic words. How?
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Conciseness: Example

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Accuracy
Provide accurate information:
Even the clearest writing is useless when the information
it conveys is WRONG!
If you refer to data in Appendix B of your report when you
mean Appendix D, the error could stump your reader and
cause them to lose confidence in your report.
Inaccurate references to the work of others also will
cause your readers to be highly suspicious of the
reliability of your entire report and even of your honesty
as a writer.
Another kind of inaccuracy might be a claim that is true
sometimes but not always and under all conditions.
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Accuracy

Example:
o
Water always boils at 100 C. What about purity and
variations in atmospheric pressure?

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Accessible document
Without even reading a word, one can look at the pages
of a document and get a good idea of how efficiently the
material is presented.
Structure of the material is important: how well the
material is laid out in accessible format for the reader.
Most important factors are:
The subdivision of material into sections and subsections
with hierarchical headings and
Paragraph length.

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Use lists for some information
A well-organised list is sometimes the most efficient way
to communicate information.
There are three main types of lists:
1. Numbered: used to indicate when a set of data follows a
certain order. It can also be used to indicate an order of
importance in your data, such as list of priorities or needed
equipment.
2. Checklist: can be used to indicate that all the items on your list
must be tended to, usually in the order presented. When
checklists get longer than 10 boxes, try to break them down into
smaller more manageable sections and give each section its
own subheading.

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Use lists for some information
3. Bulleted: lists are commonly used when items in the
list are in no specific order. Lengthy bulleted lists – over 7
items – are hard for reader to refer to, so use numbers for
longer lists even if no order of priority is intended.

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Example (numbered)

First of all, set the dual power supply to + 12 V and -12 V. Next, set the op-amp
up as shown in figure 1. Use a 1 Vpp sinewave at 1 kHz and then plot the
output waveform on digital scope. Then obtain a Bode plot for the gain from
200 Hz to 20 kHz.

You could present this information more efficiently in list form:

1. Set the dual power supply to + 12 V and -12 V.

2. Set the op-amp up as shown in Figure 1.
3. Use a 1 Vpp sinewave at 1 kHz.
4. Plot the output waveform on the digital scope.
5. Obtain a Bode plot for the gain from 200 Hz to 20 kHz.

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Example ( checklist)
Example:
Connect the monitor to the computer through the monitor port.
Connect the keyboard and mouse to the computer through the assigned port.
Connect the power supply to the computer.
Connect the printer to the printer port.
Connect the modem to the modem port.
These instructions could also be presented as follows:

1. Connect the monitor to the computer through the monitor port. □

2. Connect the keyboard and mouse to the computer through the
assigned port. □
3. Connect the power supply to the computer. □
4. Connect the printer to the printer port. □
5. Connect the modem to the modem port. □

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Example (bulleted)

Example:
Some of the main concerns of environmental engineering are:
• Air pollution control.
• Public water supply.
• Wastewater treatment.
• Solid waste management and disposal.
• Industrial hygiene.
• Hazardous wastes.

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